Disclaimer: We don't own Mass Effect or anything pertaining to it. That belongs to Bioware. However, dibs on Daniel!
Present day…
"No!" Daniel White sat up in bed, his face and body soaked in sweat. He took a minute to gather his senses and take in his surroundings. He was in his sparsely-furnished apartment, and had to calm himself down as he realized he had bad dream. 'More like a nightmare every night,' he thought wryly to himself.
"Well, no sense sitting around in bed, I probably won't be able to sleep again for quite some time so let's go do something," he announced to his empty abode. As he went into his routine of crunches, pushes, pull-ups that he had kept up since Basic Training, his mind began to wander, going back down Memory Lane to revisit how he got into this situation in the first place.
One week ago…
Lieutenant White found himself sitting outside of his psychiatrist's office, awaiting the results of his recent psych evaluation following his last mission. He still couldn't get over the fact that Steele and Patterson died when he was so sure they had survived alongside him. However, he had to face the reality of his situation as his fallen squad mates were buried with 21-gun salutes and folded flags to hand their bereaved families.
To add insult to injury, he later discovered that his friends died for naught.
Two hours earlier…
"Lieutenant White, you are hereby ordered never to speak of this mission to take out the terrorist leadership." Commander Mark Jackson, White's commanding officer, said following the debriefing of the last mission.
"What will my squad's families be told about how my men died?" Daniel asked, completely confused as to this turn of events. He wanted to at least make sure that his squad, even in death, were treated with the respect and honor they deserved.
"All they will know is that they were killed in action. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Commander, why?" White got a sick feeling in his stomach. He didn't like where this conversation was going.
"Like I said, Lieutenant, the mission failed. We can't let the public know we botched this operation, so it never happened. Orders from the top brass are to make sure word of this mission never gets out."
"Sir, permission to speak freely."
"Denied," was the only response Daniel got.
"Why didn't HQ send reinforcements when we requested backup? What happened to the air support when we called in a Broken Arrow?" White asked, even though this would look bad and could be taken as insubordination. All the frustration he felt at the lack of response from HQ came surging back in an instant.
"White, HQ had their reasons. You know that."
"With all due respect, sir, if we had even just one extra squad to reinforce our position, perhaps this little mission that didn't happen wouldn't have been such an abysmal failure! If we'd gotten the Broken Arrow support like we asked, we could've kept the insurgents from creating an escape route and just maybe Steele and Patterson would still be alive!" Daniel felt his blood pressure rising as his CO, a man he respected more than most officers, sat there and took it.
"Lieutenant, regain control of your emotions. We had to do what was necessary. Your squad was chosen because you were the best of the best. You blew it," Jackson's face was starting to get red as White's words sunk home. However, he had to make sure White wouldn't go blabbing off about the fiasco in the desert.
"Bullshit! We might have been the best, but didn't anyone consider that just one squad might not have been enough to hold off the escape of an entire fucking terrorist base? How the hell did all the brass up there make such a stupid mistake? One that cost my entire squad their lives?"
"That's enough out of you. You're obviously too worked up about this to continue your duties. I'm ordering you to get a psych evaluation and you are hereby relieved of your active duty status until we believe you fit for duty again."
Daniel could only stare as Jackson efficiently stripped him of his active duty status. Apparently the brass was extremely serious about having him silenced. 'Dammit, I'm going to have to just keep my mouth shut and keep myself from getting into even more trouble.'
Back at the psych office…
"Lieutenant White? Please, come this way," the psychiatrist asked, trying to be as friendly as possible.
Daniel followed the man into his office, not sure what was going to happen.
"Now, Lieutenant, I understand you're here because your superior officers believed you to be mentally unfit for duty. However, I find no such issues based on your evaluation. Unfortunately, I also understand that your active duty status has been lifted, and I don't have the authority to countermand that. I'm sorry, but that's all I can do at this point in time."
"Thank you, sir. At least you were upfront with me about everything, instead of beating around the bush like the rest of the higher-ups. So what would you recommend I do now that I'm suspended from duty indefinitely?"
"To be quite frank, I'd suggest you go and find some way to relax. Get your mind off work and the military in general. I'm sure you'll be put back on active duty after a while."
"I'll keep that advice in mind. I'll figure something out."
Later that day…
"God, could this day get any worse?" White mused as he drove back to his apartment. As he pulled into his apartment complex, he thought, 'Well, at least I didn't get discharged and I've still got a home to return to.'
However, once he got to his apartment, he felt something was amiss. Opening the door, his jaw dropped. The apartment was all but barren!
"What…the fuck?" Daniel walked into the living room, only to find a note on the floor.
Daniel,
I hope you haven't gone off and gotten yourself killed. I can't stand this anymore, the long time in between brief phone calls where all you can say is that you're okay and that you'll be home soon. But you're never home. I'm not going to sit around anymore, I end up worrying myself to sleep every night, wondering if the morning will bring a soldier in dress uniform carrying a folded American flag under one arm. I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving, and I'm taking all of my stuff with me.
Goodbye.
"Carrie..." was all Daniel could say as he picked up the note. His girlfriend of three years finally gave up on him. It was always tough for anyone to be dating a soldier, but normally the significant other left Stateside would end up bailing out after only a year tops. Carrie stood by his side for two and a half, but something made her want to get out of Dodge. He didn't know why, and now he probably never would.
'Maybe she found someone else to comfort her while I was gone,' He pondered, looking around to complete his damage report and see what he still had left.
"Dammit…most of my stuff is gone too!" Daniel slumped against a wall, slowly sliding down to the floor. Carrie had indeed taken most of his things. All he had left in his apartment was his HDTV, Xbox 360, bed, clothes, and his stuff in the bathroom. Everything else was gone. No more sofa, chairs, nightstand, lamps, all were taken.
Seeing that his prized laptop was still there, though, he sighed deeply. "At least Carrie had the sense not to take that with her. I don't know what I would've done if she'd taken that from me too…" He fired it up and set the music to randomly shuffle. "Road of the Gypsy" by Adrenalin came on, helping to put him in a calmer frame of mind. He had invested too much of his time and money into that laptop and its music collection to see it drop off the radar just like the rest of the things that were taken.
Wandering over into the kitchen, he discovered that Carrie had helped herself to all of his food supplies. "Well fuck-a-doodle-doo. Looks like I'm gonna have to go shopping around today."
Hopping back in his car, Daniel left his apartment behind to do a much needed supply run. While he was out, he went ahead and bought a few games for his Xbox, as it would be one of the few sources of entertainment he'd have over the coming days until he got put back on active duty.
'It's funny how this place feels so alien, despite the fact that it's mine, so to speak,' He chuckled to himself as he headed back. Packing food away into the fridge and stocking the cupboard with all sorts of supplies, he finally got around to settling down and opening up one of the games he just purchased.
"Hmm…Mass Effect. I remember Sanders raved about that game and how his kids were addicted to that game. Time to see what the hype was all about." Firing up the game for the first time, White was floored with the choice he had in the Custom Shepard creation process.
"Hah. Sole Survivor. That's fitting. Let's make him a Colonist too. Facial features…I'm gonna try to replicate myself." A little while later, Jason Shepard was born.
White sat back in awe as he watched the back story open up and introduced him into the world of Mass Effect. He was thrilled by the alien concepts behind Nihlus. The Turian really looked awesome. "Now if only I could somehow meet one of those Turians…that'd be awesome," he murmured as he saw Nihlus get off at his drop point.
The game's controls were pretty easy to understand, and Daniel made sure to explore a little bit to make sure he knew how to control Shepard before he got into combat. Even if it was just in a virtual world, he was still looking forward to killing some baddies.
"Man, I can't wait to unleash hell with these tech powers. Never did get to be an engineer, but if this is any indicator, I'm gonna consider a role change when I get back." He moved his squad forward till he reached the fateful cutscene involving Corporal Jenkins's death.
"GODDAMMIT! I don't want to have to see another squad member die! I've had enough shit to deal with, I don't need another one!" Daniel roared, almost throwing his controller away, before hearing what Lt. Kaiden Alenko had to say about Jenkins's demise. Muttering to himself, White continued on, glad that he could take some measure of revenge for his squad member's death. A little while later, the geth recon drones in the area were nothing more than pieces of scrap strewn across the hillside. After the fighting was over, however, Daniel saved his game and shut the Xbox off.
"I think I've had enough for now. I'm sure I'll get back to it again soon."
He walked over to his laptop to browse the internet a little bit, looking up information on the game.
Present day…
Daniel finished his workout routine and went back to his Xbox. Firing up his laptop, he set his music to go full-bore again, this time Queen's "One Vision" came up first. Then came the Xbox. Daniel set about continuing his adventures through the game as Commander Jason Shepard. He had come a long way since he had not much else to do with his time. Already having beaten the first game, he was just about to embark upon Tali's loyalty mission. "Alright, baby, let's see if we can't prevent your exile…"
