"War is dirty, damn right it is. That fact is the exact reason why we simply cannot fight this war fair. If you expect a war to be fair, you've got a whole world of hurt coming for you."
Supreme Commander of the Alliance, Jonathan J. Shepard, in an address to the public, 2272.
-000-
Volgograd, Russian Federation, Earth, August 29, 2192.
Earth, the cradle of Human civilization. For centuries innumerable, Humans have been confined to this small bit of rock. Some have cited this fact as the sole reason that our species have not unleashed are true destructive potential. This opinion seems to hold through, as man's blind rage seems to have been unleashed so thoroughly upon the first spaceborne conflict. For now Humanity is now no longer tied to a single world for its existence, and now is capable of unleashing a fire and fury unlike they themselves have ever seen.
Here, in the historical city Volgograd, more infamously known by its previous name, Stalingrad, a clash between Humans is proceeding. In the memorial plaza remembering the battle that had happened over two centuries ago, protests and demonstrations from two factions.
On one end, the Anti-War protestors, who support arming the Free Batarian Movement. These people have seen the ugly face of war, and are calling for the immediate cessation of conflict between the two states.
On the other end of the street, the Pro-War supporters, against the arming of the Batarian Insurgents. These are the people who have fought 'The Good Fight' and still want the fight to be continued.
And watching the two face off? Joint Russian-Alliance security forces trying to hold off the two sides from further escalation. Both sides have already started pushing against each other in the center of the plaza.
"STAND BACK, FURTHER AGGRESSION WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!" A Russian security officer shouted over the mic.
Armored vehicles sporting riot equipment idled by the sides, preparing to intervene when necessary.
Here in his childhood home, Petrovsky watched as the two sides bear down upon each other. He could've done something to help, he should've done something to help. It wasn't his business though. He was here to meet his Mama.
Turning from the city center, he took the train and left for the city's suburbs. On his stop, a man limping with a walking stick was waiting to pick him up.
"Nikolai, it is good to be back!" Oleg greeted his brother in Russian.
"Ahah, it is good indeed, brother!" Nikolai returned.
The two brothers hugged for a while, laughing. They separated themselves as Nikolai led his elder brother to his car. Getting into the passenger seat, Oleg found it amusing that his brother's ancient bobblehead collection has only grown since the last time he rode this car.
"Niko, how is Mama?" Oleg asked as his younger brother entered the car on the driver's side.
"Mama is good. The we've seen better times, but we'll make it through." Niko said as he began driving the car. "She will be glad to see you back."
The drive back home was quiet, with little interaction between the siblings. Oleg had fallen asleep, and Niko felt that it was a rest his brother deserved. Oleg had been in the front, Oleg had been shot at, Oleg has lost his brothers-in-arms.
Niko hasn't.
He thanked heavens for not putting him through such pain, yet also cursing it for depriving him of the ability to fight.
Looking at his brother, he is reminded of his Mama, of his family.
'Maybe I'm not meant to fight…'
-000-
Qing Conservation Park, Shanxi, August 30, 2192.
"Christ's sake boss, we've been goin' round in circles for ages! What're we looking for anyways?" Vickers said through her radio.
Williams sighed as he resisted the urge to face-palm.
"Be patient Vickers, we'll find it when we see it."
They continued on like this for a while, patrolling the park for the Human Resistance, or Batarian Turncoats.
It wasn't long after that when Williams finally spotted signs of anything other than endless forests.
An abandoned recreational center, almost dilapidated, and heavily damaged.
'No better spot for a hideout, or and outpost.' Williams thought to himself. The captain picked up his radio and spoke to the rest of his tank platoon.
"Can all of you see those buildings over there?" He said.
"Aye, looks like a good place for anybody to set up." Vickers replied.
"We better stay sharp boss, there's no telling what's waiting for us down there" Rodriguez added.
"Just what I was thinking. Vickers and Rodriguez, you move in ahead, Jareau, Find a nice position and provide overwatch. I'll be backing up the APCs as they deploy the grunts."
A chorus of affirmatives followed as the tank platoon and the infantry accompanying them did as ordered.
The two light tanks arrived in the rec-center's parking space, with Vickers moving around, surveying the rest of the area. Williams and the APCs arrived a few minutes later as the marine grunts deployed from their vehicles. They grunts fanned out and secured the buildings around, finding nobody around.
"The place is clear, no four-eyes around!" the marine leader said.
Williams sent his confirmation and now assumed a more relaxed position.
The marine leader radioed in again.
"You know captain, it's getting real late, and this is as good a spot to rest up as any."
Williams contemplated this for a while. The area was cleared by the marines, so he figured that it was secure. He didn't see any fault in setting up in the rec-center.
"You know what? You're right. Tell the boys were bunking down over here." He replied to the marine leader.
And so they did. The group set up camp for the night, ready to rest. A fire was started to cook some food. The Marines relaxed as the sun went down, with only a few staying up to watch for trouble.
One such group of Marines were posted by a wall watching the south side. Late into the night. Williams was checking up on them at the current moment,
"How are you folks faring?" He asked.
"We'll manage, Captain." The squadleader said.
The Marine in the rear, closest to the wall, tired from the several day's worth of movement and action, let himself lean into the wall. Little did he know of the implications of such a simple action.
The wall behind him crumbled as it revealed a hidden room. As the Marines reacted to the false wall falling apart, the dust settled and revealed a dozen and a half Batarians hiding in their hidden room. Both sides quickly took their weapons and shouldered it, pointing at their respectives enemies. The two clashing troops tried to shout the other down. Their fingers were close to pulling the trigger, all they would need to start out the bloodbath was a simple snap.
The air began to grow in it's tension and the sheer hecticness that was the situation. All until one man's piercing voice cut through everything.
"All you Idiots, stand down!" A clear, Brooklyn accent exclaimed from the Batarian side, stopping the shouting through sheer confusion alone.
A bearded man wearing a blue Alliance Marine beret stepped out from the dilapidated building and in between the two sides.
"You trying to get all of yourselves killed?" He shouted again as he pushed down some of the Marine's rifles.
Williams, finally recognizing the man in front of him asked a question he didn't think he'd be asking for a long time.
"Dad, is that you?" He asked.
The older Williams looked past the Marines and grinned.
"Yeah, it's me you dit. Now tell these monkeys to stop pointing their guns at me!"
-000-
Kansas, USA, May 6, 2218.
"God dammit son, you are not joining the military!"
The father/son debate was turning into a full-blown argument as both elder and younger stood up at the respective challenges. The son, unwilling to back down, countered his father.
"I am not a kid anymore Pa, I can make my own damn decisions now! Might I remind you I'm a legal adult now? I am not bound by your damn decisions anymore!" the son all but shouted.
The mother, calmly watched from the sidelines. She herself was, and still is to a certain extent, a part of the Alliance military. She wanted to back up her son but couldn't find a way to intervene properly without escalating the situation.
Both father and son continued their fight, yet the only thing she could see from it was how similar the two of them are. Certainly, the fruit didn't fall far from the tree.
The fight seemed to escalate from merely raising their voices to full blown shouting. She decided that she had to step in before things got out of hand.
"I swear to God, you two are giving me a headache." She said loudly from where she was seated.
"Only because Pa's being too much of a jerk! Come on Ma, back me up here!" The son said. His striking blue eyes being her own, she couldn't help but want to take his side.
"Don't bother Ilsa, you know what happened to my Pa, hell even my own damn brother in that 'Great' war. I am not letting that happen to Joey too!" The father answered.
"You always bring that up when I talk about this! Times are different Pa, we're not at war anymore." The son, Joey, his father called him, countered.
"Then what point is there to enlist? What the hell do you think you're gonna find there boy? Adventure, Glory? You're never going to find it there. Only death, despair, and destruction." The father pointed out. "If you want to help out, working in the farm helps plenty enough."
Joey just waved off his father and stormed off to his room. It was clear to him that his father wasn't willing to listen and decided that it wasn't worth arguing anymore.
"That boy, I have no clue where he gets that attitude!" the elder man huffed out as he sat down beside his wife.
"You know hun, I know a man who's a hard head that happens to be Joey's father." Ilsa said.
"haha, very funny." He simply returned.
"Seriously Robbie, Joey as some solid points. He's not a kid anymore, like it or not, our son can make his own choices now." She said as she took out a book from the table close to her and started flipping through pages.
"Does it matter if his choices are going to get him killed?" Robbie replied.
"Now you're just being paranoid! We're not fighting any wars anymore, Robbie, let him serve a tour or two and sate his need to 'help others'. When that's done and over he can come back here and be whatever else that isn't a soldier." She calmly advised. "Besides, the worst that he's probably ever going to face is some border fights with those Terminus pirates, and even then they aren't much of a threat."
"Hmm." he grunted out. "This whole ordeal is going to be the death of me…" Robbie wryly said.
-000-
A/N: So this chapter features the first flash-forward, in which we kinda see some of the characters years after the Great war. Also this chapter should kinda start the long road for us to meet Shepard, and If you didn't catch it in the top of the page, this Shepard is going to be my own take on it. I'm gonna try to write him somewhere in between Renegade and Paragon. I find that none of the pre-built backstories Cannon-Shep has fit right with what I'm going to write. The closest one I found that works was the Colonist backstory, but that doesn't really work since I wanted Shep to come from 'nowhere' and a vengeance-esque story doesn't really sit well with me.
So that kinda wraps up this chapter, sorry if it's kinda short. Anyways, leave a review of how you think things are going if you feel like it. Try to report grammatical errors if you can and I'll try to go back and rewrite them sometime soon.
As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.