I do not own Mass effect or any of it's characters. I only own my original ideas, and you get the rest.
This is my first story so i hope you enjoy.
Vanguard
Ch. 1
Awakening
"Where the hell am I?" The first question that enters my mind, though no one answers. I sit up on what looks to be an operating table. The room I'm in appears to be a lab of some kind. I attempt to stand and feel a sharp pain on my arm.
"Ow. God damn it." I look down to see multiple IV's sticking into my forearm and wrist. Gently I remove the while looking around the room. It's small, only the table I was laying on, a chair and a counter top with medical supplies laid out. Then I notice a mirror at one end of the counter.
I look into the mirror and I see a man about 25 years in age, with long brown hair, an untrimmed beard, and what looks to be small surgical scars that haven't fully healed yet.
"So that's me, huh?" Then it hits me. "Who am I?" The question comes as a shock. I search my mind and find nothing, not a single memory of myself. I can identify everything in the room, and explain how it works, but I have no knowledge of myself.
I whip around and see a terminal. Quickly I walk over and try to access it to no avail.
"Fucking password." I say with obvious aggravation in my voice. As I stand there defeated a word pops into my head.
"Sovereign." The word seems to have some kind of strong meaning to me but I can't put my finger on it. I'm surprised when I type it into the terminal and it actually works. How the hell did I know that? I start sifting through files and find none that hold any clues. Until I come across a document entitled 'Project Vanguard'.
"That sounds promising." Though my hopes are quickly dismissed upon opening the file.
"You have got to be kidding me." The file is almost completely blacked out. When I get out of here I'm going to find whoever wrote this and punch them in the face for this. If you really don't want something to be seen that bad then destroy it.
But first things first, I have to get out of here. But without a name there won't be much I can do outside of here. Amidst my frustration I notice two words not blacked out.
"Jacob." "Terminus." Well it's not much of a name but that will have to do. There's another word. "Reaper." My train of thought is then rudely interrupted by the sound of a large explosion and gun fire in the distance.
"Oh damn it not now, NO ONES HOME!" I yell at whoever is causing the ruckus. Then I notice a logo for the Ascendency Company, a human medical firm. This must be their facility then.
I look around for a weapon. Sadly there are no fire arms, but I do find a scalpel laid out on the counter. I'm just going to ignore the thoughts of what they did to me with that and get ready for whomever is out there. That is the point when I realize that I am in nothing but what looks to be a pair of boxers.
"Well then I'd rather not fight in these." I then find a black shirt and pants to the left of me.
"Wow, someone is looking out for me." I quickly throw on the cloths and also find an Omni-tool. Nice, that will come in handy. Then I think to myself. Who is attacking the facility? Probably Batarians, they always want it dead if it involves humans. Or perhaps it's the council, maybe a spectre. That document is suspicious so maybe Ascendency rubbed the council the wrong way. "Rubbed." I'm going to ignore the image that just went through my mind.
My train of thought is once again interrupted, this time by voices outside the door. "I'll check in here. You continue down the hall." The formerly stated voice says.
"Well let's see who it is". I say as I ready myself for a fight, standing to the right of the door, hoping to get a jump on them if they're hostile. But to my surprise it isn't a batarian that walks through. But a small woman in an exosuit with hips that you wouldn't believe.
"Quarian?" I say revealing my location. She then proceeded to turn quickly and take aim with her shotgun. My reflexes kick in and I'm surprised with the results. At a speed I didn't think was possible I move out of the path of the gun, rush past the quarian holding said gun, and get ahold of her with the scalpel against her neck.
"Sorry but that's no way to say hello, now is it?" I say to her.
"Let go of me you bosh'tet!" she says as she struggles in my arms. She isn't very polite, though I doubt that I would be either given the situation.
"I will if you promise not to shoot me." I'm just nice that way I suppose. But I don't intend to hurt her either way. I don't know why but the idea of killing someone without a good reason seems to bother me.
"Fine just let me go." She demands. I release my grasp and finally get a decent look at her. She has a purple visor, and her hood is baggy and flared out at the side and back. Something not commonly seen on quarians.
"May I ask your name miss?" I ask. Though somehow she seems familiar.
"Tali'Zorah vas Neema. And you?" she asks with her gun still in her hands pointed down.
"Jacob Terminus." I say as she gives me a puzzled look. "I know, odd name." May I ask what exactly you're doing here?"
"There were rumors that this facility was running tests on active geth, so I was assigned a team to investigate." She answers.
"Geth. Interesting." Thinking back I did notice a file about the geth on the terminal, but overlooked it.
"What's your job here?" she asks.
"Job? I don't even know were here is." She looks at me puzzled again, or at least I think so. Hard to tell with the mask. "I just woke up on that table about five minutes ago with no memory." Was it five minutes? How long was I looking at that terminal?
"So what, you're some kind of test subject?" She asks. She is very perceptive.
"That's what I'm thinking." I respond. Another quarian voice can be heard over the radio.
"Tali, we've got geth pouring in. we have to get out of here." The voice says.
"Understood Praza. Let's go, this place will be up in smoke soon." Tali says to me in an oddly commanding tone.
"Just give me a second." I go back to the terminal and download all of the files to my newly acquired Omni-tool. "Ready."
We proceed out the door and to the left. We then regret that choice of direction as a large group of geth show up and start shooting at us. Without a proper weapon I have no hope of getting past them, and tali can't take them all so I throw the scalpel at the closest one, nailing it right in the flashlight thing, and grab tali. We then start running in the other direction.
This path leads to a door with a sign saying Armory. We enter and tali seals the door behind us. While she does that I look around for a weapon and armor. I quickly find some medium onyx armor and a phalanx pistol. I grab some thermal clips just in time to shot a geth as it breaks through the door. We're stuck there defending for a minute.
I take down the 6th geth when tali yells. 'Keelah. We've got to get out of here!" At that moment something hit me.
"I've got it!" I yell as I grab her and pull her to a maintenance shaft in the back of the room. I realized that I know every inch of this facility like the back of my hand.
"How long have you know about this thing?" Tali asks.
"About thirty seconds." I answer and can only guess at her facial expression.
"What? Do you even know where you're going?" she asked. I suppose it's a valid question.
"Yeah I realized back there that I have the blueprints to this facility memorized. Odd thing is, I have never been in any of these hallways, and don't remember looking at any blueprints."
"That makes no sense!" she adds.
"I know! It's like the information was just put there or something." Holstering our weapons we continue down the shaft as I navigate and she argues. Finally we reach an access panel leading outside.
"There could be geth out there by now. We should be careful." Tali points out.
"Good point." We both draw pistols and carefully open the door.
"I see the ship." Tali says.
"Let's go." I take a step forward just for a bullet to fly right past my head.
"You almost got shot!" Really? I never would have guessed. Well enough with the inner monologue
"Thank you, captain obvious!" I aim my pistol and introduce the geth that shot at me to my friend Mr. Bullet.
Tali then shoots out the optics of another before releasing her combat drone.
"Go for the optics, Chiktikka!" Okay not going to question that.
"Go for the optics Mr. Bullet!" I yell jokingly as I shoot a geth in the head. Tali then gives me a death glare that causes me to bust out laughing as we continue to fight.
As we break through the first group I see a squad of quarian marines surrounded by geth.
"Bosh'tet's! They need help." Tali yells as we take out the two geth closest to us, and 'Chiktikka' kills a third. I then see a marine take a hit to the shoulder. Though he is quickly taken care of by another marine, and the two of us turn the tide as the last of the geth are taken down. We all jump onto the transport, and I am relieved that it is over. That is until I turn to see five guns pointing straight at me.
"Uh, Keelah se'lai." I say with my hands in the air hoping they won't kill me. I'd rather not die. I'm too young to die. Seriously as far as I know I might have been born today.
"Praza stand down!" Tali yells. Thank god she doesn't want to kill me, because it would seem the rest of the quarians do. I really hope she's in command though.
"I accept your surrender." I say as I smile like an idiot. Tali gives me a look that I can't even imagine, and the other quarians don't know what to think. "That was a joke." Though I don't know who I am, apparently I'm quite the clown. That's probably going to get me killed one day. Hell maybe today.
"Who is this human Tali'Zorah?" Praza asks in a frustrated tone.
"I found him in the facility. It's thanks to him that I survived. We think he was a test subject." Tali explains.
"You think?" He growls. Now he's getting upset. Praza asks a lot of questions for a soldier.
"I have no memory. I've taken the name Jacob Terminus, but I don't know my true identity." A good explanation if I do say so myself.
"He also saved my life." Thankfully she decided to leave out the fact that I also held a knife to her throat. "At any rate we have to contact the flotilla and inform them of what happened." "Until then everyone should get some rest."
"Sounds good." For some reason I am very tired. Even though I woke up less than an hour ago I feel exhausted. At any rate I sit against the wall and get some shuteye. "Good night everyone." As I close my eyes something tells me I'm not going to sleep well.
There you have it. If you have any questions, cares, or concerns please leave a review.
P.S. I would like to thank Gray Spectre Warden Boom, and FlurryOfStrife for there help on this first chapter.
