Chapter 2: The Asari

Shepard walked across the cafeteria, holding his lunch tray. He made his way down across the room to where his teammates were, at the far corner. The rest of the students knew that Shepard and his friends sat in the same exact spot every day. As he came to the table, his friends looked up from their meals and smiled at him, which he smiled in return.

"I'm so sick of this cafeteria food." Shepard said as he sat down next to Tali, who fidgeted a bit and glanced at him. Due to her helmet, Shepard could not tell she was blushing.

"Yeah, this stuff is worse than the food the army eats." Ashley replied, poking at her food, " I should know, my daddy let me try it once. I thought it was awful but eating this garbage I would gobble that stuff down."

"Well you could just give it to Wrex. He eats anything isn't that right?"Garrus snickered, turning to Wrex, who was eating worse than a pig. He wasn't even using utensils, just shoving the food into his mouth with his hands.

"You guys are whimps and whiners." Wrex said between mouthfuls, " Back on Tunchanka we are used to eating vermin! This stuff is rich people food compared to that!"

"I don't mind this food actually." Kaiden replied, "Although now I can't eat it cause watching Wrex eat makes me loses my appetite."

"Fine then wuss give me."Wrex said, grabbing Kaiden's tray and pulling it to him. He then starts devouring down Kaiden's meal, splattering some of the food onto Tali's helmet.

Tali sighed, grabbing a napkin and wiping away the slop, "Geez Wrex. I've seen vorcha who have better table manners better than you."

At that everyone at the table burst out in laughter, except for Wrex, who chose to ignore that statement and finish Kaiden's meal. Shepard just chuckled at Wrex, despite his intimidating appearance the krogan was a good sport and handled teasing real well, especially if food is distracting. Shepard's eyes suddenly caught sight of Anderson coming towards their table. He motioned for all the others and instantly the laughter stopped. Everyone at the table straightened up and even Wrex stopped eating quickly cleaned himself up just as Anderson stood before them.

"Hello Captain Anderson." Shepard greeted, saluting him. Noticing their Commander saluting, the rest of his friends did likewise.

Anderson smiled down at the kids, before saluting them as well, "At ease soldiers. Are you kids ready for another war game after lunch?"

"YES!" All of them said in unison, raising up from their seats and pumping their fists into the air.

"Excellent! Because I have a new team member for your crew." Anderson replied, stepping aside to reveal a little girl behind him.

Her skin was blue and by the looks of it her hair was actually tenactles. The girl had bright blue eyes, with cute black freckles underneath them all across the top of her cheeks. Shepard, being only twelve, had never given girls much of a thought. He was too busy with training and just enjoying hanging out with his team. Now however, he had to admit, this girl was very pretty. He didn't even notice Tali was glaring at him, before turning her cold gaze to the new girl.

"Oh...an asari." Wrex stated, instantly losing interest.

"And a cute one at that." Garrus added, winking at the girl, who blushed in response.

"Her name is Liara. Make her feel at home kids."Anderson said, patting the asari gently on the shoulder.

Shepard leaped down from his seat and stood in front of her, smiling. Liara shifted a bit away from him, a little shy. However, she returned the smile he gave with one of her own.

"Nice to meet you Liara. I'm Shepard." Shepard said, holding out his hand.

"Nice...Nice to meet you Shepard. I'm Liara."the asari answered, averting her eyes and smiling as she reached out and shook his hand.

Watching the exchange between Shepard and Liara, Ahsley leaned over to Tali and whispered, "Looks like you have some competition now."

At that, Tali turned to her and shot her a look, but said nothing.

"I'm very excited to see her skills on the battlefield today during the war game." Anderson said, "Show her the ropes everyone and since it's her first day. Make sure to watch her alright?"

"Will do sir." Shepard replied, nodding.

"Good. I'll see you all there then." Anderson said, turning away and walking out of the cafeteria.

After their lunch Shepard and the gang showed the asari around the school. At first she was shy and barely said a word to them. After awhile, she started warming up to everyone, even Wrex. She explained to them that she was a "pureblood" asari, which often lead to bullying and other problems in her life. So she was mostly a loner and wasn't use to people treating her with kindness. Shepard and the others asked her what a pureblood asari was exactly, but she didn't want to answer that question just yet, so they let the subject drop.

They soon arrived at the battlefield, quickly arming themselves and putting on their practice armor gear. Liara wasn't too comfortable holding a gun, even if it wasn't a real one. Not only that, the practice armor didn't fit her right, it was almost comically way too big for her. She was blushing furiously as everyone giggled at the way she looked.

"This is so embarrassing." Liara said, mumbling a bit to herself.

"Don't sweat it. It's only a practice battle. Just stay back and let us do our thing." Garrus said, trying to comfort her and trying to stifle his laughter.

"Besides, I'll make sure this battle is over quickly." Wrex said, crackling his finger and loading his paint gun.

"Just be sure this time you at least TRY to dodge the enemy fire." Tali replied, smirking. Wrex just grunted in response.

An whistle sounded throughout the battlefeild room, signaling that the war game was about to begin. Commander Shepard and his team quickly got into position, crouching behind rocks and trees. The doorway on the other side of the room opened, and out came about a dozen mechs into the room. Instantly Shepard knew something was wrong. He had seen real firearms before, the school has many soldiers around the premises, to protect the children of the school and also help dissolve conflicts between the different species in the school, be they student or teacher. Shepard noticed that these mechs were carrying the same guns as the soldiers did, and not their usual paintball guns. The mechs instantly starting firing upon the group. The bullets started shattering against the rocks and trees as the gang could do nothing but cower under cover.

"What in the world is going on!? Those are real bullets!"Kaiden shouted as he crouched behind a large boulder alongside Garrus.

"What in the world is Captain Anderson thinking! We aren't ready for this!" Tali said, terror in her voice.

"Even if we were. We can't fight back with nothing but stupid paintball guns!" Wrex growled, shooting at one of the mechs with his gun. The paintball splattered the mech on the head, which would have usually been an instant kill. However this time it had no effect. The mech just kept firing at them.

"You have a plan Commander?" Garrus yelled to Shepard, who was gazing around the battlefield.

"The mechs are starting to advance on us. We can't hope to beat them with these things." Shepard answered, tossing the useless gun to the side, "We need to find a way to escape this room. Captain Anderson will surely will stop the mechs in time."

"We can't just run from cover and make a break for it Shepard!" Ashley retorted, "Those mechs will cut us down before we take a step!"

"Tali. Do you think you can still hack one of them?"Shepard asked, which Tali started punching random codes into her omni-tool.

"These mechs are different from our usual ones."Tali answered, "Their hardware is a little more advanced. I may be able to hack one of them and unleash it on the rest, but it won't be for long."

" Do it then. Everyone, prepare to run like the wind!" Shepard said.

A few more punches into her omni-tool and Tali was successful in hacking one of the mechs. Instantly the mech turned on its comrades, firing into the nearest one and bringing it down. As the rest of the enemy mechs turned their attention to the hacked one, Shepard motioned for everyone to follow him as he made a dash across the battlefield. Everyone ran behind him, close on his heels, as they made a wide circle around the enemy. The exit was on the far left side of the room, unforunately, very close to where the enemy mechs were now.

The team was almost there when Liara, with her gear that was way too big for her, stumbled and fell to the ground. She was on the verge of tears and was shaking terribly she was so scared. This sure wasn't how she expected her first day here to go. Suddenly a huge arm wrapped around her waist and picked her up like she was nothing but a stuffed animal. She looked up to see Wrex carrying her, running as if she weighed nothing.

He looked down and flashed her a smile, "No one gets left behind. Not even a newbie like you."

Liara wiped her eyes and grinned up at the krogan, "Thank you."