(Shepard) December 2182
The wind danced against the tip of my rifle, spots of a clouded sun still shining through, not reaching the matte black of my weapon. I took a steadying breath, pulling the trigger back with finesse. I watched as my target slumped lifeless to the ground. One simple shot to the heart. Direct and right on the mark per usual. I smiled as I relieved the breath that was entrapped within me. I closed my eyes for a second, affording myself this one, insignificant moment of peace. The smell of dew pressed fresh against my stealth suit, flooding my nose with nostalgia rooted in no pinpoint memories, just a collection of hazy vids playing in my mind from a different time. A different reality.
Opening my eyes back to my set reality, I sat up from my covert position along a ridge line of trees, elevated higher than my target cared to look. "One less scum of the galaxy." I spat the words into freshly fallen leaves, the seasons on Earth fully in their change from autumn to winter. Jolting me into yet another wave of nostalgia, I shook the chill that came with it. I collapsed my rifle and strapped it back to my back, opening my Omni tool once I heard the lock of my suits holster plate.
"Target eliminated. Converging to rendezvous point."
"Copy that, Shepard. Good work."
I didn't respond to the compliment as usual. My work was always good. I knew that and so did everyone else on my team, I didn't need damned praise for it. Unknown as to where my gifts originated from, I took advantage of it. All of them. Honing them to make me a relatively quiet but minacious woman. An attention to detail unparalleled, my instincts heightened from all the years of growing up in the harsh reality of Earth. Steadier hands than a surgeon; some people had argued that I should've went into the medical field. Those people were long dead though, a part of that different reality I forced myself to push to the recesses of my very mind.
Along with my 'inherited' abilities, I'd also been born with biotic capabilities and when I turned 15, I was given an L2 implant and extensive training up until I was 16. And on my last days of certified training, I had proved to everyone I was best in the class, despite my wallflower demeanor, knocking one of the instructors out cold with a biotic throw that rivaled those of Alliance soldiers. For a while I didn't know how I had the chance to even get the implant or the extensive training, doctors only citing an, 'Alliance benefactor' on my behalf when I asked the question. Of course, I didn't question too much, I was an orphan on the streets of the southern part of the Northern American Collective states. The opportunity to go to Vancouver was one I wouldn't pass up. Eventually, I connected the dots and that anonymous benefactor revealed itself to me.
The Systems Alliance Military itself. An operation to 'save impoverished and at-risk youth'. An excuse to recruit more people who would feel entitled to paying back the debt they surely could never. Most had fallen right into the trap; subservient to the Alliance. Bending at their every will to please whoever their commanding officers were.
Not me. And The Alliance realized they had made a mistake by choosing me... or the best decision they could ever had. I was the best of the best of the entire recruitment block. Even alongside the normal recruits. Elite. So elite, I became the youngest, and the youngest woman to join and graduate from the N7 program. The brass loved me. My cohorts admired me. My immediate superiors were wary of me. For as good as a soldier as I was, I never took too much to the Alliance way. Sure, I followed all regulations shore and shipside, I saluted every time I saw a superior with their respective titles, I did everything. Everything except for grovel and back down to them. If I felt like something wasn't correct or that a different plan of action was better, I was the first to state it. Strongly even. I also fought very different, in ways that could have, no should have, gotten court-martialed. In reality the brass had saved my ass more than a few times. Someone up their really looked out for me. Especially on my last mission.
Most of my superiors hated me, deciding to trade me off amongst themselves. Willing to risk the success of their missions to protect themselves from being overshadowed by me, shadowing their egos once they realized my plan was the right one all along. And so, my last superior had finally had enough. After the battle of Torfan, after ignoring all orders from him during the battle, my commanding officer Major Kyle was at his wits end.
After the worst had happened, all of our groundside teams killed, slaughtered by the same bastards that had attacked Elysium. I watched the Major unravel in front of me, bawling up inside himself crying, murmuring words as he laid there in his strife over me, the only one who'd had the sense to not follow his frantic orders once we had become overwhelmed. "Go to the back entrance and wait- no retreat from the side. Belay that order. Dammit!" I ran through the facility, taking my time to kill every one of the batarians left standing. In my own resentment and pity I sat in the shuttle, ignoring his panic to pull himself together, staring out the window, emotionally steeling myself once again.
Initially, he tried to have me court martialed. But once they realized he was unfit for duty, the request was quickly thrown out as we left the tribunal room of the Alliance base. He turned to me before we parted and spat his final words to me. "You might be a hero to all of them, but to me you are a slaughterer, no more than a butcher. The Butcher of Torfan." I just smiled as I embraced the medias new affectionately received name for me, he so easily laid out. I didn't regret like other people, not like Major Kyle wanted me to, trying his hardest to scar me like he had been at my handiwork.
Walking through the trees back down to the clearing beneath me, I even thanked him a little for losing himself so much on Torfan. It's what had got me my promotion, and my black ops placement. And I had no problem with stepping on him to get it, hesitation from emotions had no place on the battlefield and regret had no place where justice had to be dealt. Sure, if I thought about, thought really hard about the targets- victims I had taken, their families, wives and husbands and kids, maybe I felt a bit of remorse. But always after the fact, and never enough to keep me up at night. Those weren't the things that kept me up at night. And definitely not over batarians, it was a resolute 'Fuck you' to the entire species.
"Great job out there, commander says we're heading back to Earth for some much-needed R ma'am." I steeled my face, only giving a nod. I hated shore leave. Nothing important to do, ambling around purposeless pretending to enjoy time off. My life had practically revolved around work. So I guess in a way, I had to admit it to myself. The Alliance did have some form of hold over me. I hate the thought of that too. As we walked into the safety and warmth of the ship, I hadn't even realized how cold it had been outside, my stealth suit adjusting the heat to a lower, more ambient temperature. "Gotta love that new age tech." I thought inwardly to myself.
Making my way to the briefing room, I heard a cople murmurs under my breath as a few soldiers idled near the door, stopping their conversation only when they saw me. I gave a curt nod as I stepped inside, the trio slid in behind, standing behind me somewhere in the distance still in their frivolous ramblings but much more inaudible. The way I preferred it. The commanding officer stood from his solo chair, standing in the circle of soldiers. "Alright great work alpha team on that diversion letting bravo team enter discreetly to retrieve the intel. Our parameters were slightly off however, seeming as-" I faded out from the briefing, the memory of my last target, analyzing my own work leading up to that point. Brung back by the mention of my name, I gave a nod to the commander to let him know I was still with them.
"Shepard, great job as usual snapping those primary targets. We were able to confirm that the three high-priority targets have been eliminated, severely limiting their respective factions by this... unexpected development." Crossing a couple more points he dismissed the group, holding me back for additional information.
"Shepard, I know how much you love shore leave, but yours is being cut a considerable amount short. My first positive piece of news since getting back onboard the ship.
"Why is that sir?"
"You're being reassigned. You're being commissioned to the SSV Normandy alongside Captain Anderson as his XO per his request."
And just like that the day couldn't get any better. "Aye Aye, sir." I snapped a salute and turned on my heels once he dropped his. This was definitely the best Christmas I had celebrated my whole life.