Chapter 1 Mindoir's fall
Shepard walked outside and looked out at the sky, getting an uneasy feeling in her gut. She shook it off, but decided to get her pistol from the shed. She had clipped the pistol to her hip and then on a whim she grabbed the antique single shot bolt action .308 rifle she bought a couple years ago. She grabbed the bullets and strapped the old gun to her back as she placed the ammo in a small duffel bag. She figured if nothing else she could go target shooting later.
Supposedly the Alliance was sending one of their patrols out near here sometime in the week. They were doing a patrol tour. She'd ask the grunts about joining, not entirely trusting the recruitment officers and their sales pitch.
Barely an hour later she knew something was wrong because there was something that sounded like a loud clap of thunder in the air, but the sky was clear. Feeling a sudden blast of foreboding she dashed for a nearby building and climbed onto the roof.
She watched as shuttles came pouring down out of the sky. When she tried to contact someone she noted that her communicator didn't work. "FUCK! That thunderclap was an EMP!" She said in realization
In frustration she threw the useless communicator away and decided to convert this rooftop into a makeshift sniper's nest, "Let's see how this old antique holds up against modern kinetic barriers." She mused as she loaded up the rifle.
She couldn't defend any of the other colonists because they had all gathered on the other side of the settlement to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Mindoir. The shuttles seemed to converge over there as though they had been tipped off, or had other avenues of information. A few landed elsewhere, but one landed near her. They were sent to round up stragglers most likely.
The shuttle door opened and she took aim through the iron sights and pulled the trigger on the unsuspecting Batarian. Apparently the kinetic barriers work about as well against old rifles as they do against modern sniper rifles, because the Batarian's head exploded and showered his friends with gore. She worked fast at reloading and took down the other two Batarians. She felt a brief flash of guilt as she took her first lives, but realized she'd deal with it later. The gunshots had drawn attention.
She heard her thrown communicator crackle back to life and realized the EMP had worn off. So she grabbed it and almost tried to signal someone, but then she realized that that would only serve to give her position away. Instead she set it to monitor com traffic on the frequency that the Batarians had to be using, being the only one with com traffic besides the public ones. She then clipped it back in her ear and began watching carefully for Batarians being sent to her location.
She heard over the com, "Search group Bravo, I need you to check Alpha's status. They aren't reporting in. Be careful, there were a few unusual sounds heard."
"Understood, sir. Heading west now." The reply.
So, the search groups are comprised of three Batarians. That's useful information. She made sure to ready two more bullets for rapid reload. And shifted her aim to the east in search of the encroaching Batarian slavers.
The witless fools stumbled right into her crosshairs and she snarled to herself, "Slavers." Shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot. She primed another shot and the three Batarians were down in less than thirty seconds. She checked her ammo stock and found she still had six more shots, including the one loaded in the barrel. She hadn't realized she was so low on ammo this morning.
The com crackled again, "Team Bravo? Team Bravo?! Dammit! We're dealing with someone who's armed and skilled. Team Echo, Team Theta, check out the LZ for Alpha team. And use extreme caution. Someone's shooting our people."
"Heading there now."
"Double time to team Echo's location!"
Shepard mumbled to herself, "Damn, no directions this time. And I only have enough bullets for those two teams, and then I'll have to get off this rooftop."
Then she overheard the leader of the raid issuing orders to the bulk of his men, "Processing is going faster than anticipated. Outlying settlements are already sixty percent finished. Here at the main settlement we've processed just over half these people and headcount states we're only missing one person. Grab that schoolteacher and start questioning her as to who's missing. The Alliance won't stay in the dark for long."
Shepard's blood ran cold as dread clutched her heart. As much as she didn't like, and in fact resented, her parents she didn't want anything to happen to them. She did love them.
As she checked her surroundings she spotted the group of six Batarians using cover and keeping their heads down. Of course it didn't help all that much since she was elevated. She prepared all of her bullets and lined up a shot and fired. The rest of the Batarians scattered, but she was fast enough to hit a second one. That left four Batarians and four bullets. Shifting her head around she located another one and fired. The last three had found good cover and were biding their time. She grabbed her two other bullets and vaulted down to the ground. She located the first hiding Batarian and shot him before he even realized he was looking down the barrel of a gun. The other two panicked at the sound of the gunshot and leapt from cover firing wildly. She dropped onto one knee while bringing the rifle up and fired off another shot scoring another headshot. Working the bolt action she rapidly loaded the last shot and realized the Batarian was straight to her right and a few feet away. She stood up and extended her right arm out and pulled the trigger, firing one handed.
She took a deep steadying breath. Knowing that there was no need to carry the empty rifle around she stashed it in a safe place and set about searching the corpses for any useful equipment or information.
Her com crackled again, "Echo? Theta? Shit! All our search groups have been killed. Time to raise the stakes on this bitch."
There was a brief pause, then she heard a pistol activate, "Well, Shepard? The choice is yours. Give yourself up or your parents die right here, right now."
Something inside Shepard snapped. She gave up her search, and clicked on the com. She calmly said "Fuck you. You think I'm stupid? You'll just kill them anyway. I will find you and I will end you. If possible, slowly."
She started sprinting for a nearby com hub, hoping that the EMP blast didn't simply fry the electronics. She stopped just out of sight of the doors, expecting guards. She thought to herself, So, the guards are probably inside the building. Clever, they obviously planned to use the doorway to the building as a funnel point for when the Alliance tried to save the colonists.
She checked the building and saw a window on the second floor in a narrow alley. Climbing the prefab structure she cautiously poked her head up and peered into the window. The room was empty so she slowly opened the window and climbed inside. Quietly she walked down the stairs and quickly spotted the four guards. Bringing her pistol up she squeezed off the four shots necessary, pivoting after each one to line up the shots. Then she bolted for the computer and checked the orbital sensors.
There were only a few ships in orbit and they were clear over the other hemisphere, picking up shuttles loaded with processed colonists. She growled in anger at the fact that she couldn't help them. But with the ships so far away she could contact the patrol fleet. She quickly set up an encryption protocol.
"Alliance fleet, come in Alliance fleet. Mayday."
"This is the SSV Warsaw, flag of the patrol fleet. Is this an emergency?" A somewhat snooty female voice said.
"Yes! The colony Mindoir is under Batarian slaver attack. Requesting assistance." Shepard said, ignoring the tone.
"Miss, this channel is for emergencies. Not prank calls." The voice got snootier.
"Uh, lieutenant? I don't think you should write it off so quickly. Mindoir is relatively close to the border." Another voice said.
"When I want your opinion Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, I'll ask for it!"
"Listen dammit! Divert the patrol fleet to Mindoir, or when you come here when you're scheduled to you'll find an empty planet!" Shepard said, anger rising.
"You will not speak to an officer of the Alliance in that tone!" The bitchy voice said, indignant. Shepard heard the other voice scoff.
"What's going on here?" An authoritative voice sounded off.
Seeking to cut off the prissy officer before she could speak, Shepard chimed in, "Mindoir is under attack by Batarian pirates and slavers. I'm trying to call for assistance, but this lieutenant seems to think I'm pranking an Alliance fleet and that irritates me."
"Can you give us any information as to the size of the force?"
"One medium sized slave ship, a pirate cruiser and three escort frigates. As for ground resistance I can say that they've already processed and picked up at least 80% of the colony. And I can say at the site of the main settlement there are sixteen less Batarians than there was an hour ago."
"How old are you?" The captain said, doubt in his voice.
"Is that really pertinent at the moment? Time is running out, they'll start detecting the signal through the encryption I set up." Shepard responded.
"Answer me." The captain said, doubt strengthening.
"Fine. I'm sixteen. Now will you help?"
"I'm afraid I have to agree with my XO. Please get off this frequency."
"…FUCK YOU!" Shepard said, she had had enough. She shot the computer in anger. She had to stop and think for a few minutes, before jumping straight into the enemy's trap.
She heard the Batarian scout skulking outside so she whirled around and ran outside. She launched her biotics at the Batarian and slammed him into the building across the road.
She swirled the dark energy in her hand that her implants allowed her to summon up. She leaned over and got in the scout's face, snarling. She angled her fist to strike with biotic energy, "How many Batarians are here at this settlement?"
"Why should I answer you? You'll kill me either way."
"There are things far worse than simple death. And I swear to you, your end will be excruciating. You'll be begging for a swift end that I will never grant you." She spoke with such fury and seething in rage that the Batarian flinched at every word.
"I don't know how many you've killed, but we came to this settlement with fifty men. Tarak and Charn are pissed." The Batarian whimpered in fear.
Shepard slammed her glowing fist down and shattered the Batarians face and snapping the man's neck.
Fifty hostiles. How many have I killed? Four search groups of three, and five others. That leaves 33. I really hope they aren't all in the same place. Maybe I should find a better weapon.
With that thought she checked the bodies of the Batarians and found an assault rifle. She chuckled dryly to herself, "Now that's ironic. A human model Kovalyov X from Rosenkov Materials. He must have spent his life savings on this model."
Quickly she made her way towards the main building of the settlement. She found it barricaded by shuttles. The Batarians were buying time to load up the colonists, and they were nearly done. Realizing she had run out of time she resorted to plan B, reckless action. She ran forward and summoned up her biotics, she tossed one of the shuttles out of her way and proceeded to shoot the assault rifle with one hand and the pistol with the other one.
About a minute in she realized she had cleared the outside of the building of 23 Batarians, but didn't see a single colonist; she stopped and thought for a minute before going inside the building. Was this a diversion? Did they move everyone somewhere else? How do they expect to leave without shuttles? It's clear the inside of this building is a trap. Assuming the scout didn't lie, I have at most 10 entrenched enemies waiting for the door to open.
She turned around and tried to open one of the shuttles. She found it was empty, completely. Even the equipment was stripped. Suddenly she understood. Oh, this commander is cold. He's sacrificing his men to clear room on fewer shuttles. He's going to abandon his men and their shuttles' shells, leaving them as a decoy!
Instead of opening the door she decided to circle the building and was just in time to see the shuttle lifting off. She started firing the assault rifle at the canopy, hoping for a lucky shot. It was futile, and she knew it. The shuttle turned and flew off and away.
"FUCK!" She cried out to the heavens as she dropped to her knees in frustration.
She turned around and spotted a basement entrance to the building that they probably didn't have covered. So she ducked inside and, still in a bit of berserker blood rage, she quickly cleared the building of the eight Batarians inside.
"Fitting. The coward saves himself and his second in command." Shepard mumbled to herself. She made a note of the names the scout let slip.
She moved to the center of the floor and saw her parents' corpses. Heaving a sad sigh she went outside and gathered up some wood to create two burn piles. She made a small one and for the other one she dug a shallow but wide pit. It took the rest of the day to finish it.
She set her parents atop the small burn pile and lit it.
The next day she started gathering the Batarian corpses and threw them in the pit, but she waited to light it.
