Hey everyone!
Welcome back to another chapter of Reduced Mass! So, last time around, David and Shepard did the almost impossible and survived the way to the power station to activate the backup generator, which bought Elysium and its make shift defence force time until the Alliance arrived. But, David lost his left arm in the progress.
This chapter is going to wrap up the Skyllian Blitz story arc and after this chapter, we're going to have another time jump. How long that time jump will be is classified. Now, let's get right back into the story shall we?
I severely apologize for the long wait. I've been trying to get my life back in order.
I quit my apprenticeship as a carpenter mid-September seeing as I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. Top that of with an asshole of a boss and it's a recipe for disaster. I started studying civil engineering October 1st and let me tell you, it's a mouthful to study. All the math and physics has turned out to be a heavy load on my shoulder and I'm only now managing to balance out my days. The days I did have off I had to work as well, doing volunteer work (paid, thankfully) at a different old folk's home to be able to finance my university studies.
Now I'm back and I hope to not keep you waiting as long as I did last, but as you know, life can be a bitch sometimes.
July 15th, 2176: Elyisum
"Good, you're awake," an unfamiliar voice travels through my ears. I slowly open my eyes and the glare from the fluorescent light above makes me squint them back shut into small slits.
"Wh... where exactly am I?" I ask groggily, lifting my right arm above my eyes to shield myself from the light above me.
"Hospital," the voice says. Great, what did I do to get myself admitted to a hospital? All I can remember is activating the backup generator by the power plant, and then everything else is just a blur.
"You got yourself pretty banged up," the voice continues. "You've been out for a while you know."
I've been through this entire process before.
"How long have I been out exactly?" I manage to force out before noticing my throat is as dry as a desert. What I just said probably sounded like a weak little croak. I open my eyes a little wider and look to my right. I spot a glass of water on the bedside table next to me.
"You're a doctor, right?" I ask.
"I am," the voice says, and the now clear distinguishable male voice moves its body into my still blurry field of view. "You look thirsty."
I nod weakly, and within a few seconds, the hospital bed begins to quietly whir as it automatically props me up. After about ten seconds, I'm in a halfway upright position in my bed.
The doctor reaches for the glass and hands it to me, and I use my right hand to take it from his grasp. After a long sip, I hand it back to the doctor.
"A day ain't that long doc," I say with a stronger voice now. "I've been out a lot longer."\
"Really?" he says while raising an eyebrow. "Should I ask?"
I shake my head. "Not if you want to be here for the next two weeks while I tell you my story."
The doctor chuckles.
"A kid your age can't have that long of a story."
I somehow get slightly irritated at the remark of being called a kid. I might still be young, but I'm definitely not a kid. As for my story, I don't even think I want to tell him anything now. Asshole.
"That may be," I say in a slightly annoyed tone.
After a few seconds of strained awkward silence, I exhale deeply.
"What exactly are my injuries doc?" I ask. "I mean, they can't be that bad, right?"
The doctors face goes pretty grim. He looks over to me from behind his grandfatherly glasses and sighs.
"Do you really want me to tell you now?"
I furrow my brows and scoff. "Lay it on me doc, I can manage."
"Well... alright," he says carefully as he picks up a data-pad and begins to scan it with his brown eyes. He kind of reminds me of Santa to be honest. Round glasses, white beard and white hair.
"We're going to start with the most minor of injuries," he begins.
"I'm good with that," I shrug.
"Sprained ankle, concussion, four broken ribs," he states, and I nod.
"Broken spine vertebrate in one place, four vertebrate fractures, a bullet to the thigh, shattering your femur."
"I didn't feel any of that," I say with a hint of amazement evident on the tip of my tongue. "Those drugs work wonders.
The doctor looks at me from behind his data-pad with a look of fatherly disappointment.
"Where did you get that mixture of pain medicine anyway?"
I shrug again. "That was a mixture?" I ask sheepishly.
The doctor groans. "I amazed you're still standing, I don't know what you call it, but I'd call it a one hundred percent chance of death."
"Well... what's in it?" I ask. I genuinely interested about what on earth is in the syringe that Benji introduced me to.
"Well, apart from highly concentrated amounts of medi-gel, your concoction included high amounts of Videlicet, Eximo, an ungodly amount of Morphine and small traces of Red Sand."
Red Sand? Fuck, I know what that is, and that isn't good. Well, I can't complain, that concoction saved my life twice now.
"Shit doc, that's a lot of drugs," I say, not really knowing what else to say. I mean, it is pretty cool that I can withstand a large amount of drugs like that, but I'm not experienced enough in the medical field to make a smart comment about all that medicine. Apart from medi-gel, Morphine and Red Sand I don't have a clue what the other two types of medicine are.
I'll have to research a bit more.
"It's amazing that this medicine hasn't completely destroyed your insides," he says while air quoting the word medicine.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, it does sound pretty crazy," I say and try to suppress a chuckle. To be honest, hearing about what kind of medicine I've been filled to the brim with is the least crazy thing that has happened to me ever since arriving in the ME universe. Arriving in this universe is crazy enough as it is, right?
"Any other injuries doc?" I ask, changing the subject.
The doctor frowns again as he looks back down at his datapad.
"I... uh... I'm not sure how to say this, David," he stammers out.
My mood plunges down a few levels after seeing him this nervous. It looks like he's going to drop a bombshell on me.
"What is it doc?" I ask, and my voice shakes at the last word of my sentence.
The doctor regains his composure and takes a deep breath. He readjusts the circular glasses on his head and after a second of him looking at the datapad, he stares me dead in the eyes.
"You lost an arm, David."
I furrow my brows, letting out a scoff as I do.
"Come on doc, this has to be a joke," I say. "I didn't lose an a-"
My sentence stops right on the tip of my tongue as I can feel the word arm slowly creep back into my throat. All I hear is the sound of the heart rate monitor speed up exponentially as my heart itself feels like it's going to overheat.
I glance at my right arm, and mentally register that all of it is in one place. I then glance to my left arm, and if my brain was a computer from my time, it'd show a large error message. My left arm... it's not there. All that's in place of where my hand and lower arm would be is... nothing. There's a large bandage covering my stump, and nothing else.
My breathing picks up to a rapid pace and my stomach is in probably in a thousand knots. My face begins to feel extremely cold, although the rest of my body feels as if it is burning up. My eyes roll back until I can't see anything and I my head harshly falls to the right. The urge to vomit persist and I let that urge become a reality as I lose consciousness once again.
July 18th, 2176: Elyisum
Well, I managed to almost die again it seems. After waking up from going into cardiac arrest, the doctor, doctor Welding is his name I learned, told me that I also almost died from choking to death on my own vomit. Nice.
I don't know how I always get myself into these kind of situations, but I don't like it. If I'm going to join Shepard though in a few years' time, I might as well stay being used to it, because that's not going to change when the time arises.
I didn't wake up to uncomfortable lights shining into my eyes this time though, so that's a plus.
I woke up in the dark, in my hospital bed, with a pounding headache. I had some spooky dreams while being out, but I can't remember them for the life of me. I stayed awake most of the night thinking, trying to piece together what happened before waking up in the hospital again.
It is now seven in the morning earth time. I only know because I set my omni-tool to show me the time on earth and Chalkhos. I should change it to Elyisum, but I haven't gotten around to it. And plus, I like knowing what time it is at home. Regardless of how dangerous Chalkhos was, I still have fond memories. I get a pang of nostalgia whenever I think about it.
I look around the room in boredom, thinking about what I could do to pass the time. I spot a small holographic assistance button on the side of my bed. I'll call the nurse; I mean... I have nothing better to do. I press the button and a small beep sounds. Now we wait I guess.
My stomach begins to make itself known to me by giving off a large and hollow growl. Good thing I called the nurse, I can't remember the last thing I ate since the blitz. It feels like it's been ages. I could really go for a nice piece of lasagna now, but the kind with lots of meat. Damn, if I was my dog back in my time, I'd be drooling all over the carpet now.
The door whooshes open and a small Asian lady walks in. She looks like a typical grandmother to be honest, with a very warm complexion, short hair, a little more meat on her bones and wrinkles that look like they've been there for years.
"Did you need anything hun?" she says in a very friendly tone, and I can't help but smile. I haven't been called something so endearing in years.
"Yeah," I say while slowly propping myself up in my hospital bed. "I was wondering if I could get anything to eat? I don't think I've eaten in days."
She smiles at me and nods. "I'll go get you something," she says. "One of my colleagues goes around and serves breakfast in this wing in about half an hour, but I don't see why I can't get it to you earlier."
"Thanks!" I say. "I appreciate it immensely."
"Not a problem," she responds. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, actually…" I begin to say. "How are things… I mean in general on Elysium."
"You mean after the attack?" she asks.
"Yeah, you guys must have your hands full with all the wounded."
The nurse nods with an expression that's a little sadder than before.
"It's been extremely tough," she begins to say. "The hospital has never been this full before and we're forced to treat people in the hallways. We have no more space in the rooms."
"I know how it feels," I say. "I've seen this before."
This situation reminds me of Chalkhos in the last few days I was there. The hospital we used as a short-lived base of operations was filled to the brim with wounded and there were hallways lined with them.
"We've been blessed with the arrival of the Alliance though," she says, her mood lightening up. "We would've had much more dead if it weren't for the doctors the Alliance sent here."
After a short silence, the nurse sighs. "I should really get back to my rounds," she says. "I'll see to it that your breakfast arrives A.S.A.P."
"Thank you," I say courteously. She turns around and leaves my room. I'm left in silence again as the door whooshes shut again, but it's short-lived as the door opens again within a few minutes.
It's Nolius.
"Hey Nolius!" I exclaim as he rounds the corner into my room. "Haven't seen you in a while."
"It's been nigh impossible to get a hold of you," he says as he stops at the foot of my bed with his talons crossed in front of his torso.
"I wasn't very responsive the last day so," I chuckle. "I spent most of it out cold anyway."
Nolius reciprocates the chuckle and shakes his head. "Always one for jokes David," he says. "I can't think of any situation bad enough where you didn't joke around."
"It's a coping mechanism," I shrug. "It's how I deal with things. Usually rubs people the wrong way."
"I bet it does," he says offhandedly. "But it doesn't bother me."
Nolius walks to the right side of my bed and picks up a stool that's sitting in the corner of the room. He moves it closer to my bed and sits down on it.
"Now, how are you feeling?" he asks.
"I could be better," I say as I lift up my left stump of an arm.
Nolius eyes widen slightly at the sight.
"Damn," he says. "I didn't even see that when I walked in here."
"I didn't either," I joke, and I get Nolius to laugh.
"I'm sorry about that David," he says after he's stopped laughing, his expression turning into one of worry. "I hope you're coping with that."
"I'm coping about as good as someone can cope with it," I say. "I went into cardiac arrest when first seeing it."
"You have a knack for almost dying, don't you?" Nolius says, and I nod.
"I guess," I say. "It's happened quite a bit in my short lifespan. I mean, my time on Chalkhos had me staring right at death a few times than I'd have liked."
"I bet," Nolius agrees. "Now, if you don't mind me asking, and I don't want to come off as rude but… how did that happen?" he says as he points at my left upper arm.
I look down at where my arm used to be and sigh. "You know, I'd really love to tell you man, but I have no fucking clue how that happened. I have no recollection of what happened as soon as something tried to lift up the blast door inside the generator room of the power station."
"Something tried to lift up the door?" Nolius asks, clearly somewhat perplexed.
"Yeah," I nod. "I have no idea what, but I guess it was able to lift the door!"
The door opens again and the nurse from before walks in with a tray of food.
"Kept my promise," she smiles as she presses a button on the bottom of the bed. A large wooden board slides out from a slot inside the bed frame, and it folds up twice to make itself into a table that hovers above my bed.
She sets the tray down on the table.
"Thank you," I say as I shoot her a smile.
"Not a problem," she says and leaves the room again.
The smell of the food reaches my nose and I can feel my stomach rumbling in anticipation.
"You'd have to ask Shepard what happened to me in the power station," I say as I pour out a cup of what seems to be tea from a small kettle on my tray.
"She probably knows more than I do."
"Shepard?" Nolius asks. "Who's Shepard?"
"Oh right," I say as I instinctively try and face palm with my left hand, but it doesn't work and I just raise my stump and flail it upwards.
"I still need to get used to only having one arm," I say as I lift up the plastic cloche covering the plate of food and toss it aside. Two pieces of buttered and still warm toast catch my eyes first, with some scrambled eggs and two breakfast sausages following closely behind. Damn, I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
"Shepard is an Alliance soldier that was off duty when the pirates started the blitz," I say. "I met her and two other Alliance soldiers at Henry's. First bombs dropped on the way home and I linked up with them and other security forces."
"Ah, I do think I remember seeing her in an interview a few hours ago. She has red hair, right?"
I nod. "Exactly," I say through a mouthful of toast. "Have they said anything about the casualties?"
Nolius nods and his expression turns grim.
"Yeah, they did," he says. "Civilian casualties are at about nineteen thousand, with thousands more in critical condition."
"Jesus Christ," I say.
"The attack came too quickly," Nolius says. "The pirates purposely targeted high traffic areas with their bombs. The entertainment district was hit the hardest, and the mass panic at the gates made them an easy target."
"How many security forces died?"
"About a thousand, give or take a hundred."
"And pirates?"
"Not nearly enough," Nolius says.
Twenty thousand dead within three hours. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the sheer amount of destruction and death that happened in such a short time span.
"I'm guessing the Alliance made short work of the pirates?"
"No match," Nolius says. "Most of them were cut down within half an hour, but there's still a few, albeit very small pockets of resistance in the metro tunnels and stations. But they're not going to hold out a whole lot longer. It's mostly sporadic firefights. Couldn't be more than three dozen pirates left."
"Well then I need to get back out there," I say as I finish my toast and begin to dig into the scrambled eggs. This food is a whole lot better than the hospital food we had back in my time.
"David, I don't think you're in any shape to get back out there," Nolius says while shaking his head.
"Sure I am!" I exclaim. "They patched me up enough, well, apart from my arm."
"That may be true, but that doesn't mean your bones are ready to take on normal stresses of running and jumping and all that," Nolius says. "Especially your spine."
I sigh. "Fuck, you're right. But I can't just sit around here on my ass. I need to get outside, do something more than just fester in this room for the next month."
"Oh, you won't, don't worry about that," A female voice says from the doorway. I look over to see Shepard standing in said doorway with her arms crossed.
"Shepard!" I greet her loudly. "I was beginning to think that you forgot about visiting me."
"Trust me, I wanted to visit you earlier, but no one wanted to tell me in which wing you were stationed."
I furrow my brows. "Why would no one tell you?"
"Alliance wants you to get some more rest before they let the reporters in," she says as she takes a seat on a chair on the far end of the wall.
"Reporters, why?" I ask.
"Has no one told you?" Shepard asks while raising an eyebrow.
"No one has told me anything yet," I say.
"Everyone wants to get an interview with the hero of Elyisum," She says.
Did she just… hero of Elyisum? No, that can't be right.
"Hero of Elysium?" I ask, almost choking on my breakfast sausage. "Since when am I a hero?"
"Since you almost single handedly took charge of the make shift defense of Elysium and bought the entire city time by reactivating the backup generator."
"Yeah, but… you were there as well," I say. "I'm hardly a hero."
"Yeah, but they didn't hear me giving orders to everybody over the Alliance frequency."
"They were listening to that?" I ask.
Shepard laughs. "Considering it was an Alliance frequency… yes, they were."
I can't believe I managed to take the title away from Shepard. I didn't want to mess with the timeline already. Shit, I really fucked up. First chance I get to be part of the known Mass Effect backstory and I go and make myself the focal point.
"I mean, I guess that's pretty cool," I say while trying to rub the back of my head with my left arm, but I lift it just to realize that I have no arm there anymore.
"How's the arm?" Shepard asks as she walks to the foot of the bed.
"You mean this arm?" I say while raising my stump again. "I must've misplaced it," I grin, and Shepard laughs.
"You know, you're pretty lucky that you didn't die in the generator room."
"Really?" I ask. "I can't remember much from it."
"Do you want me to go into detail?" Shepard asks, putting her elbows on her legs, leaning forward.
"Yeah, I want to know how I lost my arm," I say.
"Well, do you remember the mech outside of the power station?"
"I do," I say. "The one that almost killed us."
"Exactly," she says. "Remind me to buy you a drink for saving me back there."
I chuckle. "And remind me to buy you a drink for getting that turian pirate off me."
"I will remind you," she laughs. "Anyway, we got into the generator room pretty easily, but we were attacked by a pack of varren that were following us."
"I remember that as well," I say. "Then we tried to close the blast doors. That's where it goes dark for me."
"Well, a krogan pirate lifted the door up and locked us in with him and a bunch of varren. He used his giant, probably homemade gun to shoot at you and well… that's when I noticed you were missing the arm."
"And I didn't act surprised at all?" I ask.
"Nope," she shakes her head. "You lifted your stump up and taunted him."
"Sounds like David," Nolius chuckles. "You were probably hopped up on painkillers weren't you?"
"Yeah," I answer. "The doctor told me what was in that concoction. That alone could've killed me."
"I figured," Shepard says. "Most people couldn't walk let alone jump and fight with a shattered femur and missing arm."
"Not to mention broken and fractured vertebrates," I add. "I was a living corpse. It's happened before."
"Really?" Shepard asks quizzically. "When?"
"On Chalkhos," I say. "Mission gone FUBAR. I can give you the details over the drinks we owe each other."
"Deal," Shepard says. "Now, is there anything else you wanted to know about what happened in the generator room?"
"How did the krogan die? Did you kill him?"
"Nope," Shepard says. "You did."
"I did?!" I practically shout. "With one hand?!"
"Yeah, impressive thing to see that was," she says. "The krogan knocked the wind out of me, and next thing I know I see that he has you in the air by your neck. I thought that was the end for both of us then and there… but it wasn't."
"What did I do to kill him?"
"You used and omni-blade and took his arm off, after which you repeatedly stabbed him in the face, screaming obscenities at him."
I whistle in amazement. "Now there's something I didn't expect."
"Trust me, neither did I," Shepard says. "I underestimated you."
"Really, in what way?" I ask while furrowing my brows.
"I honestly just took you for a glory hungry idiot when you took charge of the makeshift ground forces, considering the fact you came from Chalkhos. I thought that my first impression confirmed itself when you ran off yourself into enemy territory and didn't want me to join."
"You thought I was going to get myself killed, right?" I ask.
"Yeah," she answers. "No one I know in the Alliance would just run into battle by themselves head on without backup, it's suicide."
Oh trust me Shepard, if thing go as they're supposed to go, you'll find out what running head first into battle with no support feels like. Suicide missions included.
"Well, I guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover," I shrug. "I'm not as stupid as you think I am."
"Trust me," She says while raising her hands in defense. "I don't think you're any of the things I just called you. Well… maybe a little idiotic, but other than that you're a respectable man."
"I'd change idiotic into brave… for the media of course."
Shepard snorts. "Right, they'll just eat that right up wont they."
"They will," Nolius says. "As morbid as it seems, the media is having a field day right now, interviewing survivors and all that. Feels like the entire galaxy is looking at Elysium."
"Great, even more people that'll know my face," I curse quietly. "Just what I wanted."
"Giving people a face they can relate to the hero that saved countless lives is a good idea," Shepard adds.
"Yeah I guess," I say. "I just didn't make a lot of friends while on Chalkhos, and them knowing where I am is not the best idea."
"I'm sure the Alliance could relocate you to some other world. You could retire on a nice slice of Eart…"
"I'm not going to retire at all," I cut off Shepard. "There's no way I'm going to throw in the towel now. Retiring now, at my age, would mean that I'd be dead of a drug overdose on said world that I'd be relocated to. Boredom is my worst enemy."
"I understand that," Shepard says. "But you won't be fighting for a while."
"If the Alliance can relocate me to another world, I'd rather have them use that money to fix me up properly. I mean, you guys probably have some fancy tech, prosthetic limbs and whatnot."
"I'm the wrong person to ask about that," Shepard says. "You're going to have a meeting with the bigshots anyway, so its best if you ask the guys who run the Alliance."
"You're not coming along?" I ask.
"Oh I am, every surviving member of the squads you put up are. But you're the focal point. You took charge after all."
"When is this meeting going to take place anyway?"
"Seven hours about. They want you to look more battle scarred, makes you look better in the media's eyes."
"Ugh, it's a media event?"
"Not a big one. They'll just show you receiving a medal of some sort with the rest of us, followed by some words spoken by the Alliance brass. Then you'll give a short interview, and that's it. It'd be unfitting for a large celebration or ceremony now anyway; Elysium is still littered with bodies."
"I'd rather not have any media event if I'm totally honest. I hate being in the spotlight."
"I'd do it David," Nolius chimes in. "Sometimes people need a hero they can look up to."
"I guess you guys are right," I sigh. "Still have a feeling this is more for the Alliance than it is for me."
"I don't know, there might be some cash prize for you," Shepard winks, and I instantly perk up at the word cash. Hell, I don't think I'd say no to money.
"You damn well hope there is!" I half shout. "Otherwise I'm going to be very upset."
"So you won't be happy with all of Elysium's gratitude?" Nolius jokes, and I shoot him a look that signifies that he must be joking.
"Trust me, I'm happy that I saved a whole bunch of lives," I say. "But money is always high on my priority list. Might just be the way I was brought up though."
The door whooshes open and the doctor from before walks in.
"You're awake," he says.
"I am, have been for a while," I say as I finish the last of my tea.
"Well, you've just been put on the top of the priority surgery list."
"Really?" I say somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, just some small repair orders. Shouldn't take more than three or four hours," the doctor says. "You're set for surgery in twenty minutes, I'll have a nurse wheel you into the surgery room then."
"Well uh… okay, thanks doc," I say.
The doctor nods and walks out the door again.
"Well," Shepard begins to say. "I guess they want you walking when accepting the award."
"Yeah, I guess," I huff.
"I'll leave you to it then, David," Nolius says as he gives me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'll see you after the ceremony… or whatever you can call that media event."
"I'll go get some rest before as well," Shepard says as she stands up from the chair. "I'll see you in a few hours."
"Thanks for the visit guys," I say, and both of them smile before leaving the room.
Damn. Hero of Elysium… me. There's something that I didn't expect one bit. I can't believe I already fucked up right after meeting Shepard. By all accounts she probably should've been the Hero of Elysium, but I just had to steal the spotlight. Mind you I didn't do it purposefully at all, I was just acting on instinct. I mean, it's what I was taught on Chalkhos.
No sense dwelling on it now anyway, what's done is done. Shepard will have two more chances to make her name known in the galaxy if we're going by canon. Torfan or Akuze… I just hope for the sake of her it'll be Torfan.
But with me being here, I doubt everything will go according to canon anyway. I already fucked up the timeline enough anyway.
**LINEBREAK**
"I am not wearing a fucking suit."
So the surgery went off without a hitch and they managed to patch up every injury that wasn't my missing arm. Future medicine works wonders, I feel like I wasn't even injured during the blitz, aside from my arm of course. I asked the doctors to keep the scars in place, I like them as reminders for myself. Might sound crude but I'll need the credibility down the line if I want to rejoin Shepard when she ultimately has to stop Saren. Then again, me being the Hero of Elysium might be reason enough.
Now, the Alliance official that picked me up wanted me to wear a suit and tie to the media event. What a joke.
"I'm going to come off as a giant horn blowing idiot to the galaxy when I accept my award or whatever the fuck they're going to give me with a nice suit and tie when the planet hasn't even gotten a sliver of a chance to recover from the attack."
The Alliance official, a middle aged man, is a visible mix between uncomfortable and annoyed.
"It was requested that you wear this by members of the earth council."
"Fuck that!" I exclaim. "I look fine the way I am. I'd look like an asshole with an expensive suit on. I mean look, it even has a sleeve shorter for my missing arm!"
The Alliance official looks exasperated by this point.
"This is an expensive suit," he says. "It'd be a waste not to wear it."
"There's no way in hell," I say whilst shaking my head. "It'd be extremely disrespectful to go prancing around in a suit while bodies are still being identified in the streets"
The official throws up his hands. We've been going back and forth for the past hour now, and the event is supposed to start in a few minutes. I wouldn't even be able to get changed in time anyway.
"I give up!" he yells. "Do what you want!"
I clap my hand onto my knee. "Finally!"
I walk over to the mirror and examine myself. I have a black pair of jeans on, a pair of brown boots and a grey, sleek sweater with its sleeves rolled up neatly on both sides. I had Shepard do the sleeve rolling for me, seeing as I couldn't do it with only one arm.
I examine my hair next, with is neatly slicked back with wax like I usually wear it. My beard is still at the three o'clock shadow level, although I'd have hoped that it'd be longer by now. Beard growth isn't in the family I guess.
"I look fine anyway," I say, but I get no answer. I turn around and see that the Alliance official already left the room. It's a small, very cozy changing room with a clothes rack by the door, a small mirror in front of a row of waist high cabinets and a large, comfortable looking sofa on the other end of the room. That and they have a mini fridge, but sadly there's nothing in there.
The event is being held in some hotel on the outskirts of Illyria that remained mostly unscathed during the blitz. My guess is the pirates wanted to take the city center and then push everyone out of the city slowly but effectively taking it over in the process. It's privately owned by some millionaire though, and he's turning this into some grand show, which makes me sick just thinking about it. Honestly, I'd be happy if I was invited to an event such as this on a normal day… I'd even wear the suit, but it just seems unfitting for someone to flaunt their wealth when nineteen thousand people just died within three hours.
I walk out and spot Derrick a few meters away. First time I've seen him since telling him to go protect the square.
"Derrick!" I shout, and he turns around to greet me with a large smile.
"David!" he says happily. "Haven't seen you for a while."
"I was on lockdown in the hospital," I say while shaking his hand firmly.
"I'd have expected," he says. "Pirates did a number on you I heard. No one wanted to tell me where you were in the hospital."
"I'm still standing," I laugh. "I'm surprised about all this hero talk though."
"Are you kidding?" Derrick says. "If it wasn't for your organization of the defense and the reactivation of the backup generator, we'd probably not be standing here."
"Possible," I say. "Regardless, I don't know why we're having such a fancy ceremony, the turmoil is far from over."
Derrick and I begin to walk towards the room where the event is being held.
"Morbid if you ask me," he says. "Considering what just happened."
"Can't agree more," I say. "Let's just get through this, I'd rather be on the ground helping out anyway. If there's a fancy dinner after this, you won't see me there."
"Sounds like a plan," Derrick says. "This isn't a time to celebrate. The people want to see the hero, I get that, but I wouldn't do anything else."
I hear the sound of rapid footsteps behind me and see Shepard fall into place beside me. Derrick and her are dressed in their normal Alliance uniforms.
"Where's Ria?" I ask as we get to the doorway of the event room. "She made it right?"
"Yeah," Derrick says. "She's in surgery right now last time I heard. Sniper round in the lung, she's been in the hospital since."
"Christ," I say as I see the rest of the people that were under my command. I recognize the faces, but there's only about ten others sitting behind the podium. I flash catches me by surprise and I slam my eyes shut. Fuck, the media is already here.
"She'll be okay, right?" I ask as I take a seat closest to the podium. I hope this goes by quickly.
I look towards the podium and see none other than admiral Hackett standing behind it. I'm not sure if he's an admiral yet, but I'd recognize his face anywhere.
He clears his throat very prominently and the room goes absolutely silent.
Let's hear what he has to say.
Hackett called for a moment of silence before even starting his address to the galaxy, and imagining at least all the worlds in civilized space stop for a moment gave me chills. It was a two-minute period of silence instead of a one-minute period. My guess is Hackett wanted to make clear how grave the situation is.
Despite it being a pretty generic speech about sacrifice and standing by the victims' families and all the people that lost someone during the blitz, hearing admiral Hackett recite it made it that much better. He looks younger than in the games, less wrinkles and shimmers of his original hair color shining through the gray hair on his head. He can't be that old though, my guess is that he's had gray hair all his life. I don't think he's an admiral either, I think I heard Derrick mention something about rear admiral, which isn't that far under admiral if I remember correctly.
After the address to the billions of people that were probably watching, all the surviving members of the squads I put together got a medal for exemplary bravery. All that's missing is me I guess.
"If it wasn't for the quick organization of the defense of this city, we would have an exponentially higher amount of blood on our hands. It was the quick reaction time of the brave men and women who stood up and fought the pirate attack that bought the planet valuable hours."
Wow, Hackett talking without a speech in front of him is much more captivating.
"But it was one man in particular who's exemplary display of selflessness and bravery in the face of certain death who saved the city from falling. By eyewitness accounts and radio transcripts, we learned that he was the one who organized the defense of Illyria and when all seemed lost, charged right into enemy territory to reactivate a backup generator that was vital for the upkeep of the makeshift defenses that the defense force had set up."
Shepard and Derrick look to me and smile slightly.
"That man has received the title of 'Hero of Elysium' by the people that served under him, the planets population and the Alliance systems and I think that's a very fitting name for a man like him."
"Step forward son," Hackett says as he faces me and turns away from the mic.
I step forward and the cameras start going off again for a few seconds before Hackett raises his arm to silence the incessant clicks.
"David Jonas," Hackett says as he faces me. "In the name of the Council, the Systems Alliance and Earth, it is my pleasure to award you the Systems Alliance Medal of Honor and the title 'Hero of Elysium' to you."
I stand up straight as he pins the medal to my right chest.
"Hell of a job you did," he says quietly and gives me a genuine smile.
"Thank you sir," I say as I shake his hand firmly.
"Do you want to say anything?" Hackett asks, and I nod. Hackett steps back and makes room in front of the podium.
I take my place behind it and take a deep breath.
"While I appreciate this ceremony, it comes at an unfitting time."
I clear my throat.
"Nineteen thousand people died two days ago. All of which within three hours… not counting pirates. It would be disrespectful for me to put myself in the spotlight when there's still so much suffering here on Elysium. I did what I was taught to do, protect as many innocent lives as I can and while I did prevent more people from dying, I feel as if I could've done more."
I sigh.
"I thank you all for the title of 'Hero of Elysium', but I am not the only hero. There's still work to be done here and I plan on helping everywhere I can alongside all the other hero's. Thank you."
With that, I walk out of the room alongside the sounds of cameras and camera droids snapping countless photos.
I hope I cleared things up a little bit. I didn't want to come off as a selfish hero.
I make my way towards the elevator that leads to the lobby of the hotel.
"Hell of a speech," Shepard says from behind me and I jump.
"Christ you caught up quick," I huff, and Shepard laughs.
"I have my ways of sneaking up on people."
"I bet," I say as we enter the elevator. "I still think this ceremony is unfitting at this time."
"Couldn't agree more. It was a publicity stunt mostly, but you cleared the air pretty well."
"Thanks," I say. "I just don't want to be the media's plaything, giving interviews about the experience. I have to deal with it myself first before the media starts weaving stories about me."
The door opens and we're faced with a literal wall of cameras and reporters. I guess the entire universes journalists have arrived.
"Fucking Christ," I curse under my breath.
Shepard presses the button that closes the elevator doors.
"You sure you can start helping with the cleanup?" Shepard asks. "If you do, you're going to have a news crew breathing down your neck every second of it."
"I have an idea on how to handle it I say. I'll call Hackett and have him request that Illyria be sealed off to major news crews aside from ANN."
"You sure that'll work?"
"I hope," I shrug. "I want the people helping with the cleanup to work in peace, and that's impossible when seventy thousand news crews walk the rubble."
"Again, you're sure that that'll work?" Shepard repeats.
"I have to play the hero of Elysium card I guess," I say as I open the elevator doors again. The shower of flashes starts anew. "And this seems like a non-selfish reason."
"I guess," Shepard says. "Let's hope it works."
We both exit the elevator.
"No interviews at this time!" I shout as I squeeze my way through the masses and to the exit.
I still can't believe it to be honest.
David Jonas. Hero of Elysium.
Boom! Finally, another chapter! As stated above, I was extremely busy with life the past four months and thus couldn't update at all. Now that I'm back, I'll start to update more frequently.
Next time around we're going to have a time skip of a classified amount of time to get the plot rolling again.
Make sure to read and review!
Cheers!
David