Chapter 2

Reaper War: Day 7

Barkley found himself leaning against one of the many railings in the Presidium. The Presidium grounds stretched out before him; the view…breathtaking. Even though it was fake, that's what always bugged Barkley about the Presidium well the Citadel in general. It was an artificial reimagining of the real thing; the warm sunshine; even the lush grass and the air he was breathing. He missed Earth; real sunshine on his skin and real air in his lungs, but according to Alliance reports, he might not be seeing Earth the way it was for a long time.

He hadn't been able to reach his family either; scenarios of why he couldn't reach them ran through his head. Subtly he shoved those thoughts out of his mind, he can't think of them right now. Maybe he should've visited more often…a gripping pain in his stomach made him snap back to the task at hand. His mission: the squad he was in charge of. The team he was single-handily going to lead against the Reapers, a now very real threat to the galaxy. Barkley got the call from Udina around midnight (Earth time), Barkley never was fully able to adjust to the Citadel's 20-hour day cycle, this caused him to stay up during most nights. Answering Udina's call on the first ring he was able to have more than enough time to prepare for the debriefing with his team. Barkley was unsure how to go about proceeding with each individual who were coming from different backgrounds, races, and cultures. This on top of everything else made things a bit complicated. How was he supposed to appeal to them? Leave an impression that he can carry this team through hell and back? He just didn't know.

After receiving the councilor's call, Barkley spent the remaining half of the night researching each individual and learning about their different races. Granted he was doing this minutes after he left the councilor's office, but what more could there be to know? Apparently a lot. The accolades of the batarian and turian were sublime to say the least. Each had experience in all types of combat and reading about them made Barkley humble. The batarian was a ruthless solider, loyal to the mission, but was prejudice against anything that didn't have four eyes. The turian on the other hand was a different story; her name rung a bell from Barkley's past. A squad mate he had during his time with the turian military on Palaven; the two had history together. What he recalled from his time with her, he remembered her biotic ability and loyalty to her squad. She would never leave a single man, or woman, behind. A characteristic the Turian Hierarchy wasn't too pleased with, they believed in giving their life for their country and military. As long as one turian was left standing, the battle was worth dying for. But not her, she valued life and that's what Barkley respected about her. The quarian's files were classified, scratch that, they were non-existent. Like someone or a group of someone's, wanted nothing to do with him, a note Barkley wrote down. Instead of researching the quarian Barkley decided to learn more about the quarians as a whole, a culture that was born from self-tragedy and followed by three centuries of self-quarantine; traveling from system to system.

Checking the time on his omni-tool, Barkley decided to head towards the debriefing. The debriefing or squad "get together", what Barkley really thought it was, resided in one of the embassy's many conference rooms. Finding the conference room was going to be a pain, but he kindly shoved that thought out of his head as well, deciding that the view of the Presidium was a more pressing matter. He had a great view too; the ever rising elevator kept broadening his view of the scenery in front of him. Taking a quick peak below him, instantly realizing that was a bad idea, he lifted his head back up. Heights, he wasn't a big fan of heights. Fighting to push the vertigo away he stepped off the elevator.

The ruckus could faintly be heard from the lobby, but Barkley just assumed it was the ringing in his ears. This turned out to be false the closer he got to his assigned conference room. He looked up at the holodisplay above the room, 7B, what was his conference room number again? Ah yes, 7B.

"Well, shit." Barkley cursed as he double checked the room number on his datapad.

Inhaling and then exhaling, he tapped the door's opening mechanism. The door split in two, both parts sliding away to reveal the chaos within. The batarian was yelling something obscene at the turian, who ignored him as she watched the door slide open, a brief turian smile creeping across her face.

"You look like shit, Charles."

"Boy, have I missed that mouth of yours, Nel." He grinned as the two met and performed an awkward, "Hug, nah let's shake on it, but what about the hug" kind of greeting.

"I see you've been making friends," Barkley pointed out nodding towards the batarian.

"Name is Shroud, human." The batarian spat, his words filled with venom. Barkley kindly offered his hand, which Shroud bluntly declined. "Get that thing away from me."

"Alright then, what were you two…eh…discussing?" asked Barkley.

Nel glanced at Shroud and then turned her head towards Barkley; flexing her mandibles. "The reasoning as to why the batarians were wiped out the instant the Reapers invaded."

Shroud flinched at her words and abruptly closed the space between the two, getting right in her face. "My people are dead, turian. Yet, you stand here mocking their deaths; dancing on their graves!"

"You, and your people, brought this on yourselves! By being violent, irrational, and hostile to any species to come in contact with you, refusing any help offered. Without allies you stood no chance and standing here in front of me, bitching about the loss of your people, is not going to bring them back!" She added, jabbing one of her fingers into his chest.

Letting his rage get the best of him, Shroud clenched his fist and threw it forward, "Why you little—"

He was cut off by Nel grabbing his incoming fist and bending it to the side and around his back, putting Shroud into a hold that he was unable to escape.

"Watch yourself, batarian." Nel whispered into his ear

"Well played, Princess." He replied, face contorted by pain and anger.

"Alright, let's knock it off!" Barkly yelled throwing himself between the two.

"Pfft." Nel answered releasing Shroud from her hold.

Grimacing, but trying to remain in control, Shroud backed off and begun stretching his arm, "I wasn't going to hurt her…much."

"I beg to differ." A voice said behind him.

"The fuck?" Shroud screamed as he backed away, tripping over a chair and smacking his head on the table as he fell.

"Graceful as ever these batarians are," the figure pointed out as he materialized out of the thin air, powering down his tactical cloak, revealing the suited stature of a quarian. He bent down and put a hand out for Shroud to grab, who smacked it away.

"Go to hell, Suit rat." Shroud mumbled touching his head and revealing a small trickle of blood coming down his face.

Ignoring the insult the quarian withdrew his hand and approached Nel and Barkley, both who were chuckling about the spectacle they both just witnessed. He extended his hand in turn, both accepted the gesture and exchanged greetings.

"Jaeger and I am at your service," the quarian said as he bowed forward. "It's a pleasure to be meeting you."

Barkley shook his hand and summoned his newly acquired quarian knowledge, "Just Jaeger? What about your ship name?"

This stunned Jaeger; looking away he replied "I'm surprised you noticed that, Commander. Assuming you know that, you must know then why it's like that?"

"You're a goddamned exile! You betrayed your own people, you're worse than your people! You're the bottom feeder's bottom feeder, traitor!" shouted Shroud, as he stood up and glared at the quarian. "How can I work with someone like him?"

"Enough," interrupted Barkley as he stepped in, to prevent any further violence, "We're all on the same team here and fighting only one enemy, not each other." He stepped back and flicked his finger across his datapad, sending the image to a screen on the other side of the conference room.

"This is what we're fighting," Barkley said as he played the video; a montage spliced together showcasing the destruction of the Reapers: Buildings burning their flames licking the skyline, civilians desperately avoiding their imminent demise, and large mechanical figures destroying anything in their path. This destruction deafened any previous hostilities between the individuals; the threat of galactic genocide can do that.

"Spirts, how do we stop something of that magnitude?" Nel questioned, breaking the eerie silence in the room. "It's impossible."

"The turian is right," Shroud admitted, "It took a fleet to take down the one that attacked the Citadel. We're just a squad."

Barkley looked around the room, noticing the despair in everyone's face, "Our job isn't fighting the Reapers, leave that to our military. Our job is to extract and save any colonists from the Reapers. This is off the record, we're not going to be thanked or remembered when this is over so throw any of those dreams out the window. What we're here to do is help people and you can bet I'm going to do my damned best to make that happen. I expect the same of all of you."

Barkley looked around the room at the faces staring at him; he just hoped he could own up to his own words. "Great speech, Commander," Nel said, breaking the silence, once again. "What's our first assignment?"

Looking at Nel, grateful for having her on the team, Barkley went back to his presentation, "Our first assignment: The liberation of Erszbat."

Shroud's head snapped towards Barkley's direction, "We're going to Erszbat?" This time desperation and sadness leaked from his words as he asked the question. "I have, well had, family there."

"I'm sorry to hear that," replied Barkley, knowing too well how watching the destruction of your home felt. He looked back at the screen and then at his future squad mates, "Any questions?"

"When do we leave?" Shroud demanded.

"The information will be sent to your—"

"Human. When do we leave?" he asked again, stepping towards Barkley.

"Tomorrow, but—"

Shroud already left the conference room, making sure to run into Jaeger on his way out.

"Sorry about that," Barkley said acknowledging Shroud and his actions.

"It's alright, Commander," Jaeger answered, "We can do this." With that he patted Barkley on the back and left the room as well.

Barkley put his head down and exhaled, "I hope he's right about that."

Nel placed a hand on Barkley's arm, letting it linger for a couple seconds before removing it, "Don't worry, he's right. We can do this." She whispered as she left the room.

Feeling her hand still there, Barkley touched the same spot and then began massaging his temples, "I sure hope so."