Chapter One
Roxanne
Five Months Earlier:
"This is Shepard, I repeat, my whole unit is trapped on Akuze. Thresher maws have the whole squad pinned, is anyone hearing this?" I shout into the channel as another thresher maw pulls down Jamie.
Her screams echo around me as static answers my call. Toombs glances over at me, a question in his gaze. I shake my head as we turn back to the carnage going on in front of us.
Kaori screams as a thresher maw snaps her up in its mouth. Toombs lets out a small shout of pain at the site.
"What are we going to do, Shepard?" He asks as we keep firing at the maws, taking one down.
"Hold here until we can't." I grit my teeth. "Keep trying to raise someone."
Raphael
Present:
I walk up to the bridge, staring at the stars as we sail through them. I glance at Nihlus, the turian Spectre.
"The board is green. Approach run has begun." Joker announces as he runs through the FTL jump process. "Hitting the relay in 3… 2… 1."
Because of the inertia dampeners, none of us feel the shift as we jump from the relay into the Exodus Cluster.
"Thrusters… check. Navigation… check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online." Joker rattles off as he goes through. "Drift… just under 1500 K."
"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." Nihlus turns and walks out of the bridge.
"I hate that guy." Joker mutters.
"Nihlus gave you a compliment… so you hate him." Kaidan remarks, raising an eyebrow at Joker.
"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible!" Joker huffs. "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."
"You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment." Kaidan says.
"Yeah, that's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story." Joker remarks.
"They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs." I mutter, adding to their chatting.
"Right. So there's more going on here." Joker glances at Kaidan.
"Joker, status report." Captain Anderson says through the speakers.
"Just entered the system, Captain. Almost to Eden Prime." Joker relays. "Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way."
"He's already here, Lieutenant." Anderson growls through the system.
Joker shakes his head as red creeps to his ears.
"Tell Commander Shepard to come see me." Anderson orders before ending transmission.
"You heard the Captain." Joker glances over his shoulder at me.
"He sounds upset." I say as I turn to leave the bridge.
"Oh, the Captain always sounds upset." Joker says.
"Only when he's talking to you, Joker." Kaidan remarks.
I chuckle as I head back to where Anderson is. I pass by Pressly as he's arguing with Engineer Adams about Nihlus.
I stop long enough to reassure Pressly about not getting too worked up about the mission and make my way over to Jenkins and Doctor Chakwas.
I calm Jenkins down, reminding him of his duty as a soldier, and reassure Doctor Chakwas we'll try not to get into too much trouble.
"The captain's waiting for me." I end the conversation, moving around them to the comm room.
When I step into the room, Nihlus is there waiting.
I glance around as I wait for Anderson to come into the room when Nihlus addresses me.
"What do you know about this colony?" He asks as he glances at me.
"I heard it's supposed to be beautiful," I shrug, "but I'm a marine. Not a tourist."
"But it's more than that, isn't it?" Nihlus glances down a datapad in his hand. "Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them. But how safe is it, really?"
I step towards him, an eyebrow raised. "Do you know something?"
"I think it's time we told the Commander what's going on." Anderson announces his presence with those words.
"This is more than a shakedown run." Nihlus says.
"I figured there was something you weren't telling us." I say as I glance at Anderson.
"This comes right from the top," Anderson explains, "intel on a need-to-know basis."
"What is going on?" I ask, glancing between the two of them.
"We're making a covert pick up on Eden Prime." Anderson explains, glancing down at a datapad in his hand. "They don't have the facilities for this. That's why we have Council involvement."
"What's the target?" I ask.
"A prothean beacon." Anderson says.
"Obviously, Commander, this goes beyond mere human interests. This discovery could affect every species in Council space." Nihlus remarks, pulling my eyes to him.
"It never hurts to have a few extra hands on board." I say.
"The beacon's not the only reason I'm here, Shepard." Nihlus says as he steps towards me.
"Nihlus wants to see you in action, Commander. He's here to evaluate you." Anderson fills in the blanks.
"Guess that explains why I bump into him every time I turn around." I shrug.
"The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council." Anderson explains as he paces a few feet in front of him. "The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come."
"You held off an enemy assault during the Blitz single-handed. You showed not only courage but also incredible skill." Nihlus says. "Your sister… not many could have survived what she went through on Akuze. She showed a remarkable will to live - a particularly useful talent."
"My sister isn't here. You won't be able to evaluate her." I mutter, thinking of my sister off somewhere after dropping off the radar.
"Yes but the Council likes the idea of making a set of twins both Spectres. If your sister does show up, it is likely they'll make that outcome true once your evaluation is over." Nihlus shrugs. "I don't actually know. I do admire your sister for what she went through though.
"This will be the first of many missions together." Nihlus finishes.
"Captain, we have an incoming distress signal from Eden Prime." Joker shouts through the intercom.
"Bring it up on the screen." Anderson orders.
The three of us fall silent as we see gunfire and explosions fill the screen. A woman runs over.
"Get down." She shouts as she shoves the cameraman down.
A loud noise, like a ton of brass instruments sounding different notes at once, rips through the screen just before the screen freezes on an image of a huge black ship landing.
"ETA, Joker?" Anderson asks.
"20 minutes out, Captain." Joker says.
"Tell Jenkins and Alenko to gear up and get down to the shuttle bay. This mission just got a lot more interesting." Anderson glances at me and Nihlus.
Nihlus's mandibles flick as he stares at the image.
"Shepard, get to the armory." Anderson orders before leaving the room.
Roxanne
I'm strutting through the Citadel, my cloak in place, as I glance around. I got word that someone was here with information about what happened on Akuze.
"Shepard, if you go this path, I won't be able to help you." Hackett growls as I pace in front of him.
"I have to do this, sir." I turn my eyes to his as I stop pacing. "My entire unit was wiped out. Their screams still haunt my dreams." I snarl at the weakness. "I will find out who lured us there with that fake signal. I will find the murderers responsible for the deaths of those fifty marines."
"But you don't have to go MIA. You don't have to make yourself out to be an enemy of the Alliance." Hackett frowns. "Leaving your active post will do that. You won't be able to show yourself to any of us without being arrested."
I stare at the ground for a moment before lifting my eyes back to stare into his. "I owe those marines justice. And if that justice is at the end of my gun, then that is the justice I will give them. My unit deserves this." I glance at the monitors in the room we're in. "And I cannot give them justice stuck on a planet."
I round the corner near a clinic when I hear rough voices nearby. I pause as I strain to listen.
"What should I do with this bitch?" One voice asks, venom laced in his voice.
"Orders are to detain her when we see her. She is supposed to be meeting a MIA Alliance operative here. We are to capture her before that operative arrives." The other voice says.
I grit my teeth as I lean my head against the wall behind me. Fuck. They sound like Krogan. I glance around the corner once more, taking in their positions and sizes.
Thinking quickly, I pop a singularity right in between them, enjoying their confused faces before disabling their shields with my bypass program. The singularity lifts them into the air, crashing them into each other.
I uncloak in front of them, my arms crossed over my chest. "Tell me who hired you." I order.
"Fuck you, bitch." One of the krogan grumbles before grunting as he smacks into his buddy.
"Tell me who hired you." I try again, a smile in my voice. "I won't ask again."
"Piss off." He growls.
I roll my eyes to the ceiling, a sigh falling from my lips. My eyes fall back to them as I throw a warp into his buddy. The one I was talking to screams in pain as the explosion from the biotic combination sends him flying over the railing.
I saunter over when I notice his hands holding the railing in a death grip. I glance over and raise an eyebrow, the question not falling from my lips but clear on my face.
"They didn't give us a name! We were hired through a program." The krogan answers, glancing at his dead friend behind me. "Now help me up, psycho."
I tap my finger against my chin, pretending to think, before glancing back down at him. I grab him with my biotics, pulling him over the railing and sending him straight into the wall by the clinic.
I cloak again as people run over to check out the commotion. I pass a turian C-Sec officer who glances straight at me as I move through the crowd. The blue on his face is quite a beautiful color.
There's no way he saw me. I'm cloaked.
"Vakarian, get over here." the human officer says. I watch the turian walk over to the human.
My eyes move over the people gathered before falling on the contact. Her fear is palpable. I uncloak near her and pull her into a dark alley.
Her hands fly up to cover her face, shaking all the way. "D-don't hurt me. I never wanted to have any part in this."
"Prim, I'm the one who wanted the information." I say in a stern tone, causing her eyes to gaze into mine. "There are people after you. I just took care of those two krogan there who were looking for you. Give me that information."
Her eyes widen, her lip trembling slightly, as she presses a few buttons on her omni-tool to transfer over what she has. "Th-that's all I have. Now, I'm going to get out of here."
I grab her arm before she disappears. "Change your identity. If those krogan were hired, there are likely more people looking for you. Do it quickly. And thank you."
She nods, the fear evident in her face. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your unit, Commander." She disappears among the crowd after those words.
I cloak once more and glance at the C-Sec officer from earlier. I admire his clan markings again before slipping away from the crowd.
I walk the length of the wards, passing the entrance to Flux and the shops just before the steps that lead towards Chora's Den. I keep going until I'm seated in a booth in Chora's Den, my back against a wall and eyes on every exit.
I uncloak and pull up the information Prim gave me. My eyes move over every bit of the information, learning all I can. The one thing that sticks out about it all is Cerberus.
I pull up my files from the Alliance, glancing through them all before I come across the Black Ops team called Cerberus.
They've gone rogue? I snarl as I slam a hand on the table.
I'm in the middle of ordering a drink when visions assault me. I double over in pain as images of a species, I'm not sure which, is slaughtered. Image after image, synthetics slaughter organics. The images keep up until I collapse to the ground, out cold.