A/N: I edited my first chapter a little. I hope it's now a bit better. Here you go, a second chapter!
After saying the ominous phrase I see what the others see. Massive squidlike ship at least 2km long comes from the sky and lands destroying everything in its landing area. Just as it's landing we see thousands of things falling from the sky . 7 of them land right next to us but before they manage to shoot My friend Laura uses her biotics to put them on stasis that allows us few seconds. We start running towards my house . Others run ahead and I start running the last just as the barrier breaks.
The geth came to so fast that we didn't manage to get to my house in time. Nana and others died instantly and I was saved by my high kinetic shields. Killing my friends was something I couldn't forgive them. I feel the rage boiling inside of me and then I see red.
Next thing I know I'm crying over Nana's body and 7 geth corpses lie in pieces all around. I then move the bodies of my friends to my house and tell what happened to my main maid ,the old woman. She calls someone with her omnitool as I say my last goodbye to my friends.
Then I turn around to inspect Geth corpses and see they have no Blue box meaning they either are software AI's ,meaning destroyed body doesn't kill them, or remotely controlled mechs or just highly advanced VI's .As I inspect the Geth I see weird ship almost landing to two different places. I don't know why or how I recognize it as SSV Normandy and how I know the people it dropped. But it makes me smile.
"It seems Shepard has arrived." I say before cocking my gun and then I make run to the camp.
I arrive at the camp just to see Shepard and co to arrive there. I'm above them so they can't see me.
Then I see what they see. The husks on the spikes start to move on attack. I check them to see no life signs so I make running jump and land in between Shepard and husks while yelling.
"It's time for payback you F**king synthetic bastards!" Then before any of the three humans I jumped over can even point their weapons at me I throw my shield at one husk slicing it in half and shoot the other and then when I'm about to kill the third its head explodes. I turn around to see Shepard pointing her gun at it.
"Thanks but I could have taken care of it." I say to her. Shepard just smiles and puts her pistol away as I do the same. "just doing my job. I'm commander Shepard of Alliance. These two are Lt. Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery chief Ashley Williams .Can you tell me what happened here and to you?" She asks while looking around.
I shake my head and answer her as truthfully as I can "I'm sorry commander but I don't know why but the geth suddenly attacked me and my friends just up there. They killed my friends before I could do a thing. Then I obliterated all seven of them." I say while ripping out remnants of my blood soaked shirt exposing my suit underneath (It's kind of black leather body suit with straps containing the kinetic shield emitters or whatever, looks like the one Miranda can get in ME2). Kaidan whistles and whispers "seven all alone? Damn impressive" Ashley looks like she's trying hard to remember something.
She then snaps her fingers." Aha! I knew I had seen ou before! You are Ana Hailey! The rich kid that lives up there and who Admiral Benneth visited quite often two months ago when that nearly broken shuttle arrived! " I nod at her. This gets a bit more lively respond from Shepard.
"Admiral Benneth? Why did he visit you?" She asks me sharply but I can see curiosity in her eyes. The sheer presence of her is enough to make me feel I can trust her and so I tell them.
"As Ashley said I woke up 2 months ago in that house without any past memories. According to admiral I have been part of some project for two years and I'm considered special agent with a rank of 2nd lieutenant. Apparently I had arrived on that shuttle two months back. I didn't believe what he said and insisted on living normal life as a physician, well as normal as rich kid can, but he just said that I'll change my mind and am considered to be on shore leave until then. I was apparently scheduled to have 2 month leave anyway ." I finish.
Shepard thinks it a little and then opens her mouth"hmmm interesting, you certainly have the skill set so being on special Alliance program is not that farfetched...Care to join us to get on bottom of this? I'm always welcoming helping hand." she says while offering her hand.
I take her hand and answer while grinning "Sure! If it means getting revenge I'm all for it. As long as I don't have to kill anyone." I say and we shake our hands.
"Why so? Aren't Geth AI's thus sapient?" Shepard asks me while we walk to the locked shed.
"You know the Physician's Oath? I have taken it, I also made quick scan on the Geth I destroyed in my rage, They have no blue box so they are either not really sentient AI's or they are purely software, so killing bodies would not matter. I'll stay on guard" I say and then I sit down outside the shed while Shepard says "We can talk about that later,mission first." and then goes inside to speak to the people there. A minute later she comes out.
"It seems they moved the beacon to the spaceport, like you suggested. You two take point and lead us there." She says pointing at me and Ash ,we acknowledge and then we start moving.
When we arrive at the small canyon before the farm and spaceport my head flares just as we hear distant gunshot. I see small vision where two turians meet ,speak something and then just as other turian turns his back on the other, the other points his gun at his head and then the vision stops. It took less than a second but felt like minutes.
"Ana? You alright?" Ashley asks me. Before I can answer her Kaidan sounds an alarm.
"Geth!" We quickly ready our weapons and sprint for cover as they open fire.
Shepard and I get behind same cover."I noticed your unique weapon. Care to show me how accurate you are with it?" She asks me but her tone suggest that she just ordered me to show what I can do.
"Will do ma'am" I say while popping out the scope. Then I take aim and shoot straight at the canister 50m away. Shepard whistles in appreciation and shoots one remaining geth to the head while Ash and Kaidan both get just two husks each.
"50m and you quickly manage to scope and hit cork of canister full of exploding materials sending 3 geth to their doom. Pretty good." Then she looks at me ,smirks and continues
"But that canister had probably been there long time ,you live here and it was stationary so that's not enough to demonstrate your skills as sniper but enough to convince me that you can use your head at least." Then she proceeds to the shed with Ash. Probably to speak with survivors there. I just stand up and look at her while proceeding to sit on the rock that we used as cover.
While she speaks with survivors I mutter aloud to the air. "well sorry for not being perfect " Kaidan who stayed near me just raises his eyebrow . I shrug my shoulders and start fiddling with my knives
Shepard finishes with the farmers and we proceed to the port where lies body of turian.
"Commander! It's Nihlus!" Kaidan informs as he runs to the body and checks it for life signs.
"He's dead, one shot up close behind him. Who could do that to the Spectre?" He continues. The Ash yells "Movement! Behind those crates!" Ash yells and we all ready our weapons to that direction.
After talking with the man I sound an alarm as I see geth coming from behind the corner. I block its shot with my shield and before I get to shoot it Kaidan lifts it up and Ash shoots it.
"conveniently coming right after I finished talking." Shepard says and moves to look over the edge. She quickly ducks as the geth below start shooting.
"eager buggers aren't they " Ash says after moving next to commander and sniping one of the geth trying to come up the ramp. I move next to Ash as Kaidan goes next to commander. I snipe one with my gun and reply. "Sure are." Then Kaidan destroys last one with Overload. We stand up and start walking weapons ready down the ramp.
I was honestly impressed by that overload so I decide to bug Kaidan about it. "Hey Lt? Mind showing me how to do that?" He just looks at me amused.
"Okay kiddo, Your omnitool has that attack already but I don't think yours would be very powerful unless it's military grade or better."then he shouts at Shepard" Hey Commander! Mind if we stay on back for while? The kid wants to learn overload." Shepard just shakes her head amused. "always eager to teach? Okay we'll go ahead with Ashley." then she continues down the ramp while talking to Ash about something that makes the other woman look at me funny.
"Let me have a look at your omnitool" I comply and give it to him. He takes and inspects it: " lets see...WOAH! You had newest Savant all this time? Damn you rich kids! Anyway I'll just do this and this and...there you go . Just use this program and point your target and there you go! But geez...you really surprised me with that kiddo! Your Overload will be almost twice as powerful as mine!" Then he gives it back to me and after hearing that from him I feel giddy all over. We then sprint to catch up with Shepard and Ashley. We catch them just as they engage Geth in the train.
"time to test this baby!" I say and ready the program, aim and off it goes and the geth destroyer goes BOOM!.
Immedietly after my overload gets it, a sniper shot hits its head. Ash almost got it.
She is not amused "damn you! I was just about to have it!" Ash says while glaring at me, "who gave you permission to learn new tricks kid?" I grin at her
In my glee I decide to bitch a little "If I remember right I outrank you Ash!" This gets laugh out of Shepard and Kaidan. Ash Doesn't like it.
"I wondered when the kid would remember that, at least she doesn't outrank me. Tough luck chief." Kaidan says while trying to calm down enough to overload the last geth
Shepard then cuts in "Now now lets focus on the mission now. Or have you forgotten that we have bunch of geth to kill, murderer of Spectre to catch and beacon to retrieve?" Shepard says in perfect poker face. Apparently she's better control over herself than Kaidan. Then she walks to the console and activates the cargo train. It nudges and starts moving towards the next station,the spaceport where the beacon should be.
When we get there we see few geth on walkway above and one right next to us arming a huge bomb. I shoot it before anyone else can even take their guns out.
"That looks pretty huge bomb, can any of you disable it?" I ask others. Shepard runs to it. "This isn't very hard to disarm. I think any of you could do it with the this program." Then she sends it to us all.
"If I saw right there was 3 other groups of geth, I guess they all are guarding bombs so better start moving, Hurry! Split up to disarm them!" She orders us. Kaidan, Ashley and she took off running up the ramp.
I get an idea and instead of running with them I turn around. Shepard notices this and yells "Where are you going-!" just when she is at the 'going' word ,I have taken running jump straight to the farthest corner from ramps point of view, 15 meters away from the place I took the jump and 5 meters above it. I barely make it.
"Bloody hell! That's one hell of a jump in this G!" Kaidan and Shepard yell at the same time. Ash just flashes a smile and takes her sniper out and shoots the geth that came to look what happened.
Thanks to that shot I manage to pull myself up. "Thanks Ash! " I thank her while taking out my gun and shooting remaining geth nearby. Then I sprint to the bomb.
"ugh...so I just open this program and..." I mutter to myself.
Then I hear sniper round hitting something behind me and turn around just in time to see dead geth falling right behind me. Ash waves at me from another side and raises up two fingers pointing how many times I owe her. The disarming finishes and I get up.
I check the perimeter to see all the geth destroyed. Kaidan walks up to me behind the container that's between me and the place Shepard went behind to. We stand next to my bomb waiting as Shepard briskly walks with Ash to place where we stayed waiting.
"nice jump Ana. You saved us some valuable time." Shepard compliments to me as she comes close. The she continues " Now that the bombs have been defused we should continue, spaceport is over this way right?" I nod and ask her while walking through the small alley.
There we encounter few husks that probably were spaceport officials. After getting down the ramp we see the beacon. There are few geth and husks left . As I was first I get few shots from the geth before I get my shield up and manage to drop one while others take care of the rest.
"wow that was second time today someone managed to hit my shields." I say while putting my gun to the holster and shield to its place on my back.
"lucky you" Ash says while looking at the beacon. Then she continues.
"hmm the beacon, someone must have activated it! It wasn't doing anything like that before!" She continues and I nod to confirm it as Shepard looks at me questionably.
Then Shepard contacts her ship and informs them about the beacon. I just sit down on a convenient crate nearby and look at what Ash and Kaidan are doing.
Shit apparently Kaidan got too close "Shepard! Kaidan is-!" I yell. Shepard turns around and jumps to take him out of the field. I watch in horror with others as the device pulls her to it and after few seconds it explodes and she falls to the ground.
"Shepard!" we all yell and run to her. Then Kaidan takes the lead. "Joker? Get ready for pickup! Something happened and Shepard got pulled to beacon and now she's unconscious! The beacon is goner but she needs medical attention!" I hear faintly something from Kaidan's radio.
"your pilot is joker? What kind of name is that?" Ash asks as he stops speaking to comm and looks at us.
"It's nickname. Anyway we should get ready to carry her to the Normandy. I'll-" I interrupt him by lifting Commander's body all by myself.
"I'll carry her. She doesn't weight that much" Kaidan gets angry and snaps at me.
"Hey that's not the way!" Then he shuts up as he notices how I'm carrying Shepard.
"Okay that's the way to carry someone in that condition but you should have let her be until team from normandy would have come to pick her up."
Oh? Does our little Lt have some feelings towards superior officer? Naughty boy- I think to myself while carrying unconscious Shepard to the amazing ship that almost landed almost next to us.
It impresses me enough to comment on it "Wow! That pilot of yours is amazing! So close! I bet no sane pilot would risk coming so close so fast! Remind me to offer my thanks for making this carrying job easier." I say to Kaidan.
He finally smirks "Yeah he's one crazy dude but he knows how to handle her. He was selected to be the pilot because he's simply the best alliance pilot there is. All the more impressive that he can't even walk well with those brittle bones of his." He says while greeting the team that comes to take Shepard to Med bay. I give her to them and then I follow Ash who's following Kaidan.
"Is it ok for us to be here? I mean I'm on vacation and Ash is part of Eden Prime garrison." I ask Kaidan but the man that he came to greet in the CiC ,huh? I wonder how I know this place, answers in his stead.
"I'm captain Anderson and I'm commanding officer of this ship that Shepard and Kaidan are part of. You're here because you know what happened there. I'm also taking you with me to the Citadel so you could tell what the hell happened down there." then he looks straight at me.
"Your dossier is surprisingly highly classified. Mind explaining that?" I salute him again and then start explaining the reason.
"I see. I'll contact Admiral Benneth and ask him then. But until we get to the Citadel, you should get some sleep girl. But before that I suggest you visit med bay and let take a look at you."
Then he orders Kaidan to take me to med bay. There I see Shepard lying and older looking woman above her doing some scans.
"Dr. Chakwas? I was told to come here to get examined." I say to her. "Ah yes, just wait a sec." she continues scanning and then quickly writes something down before turning on me.
"hmm...what is young girl like you carrying such an armament?" I sigh and tell her my story.
"hmm I see...well let me take a look" She does quick scan with her omnitool. Her eyes widen a little on the results.
"that's interesting...you certainly don't have bones made of bones. Also your whole body is only 8 years old...that's quite remarkable considering your apparent age. It seems the Admiral spoke the truth because your muscles are certainly enhanced to levels that would put krogan to shame." She says while smiling at that. Human girl beating krogan? Yeah right .
"other than those modifications you're as healthy as you can be. But losing your friends like that must have taken its toll on you so I suggest you take things off and get shower and dressed. Then come back here."
I do as she says and few minutes later I'm back at med bay.
"I hope Kaidan doesn't steal my things " I say at the doctor. She quickly looks at commander before replying to me
"Oh my! If you hadn't spoken I'd thought commander came down! But never mind that. Just go to sleep next to commander."
"is it okay to use med bay for-" I start and shut my mouth as I see her just waving her hand and walking to her desk. I shrug my shoulders and lie down.
In my dream I see a quarian running through some alley in the citadel. She seems exhausted and her suit is punctured by shot from her chasers. She shoots her shotgun at them and then she manages to get away from them. Then it goes blurry again. Next I see is Turian C-sec officer arguing with other clearly higher ranking officer. Then the scene shifts to Krogan threatening C-sec officers in C-sec until he walks towards me. Next I see all of them fighting together in some alley with Shepard, Kaidan and Ashley against three poorly armed persons. Apparently we had saved the quarian. Then the dream turns into nightmare as I sae Geth slaughtering my friends again and again until the dream ends with me being restrained .Then I hear one sentence being spoken by unknown but very familiar male voice.
"You must join and Help Commander Jane Shepard or -" Then the dream ends and I find myself being held in place by Ash and Kaidan. Commander Shepard was apparently awake and Captain had come to the med bay. I shake my head as it hurts like hell.
"Finally you're awake. Had Bad dream?" Chakwas asks me as I'm being restrained still.
I don't feel like getting the joke."I had a dream about something and then I saw...I saw my friends get butchered again and again and I couldn't do a thing..." Kaidan and Ash relinquish their hold at this point. Then Chakwas continues
"Hmm I thought so, you were crying for the last two hours but just after Captain finished with Commander you started to shake all over until you almost fell to the floor. I had these two come and restrain you so you'd not fall down. That's when you started struggling like a beast. I had to use mass effect field to restrain you even further. You're certainly stronger than human physique should allow."
"Sorry...In the end the dream changed so the geth restrained me so I tried to get free...I guess I have to apologize? I didn't harm you or anything?" I ask the duo.
They shake their heads and give me tired thumps up.
As if it couldn't get even more embarrassing Joker decides that would be best time to use the loudspeaker which makes me jump and fall to the floor, This gets laugh out of everyone present.
"uhm ladies? We're about to arrive at the Citadel. " This gets the people stop laughing and heading to the bridge.
As we walk out of the med bay Captain Anderson stops me.
"I spoke with Admiral. He gave OK for you to join this crew if you want but he said he wants to speak with you when we get to the citadel. He's waiting at Embassy lounge. I suggest you get your stuff and get there ASAP after we have spoken with ambassador." I acknowledge and am about to leave to the bridge when I hear him murmuring something like "giving N7 to girl like her? I hope this..." and I can't hear any more as I hurry to the bridge.
I arrive just as the ship is exiting FTL. The view is breathtakingly spectacular. The whole space around Citadel was a light and was almost screaming importance.