Author's note: Basically English is not my native tongue, and I grew up with Chinese-cultural upbringing. Please forgive me for any typo or grammar errors. For further updates regarding my Mass Effect AU, please refer to my bio on the profile page.
PS: Chapter updated on June 20th, 2017 rewriting to add in more details regarding the original characters.
FYI: The name of Garrus' father was now officially known as Castis Vakarian as per launching of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Previously before, the name of Garrus' father was unknown, hence many fanfictions had different names created. I was told that those who play beta versions as the testers had known about the name, but officially then, there were no solid proofs until the finalised of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Original characters in this chapter: Ulnea, Niria Maxilinus, Madeline J. Williams, Robert Cortez, Alex Shepard, Molly Shepard and John "Jolly" Shepard
A disclaimer: All Mass Effect characters belong to Bioware. Only the original characters belong to me. The story is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual individuals or events is coincidental.
Mass Effect: One soul divided
by beautyding
Chapter 2: Unlikely Alliance
Admiral Hannah Shepard was back on Earth at the estate of her parents, a week after the official peace treaty meeting had been conducted. She was assigned to help the Williams in preparing for the ceremony, which will take place in ten days time. Sarah Williams; the youngest daughter of Madeline J. Williams, who was affectionately nicknamed "Sar" by Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams her eldest sister, was having dinner with the Shepards. She was staying with the parents of Hannah until she graduates from her high school, which will be official next month. Until then, she will join with the rest of the family members to reside at Cipritine the capital city of Palaven. Sarah was excited about the ceremony, which she will get to see other Species within the many galaxies by the Miky Way for the first time.
Sarah also wondered how her future brother-in-law will look like. She had heard only bad things about the Turians during the long five years of war, but the way her eldest sister had told her about Nihlus, was something that really did not reflect what she had seen from the media. And from the information shared by Hannah over dinner, Sarah was sure about one very important thing. Her eldest sister Ashley was happy and all smiling from the photos that Hannah had shared, which Sarah hasn't seen for a long time, ever since their grandfather agreed to the engagement between Ashley and Kaidan Alenko.
Sarah was still having dinner with the Shepards when someone walked into the dining room uninvited. Everyone was silent and stared at the intruder when Sarah realised who the person was.
"Mike? What the hell are you doing? Barging in like this?"
Mike the classmate of Sarah, folded his arms across his chest while he scanned the entire dining room. He kept his silence and tapped one of his foot on the floor while another person was seen walking in with the housekeeper.
"The governor of Amaterasu received news about your leaving and told your school about it. This kid called me and demanded that I tell him about your whereout. I refused and did not expect him to follow me all the way here and before I realised, he had already barged in."
Sarah shook her head at Mike as she began to stand up. She gave a nod of her head toward the person who was standing beside the housekeeper.
"Thanks, Thomas."
Thomas; a Second Lieutenant stationed on Demeter, simply just tipped his head and moved toward Hannah who had already stood up. Both of them greeted each other with a firm handshake, while Sarah motioned Mike to walk with her outside. Mike was still very quiet and this caused Sarah to feel very annoyed at the behaviour of her classmate.
"What is the matter with him?"
Sarah mused while she narrowed her jade green eyes at Mike who was still folding his arms across his chest when both of them walked out of the house. It was until after fifteen minutes later, a commotion startled everyone who was in the house. All of them rushed outside and caught a glimpse of Sarah who had slammed Mike, face-first into a tree in the front yard.
Thomas quickly rushed forward and broke the two apart, while Hannah held Sarah and dragged her into the house.
"What the heck just happened?"
Sarah who was still in an angry stir raised up both her fists.
"He purposed to me but I reject him."
Hannah raised a brow and looked at the young lady with a questioning look. Sarah noticed the looks, took a seat at one of the dining chairs while she continued to speak.
"I did not attack him for no reason, Hannah. He tried to force me to accept the proposal. I rejected him again but he refused to accept it. I was about to leave and he pushed me against the tree and tried to kiss me against my wish."
Hannah pondered for a while before she turned around and walked outside. A moment later, the parents of Hannah came back and spoke with the housekeeper, while Thomas was seen leaving the estate and escorted Mike out by the order of Hannah. Sarah was wondering what would happen next while she typed a short message to inform her mother about the incident.
It had been seven months and a week ago after the war between the Human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy had finally ended. For five long years, both sides had lost tremendously, in term of casualties, resources and finances. Even during the times of war, the universe itself was still facing troubles with galactic crimes such as piracy and slavery throughout the many galaxies within the Milky Way.
And before the official meeting was conducted between the Humans, the Turians, the Asari and the Salarians, in the presence of the Citadel Council; pertaining to the requisitions from the Human Systems Alliance, the ending of the war between the Human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy came in a surprise actually; when a remote Turian colony was under siege by the biggest Batarian Slavery Rings which had taken place four days before the cease fighting of war was called by both sides. Mostly non-clan civilians were living in this Turian based colony who were either poor, outcasts, prisoners or criminals escaping from the laws galactically or just from the laws of their homeworlds. A distress beacon was captured from both sides of the Human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy on that same fateful day.
Meanwhile, on the Turian based colony, a barefaced Turian woman was struggling to keep herself alive as she knows that she will soon die of her wounds as she had been shot multiple time while running from the Batarian Slavers who appeared in her home out of nowhere. Blue drops of blood were streaming down her arms soaked through the tunic she was wearing as she gasped in pain. Many Turian corpses of men and women stayed motionless laying on the ground beside her. She tried to stand up with no avail as strength was slowly slipping away from her wounded body and when she spotted some Batarian Slavers returning toward her direction, she quickly crawled inside the pile of dead bodies in order to hide away from the enemy.
The Turian woman waited until she was very sure that the surroundings were quiet, meaning that the Batarian Slavers had gone far away. She accessed her Omni-tool to open up the latest voice message she had received.
[Ulnea, please contact me! I beg of you! It had been five months after you had left me. Please contact me! We need to talk...Please, Ulnea...]
Ulnea was the name of the dying Turian woman. She felt herself crying as she regretted deeply for not contacting the man who had been texting or messaging her for the past five months. She accessed her Omni-tool to record her last words before it was too late for her. With gasping voice, Ulnea began to talk breathlessly.
"Lilihierax, my love. If you ever get to hear this message. Just know that I have loved you. I shouldn't have left you that night. And when I found out about the pregnancy many weeks after that, carrying your babies, our babies, I should have contacted you immediately. But I was too stubborn and angry at you for loving your job more than anything else. A thought came to my mind when I saw you had texted and messaged me, this thought makes me punish you for not replying your texts or messages. Forgive me, my love. You would have become a loving father. I know you would. Forgive me, my Lilihierax."
Ulnea closed her Omni-tool as she started to feel weaker by every second. She touched the bump on her belly as she felt the tiny movements within. Tears streamed from her eyes as she talked softly, hoping the two little lives could hear her. However, she was too weak by now and her words hardly came through as her mouth just moved with no sounds. She breathed her last breath and soon became motionless, just like the pile of dead bodies around her, as her body had turned stone cold.
By the time the Human Systems Alliance had picked up the distress beacon signal from the Turian based colony, The Turian Hierarchy, on the other hand, was already stranded with no backup who had arrived at the same colony six hours before the Humans did. There were too many Batarians here, Batarian Slavers as well as Batarian mercenaries who were fighting against the Turians. A Turian Spectre known as Nihlus Kryik who was leading a squad of six Turians with him, was at his wit's end when another Turian male, who bear the signet of the recon scout leader on one of his arms, who also wore blue colony markings on his face, had alerted the Turian Spectre through a private communication channel, informing about the sudden appearance of the frigate of the Human Systems Alliance which was moving fast behind Nihlus and his squad of six Turians.
"Great Spirits of Palaven! Nihlus, watch your six! There is a frigate of the Human Systems Alliance approaching at your location at a very fast speed! Probably the distress beacon from this colony has caught the attention."
Nihlus was stunned when a familiar voice rang through his Omni-tool without him accessing it.
"What? Garrus, is that you? Did you just hack into my Omni-tool? Where are you now?"
The Turian male recon scout leader known as Commander Garrus Vakarian hoisted his sniper out and took a look through the scope toward the direction of Nihlus.
"Yeah, I did hack it just now. By the way, I'm fifty feet away from you and your squad, on the right side. Taking cover behind a low wall now. Will get to you as fast as I could."
Nihlus looked over his shoulders while Garrus was moving in with stealth closer to his location. True enough a frigate bearing the seal of the Human Systems Alliance and with the name "Mindoir" was approaching at a fast speed from behind their location as what Garrus had told him. He could not believe this was happening now. First, they were stranded with Batarian slavers and Batarian mercenaries at their front. Now the Human Systems Alliance has appeared on their six! With no backup reinforcement at such moment, there was simply no way they could get out of this situation alive.
"Great Spirits of Palaven! If the Human Systems Alliance attacked us now, we will be dead for sure. But they will have to deal with the Batarians on their own as well."
With quick thinking, Nihlus composed himself and waited until Garrus had joined with him before he turned to face the Turian male recon scout leader.
"Garrus, are you able to hack into the communication channel of that frigate of the Human Systems Alliance? Just like what you had done earlier on my Omni-tool? I want to speak with whoever is commanding it! Perhaps we could get into some negotiations with them? "
Garrus shifted his position to move closer to Nihlus and the squad of six Turians while the said Turian Spectre was still speaking to him. Garrus gave Nihlus a smirking look before accessing his own Omni-tool with one of his hands, lifting it nearer to Nihlus while flickering his two-fingered talons to open up a hacked communication channel. And before Nihlus could access it and speak out, all eight of the Turians; both male and female, could hear loud and clear, in every single detail of all that was happening within the frigate of the Human Systems Alliance that bears the name of "Mindoir" as the hacked channel gave a short static sound before someone was speaking.
"Commander, the Mindoir has picked up a distress beacon. A colony was under siege by Batarian Slavery Rings! However, we are having a dilemma in this case. The colony is Turian based. I have gotten some status reports as well. It seems that the different squads of the Turian Hierarchy were stranded fighting against the Batarian slavers, Turian Pirates and both Batarians and Turians mercenaries at the same time. Do we proceed to rescue the Turian squads of the Turian Hierarchy or just watch them get slain before we deal with the Batarians?"
All eight of the Turians could not believe their ears. They were in complete silence until Garrus started to speak.
"Great Spirits of Palaven! Turian Pirates? Turian mercenaries? Where on Palaven did they come from?"
Every one of them simply tilted their heads in confusion before one of the females started to speak.
'I hope the Turian Mercenaries being said is not referring to me, my cousin and her cousin. And proceed to rescue us or just watch us dead? If I am the one asking, I would have asked for permission to shoot the war enemy dead period."
All of them nodded their heads in agreement while Nihlus pondered for a bit before he responded to the Turian female.
"I do not think the Turian Mercenaries are being referred to the three of you. The Human is talking about those who are attacking us. But I do agree with you Niria Maxilinus on one thing. I would have taken advantage of the situation to kill the war enemy myself."
However, Garrus has his own doubt about what they had heard and suggested to listen further and deciding their move later.
"Nihlus, It could be a trap. We should continue to listen in to their conversations. You can decide what to do next after that."
Nihlus gave Garrus a nod of his head while everyone tipped their respective heads in acknowledgement and continued to listen in through the hacked channel from the Omni-tool of Garrus.
Meanwhile, on board the Mindoir of the Human Systems Alliance's frigate, the voice of Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau rang through all the intercoms of the entire spaceship.
"Commander, the Mindoir has picked up a distress beacon. A colony was under siege by Batarian Slavery Rings! However, we are having a dilemma in this case. The colony is Turian based. I have gotten some status reports as well. It seems that the different squads of the Turian Hierarchy were stranded fighting against the Batarian slavers, Turian Pirates and both Batarians and Turians mercenaries at the same time. Do we proceed to rescue the Turian squads of the Turian Hierarchy or just watch them get slain before we deal with the Batarians?"
Admiral Hannah Shepard, an Alliance Marine of the Alliance Navy who was the first commanding officer of the Mindoir was already in the cockpit waiting for the ground teams to get into position.
By the time Commander Jane Shepard, an Alliance Marine of the Alliance Navy who was the second in command was fully suited up and armed with full armours and weapons, Lieutenant James Vega, an Alliance Marine of the Alliance Navy who was already prepared had run out of the main battery to the elevator.
While, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, an Alliance Marine of the Alliance Navy was waiting with Jane in the elevator when they reached the crew deck where the main battery was located.
Once James had entered, Ashley hit the close button while Jane hit the button for the hangar deck. All trios then started running at full speed to the hangar where the Alliance's shuttles were docked at once the door of the elevator had opened.
Hannah was busy monitoring the whole situation while Jane, Ashley and James were already buckled up with seat belts on, getting themselves in position inside the Alliance shuttle with the Alliance pilot of the Alliance Navy who was known as Lieutenant Steve Cortez. And once all four of the Alliance Marines were ready and have their respective helmets on, the voice of Jane rang through the intercom from the cockpit while she accessed the Omni-tool equipped with her right hand.
"Alpha team in position and ready for taking off! Permission to land planetside! Admiral!"
On the other side, Jack Shepard the Human female Biotic, together with Jacob Taylor another Alliance Marine and Zaeed Massani a Human male bounty hunter, were also suited up and armed with full armours and weapons. They were waiting patiently with another Alliance pilot Lieutenant Robert Cortez in the second shuttle and upon fully buckled up with the seat belts, the voice of Jack rang through the intercom from the cockpit as well while she accessed her own Omni-tool.
"Beta team in position and ready for taking off! Permission to land planetside as well! Admiral!"
However, before Hannah could access the intercom from the cockpit herself, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, an Alliance Marine of the Alliance Navy sped himself toward the cockpit and accessed the intercom instead of the Commanding Officer.
"In all due respect, Commander. Th..."
Frustrated with the insubordination shown by the Staff Lieutenant, Hannah quickly interrupted the young man who was being disrespectful to her before the said man was able to complete his words, by pulling Alenko away and pushing him into a nearby seat which she buckled up the seat belt to hold him there. Joker then messed up the control and Alenko was unable to unbuckle himself while Hannah accessed the intercom herself this time.
"Permissions granted! Both Alpha and Beta teams get ready to take off!"
A sudden roar of "Ooh-rah" rang out through the entire spaceship and both the Alliance shuttles at the same time. Alenko was shocked to hear even the Navigator Charles Pressly who was being biased to Aliens shouted the battle cry. He lifted up his head toward Hannah while still being stuck in a nearby seat, hoping to reason with the Admiral.
"Admi..."
However, before Alenko managed to form his words, Hannah just lifted her right hand up as a gesture to shut up the Staff Lieutenant. Alenko felt the way the Admiral had treated him was very humiliating and instead of speaking to the Staff Lieutenant, Hannah just took a short glance at Alenko before she turned her head to focus on the Flight Lieutenant. With a deep gasped sound of breath, Hannah commanded calmly but with seriousness in tone.
"Joker, I need you to keep the Mindoir in position for any Batarian hostiles' starships or gunships! Disabled the starships in case there are civilians on board! Shot down the gunships if they get too near to the Turian squads or us. But avoid all spacecraft that belongs to the Turian Hierarchy at all cost when they showed up! Even if the Turians started to shoot at us! Just hold fire and avoid at all cost!"
The helmsman of the spaceship nodded his head and busy flickering his hands on the pilot consoles while responding promptly to the command of Admiral Hannah Shepard.
"Aye aye, ma'am! You can count on me to play hide and seek! As in hiding from the Turians while seeking the Batarians!"
Alenko gave out a short snorting sound while rolling his eyes on the bad joke of Joker, while Hannah accessed the intercom from the cockpit again. With her usual calmness, Hannah gave out the last command.
"Attention to all ground teams! Hold your fire at the Turian squads of the Turian Hierarchy at all cost! Cover their six if possible! And keep all Batarian hostiles handicapped! I repeat! Keep all Batarian hostiles handicapped!"
The voices of the ground teams soon rang through the intercom of the cockpit loud and clear.
"Aye, aye ma'am!"
Standing still with her arms folding behind her back, Hannah reminded herself what Mindoir used to be. It was a Human farming colony then, in the Attican Traverse. A place where it could be home to many other Humans as it had been a home for the past twelve years with her, her husband, her own biological son and daughter, and Jane and Jack who were her adopted daughters. However, the colony was raided and destroyed by the Batarian Slavery Rings six years ago. This colony "Mindoir" was forever gone and lost. But now, this new "Mindoir", the frigate of the Human Systems Alliance, is their new hope and something to live on. If not for this war between the Human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy, Mindoir should be demanding her revenge by now. This is the moment not to be missed.
Spectre Nihlus Kryik could not believe what he had heard over the hacked channel from the Omni-tool of Commander Garrus Vakarian. He looked at the other seven Turians who were reacting in the same manner as he. Nihlus nodded his head at them and with an understanding without any spoken words, all eight of them, turned their back against the unlikely alliance. Garrus decided that there was no point trying to spy against the Human Systems Alliance, so he flickered his talons over the interface panel and turned off the hacked channel from his Omni-tool before hoisting out his sniper rifle and getting ready for the next battle ahead of him.
All of the eight Turians proceed with caution moving forward until a gunship of the Batarian Slavery Rings had spotted their positions. As if on cue, the said gunship exploded immediately when the frigate from the Human Systems Alliance, which bears the name of Mindoir, appeared out of nowhere and started to shoot continuously at it. The result was awesome and kind of breathtaking under the dark night sky of the Turian Colony as the explosions luminance in all directions across the entire sky above the areas.
From a far distance, two shuttles disembarked from the frigate of the Human Systems Alliance, one after another respectively, and landed in an orderly manner behind the Turian squad of the Turian Hierarchy. Three humanoid armoured figures, two smaller in size while the other was bigger, could be seen stepping out of one of the shuttles and immediately getting into a battle mode formation, started shooting at the Batarian slavers and Batarian mercenaries respectively while the first shuttle took off and returned to the frigate which it came from.
All shots were aimed at the shoulders instead of killing the Batarians. One by one each of the Batarian slaver and each of the Batarian mercenary were down on the ground with their weapons dropped beside them. Although every Batarians were groaning in pains from their injuries, however, the wounds were not too deadly to cause any death. Some of those who were very stubborn tried to stand up but the pains were too unbearable and they soon gave up and laid motionless on the ground.
"Impressive! These Humans sure know how to make some entrance!"
Garrus mused out loud enough to be overheard by the rest of the seven Turians who were nodding their heads in agreement with him. He was still obliviously unaware when Nihlus looked over his shoulders and nodded his head at the Humans trios who were moving slowly toward their location, while other trios of humanoid armoured figures, two of them slightly smaller than the big Human from the other team, and one of them appeared to be the smallest among the six Humans, started to get into the same battle mode formation. Their tactics were somehow different which the smallest Human throwing biotics first pulling all heavy armoured Batarians up while the other teammates started to throw an overload to weaken the armours while one of them started shooting at the shoulders of every Batarians floating in the air. The second shuttle did not return back to the frigate which it came from but was using it tracker beam to hold those floating in the air and lowered them slowly with care until they lay motionless on the ground.
Every Turians were stunned at the sight and wondered what will happen if these Humans were to use the same tactics on them. Will they be able to fight back? Well, they never had the chance since they know they could trust these Humans even when their backs were turned away. Nihlus gave the two Human teams a thumb up in the version of Turian standard way.
Commander Jane Shepard took the gesture from Spectre Nihlus Kryik as a way of showing trust to them. She lifted up one of her hands and gave her Alpha team a signal to move to the left while still watching the six of the eight Turians who were moving to a new location. At the same time, the Beta team led by Jack Shepard the Human female Biotic was on the move toward the right.
Both the Alpha and Beta teams were ready in positions waiting for further instructions from either Jane or Nihlus when suddenly each of their Omni-tools started to give a ping alert. A sexy dual vocal rang out at each of their earpieces, and Jane could not keep her focus straight as she was attracted by the sexiness of how the voice sounded.
"Hi, I'm establishing an upgraded private channel to our Omni-tools and yours as well. Easy to communicate this way. Don't worry, I will remove that when all this is over. How do we address you?"
Everyone who was in both the Alpha and Beta teams turned their heads in the direction of their Commanding Officer, waiting patiently for her to either gave them a command or responding to the Turians. Garrus who was being observant immediately took notice of the reaction and determined one of the small Humans could be the Commanding Officer. He was quite charmed by the voice of Jane when she begins to speak through the private channel.
"The left-sided team is known as Alpha while the right-sided team is known as Beta. How about yours, sir? How do we address you?"
Of course, Garrus wasn't stupid to realise the small Human was trying to hide their real identity, so he came up with a code name as well for their Turian squad. Garrus pondered for a while and came up with one which he had read about on one of the Human Spaceports which they had taken control off. He was based there for two months to help with the translation projects.
"Archangel. You can call us Archangel!"
After Garrus had told about the code name and before anyone else could respond, Jack who was watching on a small device in one of her hands started to take notice of something. She then sent an image of what she had found to all of the Humans except Jane and Jack chuckled out loudly in a bantering manner while throwing a grinning glance toward the direction of Jane at the same time.
"Hey Alpha queen! Didn't know your Turian boyfriend has a code name too?"
This caused all of the eight Turians to tilt their heads in a confusing manner while Garrus started to question Jack.
"Boyfriend? What is that?"
Whereas the rest of the Humans who had received the image on their Omni-tools, started to snicker out loudly and turned their heads toward Jack and gave her an approving thumbs up for the banter. So far only Jack and Ashley had the guts to tease the Commanding Officer since they are very close, with Jack is the adoptive sister where Ashley being their best friend since childhood.
Commander Jane Shepard immediately shot a death glance toward Jack and begins to speak in an intimidating manner, while folded her arms across her chest.
"Shut up you Beta lass or I will have to kick your ass! The same goes for the rest of you as well! Do I make myself clear?"
Immediately everyone was extremely quiet including Jack, who quickly behaved herself while Garrus felt his forehead started to give out cold sweats, He decided he would not piss off the so call Alpha queen.
Meanwhile, the Mindoir was still positioning itself, observing the movement below. With the extra help gotten from the Alpha and Beta teams, the Turian squad of eight was able to infiltrate all Batarian hostiles. A total of eight Batarian based frigates was stranded in the docking bay with the help from Joker who was the helmsman on the Mindoir when the Mindoir had spotted them.
Lieutenant Robert Cortez, on the other hand, had flown the shuttle of Beta team back on board the Mindoir for refuel while his husband, Lieutenant Steve Cortez flies the shuttle of Alpha team to help Jack, Jacob and Zaeed.
The focus of Garrus was now totally on the small Human who was leading the Alpha team. The familiar way how the so-called Alpha queen had moved was great sights to the crystal blue eyes of Garrus. Only until the Human Alpha team was nearer in his view, he then realised from the design of the armour the Humans in this said team were wearing, they had actually crossed paths many times during the past five years. Garrus gave out a small rumble as he keeps the focus on the Alpha Queen.
The same sky blue armour with white strips along the shoulders plating. The same white "N" and the same red "7" logo. The same sky blue helmet with the dark shade screen hiding the face. This was the same small Human who had been shooting his shield down whenever the younger Garrus then was carelessly moving to take cover between two spots.
Instead of taking the advantage to headshot him once and for all, in the opinion of Garrus, this was what he will do if the situation was reversed. Yet the small Human had chosen to take down the shield of Garrus instead of a direct headshot. Moreover, due to this, Garrus had learnt to up his skills in combat defences whenever the two met on the battlefields. And at this particular moment, he started to feel his whole body burning with untold sensations by just simply eyeing at the small Human in sky blue armour.
On the other hand, upon moving closer to the Turian Archangel squad, Jane realised from the designs of the Turian armours wore by some of the eight Turians, a particular Turian caught her full attention. The same tinted blue with black cover most parts of the shoulders plating. The Turian who wore blue markings on his face was exactly the same Turian whom she had crossed paths many times during the past five years. This was the first time, Jane managed to view the full facial features of the said Turian in tinted blue armour as he wasn't wearing his usual tinted blue helmet.
As a Human being, Jane was surprised that she actually felt that this said Turian in tinted blue armour was quite a sight in her two dark brown eyes. She also felt herself blushing, as she was remembering that one time when Jack playfully started to nickname this said Turian as the "Turian boyfriend of Commander Jane Shepard" out of a banter over their group dinner at the mess hall once. Even her own adoptive mother Hannah joined in, hoping to see this so-called "Turian son-in-law" in the future. Everyone in the mess hall started to laugh and joined in with the banter except Alenko who shown disgust in his face the entire time and ate his dinner silently.
During those five years, Jane had many chances to headshot this same Turian who had cross pathed with her almost on every single mission, she had led before, but she had chosen to take down his shield instead. All of this was because this Turian male reminded her of herself when she was having sniper target practices with her adoptive siblings on the small Human farming Colony Mindoir.
Flashbacks of those memories flooded the thoughts of Jane bit by bit. Her adoptive father was Alex Shepard; an ex-Alliance Marine who was one of the best snipers in his years among the Humans. Alex Shepard, who was the husband of Hannah taught his own biological children, including Jane her adopted daughter how to use a sniper rifle although the young Jane Shepard showed no interest in it.
"Come on, my little Jane. Just for this one time. You need to learn how to arm and defend yourself properly in the face of danger..."
Alex said while trying to persuade his adopted daughter.
"What kind of danger, daddy?"
The young Jane asked while she tilted her little head toward her adoptive father.
Alex pondered for a while before he gave his little girl the various kinds of danger such as being surrounded by wild animals herself or saving others from those ferocious beasts.
"In instant danger, for example, you can't build a trap as it would be too late. You will need to shoot at wild ferocious animals with a shotgun if they are attacking at close range distance. The sniper rifle will be for a long range distance if the wild ferocious animals are further away while coming toward you or surrounding another person at a distance further from you. This allows you more time to kill or escape or save another person or people, better than in close range. So what does my little one say about that?"
The young Jane began to think seriously of what her adoptive father had explained to her little brain. Suddenly, with an idea, she replied with a happy grin.
"Only if I get to build my own sniper rifle. The one same as yours, daddy."
Alex raised his brows with a questioning look on his face while he lifted up little Jane in both his arms.
"That would be quite a challenge don't you think so, my little Jane? I wondered what would mommy say about that?"
"Probably, wait until you are older and stronger to hoist a sniper."
A young female chuckled as she slowly approached Jane and Alex.
"You are right about that, my dear Molly."
Alex responded while he noticed his eldest daughter has joined them.
"So can I get to build my own sniper when I am older and strong enough?"
Jane asked while still in the arms of Alex her adoptive father.
Molly Shepard reached out her arms to take Jane her adopted sister from her father and she hugged little Jane closely.
"Not until you help me to build one, my little sister."
With a nod of her little head, both sisters chuckled while Molly took Jane to teach her the basic knowledge of the sniper rifle in theory.
Years later, it was a sunny day on the ranch somewhere on Mindoir. Voices of shouting and waves of laughter could be heard throughout the entire ranch. A small cottage was situated in a middle of a small valley. Various types of vegetation were planted on the back of the small cottage, while the various types of domestic animals were reared at the front. To the left was a vast field that has a large green pasture while a herd of cattle and a herd of sheep were lazily grazing. On the right of the small cottage was some sort of a target practice area.
"Molly! That really hurt a lot!"
Over and over again, young Jane Shepard screamed when her shield had been taken down by her eldest adoptive sister who had known as Molly Shepard.
"Jolly! Not you too! Alright, I gave up!"
Jane surrendered and raised up both her hands in defeat when her older adoptive brother who had known as John "Jolly" Shepard joined in to take down the shield of his adoptive younger sister.
"What? Our Janey dearest quitting? How unreal?"
John smirked while he kept himself well hidden behind a low wall and continued to shot at the young Jane even after she has surrendered.
"Ah John, don't be so mean to our baby sister. And that is a cheat move there! You sneaky boy! This should be my shot!"
Molly chuckled while taking down the shield of young Jane for the twentieth times. While a skinny and younger version of Jack, who had been adopted together as well as the young Jane was laughing loudly sitting on the bench with their best friend Emily Wong. No matter how much food Alex and Hannah had tried to feed their youngest adopted daughter Jack, she is always skinny probably one of the side effects of what had been done to her. And since Jack is a Biotic, besides a certain type of special weapon, none would be of use as they will hinder the biotic powers of Jack.
"Yeah, go get her guys! Show her who is the boss!"
Emily Wong, on the other hand, was busy filming everything on her surveillance drone which was a birthday gift built by Jane on her sixth birthday. She chuckled in glee with every captured moment.
"Hey, guys! I had everything captured on my surveillance drone."
A young Ashley Williams, who had been living with the Shepard for quite sometimes was hiding behind a tree, poking her head out and grinned while shooting at young Jane as well. This soon turned into a game of three against one and before young Jane could retaliate her adoptive father Alex Shepard stood at the door through the cabin that was connected to the small cottage, was shouting out loud.
"Hey, Kids! Dinner is ready! The last one to the table does the cleaning!"
With this, all six happy children were running against each other toward the cabin. And not wanting to be the last, all of the children were running against each other, thinking of different ways to slow each other down while the adults that consisted of Alex Shepard, Hannah Shepard and Madeline J. Williams was already seated at the dinner table.
Both Molly Shepard and John "Jolly" Shepard was always taking care of their adoptive sisters. The young Jane Shepard and the youngest Jack Shepard really loved them all, including those who were close to them. The deaths of those loved ones were the hardest for both of them when Mindoir was raided. Everyone was dead except their best friend Emily Wong, who was the only sole survivor the Human Systems Alliance had found. No rescue team was formed as it appeared that everyone was dead. Ever since then, Emily Wong no longer was the same again.
Jane sometimes always wondered what if, if Jack, Ashley, she and her adoptive mother Hannah were still on Mindoir on that fateful day as well, and not away to visit the parents of Hannah Shepard who lives on Earth instead. What will happen then? Will they be dead too? Then, that would have left Emily all by herself. At least they were still with Emily now and this was what it really matters. Jane thought.
Returning to the current matter at hand from her flashback memories, Jane was surprised that the Turian in tinted blue armour was staring at her. Probably noticing that she was the same Human who had been taking down his shields for the last five years? She pretended that she did not take notice of the stares from the Turian who wore blue markings on his facial feature and slowly shifted herself and stood behind James who was busy checking out the areas with his Omni-tool.
Ashley who took notice of the sudden movement from Jane was curious why would she stood behind James entirely hidden by the large body size of the man. She was about to ask Jane when she realised a Turian in tinted blue armour was changing his position as well so that he could see where Jane had gone to. And when Jane shifted herself behind her instead to hide from the said Turian, Ashley turned around to face her Commander and raised one of her hands to tap one of the shoulders of Jane.
"Trying to play hide and seek with your Turian boyfriend?"
Jane almost got a fright while James, who had overheard Ashley turned his head to look around them. He noticed that one of the eight Turians was looking at his direction and when he make an eye contact with the said Turian, the guy nervously turned his head away. James chuckled lightly while joining in to tease his Commander.
"Caught your boyfriend staring... He sure is shy, isn't he?"
Jane gave the two an roll of her eyes while folded her arms across her chest, However, another voice caught their attention, when the Turian with a red skin suddenly began to speak.
"What is this Turian boyfriend you two are talking about? Is it A kind of food?"
Ashley gasped in surprised while Jane and James were both stunned. Nihlus who was the said Turian that asked was still waiting for an answer tipped his head slightly.
"I'm sorry for alarming the three of you. Didn't mean to eavesdrop but Turian has extremely good eyesight and supreme hearings."
Jane suddenly felt flushed as she feels her cheeks getting hot. Ashley was feeling the same when she heard the voice of Nihlus and both women were too stunned to say a word. James was thinking of a way to solve this embarrassing moment when suddenly, they heard someone mused out loud.
"Goddammit!"
Everyone ran toward the direction and found Jacob was standing still looking at something. While the rest of them were getting closer to Jacob, all of them found themselves entering into the main wards towards the docking bay and what they saw along the way was extremely cruel and gruesome. With the grasped breath, all rang in unison, with either "Great Spirits of Palaven!" or "Goddammit!" respectively at the devastated sights.
Many of the Turian colonists, mostly adults, were murdered in cold blood. Blues were stained everywhere. Among the bushes and plants, or on the tree barks. On the benches in the parks, or on every table and chair from various shops or restaurants. On the walls, or on the railings of every level.
Everywhere they turned to look, they saw corpses were hanging loosely, with traces of blue dripping down to form puddles below onto the grounds or floors. Men and women were slain along the roads, pathways, down the streets and on the stairs. Many corpses were floating in fountains staining the once crystal clear water with blues.
The only thing which was missing; the Turian children were nowhere in sight.
"The children? Where are the children?"
Ashley broke the silence while the rest were still too stunned by what they saw.
"Probably in the Batarian frigates? Or inside those buildings?"
Nihlus tilted his head wearily and replied in such manner as he wasn't so sure either.
"This is going to be tough."
Jane mused out loud before accessing her Omni-tool and composed herself in the usual commander manner.
"Alpha team to Mindoir! Do you copy?"
"Mindoir to Alpha team! We hear you loud and clear!"
The voice of Joker sounded from the Omni-tool of Jane promptly while she came to a few steps closer to the two Human teams and the Turian squad.
"We have a situation here! Mostly found dead colonists adults, men and women so far, but no sights of their young ones. Will proceed to check the Frigates out with Beta team and the Turian Archangel squad, but we need more ground teams on foot to comb and scout the areas, probably inside the buildings."
Jane gave a full report in detail to Joker while she scanned the whole area with her Omni-tool to search for something. She found their spying drones which were well hidden and took a scan before sending all data to the Mindoir as Joker began to respond.
"More ground teams already dispatched! The Admiral herself is leading them toward your location coordinates! She also suggested for a regroup, at least getting one of the Turians in each new team to calm the Turian children if you manage to find them inside the frigates. Don't want to frighten those lovely kids with your extra fingers, would you, Commander?"
Jane has been shaking her head wondering how could Joker always joked even in times like this when she felt a warm heat suddenly.
"How about those teams leading by your Admiral? Do you need one of us Turians there as well?"
Garrus spoke over the Omni-tool of Jane, towering over her as he moved nearer. The close distance between these two suddenly felt very awkward for Jane as she felt her personal space being invaded. She could feel the body heat of the said Turian in tinted blue armour. Even in full body armours without being touched, the warmness was actually quite close. Luckily for Jane, with her sky blue helmet on, no one was able to see her facial expressions. And Garrus was simply obliviously unaware of what he had caused.
"Not at the moment. The Admiral said they will comb and scout first without approaching the kids if they manage to locate them unless one of your people is with them. Main priority now is with the eight Batarian frigates. There are still some Batarians abroad these frigates who need to be handicapped."
Joker further explained to Garrus while Jane was shifting herself slightly away from the said Turian and with the words of Joker in mind, the Turian Archangel team splits up into various new teams. With three Turians each forming two new teams as Charlie team led by James and Delta team led by Jacob respectively, where Garrus joined the Alpha team led by Jane, and Nihlus joined the Beta team led by Jack. Slowly they approached the eight Batarian frigates which were still stranded, each team has taken to search two frigates respectively before Jane signal the Alliance pilot Lieutenant Steve Cortez to return back to the Mindoir.
Inside one of the eight Batarian frigates, Jane, Ashley and Garrus were slowly approaching the Engineering deck after Joker had opened the cargo bay door through his hacking skills. They did not find anyone in the cargo bay so Jane decided to walk up on foot instead of using the elevator. Ashley was scanning each area for any life readings while Garrus was watching the back of the two small Humans.
Before the two female managed to get to the main deck of Engineering, Garrus prompted the two to stop while he listened with cautions. He moved closer to Jane and lifted two of his talons up while pointing one talon toward a large crate with his other hand. Jane took the hints and tapped the shoulder of Ashley slightly and gesture a signal of hostiles spotted in her usual manner. Ashley nodded her head slightly and accessed her Omni-tool to bring up a holographic screen which was showing two Batarian engineers were hiding at the said large crate with their shotguns ready.
Garrus tilted his head and pointed at the screen while Jane revealed her own invisible spying drone as she called it back to her through her own Omni-tool which Garrus was very impressed with. However, Garrus was still confused on how the Humans managed to have such advanced technology to get the spying drones becoming invisible. As if on cue, Jane passed Garrus a device which she has duplicated using the old method of three-dimensional printing of the twentieth century.
Garrus examine the device closely in his hands and took notice that it has something similar to Geth based technology, but this one was modified to be operated by Humans.
"impressive!"
Garrus mused inwardly while Jane gestured him to take his position and pointed her own two shoulders. Garrus shook his head and slanted it slightly when Jane decided to let Garrus just watch her and Ashley doing the job. Garrus took the hint this time and watch the two female closely while Jane was moving to take cover from the right and Ashley moving to take cover from the left.
After the two female was well hidden with a better aiming at the two Batarian Engineers, each of them took a shot at the shoulder of the Batarian that was holding the shotgun and repeated to shot the other shoulder of the Batarians after their sniper rifles were good and ready to take another shot.
"Impressive!"
Garrus has spoken out this time as the two Batarians were down on the ground groaning in pain. And because of the wounds were affecting the movements of the hands as well. All three of them did not worry at all that these two could manage to access the Omni-tool to inform the rest of the Batarians on board this frigate or all of the other seven frigates.
After that leaving the two Batarians laying on the ground, Garrus hacked the elevator in such way that only himself can access it. Jane gave Garrus a pat on the armoured shoulder as a way of saying she was impressed but Garrus shook his head and told her she should not do that as it a way to either challenge a Turian or showing dominance over the other.
Ashley chuckled slightly and teased Jane who was feeling herself flushing with embarrassment. While Garrus simply moved the hand of Jane on his armoured arms.
"The arms are what you should touch instead."
Jane nodded her head as she blushed and she thanks her sky blue helmet inwardly for letting her face well hidden. At least away from the Turian in tinted blue armour. She gave a signal to move out and the three of them entered the elevator with caution.
Finally, all of them were able to take down the remaining Batarians who weren't much of a fighter. However, they did not find any of the Turians children in all eight of the Batarians' frigates. Where could they be?
After all of the four teams, Alpha, Beta, Charlie and Delta, had covered all eight frigates and took down the remaining Batarian hostiles; Commander Jane Shepard decided to report status back to the Mindoir once they have gotten outside and were standing at the docking bay.
Accessing her Omni-tool Jane begins to speak while the rest found a place to sit and waited.
"Alpha team to Mindoir! Do you copy?"
"Mindoir to Alpha! Hear you loud and clear!"
Joker being the helmsman of the Mindoir responded promptly.
"We had all the eight Batarian based frigates covered! Every Batarian hostiles were handicapped! But still no sight of the Turians young ones!"
Jane proclaimed.
"Copy that! Forwarding information to the Admiral "
Joker replied back while he forwards the information to Admiral Hannah Shepard.
"What is the status of the Admiral ground teams?"
Jane asked this time while placing a hand on her own waist and straighten one of her knees.
"Admiral ground teams are still proceeding on foot. They have so far forty per cent of areas combed and scouted!"
Came the reply of Joker while he continued to access the pilot consoles.
"What about the Batarians hostiles we had taken down?"
Jane questioned this time while she changed her posture to fold her arms across her chest.
"They were escorted to a hospital found at one of the main wards. So far Major Doctor Karin Chakwas and her whole medical team had all the wounded Batarians under sedation. Sending the hospital location coordinates to your Omni-tool now as we speak. No sights of the Turians children yet! Could we confirm with the Archangel, is there actually any Turians children here in the first place?"
After Joker had given the rest of the reports to his Commanding Officer, a moment later, the Omni-tool of Jane received a ping alert indicating the hospital location coordinates were been sent to her.
With the concerns of the well being of every Turians child in mind, Jane walked to where the rest were seated and turned herself to face the Turians regarding the issues at hand.
"Is there any way for you to assist us to confirm this? Anything possible?"
However, the Turian Spectre just shrugged and spread both his arms apart while he shook his head. The rest of the six Turians mirrored the gesture of Nihlus except Garrus, who was turning his head left and right as if he was searching for something. When he found what he was looking for, Garrus then moved nearer to where Jane was standing and pointed one of his talons toward one of the broken security cameras at the docking bay.
"I could check out these security cameras around here. But it will take sometimes since all were destroyed probably by the Batarian slavers or Batarian mercenaries."
To the surprise of Jane, instead of feeling uneasy in closed distance to the Turian in tinted blue armour, she actually felt herself relaxing by the warmness generating from Garrus who was obliviously unaware again of how the small Human in sky blue armour was feeling while Jane nodded her head as a gesture to give permission to him before she started to face Nihlus this time.
"Could you help us to escort the rest of the Batarian hostiles to one of the hospitals' wards?"
However, instead of responding to Jane, Nihlus just crossed his arms over his chest and kept his silence for a very long time. Jane was wondering what went wrong as she waited patiently for an answer until Nihlus started to stand up and come closer to Jane, towering over her as he began to straighten himself. With his mandibles twitching swiftly in frustration, showing all his sharp teeth to Jane at the same time and finally with anger in his voice, the Turian Spectre grumbled in annoyance.
"I had already agreed to just shoot at their shoulders! Would have killed them right away after what they had done to my people! Aren't you asking too much now? Human!"
Before anyone could react fast enough, Ashley had already moved in the direction of Jane and pulled Jane behind her while she stepped into the small space between Jane and Nihlus. She started to reach out both her arms and pushed the Turian Spectre hard on both his shoulders. This caused Nihlus to stumble a few steps back away from the two small Human while Garrus appeared suddenly behind Nihlus. Luckily for the Turian Spectre, by the time Ashley stood between Jane and him, Garrus was already standing behind him at the same time to prevent Nihlus from falling.
Ashley further crossed her arms over her chest and stepped up closer into the personal space of Nihlus who was still stunned by what had happened. She lifted up her pink helmet head and looked into the crystal jungle green eyes of the Turian Spectre with spitting fire in her own jade green eyes. Although Ashley was wearing a helmet, Nihlus managed to look through and looked into the jade green eyes of her as the two of them were very close in distance now. Somehow the Turian Spectre found his heartbeat rising while Ashley began to shout at him.
"Watch it Turian! I know how you feel. My people suffered the same thing too! We lost our colony Mindoir! Friends and family who were close to us! There is much bigger problem needed to be done right now! Think of the children first and vengeance later! Either you help us or do I need to just kick your ass?"
Nihlus was about to retaliate back at what Ashley had done to him as he doesn't like to be shouted, but Jane had already grabbed Ashley away to aside and pulling her close into a tight embrace. With comforting words, the Commander started to soothe her best friend in a loving manner.
"Hey girl, we will find them. Our colony Mindoir is lost and gone but we ain't giving up with this colony. I need you to stay focus and be with me. Don't let the anger bitch bite you."
Jack joined in and hugged both of her arms around Jane and Ashley with a mischievous look on her face and gave the two a wink of the eye.
"Yeah! We will fucking find them! Turians or not doesn't matter. We need to find them fucking children!"
"Hey, Beta lass! Watch the language!"
Ashley deadpanned while lightly smacking on one of the palms of Jack.
"Okay, mum!"
Jack joked with a silly smile.
For a while, everyone just watched the three Human women without saying a word, while Commander Garrus Vakarian was still holding onto Spectre Nihlus Kryik. Not one of them moved or dare to speak until the Turian Spectre took a deep breath and sighed. He pulled himself away from Garrus who was slightly bigger than him in turn of muscles since the younger Turians always sparred whenever he was feeling stressed. Nihlus found himself regretting his own action for the first time and he could not look away at the small Human in pink armour. The jade green eyes he saw from Ashley keep flooding his mind.
"I apologise for my actions just now. Will proceed to escort the Batarian hostiles to the location of the hospital wards your helmsman has provided."
With a nod of her head, Jane signal Jack to let go of her and Ashley before she moved over and stretched her hand out toward Nihlus.
"Your apology is accepted, shall we just shake hand and let bygones be bygones?"
Nihlus tilted his head in confusion as he did not understand what Jane was doing.
"Shake hand?"
Jane nodded her head again with her hand still stretching out toward Nihlus.
"Yeah, just grab my hand and we shake it. That is what we humans do as a form of greetings or in a situation like this."
Nihlus nodded his head and then grabbed the hand of Jane and shook it firmly while being guided by Jane at the same time.
"That I can do."
The Turian Spectre then moved toward the direction where Ashley was standing. He hesitated for a while as Ashley was eyeing at him curiously. Nihlus braved himself as he nervously stretched out one of his hands toward Ashley while she hesitated for a bit but decided to just shake it off the same.
"So are we good now?"
Nihlus asked while still holding onto the hand of Ashley.
"I guess so."
Ashley responded in return but she felt very awkward as Nihlus did not release her hand.
"Nothing beats a good handshake."
Zaeed Massani the bounty hunter chuckled while shaking hand with the nearest Turian standing next to him.
"Yeah. We could just all shake hand."
Jacob Taylor cooed and mirrored Zaeed as he shook hand with the Turian on his left.
"That reminds me we shall have a handshake party."
James grinned and performed his own version of a double handshake with the two Turian standing on either side of him.
"Yeah! And fucking handshake dances too."
Jack giggled while she came between Ashley and Nihlus to break the two and taking both of their hands respectively, shaking the hands in a rhythmic manner.
"You guys got dance moves about it too?"
Garrus sounded shocked while he watched Jack performing the moves on Ashley and Nihlus.
"You bet! Come everyone let us join in the fun!"
Jane replied while she took one of the hands of Garrus and walked towards Jack, Ashley and Nihlus who were still performing the shaking.
"You humans are so weird."
Nihlus deadpanned while the rest joined them to form a circle each holding onto the hands of the next two persons standing on either side.
End of chapter 2
