Author's note
Ok, so I'm new to this fanfiction thing. It took me literally four years to pluck up the courage to even publish Grunt. I am excessively proud of this book, and the rest of the books in the series (yes, series, I am that nerd), but I am really shy and socially awkward, hence the long wait. Anyway, I forgot to put a preface kind of thing at the beginning of the book, so I am putting it now. As mentioned in the summary, this is an AU. Not out-and-out, but there are a few things I added and took out of the universe, not for any reason other than, I guess, artistic licence or whatever you want to call it. BioWare owns the characters, the universe and my soul, but I messed around with the timeline a bit, made Earth mostly uninhabitable, had Shepard have a relationship with Ash and (later) Kaidan before Eden Prime and a few things that I'm sure that everyone will pick up on if you stick with this random muddle of a story.
Also, apologies for the unintentional South Africanisms. I am South African, and our manner of speaking English does deviate somewhat from that of the rest of the world. I did try to keep to the queen's English in the narrative and of course have Jane speak with Americanisms, but please feel free to point out any major ones to me and I will change them (unless it's Ash's dialogue, I did make her South African because I don't know why). Most of all, enjoy and review. I want to get better.
Peace, love and oranges,
Charlie
Chapter two: August: Del Sol Academy
We arrived in Rio De Janero a month later. After spending a two day layover in Cape Town, the only place on Earth that had been relatively untouched by the nuclear fallout of the third world war, Rio was an especially grim sight. Most of Earth was uninhabitable, but for some reason there were pockets of areas that were less uninhabitable than others. Cape Town most resembled the city it had been before the mass relay era. Neither the allies nor the enemies had bombed it as they had both considered the city tactically insignificant. Its army was too small to pose a real threat, and Cape Town was considered the tourist capital in the world, loved by both the Chinese and the Americans. Somehow this was enough to keep it safe. Then, when it became all too clear that Earth was becoming uninhabitable, the South African government, with its long history of acting against the interests of its people, did something right. They evacuated the poor areas of the country first.
Their reasoning was that if the poor people were left for last, they would sense that something was up and riot, causing the evacuation process to slow down (their reasoning was based on what had happened in many of the European, South American and North American countries, where evacuation was pretty much halted due to rioting). Thus, South Africa was the first country in the world to get all its people offworld and onto its colony. They then sent their ships to the countries that were lagging in order to help them out. Thereafter, the South African president, Loyiso Motlante formed the Human Alliance, which was basically a single banner under which all humans stood united. In the hundred years since then, the Alliance Prime Minister had always been South African. After the exodus, Loyiso Motlante, moved the people that had come from Seattle, London and Cape Town back as soon as it was determined that these areas were relatively safe enough to live in. Following the advice of his councillors, he had built the Del Sol Academy in Rio De Janero, after he was told that the environment of the area, whilst not being as safe as the cities, could still more or less sustain human life, although radiation fallout would still sporadically blow over the desert. The surroundings of the academy were perfect to break the spirit of any person setting foot there: the moment I saw it, I wished I had rather chosen to stay on the Citadel.
Brazil had once been known for its huge rain forests. Now though, it was an unrelenting wasteland, where the temperature rocketed up to forty degrees Celsius in the daytime.
"I want to go back to Cape Town," Ash mumbled, stepping out after me. "Why did my parents emigrate to Freedom's Progress? I could be basking on the beach right now."
One of the senior students stopped us. "You grunts?" he asked.
"I guess so," I said.
"You need to report to the Annexe," he said. "Go into the main building, turn right. You can't miss it."
"Thanks," Ash said.
The boy rolled his eyes. "You'll wish you hadn't come by the time you reach the stage I'm at," he said. "Good luck."
"Why's everyone going on about this place?" Ash asked. "It can't be all that bad."
"Your dad was N7, Ash," I said. "Surely he told you something-,"
"My dad never told me anything, Jane," Ash said tiredly.
"Well, my dad told me that the training regime is hectic," I said. "Very little food and you'll be lucky if you get four hours sleep in a night. You have no free time, you spend every second of your day training. If you falter, you get kicked out."
"Alright, so we know this is going to be hard then," Ash said. "At least I know someone here."
"Yeah," I said. We entered the building with a crowd of other lost-looking juniors.
"Are there any other women here?" Ash asked. "These are all men."
"Very few women get into Del Sol," I said.
"Why?" Ash asked.
"Because this is a patriarchal society," I said. "A woman's worth is defined by the amount of children she bares and how well she cleans the house." Ash raised her eyebrows. "Or maybe it's cuz men are historically stronger than women and stronger people make stronger soldiers."
We came into the Annexe, which turned out to be a huge room filled with terminals of all sizes and shapes. The juniors were all forming a queue in front of a table behind which sat three marines.
"What do you suppose they are?" Ash asked.
"N1s," I said. "They didn't do well in their training scores, so they've been relegated to doing admin work."
"That must be a disappointment," Ash remarked as we moved down the queue. "To go through all that torture of training, and then to be forced to sit behind a terminal day in and day out."
"Apparently, more than fifty per cent of all students here end up N1," I said. "Hence the large amount of students."
"I'll probably be N1," the boy in front of us said gloomily. He had dark hair, watery blue eyes and incredibly pale skin.
"Oh?" Ash asked. "Why's that?"
"I don't work so well under pressure," the boy said. "I'm surprised I even got this far."
"There's nothing wrong with being an N1," I said. "Everyone is needed to win a war."
"Well, we aren't at war at the moment, so I imagine my life will be pretty dull," the boy said. "Zacharias Tobrin," he said, saluting us. "From London actually."
"Ashley Williams, from Freedom's Progress," Ashley said, holding her hand out for him to shake.
"Jane Shepard from the Hugo Grayson," I said, shaking his hand after he'd shaken Ash's.
"So you two know each other?" Zacharias asked.
"Our fathers served on the same ship," I explained. "We've known each other since we were twelve."
"Your fathers are soldiers?" Zacharias asked enviously. "You'll know what's going on then. My father is an accountant and my mother's a nurse. Hardly the grounding for a marine."
"Look, there's another woman, Jane," Ash said, nodding a little way down the line.
The woman she was indicating was tall and broad-shouldered, with close cropped dark hair and a severe expression.
"Holy Mary, that's not a woman, that's a fucking tank," I said, laughing.
"Well, I suggest that we let her go first in combat situations then," Zacharias said, grinning. "Why did you all ask to be sent to Del Sol?"
"My father was a marine," I said. "It was sort of obvious that I'd have to follow in his footsteps. Why did you?"
"I didn't," Zacharias said. "That's what's hilarious about this. I requested to be sent to Obama's Academy, you know the navy. I've no idea what I'm doing here."
We had reached the front of the queue. "Name?" the bored N1 operative asked Zacharias.
"Zacharias Tobrin at your service," Zacharias said.
The N1 operative scanned his datapad. "Pod 3," he said. "Find them in the armoury. Next."
"Ashley Williams," Ash said.
"Pod 3," the N1 said after a pause. "Follow the cheery British boy. Next."
"Jane Shepard," I said.
"Pod 3," the N1 said. "Follow…"
"Yeah, I know, the cheerful Brit and the hot South African," I said.
"A smart mouth is a dangerous thing around here, soldier," the N1 said boredly. "Get moving."
"Where do you suppose the armoury is?" Ash asked.
"I'll ask the omnitool," I said. I activated my omnitool and pulled up a map of the facility. "Through that door and to the right," I said, pointing.
"What is Pod 3, do you suppose?" Zacharias asked.
"The academy takes seventy two students," I said. "These students are divided into six pods with twelve students in each. We have our classes together, do drills together and stuff like that. It's sort of like your unit in the army. Here we are."
"Um, Jane?" Ash said hesitantly as I pushed the door open and stepped into the boys' bathroom.
"What the fuck?" a voice from the urinals squawked.
"I beg your pardon, old thing, but which way to the armoury?" Zacharias asked smartly.
"Keep going east and you'll get there, grunt," the senior boy said. "Get the girls out of here, I'm trying to have a piss."
"Your map must be wrong, Jane," Ash said.
"It's not," I snapped. "Someone's messing with the satellites, or something, look."
I showed her the map that had directed us. "Ah well, no harm done," Zacharias said bracingly.
"Except I'll have to go to confession now to make up for the fact that I just saw a man naked from the waist down and it'll probably cause me to have some improper thoughts," I said.
"Are you Catholic by any chance?" Zacharias asked.
"What if I am?" I asked defensively. "One of the premises that the human Alliance is built on is that we have the freedom to believe what we want."
"There's nothing wrong with believing in a myth, Miss Shepard," Zacharias said. "So long as it's not the only thing you believe in. After you."
Thankfully we had arrived at the right place now. The armoury was where they kept all combat gear and equipment and contained nine new recruits who were milling around nervously and not talking to each other. I saw that the tall woman we had seen earlier was there, along with another, shorter woman with short red hair and freckles.
"Well, here we are," Zacharias mumbled. "Now what?"
As if in answer of his question, the door swung open and two senior students walked in. "Welcome grunts," the woman said. "My name is Nina Ruben."
"And I'm Liam Canning," the man said. "For the next year, we will be your king, your president and your god. Our word is your command, and failure to obey will result in dire consequences for you."
"But we are here to get to know you," Nina said. "I will call your name, and you will then sing the national anthem of your country of origin. Your fellow grunts will try and guess which country the national anthem belongs to. If someone gets it wrong, he does ten push-ups. If someone gets it right, you do ten push-ups. Ready?"
"This ought to be good," Ash mumbled. Most people knew the national anthems of their countries of origin, but not the national anthems of other countries apart from America, South Africa and England.
"Let's get cracking," Liam said. He pulled a datapad from his pocket. "Alenko, Kaidan," he called.
A dark haired boy who was standing in the corner cleared his throat. "'O Canada'," he began.
"Canada," we all chorused dully.
"Wait, let the man finish," I mumbled to Ash. "The lyrics might be, 'O Canada, I love you, but this song ain't for you. I'm actually from Timbuktu.'" Ash snorted.
"Drop for ten, Alenko," Liam said. He waited for Kaidan to finish before calling, "Chokovic, Mikhail."
A pale blond boy stepped forward. "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela," he sang in a husky voice. "Kiedy my zyjemy. Co nam obca przemoc wziela, Szabla odbierzemy."
"Russia," a large, brutish boy called.
Mikhail shook his head and continued singing. "Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski," he sang as the other boy dropped for ten. "Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski, Za twoim przewodem Zlaczym sie z narode…"
"For God's sake, it's Poland," Nina said impatiently. "He said Polska a number of times. Everyone except Chokovic drop for ten for being imbeciles and for forcing me to listen to that crap."
"Fredrich, Bridget," Liam said when we'd all stood up again.
The big woman scowled. "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt, Wenn es stehte zun Schutz und Trutze, Brüderlich zu sammen halt, Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt, Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der We…,"
"Dutch," Ash shouted.
Bridget shook her head. "…lt," she finished.
"Damn it," Ash mumbled, dropping down.
"Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang," Bridget continued.
"Switzerland," the brutish boy bellowed excitedly.
Bridget sighed and shook her head. The boy scowled and dropped down again. "Sollen in der Welt behalzen Ihren alten schönen Klang," she went on.
"Germany," Zacharias said.
"Hallelujah," Bridget mumbled, dropping down.
"Jones, Kyle," Liam said.
"Australians," a tall, mousey-haired boy started.
"Australia," we all chorused dully.
Kyle sighed, and dropped down.
"Khan, Ismaeel," Liam said, looking bored.
A short, stocky boy with dark skin and eyes cleared his throat nervously. "Daa watan afghanistan do daa ezzat de har afghan di," he sang.
"I think I heard an Afghanistan there," Bridget said. "I may be wrong though."
"This group is a complete shambles," Nina mumbled. "At least last year it took five people before we got to Russia with me."
Ismaeel dropped down for his ten push-ups.
"Kim, Suang," Liam said.
An Asian boy dropped his head. "Qilai! Buyuan zuo nuli de renmen," he sang tunelessly.
"Japan," the red head girl shouted.
"Ba women de xuerou zhucheng women xin de changcheng," Suang continued.
"South Korea," Kaidan called.
"Zhonghua Minzu dao liao zui weixian de shihou," Suang sang on.
"North Korea," Zacharias screeched. We all sniggered as Suang shook his head again.
"Meigeren beipo zhe fachu zuihou de housheng," Suang went on.
"China," I bellowed, getting into the swing of things.
"Qilai! Qilai! Qil-oh shit, you're right," Suang said, dropping down.
"Now that's what I'm talking about," Nina said enthusiastically.
"Mahlberg, Sven," Liam said.
The brutish boy grinned and opened his mouth. "Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord,
du tysta, du glädjerika sköna!" he bellowed. "Jag hälsar dig, vänaste land uppå jord"
"What the fuck?" I mumbled.
"Erm, Sweden?" Ismaeel suggested quietly.
"How did you know that?" Sven asked.
"Lucky guess," Ismaeel said, shrugging.
"Bastard," Sven mumbled, dropping down.
"McDougal, Catlin," Liam said, looking bored again.
The red-haired girl smiled and tossed her head. "O Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, that fought and died for, your wee bit Hill and Glen," she sang.
"Scotland," Ash said.
"Your wee bit?" I asked. "Seriously? That's gross."
"I know, but the Scots loved this song once," Catlin said. "I'll do ten pushups then, shall I?"
"Shepard, Jane," Liam said.
I sighed and stepped forward. "Oh, say! Can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming; Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: Oh, say! Does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" I sang. I nudged Ash in the ribs.
"What?" she said. "Oh, America."
I sighed with relief and dropped down for ten. My lungs ached a bit when I got up.
"Sonier, Pierre," Liam said.
"llons enfants de la patrie," a swarthy boy sang huskily.
"Japan," Sven shouted.
"What the hell?" Ash asked in astonishment as Pierre shook his head.
"Le jour de gloire est arriv?" Pierre continued.
"Indonesia," Sven shouted, springing to his feet.
"Are you an idiot?" Pierre asked, shaking his head. "Contre nous de la tyrannie."
"Mexico," Sven bellowed, springing to his feet.
"I'd help the poor man out, but this is way too entertaining," Zacharias said in an undertone as Pierre shook his head and continued.
"L'?tendard sanglant est lev?" he sang.
"Iceland," Sven called. Pierre closed his eyes in annoyance and shook his head.
"For Christ's sake," Suang said. "It's French you tit."
"Oh," Sven said, light dawning on his face. "You mean he's from the Congo?"
"Ok, I'm going to recommend you get made C6," Nina said. "Sonier, drop for ten please, and Mahlberg, I want twenty from you for being a moron."
"Aye aye, ma'am," Sven said, dropping down. He must have been quite fit, because he didn't seem at all winded when he stood up again.
"Tobrin, Zacharias," Liam said, grinning.
"Here goes nothing," Zacharias said. He opened his mouth.
"England," I shouted.
"I beg your pardon, Shepard?" Liam asked.
"Oh, hadn't he started yet?" I asked innocently, as everyone sniggered. "I'm sorry, I'm psychic you see."
"Me too," Nina said. "I can foretell that, unless you have a serious attitude change, you're going to struggle here. Give me fifteen, Shepard, and Tobrin, I want your ten."
We both dropped for our push-ups. I finished way before Zacharias. "Come on, Tobrin, you just got beat by someone who is a quarter of your size," Nina shouted.
"Sorry, ma'am," Zacharias puffed. "I think the fact that she weighs less than us is a benefit. Less weight to push up. Ten." He stood up with a groan.
"Williams, Ashley," Liam said tiredly.
"Nko-," Ash began.
"South Africa," Zacharias and I said in unison.
Ash rolled her eyes and dropped down.
"And this is the best the Alliance has to offer us?" Nina asked rhetorically when Ash had finished.
"No, the best is probably in Pod 2," Liam said. "For some reason they always end up there."
"Right, grunts," Nina said. "Now we have to do the tour. We'll go to your barracks so that you can drop your bags and shit off. Why you insisted on bringing so much crap with is beyond me, since you will all be wearing khaki soon. Which reminds me: you need to turn your omnitools in as they are completely useless around here. The satellite links to most of the compound are blocked."
The looks on my fellows' faces were priceless. "What?" Kaidan asked.
"You can't take my omnitool away," Mikhail said. "I need it."
"My omnitool is my whole life," Catlin said hysterically. "If you take it away, I die."
"Please," Bridget snapped. "If your life revolves around a device which basically is used for navigation and sending emails, it's a crappy life." She unstrapped her omnitool from her wrist and handed it out to Nina, who put into a box. She moved on to Suang, who looked as though he was being forced to part with his right arm. I hesitated when she came to me.
"Do I have to?" I asked pathetically.
"Yes, now get on with it," she said impatiently.
"What if my brother tries to get hold of me?" I asked.
"He can do it through the faculty administration, who will, if they feel the message is urgent enough pass it onto you," Nina said. She shook the box in front of my nose. I sighed and put my omnitool into the box.
We had to go outside to the Pod 3 bunker. The moment I stepped outside, I started sweating. I could hear the news broadcasts: 'Sixteen year old Jane Shepard died bravely of heat stroke at Del Sol Academy a mere two hours after landing there. It was later discovered that Shepard had lied to the recruitment officer about her height, weight and level of health. A full inquiry will follow.'
The bunkers were typical army bunkers, low, stone and a horrible khaki colour. Inside the rooms were shabby with mismatching furniture and peeling paint.
"This is the mess room where the catering corps will try to poison you," Liam said, pointing through a doorway.
"That's the rec room," Nina added, pointing at the door opposite. "If you mess anything up in there, we have the right to court martial you for annoying an officer."
"You aren't officers," Ismaeel pointed out.
"No, but we can make your life hell," Nina said.
"The senior dorm," Liam continued. "Under no circumstances may you disturb us in there. It's our sanctuary away from the grunts."
"Why do they keep calling us grunts?" Zacharias whispered as the seniors led us to our own dorm.
"When we drop for push-ups or duck behind something, we supposedly grunt because we aren't trained in silence yet," I replied in an undertone. "It's supposed to highlight our inexperience or something."
"Oh," Zacharias mumbled. "Knew there was a good explanation for it."
"And here we are," Nina said, pushing a door open. "The grunts' nesting ground."
We all crowded into the cramped dorm. It contained six bunk-beds, a desk with a terminal on it, three arm chairs and a couch. Next to each bunk-bed was a double locker.
"Well, it's not much, but it'll be your home for a year," Liam said bracingly. "If you don't keep it tidy, you'll all be forced to run drills for three hours, so keep it tidy."
"No window?" Mikhail asked, looking around.
"What the hell do you want a window for?" Liam snapped. "Don't be stupid, boy. The view here is shit anyway."
"Find your beds," Nina said.
What ensued in the next five minutes was a strange, shuffling kind of dance as we all tried to move around the dorm without crashing into each other. Some were unsuccessful, and Sven and Kyle, our two tallest companions crashed frequently into furniture. I eventually found my bed in the corner of the room. Someone had written 'Shepid' in black felt-tip on the top locker next to the bunk. The locker underneath had 'Can' written on it.
"The fuck?" Ash called from across the room. "W-I-L-U-M-S? Who wrote this?"
"Saunders," Liam said. "He's dyslexic, can't even spell his own name, which is problematic, since he's N1."
"I assume I'm Can then," Ismaeel said, coming over. He nodded at me. "Shepard," he said. "I hope you aren't a restless sleeper."
"You'd better not snore, Khan," I said.
"Only when I'm very tired," he answered.
"Wonderful," I muttered.
"Alright, shut up," Nina shouted. The chatter quietened down immediately. "On your beds are your uniforms, toiletries, bedding, mess tins, and towels. Get changed, make your beds and pack your stuff neatly into the lockers. Prepare whatever personal affects you want to keep. We're going to our own dorm to prepare our beds. We'll be back in fifteen minutes, and if this room isn't tidy, there'll be hell to pay."
They left the room. "Well, they don't waste time, do they?" Zacharias asked rhetorically.
I climbed onto the bunk and retrieved my uniform, which consisted of a white vest, a pair of heavy army boots, a green beret, a grey camouflage jacket and a pair of grey camouflage trousers.
"Be warned, these probably won't fit," Catlin said.
"Who the fuck asked you?" Kaidan snapped.
"Well, my father is a marine, so I should know," Catlin said in a superior tone. "Daddy told me all about the academy."
"Whoopdedoo," Pierre said.
"Look, why should any of us care what your father is?" Bridget asked.
"Because he's told me about Del Sol," Catlin said. "Look, believe what you want, but people die in training. There has never been a year where all seventy two recruits graduate. If we want to survive, we need as much information as possible."
"Isn't it against the rules for us to share what goes on in training?" I asked. "I mean obviously we can give out non-identifying features such as 'We don't eat a lot' or 'We run drills frequently and with varying degrees of intensity', but to know exactly what's happening…"
"Your father didn't tell you anything about his training here, Shepard?" Catlin asked.
"Nothing identifying as he was a stickler for protocol, and how the hell did you know my father was a marine?" I asked.
"My father and your father trained together," Catlin said. "Daddy talked about Jordan Shepard a lot."
"Yeah, Dad never mentioned anyone by the name of McDougal," I said dismissively. "Look, I want to survive this academy, same as everyone else, but I also want to graduate, and being caught leaking classified information won't allow for that."
Catlin narrowed her eyes. "Do you all feel that way?" she asked. There were murmurs of assent. "Alright, well then on your heads be it," she said. She started undressing.
"We're going to have to watch that one," Ismaeel mumbled.
"Looks like it," I said.
Unfortunately Catlin was right, none of the clothing fit right, especially since the clothing sizes I had given at my interview were two sizes bigger than what I actually wore. Once I'd dressed, I packed my spare uniform and my physical training clothes into the locker. I hung the towel over the head of the bed and packed the toiletries into the locker. The bunk swayed alarmingly as I made the bed and I prayed it wouldn't collapse sometime in the middle of the night. I had just prepared my datapad as my personal affect when Nina and Liam returned.
"Shit," Zacharias shouted, hurrying to tie his bootlaces.
"Not bad," Liam said. "Tobrin, I'll forgive you this time around. If this happens again, you'll be on an all night stand-to."
"Yes sir," Zacharias said. "Thank you sir."
"Do you have your personal affects prepared?" Nina asked. Personal affects were something that recruits were allowed to keep in their dormitory that reminded them of home. This item was treated as sacred by the recruit, and teasing someone over his personal affect was taboo, as was harming the personal affect in any way.
We were all silent as each of us had our personal affect checked in and signed. Once the affect had been approved, we had to put all our other possessions that we had brought from home into a large crate for safe keeping until we graduated. Some people's personal affects were things like slippers, security blankets from when we were small, photograph from home. Kaidan's was a dress that he said belonged to his mother. Ash's was her mother's wedding ring. Catlin's was a worn teddy bear. Bridget's was a photograph of her girlfriend, who was training in medicine on the Citadel.
"Shepard," Liam said.
"I want to keep my datapad and earphones," I said. "It has photographs and videos of my family and all my books and music on it."
"Let me see it," Liam said. I handed the pad to him.
"A Nexus model," Nina said, typing it onto her datapad. "How long have you had it?"
"Three years," I said.
Liam read the serial number out to Nina and made sure that it couldn't be connected to the extranet, then handed it back to me.
"Approved," he said.
"Make your mark," Nina said, handing me her datapad. I typed in my security code, which deposited my personal watermark onto the document. In the old days, when paper still existed, people used to have personal signatures which they made with a pen. I'd never held a pen before. I wondered what it was like to have a writing style that was completely your own.
"Alright, it's lunch time now," Liam said when Ash's mother's ring had been signed. "After that, we need to take you to the command hall where the staff will address you."
We grabbed our mess tins and followed Liam and Nina to the mess hall. The senior students had already arrived and were in the process of being served their food when we walked in. When they noticed us, they all started hissing, cat-calling and making strange barking sounds. Nina and Liam joined in exuberantly.
"Oh joy," Bridget muttered. We all dropped our heads in embarrassment. All except Catlin, who smiled around at the seniors as though she enjoyed the attention.
We joined the queue to the food table. Owing to obesity having been a big problem before the third world war, the new Alliance government had made strict changes with regards to diet. Deep fried foods were completely phased out and foods with high fat content and little nutritional value (like chocolate, pizza and ice-cream) were sold at incredibly high prices.
They were even stricter about food in the army. Food was prepared and shipped in from some mysterious place that no one knew the location of. Seriously. Ask any member of the catering corps where their base is, and they'll probably blush and mumble about the information being classified. Probably to stop disgruntled sergeants from ordering their men to bomb the place. Anyway, once it's been shipped to its final destination, other members of the catering corps sort the food into individual packages for each soldier. The idea is that each package contains a serving of each food group that's large enough to sustain the individual until the next meal, but too small to actually make a difference to the individual's mass. The serving sizes were determined by factors such as height and weight, and intensity of work (i.e., pilots would need less than artillery units since they pretty much spend their days sitting down).
My first lunch at the academy consisted of a cracker, a small tub of yoghurt, two thin slices of cheese, a slice of tomato, two lettuce leaves and an orange juice. "Well, it's a step up for you," Ash said, looking over my shoulder. My lunches on the Hugo Greyson consist of half a cracker, a yoghurt that was a quarter smaller, one slice of cheese, half a slice of tomato, and only one lettuce leaf.
"It's cuz I lied about my height and weight," I said. "I see you are still getting two crackers."
"The joys of being five foot seven," Ash laughed.
We made our way to a table. Before long we were joined by Zacharias, Kaidan, and to my horror, Catlin. For some reason, I wasn't sure why, I didn't like that girl at all.
"Hello fellow grunts," Zacharias said as Kaidan and Catlin joined us. "We haven't been formally introduced. My name is Zacharias. Most people call me Zac."
"Call me Cat," Catlin said. "You know, C-A-T."
Ash and I stared at her. "Yeah, we got that," I said cautiously.
"No, it's actually an abbreviation," Cat said. "My name is Catlin Anna Tatum. You know, Cat."
"Right," Ash said. "You can call me Ah. Ashley Hannah."
Kaidan's mouth hung open. "Call me anything other than Kaidan and I'll be forced to kill you," he said slowly. "Understood?"
"If you say so," Ash shrugged. "What happened to your forehead?" She nodded at the long gash at his hairline.
He blushed. "I-," he began, raising a hand to the scar.
"Fuck me, you're a biotic, aren't you?" I said in a mixture of awe and horror, recognising the scar as being from when the implant had been inserted into his brain.
"Not just any biotic," Zac said. "That scar's from a B12 implant."
"How do you know that?" Ash asked in interest.
"I might not be a very good soldier, but there are some things I'm good at," Zac said modestly.
"What's a B12 doing here?" Cat asked. "Do the admirals know you're biotic?"
"Of course they know I'm biotic, they'd be stupid if they didn't notice this scar and put two and two together," Kaidan snapped angrily.
"So, why are you here and not at Grissom Academy?" I asked. "Isn't that where they train the biotics?"
"Mind your own business," Kaidan snapped.
"Ooh, touchy," Ash mumbled as Kaidan got up and stalked away.
"Are you sure he's a B12?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure he's a B12," Zac said. "I might be wrong though."
"Why would they allow a B12 here?" Cat wondered. "Aren't they dangerous?"
"Only to themselves," Zac said, returning to his meal.
Biotics were always a touchy matter among humans. When we'd travelled through the mass relay for the first time, we discovered a galaxy full of species with far better technology than our own, and we'd scrambled to compensate. The asari and drell have natural biotic abilities that allowed them to use energy surrounding them to move matter (I had once watched a pretty decent movie about people and alien species who could do something similar). We'd discovered that humans could have the same abilities if an implant was placed in a human's prefrontal lobes. The challenge was discovering which implant could be used that would not drive the biotic insane, and it was only twenty four years ago that we learnt how to do this with the B13 implant. Everything before that, B1 through B12, drove the recipient mad.
"He can't be B12," I said forcibly. "Those were discontinued twenty four years ago. Alenko is sixteen, same as the rest of us."
"Jane's right," Ash said. "You must have miscalculated or something, Zac."
"If you say so," Zac shrugged.
The command hall was the least shabby room out of all the rooms on the academy. It had a platform at the front, on which was assembled a group of Alliance officers.
"Guess those are our instructors," Ash whispered, nodding at the group as we filed into our seats. I noticed then that some of the people standing there were dressed in civilian clothing.
"Guess so," I mumbled. I glanced around at my fellow juniors from the other pods.
I was obviously the shortest person present, apart from one of the officers on the platform. He wore the uniform of the Alliance Air force, and had a host of medals running down his blazer. In fact, all the students were at least five inches taller than me and a great deal heavier. N1 here I come, I thought.
Technically I had as much chance as the next person to make it N1. However, the Alliance needed administration, and a small percentage of recruits had to go to N1. Oh well, I thought. I still did better than John to even make it here.
Admiral Greyling got up and made his way to the podium. "Good afternoon," he said and silence fell immediately. "To our grunts, welcome. And to our senior recruits, welcome back. I trust that your break was good, that you took the opportunity to recuperate and gather your energies for the new year. Before I welcome back our instructors, I would like to take this opportunity to say that our thoughts go with the recruits whose families were involved in the crash of the Hugo Grayson. Senior Recruit Terrence Little of Pod 5 and Junior Recruit Ashley Williams of Pod 3 lost their fathers in the accident, and Junior Recruit Jane Shepard of Pod 3 lost her mother, father, brother and sister in the accident. Let's take a moment of silence for Little, Williams and Shepard's families, and for the families of all the victims."
My face flushed as the eyes of everyone in my pod turned to me. I bowed my head and worked on keeping my face neutral.
"Thank you," Admiral Greyling said. "We hope that the families find solace. Now, let us welcome our instructors back. Firstly, I will once again be training you all in weapons and armoury." He acknowledged the lukewarm applause he received. It seemed that Admiral Greyling was not popular with the recruits.
"Damn it, that man is so good looking," Ash said as he saluted.
"Are we allowed to have relations with our superiors?" I asked, amused.
"Probably not," Ash mumbled sulkily.
"Admiral Brawne will be training the juniors in combat and the seniors in combat tactics." Admiral Brawne saluted us as we applauded him.
"Is it just me or is hair darker?" Ash whispered in my ear. Actually his hair did seem darker.
"Vanity is very unattractive in a soldier," I whispered back and we both sniggered.
"Admiral Hackett will be teaching you all in reconnaissance," Admiral Greyling said. "Commander Anderson will be returning again to train you all in fitness and the seniors in specialised missions." There were loud cheers from the seniors as a dark-skinned, burly man saluted.
"He's popular," I said.
"Isn't he the hero from the First Contact War?" Ash whispered. The First Contact War was our war with the turians, which had only ended about twenty years ago. "He was in command of the main squad that reclaimed Shanxi."
"Commander McDougal will be teaching the seniors and juniors in communication," Admiral Greyling said. A red-haired man saluted.
"Seriously?" Ash asked, watching with a sickened expression as Cat gleefully cheered her father.
"Flight-Lieutenant Morreau will be training the juniors in shuttle flying," Admiral Greyling went on. The short man winced as he straightened and painfully raised his hand to his forehead. The seniors cheered loudly.
"What's wrong with him, do you suppose?" Ash asked me.
I shrugged. "Don't know," I said. "It looks painful, whatever it is."
"Staff-Lieutenant Rabinsky will be training the seniors in explosives," Admiral Greyling said.
"I'm hungry," Ash complained. "When's dinner, do you suppose?"
"Are you joking?" I hissed. "We just had lunch. We'll probably have a guided tour or something before dinner."
"Crap," Ash mumbled, as Admiral Greyling introduced other instructors who would be teaching us things such as Alien Culture and Technology. "I'd gotten used to civilian food. Now I have to accept the fact that I'm gonna spend the next two years eating army food again."
"Well, no one asked you to come along," I said venomously.
"Ja, ja, I know," Ash said. "This is all my fault."
"Yep, that it is," I said.
"And finally with regards to your training," Admiral Greyling said in conclusion. "I am very excited to announce that we have managed to get you a good guest lecturer during endurance week. Spectre Saren Arterus will be here for two days to tell us all about the Spectres."
An excited whisper ran through the hall. Spectre stood for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and they were the galaxy's intelligence group. People from all species could be a Spectre, but the catch was that you had to be invited by the Council. So far the Spectres consisted mostly of turians and asari, with the occasional salarian and batarian thrown in for luck. So far the drell, vorcha, volus, yahg, krogan, Collectors, quarian and humans were yet to have anyone join their ranks.
"Wow," Zac hissed at us over Suang who was sitting on my other side. "A Spectre. I've never seen one before."
"You're joking," I said.
"We don't really get a lot of cause for the Council to send spies to London," Zac said.
"Of course not," Ash said. "Not much happens there anymore."
"In a totally unrelated matter, I'm pleased to announce that we have a new addition to our staff," Admiral Greyling went on when the chatter had died down. "Elizabeth Fischer is a social work student from the Alliance Open University. She is in her third year and has been placed here for her practical. Ms Fischer, do you maybe want to say a few words about your role here?"
Elizabeth Fischer seemed out of place among all the soldiers. She was very neatly dressed in a dark blue skirt, a white shirt and a pair of black, high-heeled boots. She was very tall for a woman, with a curvy figure, long, brown hair, incredibly pale skin and blue eyes.
"Thank you, Admiral Greyling," Elizabeth said. "Um, I'm a third year from the Alliance Open University, as Admiral Greyling just said. I've been placed here for the year to do my practical experience. My office hours are Mondays from eight to five, so if you have something you need to talk over, feel free to come over. I'm in the main building."
There was loud chatter in the hall when she sat down. "That's one MILF," one of the senior boys mumbled behind me.
"You're such a dick, Giovani," I heard Nina snap.
"Thank you, Ms Fischer," Admiral Greyling said. "Recruits, please take Ms Fischer seriously. If you're experiencing any trouble whatsoever, please go to her. Burnout is a very serious problem and we don't want you to burnout before you've even finished your training."
"Of course, once you've finished your training you can go as psycho as you like," I mumbled.
"Now, a few important dates: the hand-to-hand competition will take place on October 28. The senior marksmanship competition will take place from November 20 to November 27. The junior competition will be from December 20 to December 27. The December week will be from December 27 to January 3. The endurance competition is on February 17. The roundrobin will be from April 1 to May 14. The mastery competition will be from May 30 to June 6. The final examinations will start on July 12 and will end on July 30. The August holiday starts on August 1 and ends on August 31. Please remember these dates and train hard in advance." He smiled benignly around at us. "I think that's it," he said. "Off you go now to your rec rooms for the review of the academy's rules."
There was a loud scraping of chairs as we got up. "What the hell do those competitions mean?" Ash asked.
"Well, endurance, marksmanship and hand-to-hand is pretty self-explanatory," I said.
"Ja," Ash said and shuddered. "Hope I don't go against Mahlberg in the hand-to-hand. He'd murder me."
An incredibly fair woman was waiting for us in the rec room. "My name is Marika and I'm your pod warden," she said. "Sit down so that I can read you the academy rules."
I settled myself on the couch between Kyle and Ash. The rules consisted of very long, boring clauses regarding bunking out, fraternizing and the improper use of weapons. I felt myself dosing off and Ash nudged me awake as Marika said, "I hope you take these rules to heart, as the fallout should you disobey will be huge. Now it's time to watch the news."
'Propaganda hour', as Jean and I had dubbed it, was compulsory to everyone who was not actively working for the betterment of the Alliance (which tended to mean shooting aliens for the good of humanity). It basically consisted of various members of the Alliance talking about the colonies and our progress in the various minor conflicts we were involved in. I dozed off again. It had been a long journey…
Ash woke me up again at the end of Propaganda hour and we went to dinner, which consisted of a spoonful of smash, a couple of slices of bully beef, a cup of tea, a couple of strips of dried fruit and a cup of custard and jelly. After that we were sent to our rooms to prepare for bed.
After everyone had fallen asleep, I got my datapad out, plugged my earphones in and opened the videos. There were hundreds of videos on the datapad, all documenting important moments of my life. Jean and Jane's first birthday. Jean and Jane's fourth birthday. The first time Jane fired a gun (age five). Jane's black belt grading. Finally I found the video I was looking for: Christmas, 2176. We had spent the day in a hotel room on Illium. I pulled the blanket over my head and pressed play.
Jean was holding the vidcam. "Heya," her voice said. "This is the amazingly talented and beautiful Jean Shepard here on December 25, 2176, the day Jesus was born. We've all opened our presents and…" she turned the camera to face her and smiled widely at it. "…this is the face of someone who got what she asked for from Santa."
Tears rolled down my face. Jean turned the camera to face forward again. "Of course, this is Ms Jane Shepard," she said, moving forwards. "Who's like us, Janey?"
I looked up from my datapad where I'd been reading a book and flashed a grin at her. "Damn few, Jean," I said. "And their all dead."
"That's what I like to hear," Jean said in Dad's tone. We giggled. "What did Santa give you, Janey?"
"A hamster," I answered. "Marvin the Marvellous."
"Marvin the Marvellous?" John's voice asked. "Really Titch?"
"Why, what the bloody hell did Santa get you?" I asked, throwing half-a-glance at Dad.
"Ah yes, John Shepard has returned," Jean said dramatically. "Here, Janey take this, I want to record this moment."
The camera shook as she handed it to me. I raised it to show Jean and John standing together. In the background I could see my parents setting the table and Jason, working on the terminal in the corner of the room.
I hit pause and stuffed my fist in my mouth to muffle my sobs as I watched my family, frozen in time, their faces stretched with happiness.
Author's note
So ja, that's the end of the second chapter, and almost all the major characters have at least been mentioned. The next chapter, which is called Orientation, will be uploaded sometime next week. I still need to edit it properly. It's a long-ass chapter though, so be prepared.
And Merry Christmas, crustaceans.
Peace, love and oranges, from your resident snail