Two hours and a dozen drinks after leaving his therapy session Alpha found himself in Chora's Den. What was left of it anyways, apparently Shepard had torn the place up looking for the owner, a supposed sleazeball named Fist.
"Ha! That's an even worse name then mine." He looked up at one of the vid screens to see Shepard standing in front of the council for some sort of ceremony. "Hey what's going on up there? He asked the patron beside him.
"That? Have you been hiding under a rock kid? That's Commander Shepard, Hero of Eden Prime. The council is making him the first human spectre so he can go after Saren."
"Saren... He was there too." Alpha whispered to himself. "So what exactly is a Spectre?" the half-drunk patron looked at him and slammed his palm onto his forehead.
"Spectres are the agents of the council. They get a free pass to do whatever they want because the law doesn't apply to them. How do you not know this shit kid?"
"Not from around here." Alpha replied as he rose to his feet and went to find Shepard. An hour later Alpha was at the C-sec docking station hoping to catch the human Spectre before he left the Citadel. After a few more moments Alpha spotted a large red crested Krogan and a tall Turian each flanking a human in pitch black armor with the N7 stripe.
"Shepard! Commander Shepard!" shouted Alpha, "Shepard!" Shepard heard his name being called and started looking around when he saw the young man who had accompanied him on Eden Prime.
"Alpha? What are you doing here?" he asked as Alpha dashed over.
"Shepard! I was worried I wouldn't catch up in time. Listen Shepard, I want to come with you. You're going after the guy who masterminded Eden Prime... I want a piece of him too." Alpha lowered his face and dropped his arms to his side as he said " I know I messed up before but, I can help, I know I can!"
Shepard examined the young adult in front of him, surely his power would come in handy, but at the same time he was a wildcard. Nobody knew who he was or anything about him except that he was heavily genetically modified and possibly one of the most powerful biotics he had ever seen. "I'm sorry kid but the top brass want to run some tests with you. There's nothing I can do."
"You're a Spectre! Just say that you need me for the mission, they can't do anything about a Spectre! Your missions come before their curiosity!"
Shepard paused to consider Alphas proposal and decided to take the risk, the kid was powerful and had incredible potential, who knows what else he could do. "Alright kid report to the Normandy, we're shipping out immediately. Ask Alenko to get you set up."
"Thankyou Shepard, I won't let you down!" Alpha ran to the Normandy and was greeted at the airlock by Kaiden.
"So you're coming too? Gotta say it'll be nice to have you backing me up."
"Thanks Alenko. And thank you for dragging my half-dead ass to the medbay..."
Kaiden held out his hand to Alpha who shook it strongly "My names Kaiden. And I would thank Ashley, she's the one who gave you first aid. Anyways why don't we get you set up?" so Kaiden gave Alpha the grand tour before showing him where the soldiers bunked.
"So you can bunk here and-" Kaiden was cut off by the intercom activating and Joker addressing the crew.
"All crew at attention, the commander has a few words."
"This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the conduit. I won't lie to you, crew. This isn't going to be easy. We all know what happened on Eden Prime. We saw the destruction. We saw the bodies. We saw what Saren did. And I plan to make him pay! The council wants to ignore this. That's no surprise, they've never helped us in the past; no reason they'd start now. But we don't need their help. We can do this on our own! Wherever Saren goes, we'll follow. Wherever he searches for the conduit, we'll be there! We will hunt him to the very ends of the galaxy and bring him down! So it's up to us, we're the only ones who can stop Saren. I swear to you all, we will stop him!"
"Well that really piles on the pressure eh?" Laughed Alpha. "I can't wait to get Saren though; I'm going to pull his intestines out from his ass."
"And I can't wait to see you pull that off kid." said Ashley as she chuckled at the image of a Turian bent over and squawking like a chicken as Alpha stood behind smirking. "It's good to see you up and moving again Alpha."
"Thanks to you from what I hear. Thank you Ashley."
"Anyways, Shepard wants us in the comm room to decide our next move."
"Alright, meet you there; we just need to make sure Alpha gets a decent bunk." Replied Kaiden.
After choosing the bunk in the far corner Alpha followed Kaiden to the elevator.
"You would think that with how advanced this ship is that the elevator would move faster than a fat kid chasing ice cream but nooo they had to tempt the fat kid with broccoli. Morons." Alpha joked.
"Can I ask you something personal?" asked Kaiden as he gave Alpha a confused look.
"You can try but no promises I will answer." grinned Alpha, still giggling from his own joke.
"What did you do before this? I mean your damn good in a fight but how does a kid barely old enough to enlist get that good?"
"I pissed off the wrong people, spent a lot of time running and fighting. So if you want to know what I did before this well. I survived!" Alpha stared Kaiden down willing him to look away first. *Beep*
The elevator opened and Alpha followed Kaiden to the com room where everyone was waiting. "Sorry guys, we had to take the elevator." Kaiden explained sheepishly.
"Well you're here now. Let's get to business." Stated Shepard. "We have several leads at the moment. First there's Benezia, Saren's accomplice and she has a daughter who might have useful insight, or at worst make a good hostage. Saren also has significant holdings on Noveria, going there could shed some light on his goals. Lastly we have reports of Geth in the Theseus system, the only planet that might be worth anything there is Feros, so that should be worth checking out."
After a few moments the Turian that Alpha saw with Shepard earlier spoke up. "If there is anything at Noveria chances are that all the files have been destroyed, Saren would be a fool to do otherwise. Anything we find there will still be there later, I say we find Benezia's daughter. Who knows how long she will be in play before Saren snatches her up."
Shepard considered the argument for a moment before replying. "That's a good point Garrus. Any objections... No? Good. Any questions?"
Alpha stood up staring at Garrus. "So Saren is a Turian right? Why do we have another Turian here with us Shepard? Haven't they done enough?" Alpha accused as Garrus shot up from his seat and glared at the young human.
"Garrus was instrumental in proving that Saren was guilty, we can trust him Alpha."
"What do you mean? That dockworker saw him, he saw Saren there, he said so himself on Eden Prime! What more proof did you need?"
"It wasn't enough to convince the council, Saren was their best Spectre, their favorite. They didn't want to believe he was capable of what we were accusing him of. Garrus gave us information that led us to Tali." Shepard gestured to the Quarian a few seat down from him. "She had data she hacked from a Geth, an incriminating recording of Saren and Benezia talking about Eden Prime. The council couldn't deny it after that."
Alpha looked back and forth between Garrus and Tali. "Ok. Sorry for accusing you Garrus. I swear I'm better at fighting than talking." Alpha laughed.
"No worries human. Although I'm curious as to why you're here too."
"I was on Eden Prime when the Geth attacked, I helped the 212th until Shepard came along, and then Ashley convinced him to let me help. When I heard about this mission I asked Shepard to bring me."
"Speaking of Eden Prime we need to get you armor, I swear I flinched every time you popped your head out." Cut in Ashley.
Garrus laughed and looked at Ashley "You mean to tell me this kid fought Geth without any protection!"
"I used barriers!" Alpha protested. "I didn't exactly have time to ask where the nearest armory was so I just used what I had."
The giant Krogan that had been content to stand in the corner silently stepped forward at Alphas claim "So you're not Alliance then, and no self-respecting mercenary would go anywhere without their armor. So who are you whelp?" He asked as he approached Alpha and stared him down mere inches away.
"I am Tyler Alpha. I am a warrior. I will kill Saren for what he did. I will destroy the Geth for helping him. And if you don't back up I'll be the one who shoves this chair up your ass." Alpha threatened as he started glowing with biotics.
The Krogan stood his ground for a few seconds, his own biotics flaring around him before showing a large toothy grin. "I like you whelp, you have spirit! But you should make sure you can back up your threats hehehe." The Krogan walked out of the room as he chuckeled. "LET ME KNOW WHEN THERE'S SOMETHING TO SHOOT SHEPARD!"
"Well that was, something else." Alpha said.
"No, that's just Wrex." Stated Shepard as if that explained everything. Well let's go to the Artemis Tau system, the daughter, Liara is researching Protheans there somewhere. Dismissed." Shepard promptly left to tell Joker the course they had decided while everyone else wandered back to their own little sanctuaries on the Normandy.
Shepard and Joker had managed to narrow their search down to the planet Therum as it was the only planet with Prothean ruins in the system. Alpha met Shepard at the loading bay in his new basic armor and looked at Shepard's enviously.
"Where did you get such bad-ass armor Shepard? I mean that just looks like you're as likely to kill someone by bumping into them as shooting them." Alpha joked.
"I had to piece it together over 3 years; it was quite a challenge finding the entire set."
"Damn… So who's coming with us?"
"Wrex, Garrus, and Tali. We should have a good balance with this squad makeup."
"The whelp has armor!" Wrex shouted as he approached with Garrus close behind. "I wanted to see the little pykjack dance around HAHAHAHA. You better have something to show off after your tough act whelp!"
"Well if we're bringing you along then I may not need my armor, just use you as a meat shield. You regenerate right?" retorted Alpha.
"Play nice now children." mocked Garrus.
"Everyone shut-up and get in the Mako!" Barked Shepard. After everyone crammed into the space age tank Alpha watched Shepard press a multitude of buttons before finally starting the engine.
"Uhh, Shepard? Do you know what you're doing?" Alpha asked nervously.
"Of course I do. It can't be that different from an air car."
Everyone in the Mako looked at each other with a look of fear on their faces as the shuttle bay doors opened up and the Mako began plummeting through the sky. "Shepard? I DONT THINK THIS DRIVES LIKE AN AIRCAR! IT'S A TANK! A TANK SHEPARD!" Alpha shouted in vain.
"I agree with Alpha!" shouted Garrus as Wrex let out a loud throaty laugh.
Brandon Hopkins, 4