…

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes."

(Mazer Rackham)

…

Fehl Prime, January 20th, 2:49 PM, 2185

…

I stood quietly outside of the ICU, watching Dan in complete silence as I paced back and forth in front of the observation window. My nerves were shot, long past their breaking point for the day. The only thing keeping me going at this juncture was a healthy dose of determination and caffeine, and even those were temporary at best.

Dan had suffered hypovolemic shock from the loss of his left leg, and was currently going through his twelfth bag of blood. He had suffered a transtibial amputation, below the knee, and was also being treated for smoke inhalation. He was a mess, but luckily he was expected to survive. The doctors here believed he could be conscious in several more hours. Watching him for too long made me feel downright ill with all the needles, tubes, and machines attached to him. I forced myself to look away as often as I could, wanting nothing more than to take my mind of the situation. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Everywhere I looked I was reminded of the hell I had just experienced.

We were crammed inside the underground research complex beneath the colony. All the civilians who hadn't joined in on the defense were still down here, and until the surface was fully cleared they'd stay. I felt so sorry for all of them, especially the children. They had no idea most of their livelihood on the surface had been reduced to shambles.

"Here." I heard a voice say, as I turned around to see Lt. Vega, offering me a bottle of water. "Kamille and Mason thought you could use this."

"Thanks." I nodded, accepting the bottle as I took in another deep breath.

I turned back towards Dan, honing in on his face once again as I silently cursed myself for how useless I felt. Vega stood next to me, helmet tucked under his arm as he watched through the window alongside me.

Vega was an anomaly of sorts by my standards. His physical appearance initially led me to believe he was some kind of meathead, with armor that struggled to contain his football player build. Upon further interaction with him, he was much more knowledgeable than my first impression led me to believe.

I was starting to like him.

"He's a tough bastard, he'll make it through fine." He reassured, giving me a friendly nudge on the shoulder as I continued to gaze aimlessly through the glass.

"There must have been something I could have done to stop this." I began, letting doubt roll through my mind. "It happened in front of me… I could have done something."

"There's no sense beating yourself up. I heard what happened, there's nothing you guys could have done by yourselves." Vega reasoned, looking me right in the eyes. "Besides, we all went into this knowing the risks."

"Maybe the risks were too great." I shook my head, unsure how to look at all of this as I turned to face him. "Look at me, I'm just an engineer. I'm hardly qualified to be leading people into battle and making life or death decisions."

"I don't know, jefe." He shrugged, turning to fully face me as I internally questioned the "nickname" he had just given me. "Either way, Shepard trusts you, and that's good enough for me."

He then reached into one of his pockets, pulling out a collapsed datapad.

"Speaking of which, he wanted you to have this. He told me it wasn't vital, but that you might find it interesting and should look at it anyway." He said, handing me the datapad. I quickly extended it, taking a closer look at whatever it was.

It was a thorough scan of the Cerberus vessel disabled by the Normandy. I looked hard at it, examining the wireframe as closely as possible to get a feel for its dimensions. The 3D view gave me a much better idea of what I was looking at, and what I noticed was strange.

It seemed as if there was a lot of excess space inside this ship, especially for something with a frigate classification. The deeper I delved into the dimensions, the more I realised how off it was. The ship seemed to be missing vital facilities such as bathrooms, sleeping quarters, and other amenities that are considered standard. The moment I noticed the lack of a life support subsection my internal alarms went to full SCRAM alert.

"What's wrong?" Vega asked, having watched me while I was standing here.

"This ship that the Normandy ran into… I don't think it's crewed." I guessed, not able to see how it could be the case otherwise. "This is all wrong. Not even cargo haulers are this sparse."

"But according to the scans that they took, there were over two dozen life readings on board." He argued, not seeming convinced.

"There could be dozens of ways those readings were falsified." I dismissed, knowing this was some kind of deception.

"Should I contact the Commander?" He quickly inquired, preemptively opening up his omni-tool.

"No, I'll do it." I declined, opening my own omni-tool and quickly contacting him. I waited for a moment before Shepard chimed in.

"What do you need, Sean?" He questioned from the other end, where I could hear people taking in the background. "I'm at a meeting with Hackett currently."

"Listen Commander, I think that Cerberus ship the Normandy disabled is some kind of ruse." I quickly warned, beginning to pace back and forth as Vega watched me with an increasingly worried look on his face. "I just got done looking at those scans and it doesn't have anything needed to support a proper crew."

"Are you sure?" He asked, immediately taking my assessment seriously.

"Absolutely." I nodded, feeling the weight on my shoulders lift slightly.

There was a long pause as the talking in the background stopped, leaving me hanging with bated breath.

"We'll take care of it. Right now, we have bigger issues to deal with." Shepard reassured, not leaving me feeling as confident as before, but better than nothing. "A Council SPECTRE team just arrived, and there demanding to know what's happened in space and on the surface."

"What? Why? They have no authority here, this is a human colony in the Terminus." I argued, head hurting at the prospect of a fourth party being involved in this situation.

"Normally you'd be correct, but they've come claiming there was an emergency communique sent through high-level Alliance channels regarding "illegal experiments" in the labs below the colony." Shepard explained, managing to confuse both Vega and I as we exchanged looks.

"We all know that's a load of horse shit." I argued, immediately smelling the stale air surrounding the whole situation. "Who'd this information come from?"

"They've refused to tell us. We're doing our best to stall them, but it's only a matter of time before they either discover the Cerberus ship or attempt to enter the labs." Shepard stated as I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"If they find out about that ship, they might try to board it." Vega suggested as I nodded in agreement.

"They could end up walking into a trap." I added, feeling the heat in my body rise once again. "God damn it, someone in the Alliance screwed us!"

"Sean, James, I want you both up here on the Normandy. If you tell them what you told me in person, it might dissuade them from trying anything reckless... at the very least." He ordered, getting me back to my "straight" stance. "I'll send down a shuttle for you."

"Got it." I nodded as James did the same, both of us stopping and looking at each other.

"Well jefe, I guess you and I are in the thick of it now." He shook his head, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." I replied dryly, taking one last swig from the water bottle as we set out.

I wanted nothing more than for this day to end.

…

MFV Normandy, January 20th, 3:27 PM, 2185

…

I walked briskly alongside James towards the elevator, surprised by the amount of damage that the ship had sustained during its first engagement. To be fair, she wasn't designed to be a frontline fighter, but given the circumstances we didn't really have any choice but to use her as such. Many of the electrical conduits were burned out and currently being replaced, while six of the crew were busy patching a hole created by whatever beam weapon the Collectors had utilized.

I'd love to know what exactly said weapon was. Whatever they used, its power was enough to drain our MES in only a few hits. I had severe doubts that anything remained of it after the Collector ship exploded.

"Jeez, you designed this thing?" James said in an interested tone, looking around at the length of the hangar.

"Co-designed." I corrected, giving him a quick smile. "Trust me, it usually looks better than this."

"I believe you, don't worry about that." He continued to gawk, forcing me to stop. "I guess I'm not used to seeing ships built like this. Usually the internals are covered in panels and there's holographic displays everywhere, but this place looks more like the inside of an old submarine."

"Very observant of you." I complemented, crossing my arms. "It's all designed with function over form, ditching the looks and comfort for something that can lose 70% of its hull integrity and still keep going, provided enough systems are still online."

"Pretty cool, even if I don't understand most of it." He said, looking back at me. "Anyway, you know the way. Lead on, jefe."

"Right." I nodded, wrinkling my brow for a split second before nodding, turning around back towards the elevator.

We rode up towards the CIC, and at least I was fully aware of what a madhouse it was likely going to be. Before my suspicions could be confirmed or denied, the elevator stopped on Deck 2, revealing the krogan Okeer had created in the tank. He wore an odd set of armor that looked custom-made for the Krogan, and carried a shotgun of similar style. He looked at both of us as we fought to hide minor shock and fear. After a few seconds, he directed his full attention to James.

"Are you two going up?" He asked in a deep, grinding tone similar to other Krogan I've heard before but… younger somehow. He wore an odd set of armor that covered most of his body with the exception of his arms and head.

"Um… yes. Hop in." James nodded, managing to keep his voice at a normal level as he stepped into the elevator with us, occupying the space next to me as James hit the button to close the door.

I could feel the tension in the air as we rode up, the elevator noticeably slower with the weight of the krogan in here with us.

"So uh, what's your name?" I asked, suppressing the urge to back away from him as his left eye turned to meet my pair.

"Grunt." He answered immediately, looking back to the door without a second thought.

"Oh, ok. Nice to meet you Grunt." I greeted, offering my hand to shake as he turned his entire body to look at my with both eyes. I could feel my back reflexively stiffen as he moved, yet I kept my hand up regardless.

"Who are you supposed to be?" He asked, burrowing into me with his beady little eyes.

"I'm Captain Sean Michaels, second-in-command and designer of the Normandy." I answered in a much sterner tone, locking eyes with him as best I could. I figured that if i tried to exude some authority it might back him away.

He got closer, looking over me and my armor as I stood my ground. He even went as far as to sniff the air around me, leaving me wondering if he was using it as an intimidation tactic.

"You smell like blood and sweat, similar to the Commander. You fought below on the surface." He assessed, surprising me slightly with his accuracy. "Maybe your not as weak as I thought."

"I'll take that as a glowing compliment." I nodded as the elevator doors opened, revealing the whole CIC. He walked off without another word, leaving me and James to exchange relieved glances.

We ran into Shepard outside of the meeting room, knowing that likely wasn't a good sign. I braced myself for the worst.

"So, what are we dealing with here, Commander?" I asked with come reluctance, crossing my arms as we both stopped in front of him.

"Two angry SPECTREs and a seriously pissed off Admiral." He answered without pause as quickened footsteps could be heard rapidly approaching from behind me.

"Excuse me." Miranda pushed through, going between James and I holding two datapads. "Here's our second scan of the Cerberus ship, Commander."

"Thanks." He quickly replied, taking a moment to look at it in silence before focusing back on us. "I've convinced Hackett to keep his boarding parties back for now while we take a closer look at the ship."

"The captains aren't happy about it either." Miranda added, looking completely exhausted by this point. "They came looking for a fight, but they were too late."

"That's an understatement. You mentioned they aren't the only ones who were angry." I pointed out, curious about Hackett as I looked from Miranda to Shepard.

"He's wearing himself thin stalling these SPECTREs, but there's only so much he can do before they just barge their way into the situation." He exclaimed, rolling his eyes as I noticed another annoying thought enter his head. "We think they may know about that ship now."

"Wonderful." I dryly replied as the briefing room doors opened, revealing the two SPECTREs with Hackett in the rear.

The leading SPECTRE was a salarian wearing black armor adorned with yellow trimmings. He was armed with only a handgun from the looks of things, though I knew that being a salarian, he likely had some omni-based weaponry. His partner, by contrast, was a heavily armored Turian, carrying a shotgun, two handguns, and a large LMG-styled mass accelerator rifle. His armor was a deep maroon color with beige markings along the shoulder pads.

"I'm growing tired of this stonewalling, Shepard." The salarian stated in its stereotypically high voice, walking up and focusing exclusively on him. "We'll get the access we want, with or without the approval of your Admiral."

"Unsubstantiated claims without solid proof aren't the strongest of arguments, Jondum." Hackett chastised in his gruff, weathered voice, hands neatly folded behind his back as he walked over and joined our group.

"Keep your comments to yourself." The turian quickly spat out, sounding none too amused by the current situation.

"And you must be Captain Sean Michaels… vas Explorer." The salarian, Jondum, sized up, looking hard and long at me. I immediately noticed the pause he put in between the human and quarian portions of my name. "You made quite a mess out of our organization, sending us on that idiotic search through the Pylos Nebula a few months ago."

I could already tell from the atmosphere of this initial greeting that nothing constructive was going to come from this conversation. Against my better judgement, I decided to probe the agents.

"Hope I didn't keep you chasing your tails too long." I smiled with a mischievous glare, getting a growl out of the turian. "Most people tend to work better when they're not being watched."

"If you intend to get a rise out of me, I can guarantee no reaction." He shot back in an emotionless tone, eliciting a small chuckle from me.

"What's so funny?" The turian threatened, taking two more steps toward in an attempt to intimidate me.

"Nothing… just surprised that the Council with all their vast resources can't be bothered to investigate all these colonies that have been disappearing." I mocked, feeling the eyes on my skull as I spoke. "I guess it doesn't matter, as long as they're human."

Just as the turian was about to say something else, Jondum raised his hand into the air, stopping him in his tracks.

"The purpose of our mission doesn't concern your missing colonies." He redirected, narrowing his bulbous eyes as he focused on his words carefully. "We are only here to investigate the labs below the colony and look into reported Cerberus activity."

"Spoken like a true drone of the Council." I further prodded, unable to fathom how thick headed these two were. "So… what? You guys aren't interested at all in the veritable war we just fought down there?"

"We have been informed of your situation, though it is of no concern to us." He deflected, somehow managing to speak more robotically than before. "Our mission is our only focus."

"Are you serious?" James spat out in disbelief, suddenly furious. "We've got dozens of dead and wounded down there, and you pendejos don't even give a damn?!"

"Back off, human!" The turian shouted, the two of them about to go for each other's throats before Jondum jumped between them.

"These... incessant obstructions will be noted in our later reports, gentlemen." Jondum finished, glaring at the turian for a split second before walking back off towards the starboard airlock, his "buddy" in tow.

"Fucking Council stooges…" I exclaimed once they were out of earshot, feeling the secondhand anger James was generating roll over. "What right do they have to trample though the colony when the smoke hasn't even settled?"

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can really do to stop them." Hackett sighed, looking more exhausted than usual as he focused on James and I. "Was it really necessary to antagonize them? I've got enough on my plate to deal with without a diplomatic incident on top of it all."

"I apologize, sir. I just… lost my temper for a few moments." James quickly said, saluting as he did so. "I didn't expect them to be so… heartless, if that makes any sense."

"Trust me, you're not the only one who wants to give them a good punch in the jaw." Shepard reassured, cracking a small smile before returning to a frown. "Still, I think we have more pressing issues to deal with."

"That's correct, and given the arrival of our unexpected guests, it's become all the more time sensitive." Hackett nodded, turning and focusing exclusively on me. "So son, what do you have for me?"

"Well sir, what we have is what I believe to be some kind of remotely-piloted decoy ship." I started, handing the datapad James had provided earlier to the Admiral. "The outside of the ship looks like your run-of-the-mill frigate, but the scans we've done show the internal layout is all wrong. It doesn't have crew quarters, medical, or even life support based on what I've been able to gleam from it."

I leaned forward, pointing at the images as everyone else also leaned in to look at it.

"See, look here in what's supposed to be the mess hall." I pointed out, drawing my finger along the holographic screen. "All the walls for the life support, medical, bathrooms, crew quarters, none of it is there. It's wide open, like a cargo hauler."

"This is a potentially serious situation." Hackett immediately assessed, turning to face Miranda. "Ms. Lawson, any idea what we're looking at here?"

"It's definitely not a design I've ever seen before." She said, narrowing her eyes as she looked over it. "I'll admit, engineering isn't really my speciality. If Sean thinks its off, it probably is."

"So then why would Cerberus send an unmanned ship out here just to get shot up?" James questioned, leaving us all standing in silence for a few moments before a scary thought crossed my mind.

"What if this ship was a diversion?" I suggested, getting everyone's eyes to open much wider. "They send in a remotely-operated ship to act as a distraction for their real ship?"

"That's a worrying suggestion, son." Hackett shook his head, rubbing the gray hair underneath his chin. "Why would they need a diversion?"

"Maybe they're trying to infiltrate the colony or the Collector ship crash site." Shepard theorized, rubbing the underside of his chin.

"I'll send two more teams down to watch the crash site." Hackett nodded, looking directly at me before something strange happened.

Without warning, all the lights and holographic panels around us flickered, some of them shutting off entirely as the red emergency lights turned on. A short few seconds later, a shudder vibrated through the hull as some kind of force impacted us.

"Joker, what's happening?" Shepard immediately asked as everyone in the CIC began trying to figure out what had just occurred.

"I'm not sure, Commander. We just had a massive ship-wide power surge." He stammered, obviously surprised. "About a tenth of our electrical grid is unresponsive."

I looked down at my old digital watch, seeing the display on it was completely dead.

"EMP." I quickly concluded, narrowing my eyes on Shepard. "That ship must have had some kind of enhanced electromagnetic weapon on it!"

"Battle stations!" He quickly yelled, the general alarm sounding throughout the ship. "Someone get me eyes on that ship!"

I quickly ran from the group, heading towards the bridge to see if I could get a view of the ship from there. Inside, Joker could be seen trying to get his controls in order as parts of his holographic emitters failed or were failing.

"Those assholes!" I exclaimed, heat building up in my chest as James caught up, looking through the bridge windows with me.

The Cerberus ship that had been under the watchful eyes of the Alliance ships now flew into several dozen different pieces, floating in space about five hundred meters from us. Plasma, rendered inert by the vacuum of space, flowed from the remains of the NM reactor in its stern.

I could tell that it hadn't been a nuclear device due to the lack of debris, and the small amount of physical damage done to the ships around it. Had it been a nuclear EMP, we would have easily lost over 30% of our power grid, perhaps more.

"The sensors still work, and they're picking up something." James called out, getting my immediate attention.

"Let me see." I ran over, hopping into the sensor suite and looking at the last reading.

Something very fast just jumped out of the system from the looks of it, with what looked like a Cerberus signature. I couldn't believe it.

"They played us good." I seethed, shaking my head as I felt my eyelids droop. "They used an EMP hidden in the decoy ship to cover the escape of their real ship. Crafty bastards…"

I slumped in the chair, knowing there was no way we'd be able to track them.

They must have gotten whatever they went down there for.

…

MFV Normandy, January 20th, 6:11 PM, 2185

…

Nearly three hours after Cerberus made their escape, we were almost back to full operational capacity. The EMP they detonated used a large chemical explosive to generate the effect, and somehow rigged their shoddy, knock-off reactor to amplify the pulse. The explosion was powerful enough to destroy their entire decoy ship, leaving us with very little to piece things together with.

Hackett's team found foot trails and other obvious signs of activity during their investigation of the Collector ship wreckage. We still had no idea what they were looking for in that crater, and it seemed unlikely we'd find anything that could point us in any particular direction.

To make matters worse, the two SPECTREs from earlier had made a mess in the labs below looking for signs of "wrongdoing" in both physical and digital forms. When they learned about the decoy ship, they were quick to blame us for what had happened before leaving, vowing to make things as difficult as possible for us the coming weeks.

I groaned at it all, feeling the itch around my eyeballs as I fought the urge to sleep.

"It's a good thing Richard built the card readers with a Faraday cage. If that hadn't been there along with the emergency surge protectors, I could have ended up fried like an egg." Lydia mused over the speakers in my personal "pod" as I tried to relax under direct orders from Shepard.

I must not have looked good when he came to the bridge and found me and James.

"The last thing I need is to tell Dan something bad happened to his sister." I said, trying to work the pain out of my shoulder as the conversation paused.

I already knew where this was leading. I had already told her what happened to her brother, but her "form" limited how she could express her feelings.

"Y-yeah, I suppose I got off easy compared to him, huh?" She slowly started, obviously still unsure how to handle the topic. "My brother is tough. He'll make it through this."

She didn't seem at all convinced by her own words. I couldn't blame her, even I wasn't able to fully process what had happened to him.

I stared blankly at the ceiling of my pod, thinking about all the things that went wrong today. It felt like a total failure in my mind, despite saving the population of the colony and eliminating the attacking force. It dawned on me that I had likely taken the heaviest loss of everyone here, including the forces below.

My best friend was hospitalized and physically disabled, our ship laid in two pieces in the middle of some god-forsaken forest, our original Dragoon mech was scrap, and I was disabled by the enemy and rendered useless for a good chunk of the Collector attack.

In terms of personal loss, today had been an abject failure.

I must have stared at that ceiling for ages, trying to figure out what I'd say to everyone when we got back home. I promised Mara that everything would turn out fine, but that ended up being a big fat lie. And then there were the Admirals, who'd be furious that we not only lost our ship, but also appropriated those plasma guns without permission. I could only imagine the future headaches waiting for me.

"Sean?" Lydia called out, getting my attention once more.

"What?" I quickly replied, not in the most talkative mood.

"I think given the situation you and everyone else were in, you all did a great job defending the colony." She tried to cheer up, getting little more than as resigned sigh from me. "Don't let your feelings overshadow what you helped accomplish today."

Despite her good intentions, I couldn't help but feel anger as she spoke. I never understood the compulsion people felt to try and make other people feel better. I knew I'd likely be better in the future, but right now seemed like a bad time to offer encouragement. Everything was still too fresh in my mind.

I couldn't stop the images from flashing through my head. It was like I was replaying the whole day in my head over and over again like a bad re-run. I wasn't used to this kind of pressure, and I was honestly scared that I'd somehow crack under the weight of it all.

"Sean! Listen!" Lydia suddenly shouted, managing to surprise me. I pulled my head up, looking directly at the panel on the wall. "I know how you feel, but you have to pull yourself together and quit letting these garbage feelings drag you down! None of what happened today could have been prevented by you alone, so quit blaming yourself and get a grip!"

I was shocked by how sudden and direct she had just been, leaving me genuinely dumbfounded for a few moments.

"Remember what happened with my boyfriend back in my senior year?" She recalled, jogging my memory from years ago. "Remember when you told me no one likes it when you walk around feeling sorry for yourself? Take your own advice, get out there, and start leading by example."

Her sudden outburst had managed to reach part of me I hadn't felt for a while. She was right, completely right. I had been so absorbed in my stupid self-pity that I had failed to notice how it was affecting those around me. I needed to take control of myself.

"Jesus… what the hell am I doing? You're right, and I was stupid for not seeing it earlier." I replied with a renewed sense of determination, leaning up far enough to not hit my head on the ceiling. "Still, there's a lot that needs to be done before we're ready to move forward."

"We'll work on it together, as a team." She reassured, sounding rather satisfied with herself. "Never forget that we're all in this together."

I smiled, popping the door to my pod and hopping out. I was going to find Shepard and try to make sense of everything that had happened the last few hours.

I needed to prove I still had what it took to be a proper leader.

…

A/N: Not one of my best chapters in my personal opinion, but I think I did a good bit of character building in this one. I really wanted to hammer home how absolutely shafted Sean's been in the last few chapters, but decided to cut him a bit of a break.

College is starting back up again soon, and I'm hoping it'll go as well as it did last time. With all the union contract business going on in the background at work, I think I'm actually looking forward to going back this semester.

I'd love to read any reviews, and I'm always up for suggestions and constructive criticism! Stay tuned!