The thrusters of the ship fired, and my father slowly brought Serenity to a hover over a small field. "I still think that this is a terrible idea." He rumbled. I patted his green-brown plates and laughed when he gave an annoyed rumble. He always hated that. Which is probably almost certainly why I did it. "You did it, so I don't see why I shouldn't." I responded.

"Yes, but I am an idiot. What's your excuse?"

"That I'm also stupid. And paranoid." I frowned. "If you're stupid, what does that make mom?"

Dad laughed, and he always had the best laughs. A deep bellyful laugh that would echo across wherever he was. No matter the century, I would always remember and treasure that laugh. I looked over his scarred face and smiled. I don't remember my human parents, but I like to think that they were like the ones I have now. Supporting, firm but fair. All together good people. I did need a lot of guidance to navigate this verse, but not so much on being an adult. I like to think I was one sometimes in my previous life.

"It makes your mother a gorgeous woman who married beneath her." He said. I groaned and hugged him. Actually I hugged around his head and neck as much as I could because he was still flying and full grown Krogan that are around seven hundred years old are frankly massive people. He laughed and clapped one hand around my arm. "Mom loves you. She didn't marry beneath her and we all love you."

"Really think so Kicker?" Calling me by my nickname that I had earned from my habit of kicking everything that annoyed me. What? It's a pretty effective way of solving problems. I rolled my eyes. "She had nine kids with you. What do you think that says?" I asked. "And don't make any mention of how good you are in bed. I'm still mad about walking in on you two in the family room."

Dad rolled his eyes. "That was almost thirty years ago! Aren't you going to get over it?"

"No! You have a bedroom for a reason!" Dad scoffed and switched Serenity into a hover. "Don't want to stay long, unless you want something to bring your home down." He said. Seeing as I didn't, I grabbed my pack and jumped out of the ship with a shouted goodbye. I landed and rolled a couple times until I came to a stop and jumped up. If anyone had seen that, they would have assumed that I had practice and planned that practiced that jump instead of seeing the ground for the first time.

My smirk at my successful landing fell off of my face as I looked around. Eingana was a jungle planet that was overgrown and had little to no settled colonies. Mainly because anyone that tried to make a living here usually ended up in something's stomach. Only the bravest smugglers or idiots trying to improve themselves (IE me) come here. This field was one of the open places and while it was a good place to land, it was a terrible place to stay. Time to hit the trees, get a lay of the land and find a place to make camp. I had just taken my first step when the tree branches cracked and this giant bus sized fuck-off reptilian thing stepped out of the jungle. It had the narrow snout that reminded me of the Earth monitor lizards and its jaws were filled with more large sharp teeth than a predator of that size should really need. (Then again for a creature of that size any number of teeth are too many) It walked on a total of six legs, the back four looked like normal lizard feet, save for ending in long dangerous talons. Its front two legs looked like a bigger problem than the long whip tail that twisted lazily behind it. The front two limbs dragged on the ground until the lizard-thing brought them up they were clearly visible. Long wicked scythe like talons extended from the front two limbs. It had sword arms. Who needs sword arms?

The cherry on the craptastic cake is that small biotic fields popped along his body. I sighed and dropped my bag. "I don't suppose that you could just go away?" I asked, already knowing the answer. The lizard-thing opened its jaws to an impossible wide angle and gave a shrieking roar and charged. Despite being the size of a bus, the damn thing moved pretty fucking fast. I squashed my fear and formed a bubble around my fists.

"Alright! Come on then!" I roared out and charged the beast. A split second before he could reach me, I jumped into the air and used my biotics for an extra boost. I barely missed its jaws and slammed the creature's face into the ground. My victory was short lived as the tail whipped around and hit me in the stomach. I barely got a barrier up and even then it was like getting hit by an air car. I flew back and bounced off of the ground until I came to a groaning painful stop a couple feet later.

Lizard-beast thrashed on the ground for a second until it righted itself and glared at me with way too much hate in its eyes for any creature. I spat out a little bit of blood and charged up my biotics.

"I'm still here you Godzilla wannabe. Come on!" I yelled.

The creature charged, roaring the whole way.

2 years later

I groaned as the nurse peeled off the bandage. "You're in luck." She said cheerfully. I glanced over at the blond. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, not all that sarcastically. How they could have faster-than-light travel and all of this other technology but not make easy to remove bandages? "I think you are. No scarring or infections. You're all better! Please try not to get shot again."

"No promises." I cheeked, only halfway joking. The life of a huntress wasn't easy. I looked over at the gorgeous blond. I don't know where the Citadel hires their nurses, but a good number of them are extremely easy on the eyes. "Though" I started to say and then trailed off when I saw the gold band around her ring finger. "Yes?" She asked, and I shrugged. "Sorry lost my thoughts. Still no promises."

She rolled her eyes and shooed me out of the room as soon as I was dressed. Nomi and Micah were waiting for me in the waiting room. I had barely stepped into the room when Nomi almost ran me over and I again had to catch Micah before he could hit the ground. Babies. Suicidal little things.

"I'm fine." I said, answering her unasked question. Nomi looked like she didn't believe it, but I lifted my shirt and showed that the bullet wound was now gone. Nomi's eyes watered and I quickly moved to pull her into a hug. She sniffled a mountain of thanks and I took her hand and led her out of the hospital and back to her place. I had come back to the citadel after spending a year on Eingana and then a year on Tuchanka visiting my father's clan, Clan Urdnot. I was visiting Nomi at her work when she had been accosted by some thug who didn't understand what no meant.

So I broke his arm.

Turned out that he had friends and they tried to get revenge. C-SEC has the broken survivors now. I didn't escape completely unscathed as one had gotten a shot off and got me in the stomach. I'm going to start wearing armor everywhere I go. First the Geth and now whoever the fuck these guys were. I'm starting to think that I am sort of bullet magnet. Even for a huntress this is verging on ridiculous.

I hadn't come here just to visit my friends. I had also came to find any information on Shepard that I could. I knew that the Reapers were coming and she seemed like a good place to start. I mean she had talked to Sovereign. I had broken into the Council chambers and scared the crap out of the human councilor Anderson. It stopped being funny when he had punched me in the face. Hell of a right hook for an old guy. As grateful as he was that I believed Shepard about the Reapers, the sad fact was that she was dead.

Defeated on that part, I had asked for any scrap of information on the Reapers that I could get. In exchange, I volunteered to look into the disappearing Human colonies. First, visit some friends and then visit that shithole called Omega. The pirate queen Aria T'loak either knew everything or knew someone that did. Seemed as good as a place to start anyways.

First things first, visit friends, help them out with their issues (get shot for doing so) and now to leave for Omega. After more promises to be as safe as I ever am, I hugged Micah and Nomi goodbye and left aboard Serenity. My small Asari built ship was as much my home as Thessia or Tuchanka. I loved the old girl dearly, and not just because I bought her. The small ship was Asari built and reminded me of the ocean. A deep ocean blue and shaped like an Asari Republic corvette, though much smaller and less armed.

Serenity hummed to life and I guided her out of the Citadel and towards the Relay. The giant device would hurl my ship at impossible speeds, allowing me to visit different parts of the Milky Way Galaxy. I didn't even begin to understand the math behind it. I just fly and shoot things. I pulled up close to the Relay and watched as a bolt of light reached out and grabbed my ship. Serenity glowed a light blue until I was hurled forward through space many times faster than the speed of light.

Omega. What a fucking shithole. I was there once, a few years ago helping my squad chase down a slaver. We successfully killed him, then spent the better part of two days slaughtering a band of pirates that chased us all over a station. Idiots. Chase of a band of Asari huntresses. Anyways! Omega was a hollowed out asteroid that had been used for mining at some point. I think. Either way, whatever its original purpose, now it was a breeding ground for gangs, pirates and the desperate with no place to go. Violence and murder are daily things along with slave gangs and the like.

A wretched hive of scum and villainy worse then Mos Eisley.

When I landed in one of the hangers, I grabbed my armor and weapons. Even if recent events hadn't happened, there was no way in hell that I was going to walk around Omega unarmed and or unarmored. My ever so trusty vindicator assault rifle, one acolyte pistol and one M-5 pistol. My armor started off as a sort of conforming black one piece suit with plates of blue-grey armor over it. Various bones were strapped to my arm and leg greaves, giving me a sort of barbarian look. A collapsible helmet hung around my neck, waiting for me to activate it. The final piece and my favorite part was the deep ocean blue sleeveless ankle length leather long coat. Complete with a hood. That Zilla thing that I fought on Eingana proved to be my most dangerous and recurring foe. We fought time and time again and he nearly killed me when he once got the drop on me, giving me a nice scar on my back from my left hip to my right shoulder.

I swore I wouldn't leave Eingana until the killed the bastard. Lo and behold three weeks later I did. Instead of him eating me, I killed and ate him, and now his bones and skin were my armor and also a hell of a blanket. His skull was also mounted on the wall behind my bed. Chameleon bastard. I won that particular fight thank you very much.

After triple checking that Serenity's security locks and the self-destruct where in place and working, I pulled the hood up to cover my face and entered the shithole in space, Omega. I pushed my way through the crowds, only stopping to bend a pickpocket's arm into an unnatural angle until he gave me back my money.

The Afterlife club was my destination, where the Pirate Queen Aria T'loak ruled Omega. Hopefully she's in a good mood. If not, then I hope she's in a pragmatic mood. I had just gotten into Afterlife when I spotted an odd group of people making their way towards Aria. One was a heavily scarred human male in yellow armor, along with an amazingly gorgeous woman with shoulder length hair in a tight whight leather outfit, complete with black gloves and knee high black boots.

Hello beautiful!

The third person, leading the group was who really caught my eye. Ear length red hair that stuck in all directions, and when she turned she had piercing forest-green eyes that seemed to see everything. Her pale skin and the small scar on her eyebrow were the final parts that put it all together. Skye Shepard is alive?! I knew it! I knew that she couldn't be dead! She defeats the Reapers! Somehow.

I shoved my way through the people towards them. "Shepard! Skye Shepard!" My voice cut through the noise of the club and all three of them turned towards me. I got as close to them as I could before the man and the woman put their hands on their weapons.

"Hold it!" I said, holding my hands up and palms out. "Not here to fight. My name is Moira. Moira T'sovik. I'm a huntress." I dropped my hood and gave what I hoped was my most charming and friendly smile.

Shepard waved her companions to relax and they did, maybe an inch or so. "I'm here to help with the Reapers. Councillor Anderson gave me some information about them in exchange for looking into the disappearance of human colonies in the Terminus systems."

Shepard stared at me long enough that I quickly became uncomfortable. "You believe me? Just like that?" She asked in that rich voice of hers.

"Umm, yea? I was there on the Citadel when Sovereign attacked. A piece of that bastard landed on me and nearly killed me. Pretty convincing."

Shepard was again silent. "Wow. Someone actually believed me and they aren't with Cerberus."

I frowned. "Who the hell are with those bastards?" I asked, glaring at the male. He frowned and jerked a thumb at the woman, who was now glaring at me. I looked at her, and noticed the symbol for Cerberus on her suit, just above her sizable breasts. (Which were larger than mine) "You're with those speciest bastards? Guess you aren't perfect after all."

A barrage of emotions danced across her face, including what I swore was genuine happiness at being told that before her face slammed back into annoyed controlled neutrality. I dropped my hands after it became clear that they weren't going to shoot me. "You know that it's dangerous coming with us?" Shepard asked. The woman spoke up, "Shepard, I don't think it's a good idea-" Shepard cut her off. "We can use all the help we can get."

"I ran with the Suicide Pack during my eighties and nineties. I can handle myself." Shepard shrugged and introduced the two, Miranda and Zaheed. I fell instep with them as Shepard led the way towards Aria. "You ran with the Suicide Pack?" Zaheed asked in his gravely rough voice. "Aye. One of the first members. You've heard of us?" I asked. "Only rumors. I thought they were a pile of goddamn bullshit."

I laughed. "If I hadn't lived it, I would think so to!"

"I'm sorry, but what or who the hell are the Suicide Pack?" Miranda asked. Her accent was definitely Australian and easy on the ears. If she wasn't part of Cerberus or breathed that queen-ice-bitch air, I would be trying to kick her legs out from under her. "Suicide pack, or squad or whatever you want to call us is a group of Asari and others living in Asari space. We were sent on suicide missions on a regular basis."

Miranda hummed. "I guess you have some skill then."

"Oohh careful there Randa, I might start to think that you might like me."

That got me a disgusted scoff and a magnificent eye roll. I smirked and that got me another eye roll. Until a thought hit me. "How big is the hanger on your ship? I have my own and don't want to part with her. Seeing as she is my home."

Shepard who had been walking in front of us suddenly appeared to my left. When did? "What type of ship is it?" she asked. I pulled out a small pad and showed her a basic schematic of Serenity. "Miranda?" Shepard asks.

Miranda also took a look at it. "It'll fit. Might be tight, but Normandy has room." I beamed at the news. I wouldn't have to give up my home! Which was great because I had no idea on how I was supposed to get it back to Thessia if I couldn't. Autopilot maybe?

We strode through Afterlife and Shepard once again took the lead with Miranda following close behind. Zaheed and I trailed back a little bit and traded war stories, though I admit to being slightly put off with the number of stories that ended with his team getting killed. The US Marine in me combined with the Asari huntress didn't like that at all. I still found myself liking the guy, as he did tell some good stories and didn't have anything to say about my stories except maybe an appreciative goddamn! Didn't know someone could put that many goddamns in a sentence.

While Zaheed and I had been talking, Shepard had met Aria and was on the couch talking to her. Since I had found Shepard, I didn't really need to talk to Aria, and I honestly doubted that she would remember me anyways. I hung back and listened as she talked about Mordin, and appreciating his efforts to combat the plague and his willingness to shoot people if he couldn't help them. I liked him already.

Archangel had somehow managed to piss off every single merc band on this shithole of a space station, which is really impressive. Getting the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack to work together? I can't recall of a moment when that had happened. Shepard thanked Aria for the information and got up. Just as we all started to leave Aria spoke up. "Moira. James is still looking for you."

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "I thought he was dead." I grumped.

"You're not that lucky." Aria said and then jerked her head towards Shepard. "Good luck." Not hard to recognize that dismissal and I left, pulling my hood up and obscuring my face. "So who's James?" Shepard asked after I caught up.

"Ex-Boyfriend. Long story short I met him after I left the Asari Republics to do a bit of exploring about twelve years ago. At the time he was a small time smuggler. Ran with him and his brother a bit. I helped smuggle some things and they gave me information on the Terminus systems that I passed onto the matriarchs. When they wanted to make some more money selling some people to either Khar'shan or the Collectors and I disagreed and we had a falling out."

Shepard gave me a sidelong glance. "You'll tell me the full story on our way to Archangel."

"And if I don't?" I asked.

"Nothing. I just won't be able to help you if you don't tell me." I stared at her and didn't see anything that looked like she was joking. I shrugged and left it alone. We entered one room in question at the bottom of the stairs and a Batarian in Blue Suns armor looked up and scoffed at Shepard. "Stripper quarters are that way." He said. Sexist pig. Shepard rolled her eyes and pulled out her pistol. "Bet mine's bigger than yours." She said softly. The merc chuckled and began the standard spiel about being freelancers, getting paid afterwards and no we would not become members of any of the gangs.

After he finished talking,we turned to leave and past a kid I swear was no older than eighteen, excited about going to fight archangel. I looked at the kid and scoffed. "Dead in the first wave." Zaheed and I said at the same time. "Not going to live through this." Miranda added.

Shepard seemed to agree as she turned and asked how old the boy was. "Hey I'm old enough! Besides I just bought this and I want to use it!" He said as he pulled at a shuriken that honestly looked like it had seen better days. Shepard grabbed it and smacked it a couple times, jamming the heat sink. "Get your money back." She told him. As we walked past him I whispered "She saved your life."

The flight from Afterlife to the staging area was unremarkable, as the Blue Suns driver didn't say anything to us and Shepard took the moment to grab a quick nap. I had fished out a book about the Vietnam War and was reading it, content to ignore the grumpy mercenary and Ice-Queen. Ice-Queen did raise an eyebrow at my choice of reading, but didn't say anything. Probably surprised that an alien would express interest in human history. To start, I wasn't going to admit that in my previous life I was pretty sure that I had fought in that war in some capacity, and even if I hadn't, there were some valuable lessons for the Asari. I had my purple ass laughed off of Thessia when I would keep pointing out that guerrilla warfare wasn't really sustainable for every major conflict and that the Asari needed to change.

But nooooooooo why listen to some young adult? What could she possibly know about anything?

My internal rant ended when the taxi landed and we climbed out. I had to do a little stretch to get the feelings back in my legs after being squished between the two in a car that wasn't really supposed to seat five people. I joined them just in time to listen to a Batarian calling himself Salkie introduce himself and celebrate that people who actually looked like they knew what they were doing was hired. He quickly and eagerly passed on what he knew. Long story short, Arcangel had barricaded himself in a building at the other end of the path and the only way forward was across a bridge. Freelancers would lead the way (of course) and then that bastard will finally be killed.

After finding out that we were supposed to talk to a Sergeant Cathka and moved on. We had just past the barricade when the top half of a freelancers head was blown off. Hell of a shot. I like this archangel. We moved around the well for a lack of a better term Forward Operating Base, under the direction of someone named Edi sabotaging the mechs, stealing anything that wasn't bolted down and I dropped a couple timer grenades in corners near the Blood Pack. We finally found Sergeant Cathka fixing a gunship, and the Batarian was nice enough to exchange a few pleasant words with us before word of the attack came down. Just as he turned around around to finish working on the gunship, Shepard quipped "You're working toward, you should take a break." and slammed a welding tool right into his back. He started screaming and convulsing on the ground as Shepard ignored him.

She nodded to us. It's go time. My helmet unfolded from the collar and covered my head and face. The skull design on it complete with the hood looked pretty intimidating. Should hopefully get someone to hesitate, even for a second. If not, well it looks cool. We vaulted over the barricade and fell into an easy diamond shape formation. Moving to cover, we waited until Shepard said "Now." Zaheed didn't hesitate. Old scarred bastard that he might be, he turned and gunned down the closest freelancers with hesitation of before they had a chance to react. Only Shepard was a little faster. I trapped a couple freelancers in a biotic field and Ice-Queen smacked them a blast of her own, sending them over the side of the bridge. They disappeared, screaming. A loud explosion grabbed our attention and the remains of several freelancers lay scattered around a burning barrel.

"I think we're clear." I said cheerfully. "I think she's right." Shepard said. We double timed it across the bridge and into the building. Once inside, it became a five minute matter to deal with the couple freelancers that had gotten inside and were trying to hack the door open. They didn't get far. A few bullets and that was that.

The door opened and we moved inside the room, spotting Archangel, who apparently is a Turian in blue and black armor. He held up one finger to us, and we waited as he took a shot a dropped a freelancer with a wonderful headshot.

The Turian turned and removed his helmet. He looked like a standard Turian, mandibles and blue face-paint that were stripes across his face. Goddess he looked so exhausted! His mandibles were hanging a little loosely, and he moved a little stiffly, as if the energy was slowly bleeding out of him. "Garrus!" Shepard shouted. I was nearly taken back at the joy in her voice, where before it was calm cool and collected, now it was filled with such joy that I almost thought someone else had spoken up. As Shepard and Garrus quickly caught up, I directed Zaheed and Miranda to look around and take stock of everything and move the furniture around to create cover. A gunshot got our attention as Shepard stood up and handed a sniper rifle back to Garrus.

"Eclipse is coming. Everyone get ready!" Shepard called out.

We ran to the windows and sighted down the weapons. The first wave of Eclipse mechs backed by their troops started making their way across the bridge towards us.

Right.

This is where the fun begins.

I refuse to believe that in the future with casual space travel, that they don't have collapsible helmets like seemingly every other story these days do. That's my headcanon and I am sticking with it. Hope you all enjoyed.

-C.H.