Mindoir

It was a small colony. It was a proud colony. Mostly everyone knew each other, and it was a tightly-knitted community. No one asked for these... things to be here.

They jailed them like dogs. They lined them up like pairs of shoes when counting them, and then kept them chained on leashes. For the first few days, it was hell – an actual hell. They were trapped in the compound, stuck as their new… masters whipped, beat, and insulted them. Some revolted, said things back to the batarians, and then ended up with bullets in their heads. Jade watched a group of people just get gunned down for nothing. Not many on that once little, and out-of-the-way, human colony even seen a batarian, just in vids off the extranet or heard about them. They were treated like the boogeyman of the galaxy, yet Jade never truly thought she would have to worry about them.

They were colonists of the Attican Traverse, technically of Council Space, therefore they believed the Alliance would protect them through anything. Yet, when the batarians came, Jade had not seen not one Alliance ship. The four-eyed monsters came in with four-legged creatures with large incisors jutting out their mouths, who snapped at the necks of people with an order from their masters. "War beasts", they called them, and they were as vicious as demons from straight of hell. Some of the colonists' throats were snapped at by the creatures; teeth poking into the bloodied throats of men and women. For the three days she was in the compound, she watched people die until it started to become numb. Or, at least, she wanted it to become numb.

There was one single room where people of all hours would go inside. Everyone who went, went kicking and screaming. Screams of horror were always heard; whimpering and lots of crying. Then, there was silence. Most of the time, women went into the room, which frightened Jade. She sobbed when she saw her best friend, Terry, go into the room. She wept when she saw her sister, Jeri, grabbed and taken away. She wanted to die when her mother was next. All screams of terror she heard from them, and she never saw them again.

It was Day Three, and she smelt the horrible stink of the compound they were in. People were all around her, and yet their numbers were all dwindling. What the hell were they doing in that room?

Then she was next, and she was too weak to fight it. She remembered the man who grabbed her. His name was Botis. His skin resembled piss, he had a scar on one of his closed amber eyes, and the three that stared at her showed her nothing but contempt, and a nasty leer that promised pain… and something else that frightened her the most. Mom always told her that Jade would have that ageless beauty many women on her side of the family. She inherited her mother's red, fiery hair, green eyes that was the same color of freshly-cut grass gently moving on a summer's breezy day, and full and quite large lips. Jade had already one boyfriend (who now was dead), and a few other guys sniffing after her once.

But they were all dead, and this batarian was looking at her like a piece of meat that he wanted to devour.

The room smelt of blood and death. She seen a few bodies piled up together like discarded pieces of paper. Men and women – women with their clothing taken off and with nothing left to the imagination – placed on top of each other like refuse. The sight had her gagging through her white gag, threatening to throw up, as they tugged her forward by her collar roughly. She didn't want to think that her mother, and sister – who went into this room before – was here. Three batarians were in the room. There was some sort of chair, dirtied by other people that came before her.

One told her to get in it, but Botis stopped him, speaking in a tongue her translator picked up as, "Leave us. I will deal the operation after I'm done with her..." And the tone was breathy, excited, but low. Jade could swear the batarian licked his lips.

The other two looked at him for a second, before nodding, and leaving the room without a second thought. The nastiest grin then came on the scarred Botis. "I been out in the Traverse for months. It's been a while since I seen my wife. It can get a guy like me… feeling lonely, human, and I must admit for a primitive, two-eyed species such as yours, you human women look similar to my people's women and the asari too." The unsealing of his armor sounded off, and one by one, pieces of his green and black armor started falling off him, hitting the ground ever so loudly to Jade. The piss-colored batarian didn't look concerned. "I wonder if you feel any different."

In a few seconds, after the armor came off, Botis then took off the shitty-brown shirt he had under, and the mismatched vomit-colored purple pants, and he was down to a loincloth. Jade, gagged, and her arms tied in back of her could only watch with green widened eyes as his gray loincloth came off, and she got a look at a batarian male for the first time.

Then her clothing came off as he cut it to ribbons with a blade, grabbed her by her hair, and savagely took off her pants.

In what seemed like hours, Jade heard only three noises: her own muffled cries and screams; Botis's animal-like grunting; and the wet slapping of flesh. Botis touched and touched places where she hadn't let any boy touch. He did things to her she hadn't want any person to do to her yet. Botis didn't stop until he finished for a few minutes, and went back into her. By the first hour, the burning in her eyes wouldn't stop. She kept praying to God, hoping He would stop this. Why would He allow this? Why her? Why this? Why now? For so long, this kept happening, and all she could do was scream until her voice was lost, and the batarian kept filling her with himself.

The Shepards were a simple farmer family on Mindoir. They were an ordinary, god-loving, god-fearing family. They went to church every Sunday, said their prayers, and were good people. They were the first family on this colony, and gave everything to keep the colony in order. They had a loving grandmother – who was now 48 hours dead now – who loved spoiling her grandchildren with sugary treats and gifts for the holidays. They had a doting mother – disappeared into the room and never came back out – who loved her children, despite always complaining Jade needed to work on her studies more than looking at boys. They had a father who worked hard in construction, and liked reciting quotes and poetry about war – yet never picked up a gun in a day of his life, and had a bullet drilled into between his eyes during the raid. They had two daughters – one who had the shiniest eyes and the most mischievous smile a person could have when they know they were up to no good.

The other daughter – her – was currently wishing she joined her family in Heaven right now.

And yet, for some reason, her god had other plans for her.

Gunfire started ringing loudly outside the room. People were screaming, crying, yelling. Botis jumped up, his body glistening, as he didn't bother putting on a jacket, and instead tried putting his armor on in a haste. She didn't look at him after that, couldn't look. She laid uselessly, bare and naked, her body aching and hurting from the sores and cuts the piss-colored batarian put on her body. Her lower part hurt the most, and she was sure she had seen blood dripping from her. She laid there still, looking at nothing but the ground. A pistol was taken from a table he laid it on, and after his armor was fully sealed and put on, he grabbed her by the neck, pulled her up, and held her by the head with the pistol. Her gag was still very much on, despite being soaked with sweat, tears, mucus, and saliva. She could feel his shivers – he was afraid for whatever was coming.

She sat up, giving no resistance, and waited for whatever to come. No matter where she was going, she was ready to simply go.

Then the next thing she knows it, she no longer feels Botis touching her, and he's choking out red blood that looks strangely human.

God decided today that Botis – after he ruined her, and her family – would die by the gun of an Alliance soldier. God decided today that the batarians would all die on Mindoir. God decided the Alliance would save her, and wrap her body in a blanket as they took her onto the shuttle. Everyone who was in the compound died except her, who was in the room. The batarians wouldn't leave anyone alive if they were going to die.

They tell her she's the only survivor, and that the batarians came to acquire slaves, implant some sort of control devices in people's heads, and bring them back to their home world with them. She is only scarcely listening.

Mindoir is a stain in her mind; a wound that would never truly heal. No matter what, when she closes her eyes and dreams, Mindoir will always be there somewhere. It will not always show up, but it will always show up the most out of everything. No matter how much people like to say, "It will be alright", it will not. No matter how much therapy she gotten, Mindoir would stay there. Even when they said it will take not very long to rebuilt the sacked settlement of Mindoir, it never will be the same.

And Jade Shepard never wanted to step back onto it.

End.

A/N: Took a little break from the Naruto fanfiction to write some Mass Effect. It had been on my mind to write some more ME stuff after reading a little bit of my old story Samara The Goddess. Now, a little bit of how I would think Mindoir would have went down for the Colonist background. This is probably not at all canon or whatever, but I wanted to write a little about, arguably, the most tragic background in the game.

Well that, and Akuze, which might be the military background of Jade Shepard as well...

My Shepard might return in some more stories. I might do some more follow-ups to this story one day. And before I hear some slack about it, about Shepard's little god-dilemma there, I mean no offense to the religiously-inclined people. And those who feel offended Shepard was once very religious, I mean no offense. Basically, stop taking offense, alright.

But, for now, I hope you enjoyed the small story. I'll be back for more.