MASS EFFECT DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. I HAVE MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, AND THEY ARE GUARDED BY AN ANGRY ROBOT. DON'T ASK WHY HE'S ANGRY, BUT KNOW THAT IT INVOLVED A PLUSH STARFISH AND A BUCKET OF CHICKEN.

Something I noticed as I was writing this: in all of my Mass Effect stories that focus on Shepard (or a Shepard, in this case), all of my main characters' names start with A. There was Alan Shepard in Outcast Effect, Aaron Shepard in Cycles Upon Cycles, Alexia Shepard in Honor-Bound and Star-Bound, and now we have Alanna Shepard, even if no one knows her as such yet. This was not intentional, but I think it's stuck at this point.

Anyway, how is our girl doing? Let's find out.

Mass Effect: Legacy

II

2288 CE

"Come on, you worthless maggots! My grandmother can crawl faster than you! Hell, I bet your grandmas can crawl faster!"

As Alanna hauled herself through the mud, she wondered if the drill instructor knew how right he was. Knowing Aethyta, she probably could crawl through the obstacle course faster than most people.

Not Benezia, though, Alanna thought sourly; that particular black mark on her family tree had probably never stepped in mud in her life.

As live rounds zipped overhead, Alanna got her head back in the game. She crawled under the barbed wire, and then sprinted for the rope net. All she had to do was use the net to climb the wall, and then finish a half-kilometer run, and then she could stop.

Thoughts of finishing today's physical training came to a halt when Alanna heard a cry of pain. One of the other trainees, a Quarian named Korim'Dor, had fallen, and was clutching his ankle. Alanna and another trainee rushed over to him; in her exhaustion, it took Alanna a few seconds to realize it was Haley.

"Go, go!" Korim'Dor shouted. "I'm done."

"Not happening," Alanna said, and lifted one of the Quarian's arms over her shoulders. "We don't leave a man behind."

"Besides," Haley added, "if we don't all cross the finish line, we have to do this whole course over again tomorrow."

Korim'Dor grumbled, but he knew she was right. He hobbled along on his good leg, using the two women as crutches, but insisted he climb the rope net himself. He even did well, though Alanna made sure she could catch him with her biotics if he fell; biotics weren't allowed for this part of training, but she doubted anyone would penalize her for saving someone's life.

Once Korim'Dor was on the other side of the wall, Alanna and Haley helped him get to the finish line. They handed him over to a waiting medic, and then sat down hard. As soon as the last N7 candidates finished the course, all the obstacles dissolved into pixels; the hard-light constructs were different each time they ran the course, though the artificial weather of the Titan N7 Biodome was usually set to whatever weather would make them as miserable as possible. Today, it was rain and mud.

"I'm sorry," Korim'Dor griped. "I know you two would have kept your top scores if you'd just kept going."

A cough made the three of them turn; Alanna and Haley immediately stood back up and snapped to attention, and though the medic kept him from standing, Korim'Dor saluted.

"If they'd kept going without you," Major Philip Tam said, "I'd have drummed them out right then and there. This is N7, soldier; more importantly, this is the Alliance, and we don't leave our people behind." The commanding officer of the academy looked each of the three trainees. "Do you get me?"

One would have been forgiven for assuming Tam was actually another drill instructor, because at one point, he had been. He certainly looked the part; even in the pouring rain created by the simulation, he was intimidating. Nearly as tall as a Krogan and bulging with muscle, he was covered in scars—a memento from his time as a prisoner of Batarian pirates, and he wasn't afraid to go into the gory details of how each and every scar was inflicted.

"We get you, sir!" they shouted, even though the effort hurt their lungs.

"Good to hear." Tam nodded at Alanna and Haley. "Don't worry about your scores. Doing the right thing will always trump being the strongest or the fastest. Just remember that, sometimes, doing the right thing means saving a comrade over achieving an objective… or the other way around. Being an N7 means having the judgment to know which call to make."

Once Tam was gone, Haley almost collapsed. "Holy shit, why is he always so terrifying?"

Alanna sat down and gently elbowed her. "Duh, have you seen those arms? He looks like he could wrestle a Yahg and win."

Korim'Dor, his ankle already fixed up with some medi-gel, laughed. "Yeah, and the rest of us mortals would have to do that the hard way—with biotics and high explosives, or both."

Alanna grinned; she liked Korim, and he was her closest friend in the academy, after Haley. He was a rare Quarian biotic, and since he was already a great engineer, he'd signed on in the Sentinel course.

Though N7 training was no cakewalk, Alanna had been performing well. She had the top scores for hand-to-hand combat, biotics, and engineering; to the surprise of many, despite her preference for loud, close-range combat, she'd also performed well during stealth practice, and was just as capable of commanding a squad in battle as she was at being the tip of the spear.

Considering who had taught and raised her, anything less than excellence was unacceptable to her.

Though Alanna was clearly the star pupil, her best friends weren't too far behind. Neither could match her scores in everything, but Haley came close in weapons drills and tactics, and Korim's scores in engineering and hand-to-hand were only a few points below Alanna's.

"Tomorrow is the last CQC test, right?" Korim asked. "Any idea who they'll pit us against?"

"God, please let it be Rollins," Haley begged. "I would love to give that perv a black eye."

"Hey, I called dibs for kicking the crap out of him," Alanna muttered. "That little shit stares at my ass more than you do."

Haley punched her shoulder. "One time, and you never let me forget it!"

"Hey, I wanted to hit him," Korim complained. "I swear, he sneezes next to me just because he wants to freak me out."

The trio collectively scowled. Gerald Rollins' only redeeming quality was that he was the best marksman in the academy's history since it had moved to Titan. The only other N7 candidate to have a higher score was Commander Shepard himself.

Alanna bit her lip to keep from snarling. Even though her parentage was a secret, it infuriated her whenever Rollins hinted that he was the second coming of her father. For some reason, he thought his skills meant he could make advances on every woman in the academy. His behavior was unacceptable, but he never let it show in front of the instructors, so his record was still clean.

"Now I need another reason to take a shower," Alanna said, and tried to wipe some mud off her arms. "Thinking about Rollins makes my skin crawl."

"Amen, sister." Haley stood up, and Korim joined her. "You good, Korim?"

The Quarian's visor was tinted, but from the way his eyes crinkled, the women knew he was smiling. "Yeah, I'm fine. I can get my suit cleaned off in a few minutes, and then I'll get some sleep. See you tomorrow."

…

Alanna sighed as the hot water washed away the mud and grime. It had been a year since she'd joined the academy, and the next week would mark her final tests—as an N7 Engineer, at least. Her class had just completed the basic tests that all N7 candidates were required to pass, regardless of specialty. During her father's day, it would take a soldier years to reach N7, but the program selected from the best and brightest the Alliance had to offer; combined with accelerated courses, the very best could graduate in a year. Still, Alanna was mentally and physically exhausted more often than not, and since she was aiming to expand her capabilities, she also had two different biotics tests, and an officer's exam, on top of her engineering tests. She would be lucky to get any sleep that week.

Once she was clean, Alanna turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself. "Hey, Haley, you done?"

The first thing she heard was a yawn. "Yeah, I'm done. Waiting on you, actually."

"Why?"

Haley scoffed. "You think I'd let you roam the halls with Rollins on the prowl?"

"Good point. Wait, are you trying to protect me from him, or the other way around?"

"Hey, I just don't want you to get a dishonorable discharge because you put that prick in the hospital."

Alanna smirked. "He'd never make it to the hospital, and they'd never find his body."

That much, she was certain of; between lessons from Kasumi, Miranda, Garrus, and her own mother, Alanna knew of at least eighteen ways she could dispose of Rollins that would never get traced back to her.

After the two women put on clean fatigues, they headed for their barracks; to their annoyance, Rollins was leaning against the wall near the entrance. It would have been easier to dislike him if he was ugly, but he wasn't; granted, he wasn't extremely handsome, but it was harder to hate him on sight. Of course, knowing him like they did, Alanna and Haley still hated him immediately, but their hesitation came from deciding where to punch him.

"Ladies," Rollins said in a southern drawl that he insisted was sexy, but it made every woman who heard his voice want to seek therapy. "Excited for tomorrow?"

"If it means beating the shit out of you, I sure am," Haley growled.

Rollins sneered. "That's if you actually get pitted against me."

Now it was Alanna who sneered; while Rollins was an amazing sniper, he was without question the worst hand-to-hand fighter in their class. He made it a point to never spar against anyone who would have dominated him, and used every dirty trick he could get away with on opponents who were closer to his skill level.

In his element, Rollins was fantastic, but as far as Alanna was concerned, he didn't deserve to have the N7 logo on his shirt.

Once Rollins was gone, Haley rolled her eyes. "That asshole brings out the worst in all of us. Makes me feel like I'm back in high school."

"I wouldn't know," Alanna said. "I was homeschooled."

"Then you missed out on all the drama." Haley nudged her. "Come on, I'll quiz you on engineering-course stuff until you fall asleep."

Alanna grinned. "Wow, even better than a bedtime story."

…

The final hand-to-hand combat test was broken up into two parts. The first part pitted candidates against each other, to weed out those who would have to take the training again, or get bumped down to the N6-level or below—there was nothing wrong with that, of course, but there was just that added prestige of holding the same position as Commander Shepard. After that, the best trainees would go up against an instructor, who was either a recently-retired N7, or an active-duty one who was rotated in for a few months.

To Alanna's delight, her first opponent was Rollins. Even better, he looked absolutely terrified as he stepped into the ring with her. Every single woman in the class was cheering for Alanna, along with every guy who knew what kind of scumbag Rollins was—which, after a year, most of them did.

Rollins tried to get inside Alanna's head—or at least hype himself up. "Last chance to give up, R'Maas. Don't whine if I take you down too fast."

Alanna merely raised her arms, widened her stance, and narrowed her eyes. "Shut up and throw a punch."

Rollins hesitated, but when he saw Alanna's arms go too wide, he lunged. That was exactly what Alanna wanted; her arms snapped closer together, she grabbed Rollins' extended arm, and heaved him over her shoulder. There was a pop, and Rollins bit back a scream.

"Y-you Asari bitch! You broke my arm!"

Alanna examined him. "Nah, just dislocated it."

"You're not done, Rollins," the referee said blithely. "If it's just dislocated, you can keep going. Or you can tap out."

"Like a little bitch!" someone in the audience called out.

Rollins snarled, and after staggering to his feet, he charged Alanna; at the last second, he slid feet-first, hoping to take out her feet. Alanna hopped up to avoid him, and landed on top of Rollins; there was another crack as a rib gave way under her knee. She then clocked him across the face; a spurt of blood and a single tooth flew out of his mouth. A few more punches, and Rollins was unconscious, bleeding on the mat, and probably had a concussion.

Alanna calmly stepped back, and used a quick biotic field to wash the blood from her hands. Around her, the other candidates gave her some well-deserved applause; after a year of constant training, everyone knew how good Alanna was, but it was another thing entirely to watch her systematically take apart someone so far beneath her level of skill.

"Corporal R'Maas," the instructor grunted, "come with me for the second stage of your test. You'll be fighting me."

"Yes, sir!"

Alanna tried not be intimidated by the fact her next opponent was an N7 Krogan.

…

Haley leaned against a wall and took deep breaths. She gratefully accepted the bottle of water from Korim.

"Finished with your test?" she asked.

"Yeah, and I hurt in places I didn't even know I had." Korim looked around. "Hey, where's Alanna? I thought she'd be done by now."

"Nope." Haley pointed at one of the smaller rooms. "As far as I know, they're still going at it."

Korim stared. "She went in an hour ago!"

Haley shrugged. "Either they're still fighting, or one of them is cleaning up a body."

…

The Krogan reeled back from another punch, and spat out blood. "Nice work, kid; haven't had a fight like this since I tangled with a Brute back during the Reaper War."

The instructor had given her several compliments during the fight, and while Alanna had been happy to accept them at first, she couldn't even muster up the energy to verbally respond. Instead, she just raised her fists and charged.

Unlike the spar with Rollins, the second level of the tests encouraged trainees to use 'every natural skill available to them', to use Tam's words. For Alanna, that meant she could use her biotics to enhance her blows, and even shunt out of the way of incoming attacks. Against anyone else, it probably would have given her an early win, but she had the bad luck of facing a Krogan who was also a biotic.

If Alanna had been a gambler, she'd have bet it all that this matchup had been deliberate.

With a biotic field encasing her fist, she smashed the Krogan in the jaw; it would have turned half his head into pulp, had he not strengthened his barrier at the last second. He grabbed her arm and hurled her into the far wall. Alanna tried to hold back a scream when she felt another rib break; that was three so far.

Can't quit. Need to win.

Alanna couldn't even think in complete sentences. Her vision was blurry, and she had lost feeling in her right arm. All she could focus on was her instructor's wide, bloodstained grin, and how she wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his dumb face.

She lunged forward, then rolled under his backhanded strike. She slid between his legs, then jumped onto his hump; she wedged her numb hand into a crease in his hide, and used her other hand to rain blow after blow onto his skull. After four punches, the Krogan had had enough; rather than shake her off, he fell backwards.

Alanna suddenly knew what having half a ton of Krogan land on her felt like.

When he rolled off her, she knew she couldn't go any further. Bone was poking out from her left forearm, at least two more ribs were broken, and she knew her leg wasn't supposed to bend that way.

"Not bad," the Krogan said, kneeling by her and applying medi-gel to the worst injuries. "Honestly, kid, I was ready to pass you half an hour ago."

Alanna managed to open her mouth to convey her surprise. "Huh?"

The Krogan laughed. "Yeah, this test was about pushing you to your limit, forcing you to see just how long you fight through the pain. I'd have passed you if you'd quit after I broke that first rib, but you wouldn't stop! You fought like a Krogan."

Alanna managed a grin. "My… great-granddad was… a Krogan."

The instructor nodded sagely. "That explains it. I told Tam you'd go far, and I was right." He laughed again. "Now he owes me money."

"Yay." Alanna sighed as the medi-gel soothed her ribs, and she could breathe again. "Can I go to the med bay now?"

"Huh? Oh, right." The Krogan gently lifted her up with a biotic field. "I'll take you through the back way. I don't think you want everyone out there to see you like this."

In her exhaustion, Alanna could only feel bemused when she watched her broken arm flop about. "That sounds good."

…

Liara sat back in her chair as she watched the data fly by. Every minute contained a new report, either from illegal informants or legitimate channels. She devoured every bit of information, despite already knowing what it led to.

The Council was almost ready for war.

Even if she hadn't been informed by Wrex a year earlier, it was obvious that the Council had been preparing for a conflict. Massive transfers of material to companies that made military hardware, increased emphasis on getting people to enlist, and ships moving closer and closer to Alliance space. You would have to be blind or in denial not to see it coming.

At least the Alliance was neither of those. They had been preparing for such an attack even before the Council's buildup—the humans in particular had been wary after the Batarians had regained their strength. Plans, backup plans, and backups for their backups… after the Reaper War, no one wanted to get surprised again.

Part of Liara felt guilty for supporting the Alliance. After all, that meant turning her back on her own people. Then again, it had felt like her people had turned their backs on her long ago; she'd spent so much of her life studying the Protheans, yet the Matriarchs had hidden a massive Prothean data cache from the entire galaxy, using it to keep themselves one step ahead of everyone else.

Neither the Asari, nor the rest of the Council, could take all of the blame. The Alliance had become more isolationist over the years, avoiding contact with the Council if they could help it. They could have tried diplomacy, even though all signs pointed to the Council using it against them, but it might have prevented a war.

Maybe it was Liara's imagination, but it felt like all of Shepard's hard work was starting to break apart.

Not entirely, she thought. The Alliance is strong, and the Turians don't want to get involved with this mess. If the Alliance can deal a decisive blow to the Council early on, Tevos should fall back to diplomacy, and the other Councilors will follow her lead.

There was still hope, she told herself. Even those born decades after the Reaper War could see the scars, both on people and on worlds. While there was no shortage of volunteers for the military, it was because they wanted to protect what so many billions had died to create, with fewer biases than their parents.

"Please, Alanna," Liara said softly. "Be safe, but show everyone that we don't have to fall back into old hatreds. There's too much at stake."

…

"You ready for this?" Haley asked.

Alanna grinned. "What, because I have to give orders to a sergeant?"

"No, because I'm pretty sure you've only slept five hours for the last seven days."

"N7 exams will do that to you." Alanna shrugged. "Besides, I had a cup of coffee right before we suited up."

Korim nodded. "Ah, yes, coffee—the answer to all of life's problems. Though dextro-coffee doesn't smell as good."

Alanna saw a warning pop up on her HUD. "Two minutes 'til mission briefing. Final gear check."

Alanna and Haley had vastly different suits of armor; N7 armor was comprised of interlocking, modular plates over a sealed bodysuit. Since they were still in training, they weren't allowed to customize the paint yet, so the armor was a matte-grey, save for the red N7 tag on the left shoulder. Haley's suit did not compliment her figure, but it boosted her strength so much that it could almost be classified as an exoskeleton. It also had every shield-enhancing upgrade she could requisition, and her helmet's visor had a VI package that automatically picked out weaknesses in a target.

Alanna's suit was slimmer, but full of angles, rather than the curves most Asari soldiers preferred. Her breastplate in particular was shaped like an obtuse wedge; people stared at her chest enough when she wasn't wearing armor, and didn't want them staring while she was ini it. Because of Alanna's Asari physiology, her helmet was shaped also differently from Haley's; rather than the segmented curves that folded around her head, Alanna's was custom-fit to mold around her crests, and then further protected by straight sections of armor that gave her head a horizontal-teardrop look. The armor on her arms and legs had been designed to boost tech-based attacks, while her torso added an extra layer to her barriers, and her helmet had a second biotic amp to strengthen her natural abilities.

As a Quarian, Korim required a different approach to his armor. His suit had been modified to simply attach thicker plating, but his helmet simply didn't allow for that, so Quarian soldiers had miniature barrier generators added to their helmets, granting a little extra protection. His armor was almost exclusively geared towards increasing the effectiveness of his tech, save for his gauntlets, which helped focus his biotics against single targets.

After checking that their hardsuits were in working order, they checked their weapons. Haley was a walking arsenal, with the smooth curves of an M-7C Protector assault rifle collapsed on her back, next to the straight lines and angles of an M-101 Deadeye sniper rifle. She also had an M-27D Broadsword shotgun collapsed against her waist, and an M-3A Hunter pistol on her hip. She also had her omni-tool, designed to fabricate and launch grenades, as well as launch plasma or generate an EMP.

Compared to their human friend, Alanna and Korim were barely armed at all. Korim had a Broadsword, but instead of a pistol he had a compact M-30 Hailstorm submachine gun. Both guns were suited for short-range engagements, but at longer range, he used his biotics and his omni-tool; the former was to counter enemy biotics, while the latter could deal with synthetics, or disrupt enemy technology.

Alanna's Broadsword made three of a kind, and she also had a Hailstorm, but her preferred weapon was her N7-issue Tsunami light machine gun. Even while collapsed, it was an enormous gun, and had the highest rate of fire of any infantry weapon in the Alliance. Even though she only appeared to have a few weapons, Alanna had her omni-tool, her considerable biotics, and a rectangular device mounted just behind her right shoulder that could quickly fabricate and launch her various combat drones. She also had a long knife sheathed at her thigh as a backup.

Any one of the squad was equipped to handle a platoon of lesser soldiers; after the nonstop training they'd been through, the three of them together could handle almost anything.

"All gear checks out, ma'am," Haley reported.

Alanna nodded; Haley still outranked her, but in this test, it was Alanna who had been nominated squad leader.

"All right, soldiers!" a voice boomed out from the loudspeakers. "Your mission is as follows: artillery is pounding friendly forces. Your primary objective is to eliminate the artillery and its operators. Your secondary objective is to report any field-intel to Command. Anything else is yours to deal with as the situation develops."

The doors to the simulation slid open; Alanna barely caught a glimpse of the realistic hard-light finished forming, and then she ducked as a bullet zipped by her head.

"Go, go!" Alanna shouted as she took in the terrain: trenches and fixed positions, all leading to a bunker/artillery complex on a hill. Standing between her squad and the objective were about a hundred enemy soldiers; today, the simulator was giving them Batarians to fight.

"Heavy cloud cover," Haley noted. "They won't target us with airstrikes or drones, not unless they want to risk us shooting them down."

"Agreed." Alanna looked over the trenchworks. "Haley, there's a tree twenty meters from your two o'clock. Get over there and provide sniper cover. Once we're at the intersection two hundred meters from here, we'll cover your approach. After that, we move on the artillery."

"Copy." Haley pulled her sniper rifle off her back and carefully approached her cover. "Good luck, guys."

The first enemies Alanna encountered were a trio of Batarians, all armed with assault rifles. Whoever programmed the simulation deserved credit for how lifelike the projections seemed; their surprise upon seeing Alanna and Korim actually seemed genuine.

"Fry their gear," Alanna ordered.

Korim tapped at his omni-tool; a moment later, sparks flew from the Batarians' guns. It didn't actually affect the hard-light, but the simulation could read what the candidates were doing, and made the appropriate responses.

Now that their weapons were temporarily disabled, Alanna stepped into the open and let loose with her Tsunami. She didn't even need to activate her shredder mod; the Batarians were torn to simulated chunks.

"Advancing," she said into her comms.

"Negative, negative," Haley snapped, "hold position! I've got eyes on two hostiles." There was a muffled crack as a suppressed sniper rifle fired twice. "Okay, you're clear."

Alanna and Korim carefully approached the intersection; in the simulated distance, they watched an Alliance gunship abruptly erupt in flames and explode. Korim tapped at his omni-tool, and swore.

"This isn't just an artillery post," he reported. "There's triple-A present as well."

Alanna nodded. "New secondary objective: if possible, we take out the anti-air guns."

Korim's eyes narrowed; Alanna knew him well enough to tell that he was frowning. "We don't have that much ordnance."

"The artillery is using explosive shells; we can jury-rig them." Alanna activated her comms. "Haley, you get all that?"

"First, take out the big guns, then blow up the other big guns if we can, got it."

"Good. Korim and I are in position; we'll cover your approach."

Haley was halfway to them when Alanna spotted a squad of Batarians about to intercept her. Fortunately, Alanna was close enough to use more than just her guns; she hurled a sphere of biotic energy in a perfect arc that landed at the Batarians' feet, which burst into a Singularity that suspended them in a swirling vortex. It was standard practice among squads with biotics capable of such a technique to detonate the Singularity as soon as possible, but Alanna had honed her abilities so that she could detonate it on her own. A moment later, Haley was running through the simulated remains of an entire squad.

"That was messy," she commented.

"It's gonna get worse." Korim pointed to his left. "More hostiles on the way."

"We'll buy ourselves some time while we clear the complex." Alanna led the others to the entrance to the squat, prefabricated structure that fired explosive shells from a hole in the roof every minute or so, and then deployed a combat drone; its oval-shaped body was small, barely larger than a human fist, with a pair of stabilizer 'wings' on each side, and an underslung gun.

"Ambush setting," Alanna ordered. The drone beeped, and then vanished as it activated its camouflage.

Korim added a handful of seeker mines that dug into the ground; Haley shrugged, and simply deployed some proximity-activated grenades.

"You need a better option," Korim said.

"Maybe if I was a nerd like you two, I would." Haley collapsed her sniper rifle, and pulled out her shotgun. "However, I'd miss out on shooting stuff."

Alanna and Korim followed suit with their own shotguns; the complex would be close-quarters fighting, and they had the perfect weapons for it.

The inside of the complex was dull and uninteresting; the only color other than grey was a single yellow stripe along the walls. The lights flickered every time the artillery fired, and the squad could feel the vibrations in their boots.

Alanna held up one fist right before they turned a corner. She mimed a moving mouth with that same hand, and then held up two fingers. She tapped Korim and gestured to the corner, then looked at Haley and pointed back the way they'd come. Korim tapped his omni-tool, and yellow hard-light covered his torso, limbs and head; with his tech armor active, he was ready.

Alanna waited for two seconds, and then spun around the corner, where two Batarians jerked in surprise. Her first shot blew her target's head off; Korim had moved at the same time, and his shot punched straight through the Batarian's chest.

"We need to hurry," Alanna said. "There's no way someone didn't hear that. Korim, can you find the exact location of the guns?"

Korim was already hacking the Batarians' omni-tools. "Wait one second… I got it! And I've got both good news and bad news. The good news is that the artillery and the triple-A are right next to each other."

"And the bad news?" Haley asked.

"There are fifty hostiles between us and the guns."

Haley stared at him. "I fail to see the problem."

"The problem is that one of us is going to get more kills than the other two."

Alanna grinned. "Aw, thanks for volunteering to lose, buddy."

"All due respect, Alanna, but bite me."

The levity ceased as soon as they encountered another Batarian squad; this time, there were seven of them. Korim set one on fire with his plasma, and killed him by detonating the plasma with a Warp. The resulting explosion injured three more Batarians, who were quickly finished off by Haley. Alanna killed the rest with a combination of biotics and gunfire. She was proud of their progress so far; the worst damage any of them had taken was a few hits to their barriers.

Several more squads tried to stop them, but these simulated soldiers were based on the performance of standard Batarian infantry. They were no match for a well-trained squad of near-N7s.

"The guns should be just beyond the next door," Korim said. "By the way, I'm on eleven kills."

Haley scowled. "Shit, I'm only on seven."

"You can both kiss my blue ass, I've got seventeen."

It was a good thing this was only a test, and that they were all friends, because the next words out of Haley's mouth would have gotten her court-martialed if she'd said them to a superior officer in the field.

"Korim, hack the door, but don't open it all the way," Alanna ordered. "I'll make another drone to cover you. Haley, toss a grenade as soon as the door starts to open; Korim, close it when she does. Open it again after three seconds."

Her squadmates nodded, and got to work. It took Alanna less than two seconds to fabricate another drone; four seconds after that, Korim had complete control over the door. It split down the middle and started to open, but Korim halted its progress; Haley tossed in a grenade, and Korim closed the door so fast that it almost snapped Haley's fingers.

Before Alanna could count to three, they heard a muffled explosion. When the door opened again, they rushed the room; the artillery crew was staggered, and one of them was dead, while the other soldiers guarding the guns were trying to get into a defensive position.

The room was also a command post; there were several reinforced consoles, and crates of supplies. Alanna grinned when she saw the provided cover, which her team needed no orders to use.

Haley switched to her assault rifle and gunned down the remaining artillery operators. They were only lightly armed, but they were out in the open, and the N7 team couldn't afford to just ignore them. Alanna's new drone fired bursts at any Batarian it could see, while Korim got into a pattern of throwing plasma, igniting it with biotics, and then gunning down anyone stupid enough to stumble out of cover as they tried to put out the flames.

Alanna nearly fell as a nearby Batarian managed to land a hit on her shoulder with a shotgun. It didn't break her barriers, but according to her HUD, it was close. She retaliated with a biotic Throw that knocked her assailant on his back, and finished him with her own shotgun. She then caught three more enemies with a Singularity, detonated it, and then froze another with a burst of cryo from her omni-tool. She was readying another Throw when she saw Haley shatter the frozen Batarian into a thousand pieces with a concussive round.

The firefight continued for another minute or so, and then the room went quiet.

"Clear?" Alanna called out.

Haley went to the left side of the room, Korim went to the right.

"Clear!" Haley reported.

"Clear!" Korim echoed.

"All clear!" Alanna stood up. "Korim, check the computers for intel; Haley, cover the door. I'll rig the artillery to blow."

As her teammates carried out her orders, Alanna went over to the artillery pieces. They were old, designed before the Reaper War, but the Batarians made sturdy equipment that could be easily fabricated. Fortunately for Alanna, their ammunition was good old-fashioned explosive material; it didn't take long for her to rig an entire crate of shells to explode. They would do even more damage once Alanna figured out that she could close the roof of the complex, thus sealing the explosion in one room.

"Intel retrieved," Korim reported. "The enemy has a supply depot two klicks from here. Now that the skies are clear, we can call in an airstrike."

"Good, forward it to Command." Alanna tapped her omni-tool. "Command, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Corporal," the instructor replied, acting out the part of a commanding officer. "Give me a sitrep."

"We're about to destroy the artillery, and we're forwarding vital intel on enemy supplies. Requesting an airlift at our location."

"Roger that. ETA for pickup is five minutes; I repeat, five mikes. You'll need to be outside for that, and scans show multiple hostiles converging on your location."

"Copy that, we'll hunker down until our ride's here."

"Corporal, that artillery is a lynchpin in the enemy lines. If retrieval is impossible, do whatever it takes to prevent those guns from being retaken. Is that understood?"

Alanna shared a look with her squad. Simulation or not, they knew the risks when they became soldiers; they didn't need a test to remind them of that.

"Understood, Command. They won't set foot in here. R'Maas out."

"Five minutes, right?" Haley casually checked her sniper rifle. "All the time in the world."

Alanna led them to the entrance, where she could see dozens of Batarians massing for a counterattack. They hadn't reached the explosives yet, but it was only a matter of—

Boom!

Alanna winced as she saw a squad of Batarians completely destroyed as they charged over the small minefield. All that now stood between her squad and an entire company of enemy soldiers was a cloaked drone, which got off one shot before it was blown up.

"Engage at will!" Alanna shouted, and hurled a Singularity.

What followed was the most harrowing five minutes of Alanna's life; aside from the occasional holographic flicker, it actually felt like this battle was real. Bullets impacted the small amount of cover she had, and dirt was kicked up by exploding grenades. The Alliance squad used everything they had—biotics, tech, gunfire, and even an omni-blade when one Batarian got too close—but the enemy stubbornly advanced up the hill.

After what felt like an eternity, a hail of gunfire from above drove back the Batarians, and an Alliance UT-58 gunship swooped down. It was almost twice the size of the gunships used during the Reaper War, but with far sturdier engines and Mass Effect core. It was also armed with missiles that could be quickly replaced by a small fabricator, a pair of VI-controlled heavy machine guns, and the smallest mass driver cannon ever created.

Even as a hard-light simulation, Alanna thought it was as welcoming as a soft bed and a good meal.

"Come on, guys!" she shouted. "We're done here!"

Just as the gunship carried them to safety—and the end of the test—Alanna triggered the explosives. The enormous blast destroyed not just the guns, but also most of the building.

Simulation or not, it was one of the most satisfying things Alanna had ever seen.

…

Aboard the Alliance flagship, the supercarrier Unity, Fleet Admiral Mark Royce watched as tactical data flooded in. To the rest of his bridge officers, his was a glacial calm, almost indifferent to what he was reading. Inside, however, he was boiling with indignation; he had spent his entire career dedicated to protecting the Alliance, and he took any threat as a personal attack.

"We have between six and ten days before they cross our border, depending on if they stop for resupply on the way," he said. "We've been preparing for this moment for over a year now. It's time the Council finds out why we're not going to get pushed around."

His words were spoken with calm confidence, and his officers shared it. The fleet gathered in the Vetus system was one of the Alliance's greatest displays of strength since the Reaper War. Six hundred warships were waiting, including the Unity, an absolute monster of a ship stretching almost fourteen hundred meters long, a dozen dreadnoughts, eighty other carriers, and hundreds of cruisers, destroyers and frigates. Over three thousand fighters were ready to deploy, either from the carriers, or from the fifty orbital defense stations guarding Elysium.

The Alliance wasn't foolish enough to place all their bets on their navy, though; they knew that any attacking force would figure out that they could shut down the defense grid from the ground, and had nearly a million soldiers garrisoned throughout the system, or were prepared to board enemy ships if possible.

Royce was certain that the Alliance would drive the Council forces out. It would be hard and bloody, but the Alliance knew when, where, and how the Council fleet would attack, along with their numbers. According to the Geth, the Council expected a fight in the Vetus system, but they had no idea how prepared the Alliance actually was.

Not for the first time, Royce gave thanks to Shepard for putting the Geth on their path to joining the Alliance.

"Sir," Royce's liaison with the ground forces spoke up, "new intelligence just came in. Batarian and Asari special forces are linking up with their fleet."

Royce nodded. "What about our own SpecForce detachments?"

"It's the one thing we don't have much of," the other man admitted. "Most of our N7 units are attached to other forces for a counteroffensive."

"Get in contact with Command, see if we can't get more." Royce never took his eyes off the rolling streams of data. "For now, have the fleet remain in alert status two. When the enemy gets here, they won't find us unprepared."

…

Alanna stood at attention, along with ninety-seven other soldiers who had passed the final tests. The graduation ceremony took place on Earth, in front of the ruins of the original N7 academy; it had never been rebuilt after the Reaper War, one of several places left as a reminder of that dark time. It was the first time in over a year that Alanna had been on Earth, and the first place she saw was a reminder of her father's death. Still, she didn't let it drag her down for long; in a few minutes, all of them would officially be N7s. Even those who failed their tests, nearly eight hundred other candidates, were practically shoe-ins for N1-N6, which was considered slightly above-average for a year of graduates.

"Class of 2288! Salute!"

Alanna saluted, and tried not to smile as General Vega walked to the podium. He was slower than he had been just a few years ago, but he was still strong for a man pushing a hundred and forty years old.

"At ease," he said, and the soldiers stood at parade rest. "You all are here because you are the best the Alliance had to offer… and you became even better. All of you deserve to be here. Some of you proved yourselves in the field, while others steadily worked to be worthy of recommendation. Some of you have been preparing for this moment your entire lives."

Alanna couldn't help but grin when he looked at her as he said that last part.

"A lot has changed since the N7 program was established," James went on. "Our training facilities moved, and we included other species. But one thing hasn't changed—N7s are the best and brightest in the Alliance, and if I'm right, you're all going to keep that tradition going. After today, it doesn't matter what your rank is; you've entered an elite club, a family like no other. The soldiers standing next to you are your brothers and sisters; you will rely on them in the worst situations imaginable, and they will rely on you.

"But that's only part of the job. An N7 is an inspiration to the rest of the troops, the tip of the spear and the hand that guides it. If and when you go to war, you will be the first line of defense, and you will show the rest of the Alliance that no matter the enemy, it can be beaten! Do you get me?"

Alanna snapped to attention again, and shouted with the rest of the graduates. "We get you, sir!"

James grinned. "That's what I like to hear. Now, you're all in for a treat, because it won't be an instructor giving you your new N7 tags—it'll be me."

That caused a minute ripple among the soldiers. It was one thing to know that a man who had fought in the Reaper War and served under Commander Shepard, and current head of Alliance SpecForce, was speaking to them. It was another thing to have the man personally give them their tags.

Alanna waited patiently for James to reach her. Unlike everyone else, she knew James, and wasn't star-struck; he was her badass old uncle who had taught her how to fight dirty.

When James did get to her, he grinned as he handed over her tags. "Great work, kid; I saw your numbers. Your dad would have been proud."

Alanna blinked away tears. "Thank you, sir." She looked at the silver tags in her hand, and her eyes went wide when she saw the name and rank engraved on them. "Sir, is this—"

"After how well you did in training, it was decided you'd get a promotion." James winked. "As for the name, I talked to your mom. She said it was time you stopped hiding.

"Congratulations… Lieutenant Shepard."

So, Alanna passes her N7 tests! If this was a game, you could consider this the opening mission that teaches the player different mechanics, and how to control the squad. Also, yes, Haley and Korim are going to be part of Alanna's team. Because this is a Mass Effect story, so the main character will get a team.

I hope you enjoyed the evolution of the ME tech. It's been a hundred years since the Reaper War, after all.

And the Alliance is ready to rumble. It's gonna be a doozy. Oh, and I'm introducing Mark Royce. He'll be important. Like the Hackett of this generation.

As always, please consider buying my book, Alpha Sanction, by Josh Gottlieb. You can find it on my website (link in my profile), or on Amazon as an eBook or physical copy. I'm hoping to have the sequel done by the end of the year!

If you want another way to support me, I have a P-atreon account (link in my profile). Donations get me one step closer to quitting one of my three jobs and writing full time. Could you imagine getting new chapters every week, or even sooner? Because that's what would happen if enough of you donate.

Speaking of which, I'd like to thank the following patrons for being awesome:

Serious Muffins: Nimrod009, Anders Lyngbye, Matthias Matanovic, John Collins, Red Bard, Aaron Meek, killroy225, Lokthar, Hakuryuken

Incredible Muffins: RaptorusMaximus, michaelb958, Crazyman844, Ben Stueckle

Ultra Muffins: RangersRoll, Adam Costello

Next Chapter: The Council crosses borders, the Alliance shows its teeth, and Alanna has one last moment of peace before going to war.

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite Muffin on the Citadel.