Sorry for the time it took me to write this but I had a theory test for a driving license on Saturday and I wasn't at home the rest of the day and Sunday I got lost procrastinating.
Anyway I hope you like this, I put in a timeline just to make it clear for myself and anyone reading on the order of events. I am planning to make a few time jumps in the future so that makes it more relevant. I had a few ideas thanks to your reviews and I see where I was a bit short on describing what Sam was feeling but now it's part of Sam's character so I will develop that. As always please review and pleasant reading.
Edited 29/05/2021 for grammatical, logical and stylistic errors. Added a codex entry.
Timeline so far.
11/08/2150 – birthday of Sam Knight
20/01/2153 – Hannah and Ray Shepard are married
11/04/2154 – Kate Shepard is born
03/07/2172 – Radical ancient astronaut group bombs the British Museum killing Sam Knight
11/02/2173 – In a raid on a rumored slaver staging ground Alliance navy battle group finds an illegal laboratory performing experiments on unwilling human subjects. The goal was assumed to be a creation of a super-soldier by Major Ray Shepard the ranking medical officer aboard SSV Einstein. Sam Knight with the mind of a person from 21st century where Mass Effect is a game is found and brought aboard the SSV Einstein along with two other survivors.
12/02/2173 – Sam Knight is recruited into the Unit, a secretive organization existing outside the Alliance chain of command tasked with being the secret sword and shield of humanity. Sam Knight officially dies a second time.
18/06/2173 – Sam Knight completes his training for the Unit
14/08/2173 – Sam Knight assassinates Jed Shu a former Alliance Navy intelligence operative who killed an agent and two analysts when they discovered him selling information on human colonies to batarian slavers.
15/08/2173 – Sam Knight receives a call for help from Kal'leena one of the instructors from his training which leads him to a Leviathan indoctrination orb that was sold by batarians to a hanar religious group as an artifact of Enkindlers.
16/08/2173 Serpent Nebula, Widow, Citadel
Kal'leena was watching Sam sleep from under half-lidded eyes when Erinna came back. Sam had gone off to sleep and she needed time to sort out her thoughts and meditate.
"Mistress are you alright now? Your control?" Erinna asked
"I am fine. I would say it is embarrassing to lose control but his mind is different than any I have met. I am not sure that many could be able to resist the lure, his mind is focused almost unnaturally. It is like a blade of a sword, forged into a beauty of purpose, form given shape by pure purpose. It seems almost unnatural in a way. I know that it could be too dangerous to meld with him but a part of me just wants to walk over there and do just that." Kal'leena answered
"But you won't mistress?" Erinna asked
"No, I am not going to do that. I am old enough to know better. I am not ready for children yet. I could not risk it right now. Not with the things he has shown me." Kal'leena said with sadness in her voice
"Mistress, who is he?" Erinna asked
"Human, Sam Knight." Ka'leena answered simply turning towards Erinna
"Of course mistress." Erinna said thinking that Kal'leena simply didn't want to reveal his secret and sighed
"Erinna, I would tell you if I knew. But all that I know only makes me ask that question even more. He is a puzzle. A puzzle that I fear we are not meant to solve." Kal'leena said turning back to look at Sam.
After waking up and taking of the usual morning business, I noted another thing in my to do list. Get human showers. Turian ones have only two modes, mist or rather unpleasant needles. Just because my skin could actually take it didn't mean I was ok with that. And considering the yelp I heard when Erinna was in the shower I doubted that asari liked it either. Both of them had stayed over citing that their office and apartments could be watched.
"Kal'leena do you know any good weapon and armour masters here on Citadel that can do discrete orders?" I asked when all three of us were sitting around our makeshift table. I knew that my old self would have been more than a little distressed sitting, drinking, eating on boxes filled with all manner of weapons but right now I somehow felt it totally appropriate. And it wasn't like we had any choice. The shuttle might be useful but it wasn't big enough to contain a proper galley. The one it had was just barely big enough for two people to squeeze in side by side.
"Erinna?" Kal'leena said and looked at Erinna
"Yes, mistress, Jarrg said he will be ready to receive you this morning. He is also hoping that you remembered your promise from last time." Erinna replied
"I am sure his real words were far less polite than 'hoping' I remembered my promise." Kal'leena said amused
"Yes, mistress, you are quite right." Erinna replied
"Jarrg?" I asked wondering what kind of promise would it be
"He is a krogan master craftsman and that means he makes weapons and armour. His work might be expensive but he has nearly a thousand years of experience doing what he does, you can't get anyone better than him." Kal'leena said
"What about that promise? Is it a problem?" I asked
"No, Jarrg knows I visit human space often and I promised him that I will bring him cookies. For some reason every krogan I have met that tried human cookies goes crazy for them. Someone could make a fortune if they managed to get a freighter full of them to Tuchanka. And start a war. I don't understand it, I even got a doctor friend of mine to analyze some just in case there were some kind of chemical compound in them that affected krogan more than humans or asari. But he didn't find anything. Krogan simply love cookies." Kal'leena explained looking puzzled
"Do you have cookies for him?" I asked stifling a laugh
"I think it would be better if you bring them, here the address of the warehouse where I stored a container full of them. Pick a selection and then come meet us at his shop." Kal'leena said sending a message to my omni-tool
"I am off then." I said finishing the last of my coffee went to gear up. This time I would be prepared even if this was literally a cookie run.
Later, Zakera Ward lower levels
Arriving at the warehouse I was met with a rather inaccurate hail of gunfire coming from a group of vorcha camped out in front of it. While I had kinetic barriers and a hardsuit this time the aircar wasn't so lucky. It only had basic anti-collision barriers and they were not designed to hold out against gunfire. So, second time in as many days I crashed the aircar. Into the group of vorcha that fired at me. Not on purpose this time, I was already going for a landing when they opened fire so their only accomplishment was bringing the aircar on their heads and destroying a perfectly good aircar.
I was not angry, just frustrated. Citadel the shining beacon of galactic civilisation. Yeah, full of vorcha and batarians in the lower levels of it's Wards. So it was not anger but frustration that made me forgo drawing a gun and going for my knife. It was a turian design, a straight blade about 15cm long and nearly five centimetres wide it was made more for chopping rather than cutting, the natural metallic exoskeleton of the turians might not be bulletproof but it was hard and required more effort to get through than human, asari or salarian skin.
A vorcha rushed me, it's claws extended and I made a turn and sidestep letting him past and at the same time brought down my blade. One of the vorcha's arms dropped to the floor. Vorcha ignoring the loss of his appendage tried to swipe it's claws with the second hand and promptly lost that one too. I decided not to prolong his pain and struck him with my fist putting in as much strength and momentum into the strike. The result surprised me more than it should have. Half of the head caved in, vorcha's body flew out from me and struck a wall with a rather unpleasant sound of several bones snapping in process. Up until now even during training I had never fought with my full power.
Another vorcha tried to bite through my boot. He was already missing his lower body so I kicked his arms away and stomped hard. The squish made me note to clean my boot this moment I could feel the call for battle sing in my blood. That weird sensation where you feel it spreading through your body, you feel it somehow getting hotter and the almost physical need to crush your opponents. The next twenty two seconds I punched, kicked, sliced and stabbed my way through another five vorcha. Some of them had been injured in the crash, others haven't but by the end of those twenty two seconds no vorcha were left alive.
A bullet striking my kinetic barrier brought me out of the combat trance and I dived into the nearest cover as my training dictated.
"RHAAAW, HUMAN MEAT GOOD. SURRENDER AND BE SOUP." the vorcha screamed and I honestly couldn't tell if the vorcha was taunting me or it was stupid enough to think that an offer of being soup is going to be accepted. Seeing that my kinetic shields were at full I quickly peered out from the makeshift cover and seeing the vorcha that screamed I put three rounds in his head. Standard squash head rounds blew out the back of the vorcha's head. I doubted that vorcha had any kinetic shields or armour but they were usually tough enough to survive the kind of wounds that would kill everyone but vorcha and krogan. Well and me.
Shifting to a shotgun, standard issue M-23 Katana which I modified by disabling the fire-control software. It is useful for new recruits making them fire slower, giving the weapon more shots before overheat but I had no need for that. The vorcha didn't seem to be very organised but their numbers were enough to cover for lack of coordination. There were two distinct groups, the ones armed with guns and the ones armed with a wide variety of sharp implements. Both groups were equally bloodthirsty.
Not letting them get closer I straightened from my crouch, aimed the Katana and four shots and three dead vorcha later I ducked back down. The vorcha that were shooting didn't seem to care if they hit their own and my shields went down rather fast. I haven't had time or money to properly invest into modifying a suit of armour that I needed so I made do with a light Mantis Mk3 made by Hahne-Kedar, I chose it mostly because it was a comfortable fit and the basic colour pattern was the right kind of drab.
My shields restored I vaulted over the metal barrier that I was using for cover and using only my right hand for my shotgun I threw an incendiary grenade into a group of vorcha that were armed with SMG's. The grenade exploded setting the vorcha on fire. Aiming Katana loosely at the vorcha running at me with oversized cutlery I let it overheat just before I dove back into cover. Probably didn't do much damage but all I needed was a few seconds for my shields to charge back up. I felt a few hits on my armour, no penetration but I would need to inspect it thoroughly to see if they did any damage.
Changing my weapon to Avenger assault rifle I breathed out to steady my aim and with a smooth motion brought it on target. There were four vorcha left. Using controlled bursts I quickly put them down.
Standing up I quickly scanned my surroundings and not finding any hostiles surveyed the battlefield. A lot of dead vorcha. The cleaners are clearly not going to be hurting for work if my adventures on Citadel continue with such intensity.
I walked back to the aircar and grabbed a duffel bag I had brought with me. After all I was getting cookies for a krogan, I doubted I would have been met with open arms if I brought only a single pack back. Quickly finding the right container I filled my bag with packs of cookies and ordered another aircar. Note to self, invest in a personal aircar and modify it with proper kinetic shielding and maybe a few others extras.
Tayseri Ward, Level 19
Walking into Jarrg's shop I saw Kal'leena and a krogan who I assumed was Jarrg huddled over a table behind the counter. It looked like a traditional weapon shop, display cases full of various weapons, a counter and a back room with storage and a table for modding.
"Cookie delivery" I said and hoisted the bag on top of the counter.
"Just in time too, I was getting a bit hungry." said the krogan and I noticed that apart from his lips and eyes he was almost entirely blue. His skin was light blue and his plate was dark blue with a few deep furrows on it that I guessed would be connected to the kind of stories old soldiers preface with "There was that one time..." followed by a story that seems like total fantasy but more likely than not ends up true.
Opening the duffel bag he perused the choice and taking out a pack tore it apart.
"Mhm, cookies" he said as he dumped a whole pack of chocolate chip cookies in his mouth and then chewed with gusto.
"Hi Sam, what took you so long." Kal'leena said and waved at me
"A few vorcha were not happy with me taking the cookies. I had to persuade them otherwise." I said shrugging my shoulders, it really was not a big deal. Vorcha were easy enough to deal.
"Yes, smelt the blood and fire on you human. Good battle?" Jarrg asked after he finished chewing the cookies.
"You know, this is the first time I actually get into a firefight while going to get some cookies." I said still a bit stunned from how ridiculous it sounded.
"You just haven't been around krogan enough. By this point I am pretty sure that most things involving a krogan have a firefight in them somewhere." Kal'leena said with a sigh
"Well at least that gave me an idea on what I need in my armour." I said
"Then you have come to the right place friend. Come, let me hear what you think you need and then I will tell you what you really need." the krogan said and waved me in.
Three hours later, I was looking at the holographic version of my armour. The weapons were easy enough. I simply requested a faster firing M-6 Carnifex, M-96 Mattock with a fire selector to switch between single shot, burst fire and full auto, Harpoon sniper rifle modified with a multi-spectrum scope and M-27 Scimitar shotgun with both semi-automatic and full auto settings as well as an expanded heat sink. The armour was what forced me to argue with a krogan and asari who between both of them had over a thousand years experience in all things weapons and armour. Jarrg of course was insisting on heavy armour plating and toxic seals, Kal'leena was arguing for mobility and hardened weave for increased protection against biotic and tech attacks. In the end I had to show him that I wasn't as soft as other humans for Jarrg to accept a few of my conditions for the armour design. Then we argued about what to use as a base to modify. But in the end I managed to bring them over to my side and after Kal'leena put in some artistic touches we were all happy with the finished product. Now all it needed was to be brought into the real world.
Secondary Codex Entry/Equipment/Armour/Modification
Armour modification can be handled by almost anyone proficient in using basic tools. All basic armour sets manufactured by companies licensed in Citadel space use Basic Armour Framework or BAF for short. This allows for kinetic barrier generators, built in microcomputers, medical interfaces and mechanical movement augmentations to be installed in practically any armour irrespective of who is the manufacturer of any single piece of equipment as long as there are free interface points. It also decreases drastically the time needed to switch modifications to prepare for different types of missions. The drawback is that while modifications do allow for relatively easy customisation of any given armour set they are also less effective than specialised armour sets. An armour set modified with hazard and toxic seals would never equal the environmental protection of a specially built hazardous environment suit. BAF standards have been in use by Citadel species for well over a thousand years without significant change until humanity's entrance on the galactic stage in 2157. Medigel and it's addition to the medical interface in armour has revolutionised medical aid on the battlefield. Light injuries can now be sealed and mitigated in a matter of seconds, heavy injuries can be stabilised until proper medical help can be found. Medigel can also be used as suit sealant in cases of a breach in hazardous or low pressure environments.
But even the existence of BAF has not made professional armour craftsmen a thing of the past. A professional can take install more modifications in a suit than it has interface points under BAF standard. A master craftsman can rework a set of armour into a unique piece, drastically increasing capabilities and optimising it for the use of a single person. As such the time needed and expense of modifying an armour this was usually costs as much as the basic armour itself if not more depending on the level of modification required. The best armour craftsmen remain krogan but it is rare to find one that would accept an order without prior introduction by a trusted client. Turians hold the second position and they are easy to find on the Citadel or other multi-species space stations. Humans have managed to take the third spot in less than 20 years despite far less familiarity with BAF and mass effect technology in general.
Multiple human companies now produce armour suits not just for humans and asari who share their body type but also for turians, krogan and even quarians. Sirta Foundation is famous for producing not just quarian armour attachments to up-armour basic quarian suits but producing a complete line of quarian compatible undersuits with all the required paraphernalia. Other human companies use those undersuits to build upon with their custom armour designs. Currently Sirta Foundation is the only known supplier of Migrant Fleet approved suits in Citadel Space.