Return
Chapter 2- Mindoir
Hana took a deep breath, the air smelled fresh, unlike the smoke and soot choked air when she fled thirteen years ago.
She took in the surroundings. The overgrown and cracked landing pad, the edges having given in to vegetation growth and crumbled. Glancing over the overgrown surrounding buildings, some had grass growing in the interiors and some even had trees growing in them. Most were covered with vines climbing up their sides.
Small shacks and barns built after the prefabs were in far worse shape. Some were barely standing, while others had collapsed into nothing but rubble and would be overgrown and one with nature within a few years.
Tali turned to Hana. "How many lived here?"
Hana walked to stand beside her. "Seven families. Other than my own- the Basons, Riggs, Peirsons, Exleys, Akes, and the Okeys." She sighed sadly. "I am all that's left from this town."
Tali gasped. "Keelah."
"Come with me." Hana walked down the ramp to the main road leading from the pad, Tali walking beside her. She could still make out the rock-hard materials used to build it, though mostly covered in dirt and grass. "Not all died or vanished here." She looked to her left to a prefab structure, mostly overgrown with the doors blown open. "The Peirsons. None accounted for, all missing. Presumed slaves of the Batarians." Her words were filled with disgust. "Not even their infants were spared."
"Oh no." Tali looked down for a moment. "What would the Batarians want with them?"
Hana shook her head. "Nothing good."
Tali turned to look at another prefab structure. "What happened there?"
Hana turned her attention to it. The structure was burned, scorched by military-grade incendiary bombs. "The Akes. They chose to hide, to burn, rather than be captured." Hana paused to steady herself, thoughts of what they went through going through her head. "The Batarians spread some flammable gel everywhere, set it alight with incendiary explosives, and burned the family hiding inside."
Tali looked at Hana, her horror hidden behind her mask. "Those monsters."
"Certainly, only monsters would kill children." Further along the path, Hana turned her attention to yet another structure, almost overgrown with a moss-like plant. "The Basons. Most dead or missing. A few survived, were old enough to enlist in the Alliance military. And were...involved in the Torfan raid where they died."
Tali had to find her words. "Torfan? Is that…?
Hana nodded. "Yes. Where the infamous 'Butcher of Torfan' came to be. I still remember that day, two years following the Skyllian Blitz. Was training with my biotic instructor Matriarch Nassa T'Serra. After a hard but rewarding day of training, I checked into the Alliance news. And found out about what happened." She paused. "While the pirate presence on the moon was eradicated, it came at a horrible cost. And the 'Butcher of Torfan', Darrin Messer, was part of it. He lost the men under his command in his brazen attack. Then when the Batarians surrendered, he executed every last one of them that was in the room with him. A massacre."
Tali looked at Hana. "Sounds like he was..."
"Pissed." Hana looked at Tali. "While he wasn't from this town, he was from Mindoir. And I believe he snapped, didn't have people like you, Matriarch Nassa T'Serra..." Hana sighed. "I feel sorry for souls like him, so tortured yet not getting the help they need."
"Me, too." Tali looked at a prefab to the left, the structures appearing to have exploded from the inside. "Shepard...what happened to that place…?"
Hana looked at the same area. "Was the site of both the Riggs and Exley families' last stand. The adults, they tried to fight, while the children were told to flee. Those who stayed behind...blew themselves up to prevent capture, killing many Batarians. The children...they were unaccounted for, Batarians likely snatched them away.
Tali shook her head, beyond words.
"I know, no wonder so many were pissed. Wanted to get payback against the Batarians." Hana looked at the last prefab structures to her left before the end of the main road. "This...was the home of the Okey family." She sighed. "One member, Therese Okey, left with the children, and tried to defy the Batarians and taunted them. She was trying to buy time for the children she sent on ahead, but unfortunately another group of Batarians caught them." She paused, clenching her fist and eyes narrowed. "Out of cruel mercy, they knocked her out and left her on the plains, and took the children. They were missing, enslaved most likely. And the grief became too much and a year later...she took her own life."
"Keelah..." Tali shook her head, hand on her arm. "I can't imagine how that would feel."
"Same here. First heard the news when I was fresh into Alliance military training." She sighed sadly, and looked to the prefab structures ahead at the end of the road. "My old home."
The front door was still open, patches of grass were growing inside, and moss crept up the sides.
Gunfire, screams, fire, smoke.
Her father's scream while he was gunned down.
Her mother screaming."Hana, run!"
Running as fast as she could through the field of tall crops behind the house, not even looking back or stopping.
A hand on her shoulder snapped her back to reality. "Hana, are you okay?"
Hana looked at Tali. "Remembering what it was thirteen years ago when I left..." She looked at the front door. "And now we'll put those memories to rest." She walked to the steps and ascended them, pushing the moss which had draped over the entrance almost like a curtain aside to enter the prefab structure.
Tali followed close behind.
The family room was far from what Hana remembered it to be. The furniture- chairs, couch, table- were all rotting with moisture and mold. The windows had all shattered. "While I was the only child of my parents, I had cousins. Some barely school age when the attack hit."
Tali could only stand beside her, words beyond her at the tragedy of the place.
Hana headed to the kitchen, footfalls sometimes clanging on metal, sometimes on stuff that could either be dirt, grass, or mold. The kitchen and dinning table in it were not what one would expect such an area to be- the table was rusted, the cabinets and counters worn down, and who knew what was in the fridge and freezer.
They continued on to the stairs to the back of the household, by the back door. Hana stopped, seeing the door was open and the field of crops tall enough to conceal a Human beyond. "This was where I fled, where I ran."
Tali looked beyond. "I am sorry. It is terrible, what happened here...it's..."
A deep rumble of thunder.
Hana looked outside to the sky, it was getting dark. "It's going to rain soon." Hana walked up the stairs with Tali close behind, and soon reached the second floor. "Where the bedrooms and the bathroom is. My room is at the end of the hall." She walked down and saw her room door was open, as it had been for thirteen years.
Hana entered her room. It was as she had left it. The bed neatly made but now dirty with mold. A hole in the ceiling had allowed water to run down the corner of the room every time it rained. The dresser was still there, though the drawers had been ripped out.
There were only a few toys on the top of the dresser. Hana walked to it. Among the toys, some broken and others too badly degraded, was one she could still recognize, and plucked it from the mess. "My first one, got it when I was a year old." She pressed the talk button, and the sound and voice was barely functional, warped by age and disuse. It was in dire need of a cleaning, but she could still make out the fact it was a pink bunny with cherry blossom petal designs on it. "Taking it with me."
Rain started to fall from the overcast sky.
Hana walked to the window. And could see the town laid out. Her eyes laid on the space in front of the landing pad. "I'll tell them a good place for the memorial would be near the landing pad, a welcome sign and reminder for visitors.
Hana walked to the Normandy with Tali walking beside her. The rain was coming down gently, cooling the air.
Shepard's earpiece comm activated. "Joker to Shepard, receiving an important transmission from Anderson. Urgent, our first major lead on Saren and Matriarch Benezia."
Hana glanced at Tali. "Understood, will be there as soon as I can." She hurried to the Normandy followed by Tali.
Hana stood by the galaxy map pedestal,
After entering the Normandy, Tali had offered to clean the old toy and was currently cleaning it where she helped those in the engine room and slept.
Hana activated the holographic message terminal, and accepted the incoming transmission.
And heard Anderson's voice. "Shepard. Good news. We have intel on someone related to Matriarch Benezia, Liara T'Soni. She might have information on the Matriarch and what she is doing with Saren. Liara was last reported to be working in the Artemis Tau cluster." A pause. "Sending four systems to your navigation data she could be in, all contain Prothean ruins. I advise action now, there is a possibility she could be in trouble."
Hana nodded to no one. "Understood. Shepard out."
"Anderson out." With that, the transmission ended.
Hana opened the comms to Joker. "Take us to the Artemis Tau cluster, we need to visit those four systems, find where Liara is."
"Yes, ma'am." Joker prepared the Normandy for takeoff.
A/N-
I realize it has been years since I posted the first chapter, but at least I finished it! Better late than never…
This is only one entry of my 'Hana Shepard's Story' alternate timeline universe.
