CuHnadian I didn't know that about Delta in RvB I stopped watching it back when they were using the Halo 1 engine during the original S1 Blood Gultch storyline, so he must have appeared after that. I just couldn't remember seeing a pure green AI in ME and Delta was the first name that came to me.

Biotic wise I think that if it's going to be done in an SI then it needs to be handled correctly, both in terms of how the SI gets the ability and that they need to suck at using them for a long time after they gain it, since everybody else besides the Asari needs training in Biotics an SI should be the same. With that said I'm not opposed to having Rob gain Biotics in the future which is why I had the nervous system adaption be a success to leave that possibility open in the future, if it actually happens or not I haven't decided yet but if he does he'll definitely be very bad at using them for a long time.

In regards to the flying in space thing, I totally agree! I'm always wondered why nobody ever mentions that. As for the base it's pretty useless right now by design but it will be expanded on in the future. For me it made sense that since the Prothean's hid there during the Reaper purge that they would send him there where they knew he would be safe on arrival…plus too many SI's drop themselves onto the Citadel at the very beginning. I will say I have plans for the base though, although most of that will mostly be featured during the 2 year period between ME 1 and ME 2.

As for Rob not learning anything yet…he's going to get a huge wakeup call shortly in regards to what he thinks he knows compared to what he actually knows.

Chapter 4: Unexpected Encounters

I was sitting in the pilot's seat of the shuttle with my feet up on the console as we flew through space, we'd just past the two hour mark in our five hour journey to the Citadel, and although I still hadn't decided on what I was going to do until 2183 I had a few ideas.

Getting some Credits would have to be high on the list, which lead me to my first idea, become a Mercenary. The pay would be good and I'd be able to hone my skills while I waited, maybe make a few contacts as well. Then again I could always enlist in the Alliance, it was the Military after all and I was in the Military…well I used to be anyway, I just hoped the Alliance never kept the USMC records from back then.

Delta had spent the trip creating an entire history for me which he would upload as soon as he could access the Extranet, I'd read what he'd done so far and it certainly sounded believable, hell if I hadn't known the truth I would have believed it.

With nothing else to do I had spent an hour strumming away on my guitar, mostly out of pure boredom, I can honestly say that space travel by yourself can be incredibly boring. I put the guitar back in its bag and turned my thoughts towards my plans. My first thought was joining the Alliance, being a Marine anyway it seemed like the most obvious choice.

Then again I could try my hand at being a Mercenary, the pay would probably be good, maybe make some contacts I could use in the future, or hell maybe I could just look for a band to join for a few years, earn some credits and then when it's closer to Sovereign arriving start preparing.

With that thought it finally hit me, what a gigantic situation I had put myself in. What the hell was I thinking? I thought as the doubts started filling my head This is insane, I don't have any business being here, I should have just stayed in my own reality, sure there were wars and everything but nothing like giant space robots wanting to eradicate all life in the galaxy…

I was brought out of my thoughts by a sudden shaking of the shuttle, it was so intense I was thrown from my seat.

"What the hell was that!?" I yelled as I stood up, only to be knocked back down again as the shuttle shook again.

We are being fired upon by an unknown vessel, I am attempting to evade them.

"How about shooting back at them?" I asked as I managed to pull myself to my feet and scramble back to my chair.

This is a shuttle Robert; it does not have any weapons.

"Well that's just perfect." I muttered as I took the controls, narrowly avoiding a laser blast to my port side. However I couldn't dodge the second and third, which impacted the rear of the shuttle, causing an explosion that sent the shuttle into a tailspin.

Direct hit to the port engine Delta announced as the shuttle's systems kicked in to compensate. The advantage was that while we were spinning it was a lot hard for our attackers to shoot us, the disadvantage was that we couldn't fly.

As the galaxy span around outside the cockpit I saw a planet, I didn't know what planet it was and neither did I care. Whoever was shooting at me outgunned the tiny Prothean shuttle and there was no way I was going to survive the fight in it.

"Delta, does this ship has a distress beacon or something?" I asked.

Of course.

"Good, find out what planet that is and launch one, I'll see if I can get us there." I ordered as the shuttle finally stabilised.

I managed to avoid a lot of the shots the ship fired at us, thanks to the shuttle's small size compared to the larger, unidentified ship behind us. We'd almost made it to the planet when another shot hit the already damaged engine, which exploded. I could hear the shrapnel ping as it bounced off the side of the shuttle, luckily the hull hadn't breached but it also meant that this landing was going to hurt like hell.

I could only watch as flames licked up the front of the shuttle as we entered the atmosphere and began our descent, as we descended through the atmosphere I could make out what appeared to be a base of some sort below, however my attention was quickly turned to the rather large series of trees I was heading towards.

Before I could react the shuttle ploughed straight into them, the sound of branches snapping and metal buckling as the shuttle continued its descent. I was barely aware of Delta informing me that the starboard engine had also been sheared off when the shuttle hit the ground and bounced a few times before I was hurled forwards, my head hitting the console in front of me, then everything went dark.

The world returned to me in a blurry, pain filled mess. Blinking a few times, I pulled myself to a sitting position on the floor with a groan. I shut my eyes tight in an attempt to halt the spinning world around me. After a few times it worked, too bad I couldn't shake the pounding in my head or my left arm either.

Glancing down at it I winced at the odd angle it was at "Oh yeah that's broken." I muttered as I lifted my right arm to my temple, wincing when pain shot across my head, not really surprised when I pulled the hand back and saw blood on my fingers.

"Delta, you alright?" I asked as I glanced around the now ruined shuttle.

I am fine. The AI answered The shuttle however is not.

"I noticed." I muttered.

Are you alright?

"I've been better." I groaned as I reached up with my good arm and gingerly pulled myself to my feet "But we can't stay here, odds are whoever shot us down are on their way by now."

I am detecting no life signs in the immediate area; however my sensors do have a limited range.

"Well we'll just have to hope we don't run into anybody, and that somebody picked up our distress signal."

What will we do in the meantime?

"I saw a building as we made our decent; it was the only one in the area, that will probably be our best bet. Let's just hope if there are occupants that they aren't with the group that shot us down."

And if they are?

"Then we'll be a bit of trouble." I replied as I retrieved my stuff and Delta's chip and made my way out of the shuttle.

What I had failed to realised during the crash was that the trees I had been flying through was part of a…well it was either a forest or a jungle, it was hard to tell since trees were all I could see for the most part.

Deciding that cover was the best option I made way into a dense area of the trees and started heading off in the direction of the building I had seen, albeit it at a much slower pace than I would have preferred.

I'd been travelling about 10 minutes when I heard voices just ahead of me and took a few steps back and crouching down, hoping that the underbrush of trees and grass would keep me hidden.

"It's not that much father to the crash site." One male voice said, the tone of his voice was familiar but for the moment I could put my finger on why.

"Well let's just hope that the pilot survived." Another added in a similar sounding tone as the first. I watched as the trees moved slightly before three figures emerged. When I saw them I knew instantly why I recognised the tone of their voices, they were Batarians.

"You better hope they did, otherwise I'll sell both of you into slavery." The third Batarian snarled, clearly the leader of the trio.

I tried to suppress my fear as they walked past me, even though I was a good 15 or 20 paces away from them and watched them as they made their way towards the wreckage of my shuttle, before continuing on my journey when they were out of sight.

I don't know how long I had been travelling before the world started spinning again, but with those Batarians in the area I didn't want to stop and tried to push on. I only stopped once, to collect a few pieces of wood and vines to use as a makeshift splint for my arm.

However a few minutes later another wave of dizziness washed over me, causing me to stop and rest. Slumping down against a large rock I felt my eyelids getting heavy and try as I might I couldn't stop them from closing every few seconds. I heard the rustling of the underbrush and lifted my head slighting in time to see a blurry figure start to emerge from the treeline just ahead of me before I blacked out.

When I regained consciousness again I realised I wasn't in the forest anymore but in what looked to be makeshift medical bay. I slowly sat up to realise that my head didn't hurt anymore and that my arm was now in a sling, and not the splint it had been in. Apart from the bed I was sitting on, there was a table in the corner of the room and on the table was my guitar, the bag it was in and the rest of my stuff laid out as if someone had looked through it and not bothered to put it back. Everything seemed to be there with the exception of Delta's chip. A glint on the table drew my attention to my dog tags and picked them up and putting them on.

I heard the sound of a door open behind me and turned around expecting to see a Batarian but instead saw a human female looking at me. I pegged her to be about 25 years old, about 5'5 tall with a slight tan to her skin and blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail.

"Ah good your awake." She smiled.

"Yeah, I suppose I have you to thank for patching me up?" I replied.

"Yes, sorry about your arm but we don't have enough medi-gel or the equipment to fix it." She added with a soft smile.

"Well it's better than the splint I was using." I countered, causing her to chuckle.

"That is true."

"So…uh not that I'm not grateful or anything, but who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Lieutenant Kaitlin Reeves, Alliance Navy." She replied as another man entered the room.

He stood at about 6'5 with black hair, a stubbly beard and whose presence demanded respect, definitely military.

"I see our guest is awake." He said as he looked at me "Glad to see you're alright, you were pretty banged up."

"Yeah, I've got the Batarians to thank for that." I answered "They shot me down as I was travelling through the system."

The man nodded in understanding "I suspected that was the case. I'm Commander William Adley with the Alliance Navy."

"Nice to meet you Commander, I'm Robert Kincaid." I replied and watched as he raised an eyebrow, clearly he had seen my dog tags "It's a family name." I added with a grin, Adley nodded but remain silent which I'll admit made me a little nervous.

"So uh not to be rude or anything but I was wondering, I had a VI chip with me but I didn't see it with my stuff."

Adley motioned with his hand to follow him "Yes, since you were unconscious we hoped your VI would be able to help us identify you."

Oh crap I thought as I followed the Commander out of the room and through a set of double doors into an open room, with a large computer in the centre and several smaller computers along the walls. Judging by the looks of it, this was the command centre, which meant that it wasn't the large building I had seen on my way down.

Standing at the large computer was another man, in his mid-thirties. He had strawberry blonde hair and wore glasses with thin black rims and was busy typing away on a holographic keyboard.

"Lieutenant Wade this is Mr Robert Kincaid, as we suspected the Batarians shot him down." Adley said.

"Hello." Wade nodded with a quick glance up from the terminal.

"Nice to meet you." I replied

"Can you activate Mr Kincaid's VI for us." Adley ordered.

I watched as the Lieutenant typed a few commands on the keyboard and watched as the green flicker of Delta's holographic image flicked to life and looked over at me.

Hello Robert.

"Hey Delta, how you feeling?"

My program is functioning normally, you have no new messages. The Commander requested your information; I hope you do not mind that I provided it.

"That's fine Delta." I replied before turning to look at Commander Adley "So Commander, if you don't mind me asking, what brings the Alliance out here?"

The Batarians that shot you down are part of a slaver group operating in this system with a group of Mercenaries; my team are here to put a stop to it."

I nodded "And let me guess that large building I saw on my way in is their base of operations?"

"That's correct, the rest of my team are scouting out the area now. They were on their way there when they found you and brought you back here." Adley replied.

I nodded "So…I'm guessing there's no spaceport or anything around here then?"

Adley smiled "Afraid not, but don't worry once we finish our mission you can come with us. Where were you heading?"

"The Citadel and then maybe back to Earth, haven't decided yet."

Adley nodded "We'll be making a quick stop off at the Citadel before our next mission so that won't be a problem, although I noticed you don't have much in the way of belongs, was the rest of it on your shuttle?"

"Uh no, that's all I had when I left." I answered.

"That's it? No credits armour or guns?"

I thought for a moment, trying to think up a reasonable excuse "Uh no I uh I had a bit of a financial situation, got given some bad investment advice, the armour and guns were the last things I sold to get a bit of credit for food and a place to stay, the shuttle was the last thing I had…well that and my guitar."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Adley replied.

"Thanks." I replied, smiling to myself that he brought my lie.

Adley was about to say something when we heard gunfire coming from outside.

"What the hell…?" I heard the Commander mutter as he ran towards a door on the far end of the room, the two Lieutenants I had met following him.

"What's going on Delta?" I asked, once they had left the room.

I am detecting several human life signs make their way towards this building, they are being pursued by 10 Batarians, I believe it is safe to assume that Commander Adley's recon team were discovered.

"Crap." I cursed "Can we do anything?"

I am afraid not, this building has no weapon turrets, or other defences against an attack.

I cursed under my breath again "Well I can't just sit here and do nothing, do they have Extranet access here?"

Yes, it is how I managed to provide the Commander with your information, when they activated me and I discovered the connection I accessed the Birth's and Death's database for the New York area on the Extranet and uploaded your personal data to it, now if anybody checks it will appear as though you have always existed in this universe.

I couldn't help but smile at that "Thanks Delta but that wasn't why I was asking. Can you tell if the slavers have Extranet access in their building as well?"

One moment…yes they do. I believe, given sufficient time I may be able to gain access to their systems and do something from there.

I nodded "Okay see what you can do, I'm going to go and see if I can help Adley and his men." I replied as I jogged towards the door they had gone through.

I peeked through the door, to see a small room that lead to the exit, just outside I could see Adley and the two Lieutenants firing somewhere past what I could see. I quickly ran towards the outer door and peeked outside, to see that at least three more Alliance soldiers had taken cover with Adley, who I assumed were the recon team.

I glanced around but failed to see anything I could do to help them, especially since I didn't have any armour or weapons and a broken arm, going out there would be suicide. As I watched the battle continue, I saw that one of the Mercenaries with the Batarians was a Krogan who was charging straight at the group and he was huge!

With one large shoulder barge he sent the cover that one of the Alliance soldiers as well as the soldier himself flying through the air, over the heads of his comrades and right into the wall of the building with a heavy splat. I winced at the sound as the body hit the wall and then the floor, however with it came a sound of something else hitting the floor and glanced down to see that it was a pistol. I crouched down and picked it up and studied it, it looked a lot like the ones in the game but I couldn't tell the manufacturer, it was lighter than I had expected it to be though, despite it looks it felt about the same weight as a 9mm Beretta.

Glancing up I could see that the Krogan had turned his attention to the other members of the recon team, as they were slightly ahead of Adley and the other two and was firing at them with his shotgun.

I aimed down the sights and fired, cursing when my shot went wide due to the kickback that I hadn't expected. I lined up another shot and fired, again missing. I repeated the action several more times, each time adjusting for the kickback and preparing myself, while in my head saying that it was partly due to the fact I was only using one hand to fire it, although I was pretty certain that wasn't the case.

It must have been on my 6th shot that I managed to hit the Krogan in his hump and grinned, having finally managed to hit him. However my happiness was short lived when the Krogan turned too look at me and grinned, before pointing his shotgun in my direction.

"Aw hell…" I cursed as I dived back through the door, narrowly avoiding the spray of buckshot that flew over my head into the wall behind me. I looked up to see that the Krogan was still facing me and sat up, unloading a few rounds into the massive thing, each shot appearing to do little damage.

The Krogan just smiled as it aimed at me and fired just as I rolled to my left, taking cover behind the wall to the left of the door, all the while looking at the smouldering holes in the ground where I had been a few seconds ago.

At this point in time I can honestly say I had never been so scared in my entire life, but that didn't mean I was going to hide. I remained crouched and peeked round the door and opened fire on the Krogan, taking him by surprise since he had expected me to be standing up. Several shots tore into his stomach and a few more into his legs, but still the damn thing wasn't going down. My finger kept squeezing on the trigger as I fired shot after shot into it, but it kept advancing.

As my fear kept rising I kept shooting until I heard the familiar beeping sound as the pistol overheated. Time seemed to freeze as I glanced down at the pistol and then at the Krogan, who grinned at me and aimed his shotgun at me. I know I should have moved but that sight has locked up every joint in my body and I couldn't move.

This was it, I was going to die before I even had a chance to stop the Reapers and couldn't help that this wouldn't have happened if I had stayed in my own reality. I had literally thrown away and wasted my life. My vision seemed to focus on the Krogan's finger and watched as it began to squeeze on the trigger.

Then the Krogan yelled and arched his back, snapping me out of my thoughts and I realised that one of what I had been referring to as the recon soldiers fired into the Krogan's back with his shotgun. The Krogan yelled again as the soldier fired twice more, and then on the third dropped to the ground.

I sighed and let out the breath I hadn't even realised I had been holding before giving a nod of thanks to the soldier, who returned it before taking cover next to one of his buddies to help take out the rest of the attackers.

From my cover I saw that there were only four left, which became three when Adley took out one of them and watched as the other three turned around and ran, no doubt heading back to their base. Knowing that the battle was over I headed back inside and hopefully prevent the soldiers from discovering what Delta was doing.

"Delta the fights over, you better stop what you're doing." I said.

I have already finished Robert; I managed to hack into the slaver's system. Their security is…woefully lacking.

I couldn't help but chuckle "Well that's good, but how are we going to explain it to Adley and his group.

It would appear as though Lieutenant Wade was attempting to do the same, when doing my attempt I made it appear as though it was his work that succeeded.

"Nice work Delta." I whispered as Adley, Wade, Reeves and two others entered the room.

"Are you guys alright?" I asked.

"For the most part." Adley answered with a nod.

"We lost Munro." One of the new soldiers muttered "Damn Krogan."

"Munro was a good soldier, he'll be missed." Adley said before turning to look at me.

"I saw how you handled yourself with that Krogan kid, nice work. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't have reacted when you did."

"Well I couldn't just hide in here and do nothing Commander." I answered.

"Well we owe you one." Adley grinned.

"Well considering you saved me by bringing me here and patching me up how about we call it even?" I smiled back.

"Deal." Adley chucked. "Still you handled yourself well and you adapted to that pistol pretty quickly."

"My father taught me how to shoot when I was growing up, he was in the military." I answered.

"Well it would seem as though he taught you well."

"He did."

Our conversation was interrupted when Wade spoke up, having realised that they had access to the slaver's computer network.

"Commander my hack worked, we have access to their network. There are reports on their operation. Details on which slaves were sold to who, schedules of when more slaves are due to arrive and leave. We even have access to their security camera, we can do a lot of our internal recon from here."

Adley grinned from ear to ear "That's great news Wade, good job, we'll take a look and see what ideas we can come up with."

"Yes sir." Wade answered as he returned to the computer, no doubt looking to see what else Delta had managed to access.

My attention however was brought back to Adley when he said my name "Mr Kincaid, I know this might seem like a lot to ask considering everything but I'm a man down and from what I've seen I think you could handle yourself. Our mission would go a little easier if you could assist us."

I blinked in surprise "Uh well with all due respect Commander I would, but uh my arm isn't exactly in top form and I don't have any armour."

Adley smiled "We have some spare armour in the shuttle, as for your arm…" he paused as he seemed to consider something and called over Lieutenant Reeves.

"Reeves, if we used the last of our Medi-Gel would it be enough to fix Mr Kincaid's arm?"

I watched as Kaitlin thought on it a moment before nodding "I believe so sir, it wasn't a major break, although it would be a little sore."

Adley nodded and returned his attention to me "You don't have to do this if you don't want to; you are a civilian after all."

Technically in this reality I am I thought but nodded "I'll help anyway I can Commander."

Adley smiled "I had a feeling you would. Reeves, give Mr Kincaid the last of the Medi-Gel and take him to the shuttle, hopefully that armour we have in there will fit him."

"Yes sir." Kaitlin nodded before turning to me with a smile "Follow me."