Mu

Based on: N7 Shadow (Infiltrator)

Data-log entry #1:

My name is Mu. I'm a solo operative. People call me the 'shadow'.
I know why.
I've always operated alone; an assassin.
I take contracts, I kill them, and I get paid. No mix ups, no confusion.
People see me but they take no notice of me. I'm a white shadow. I blend into the light, and that's what makes me dangerous. People always expect dark, shadowy like figures, and assassinations to occur at nights, this is why I'm successful.
I don't technically 'live' anywhere. I have very little to carry around with me, besides spare thermal clips and this. I spend my nights cooped up in some dark corner of the rafters overlooking the main hall of ASA.
My suit has been adapted with a limited invisibility cloak, it's saved my life more times than usual, and it makes getting up here less painful. I can just climb up from the main lobby; no one sees anything.
Working alone has gotten me accustomed to the dark, the quiet and the isolation. I don't speak to anybody, and nobody bothers me.
Sure, I take my job seriously. I don't think about who I'm killing, what I'm stopping or what I'm causing, I just take the shot and move on.
Nothing's gone wrong yet…
Apart from this one time…

Data-log entry #2:

First mission in Earth's winter period; it's nice to keep some familiarity with home.
So, I got another contract today, quite a high paid one; should keep me going through this winter. It's usually quiet around this time. Everyone's with family, not bothering each other.
This guy called 'Zeta'.
Apparently he's a… recon soldier, another solo-artist that deals in information. Can get into anywhere within the blink of an eye, not too bad a reputation if you ask me.
He's also human, and wears light blue armour.
That's all I'm given… Oh, and he's due to be somewhere on Noveria within the week.
I've got my transport there and out arranged by the employer, they like to keep it confidential. I'll be sat, hiding out on the base for a week, looking for this guy before returning home victorious.
Everything was planned up to this point. I get on the ship, fly halfway across the galaxy, and land on this Firebase White.
So far so good.
First thing I do, activate my tactical cloak, and survey my area.
There are guards, Cerberus by the looks of them. I don't want to attract attention before Zeta gets here, so I hide.
The ship that bought me was already headed for the base, but my employer infiltrated it for me. They'll take what they want, and head off. No questions asked, no one knows I'm here.
The LZ is cleared eventually, good thing too. My cloak ran out halfway through it.
The guards all retreat back to their posts, and I'm free to move about.
First thing, look for a good vantage point, one that's hidden. Over on my right there's a railing, and above that, a little ledge I can slip into.
With tactical cloak active, I wander over and try to find an easy way up without detection. The coldness of this frozen world batters my bones, but I make it, just as the cloak runs out again.
With me is a sniper rifle, borrowed, and a small pistol. I should probably invest in my own weapons. This thing's clunky and large, not good for an assassin like me. I get up close; I let them see me before they die.
So I hold out for two more days, cooped up in this ledge, battered by winds on the first day, and snowed over on the second. My suit has a small heating system, so I stay moderately warm; it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, looking back. Not compared to what was coming.
Two days, no activity.
And then, on the third day, I see him; the man who ruined my life.

Data-log entry #3:

He's wearing his light blue armour, carries light weaponry, and that's about it. He must be a biotic.
I saw him climbing up the ledge, where I first landed. For someone who can 'get into anywhere' I'm unimpressed so far.
The guards have, fortunately for Zeta, retreated in for the night. Of course, there're a couple of snipers out on the roofs, but they won't cause him trouble I'm guessing.
This Zeta guy moves quietly, coming to just beneath where I'm hidden. I grab my pistol, ready to jump down and strike him, when someone shouts.
A sniper, shouting to his friend he's just recognised.
Both me and Zeta have frozen solid; but he recovers first. He moves quickly forward, and my silenced hit is missed. I watch him some more, deciding when I can strike, or where to strike.
He finally reaches the door and starts examining it.
This is the perfect moment for an assassin. I activate the cloak, fall silently down, and edge my way over to him.
At first I thought it'd be interesting to see how he'd open the door, and how quickly, can't blame me for being blinded by the guy's reputation.
All is revealed.
I stand behind him, raise my gun to his head as he looks up and down the door, even knocks it a few times, and I wait for my cloak to wear off.
Just as it does, he lunges forward, and disappears, into the door. He's gone. Vanished.
The job escalated very quickly in that second.
Swearing under my breath, I look around for a way in.
But there's nothing, just closed doors, and my hacking abilities aren't up to scratch. This is Cerberus, head of human technology.
But every structure has a weakness. I decide to go for the pipes that run beneath.
My cloak takes 11 seconds to recharge, and I activate it again as soon as I can.
Closest entry point is by the LZ, luckily, it extends to a railed off bit on the path I just came from. I run to it, and throw myself over, catching myself on the other side. Now I'm hanging.
I've got to move quickly, before the cloak wears off again, so I saddle to the left, to where the pipes come out from the underground.
Every second wasted is a second he gets further away. With that trick, I wouldn't be surprised if he teleported straight to his destination.
The hole is small, but I can just squeeze through. This is the worst part of the job, manoeuvring in tight spaces.
There's talking though the grates above me when I pass under them, but I'm slowly making my way into the base. The space has opened up as well, I can crawl now.
I have no idea where I'm going though. I have no idea what this guy wants, just that I'm supposed to kill him, or, was supposed to kill him about three minutes ago.
It's not hard to figure out though. He's an information extractor, which means he'll probably be heading for computers and computers means power. I have to find a power cable, one of many. So I look for the biggest. There's a slightly bigger chance he'll be headed to the main computer room, as that's where most of the information is stored.
It's a long shot, but I find one and follow it.
It takes me up a ladder, so I know this is a public place. I've got to keep my guard up now.
I work my way through tunnels, up corridors and around bends, eventually letting me stop at a grate in the wall. Beyond is the main computer room; not very tight security by Cerberus standards.
To my relief, he's already there, working on a computer on the far side of the room.
No stopping me now.

Data-log entry #4:

Tactical cloak is activated, I remove the grill as silently as I can, and crawl into the room, under the desk.
It seemed strange at the time, but there was no one else in the room.
I'm sure he hadn't heard me. I edge over to behind him, place my gun at his head again, and pull the trigger.
Once again, he disappears…
… And reappears behind me, kicking the gun out of my hand.
I block his punch from the right, but he's attacking with the left as well, so I step back.
Before I know it, he's gone, and ends up on my left with another kick, sending me back the way I had stepped. I try to hit him back, but he's gone, grabs me from behind, and throws me over him.
It's messy at this point, I don't know what I'm doing or how the hell he's so quick, but one word screams in my head; "adapt".
I'm lying on the floor, dazed, he's disappeared somewhere I can't see, probably gone to fetch his gun, which he didn't have with him. Strange.
I turn my cloak on and roll away, under a desk.
My gun is out of reach, and the cloak's on low power, it hadn't recharged fully after the last use. He comes back into view, and sure enough has his assault rifle.
He looks around, confused as to where I'd gone.
"Wanna play it like that?" he asks, and starts flashing in and out of existence again, more rapidly than ever. More rapidly than I can shoot.
I knew what he was doing, wasting time. He knew the cloak wouldn't last forever; and because technology's a bitch, it doesn't.
It wears off after seven seconds, and I'm forced to flee. I run to the middle of the room, and it looks like there's three of him, he's teleporting that fast. But for some reason, I know what's coming. I don't know how, but I just know. He teleports behind me, and I bend over, grab him with my legs, and twist him over me, crushing him to the ground.
So now we're both dazed, his gun has fallen elsewhere, and mine's still not in sight.
I try and recover as fast as I can, but he grabs my arms and pins me to the ground.
"Who are you?" he asks.
I say nothing. I'm too busy thinking how I can beat him.
This is why you should always carry two light weapons; one to get kicked away, the other to magically appear in your hand at times like this.
"Tell me," he says, more calmly.
He's strong, I try to struggle out of his grasp on my arms, but I can't. He's sat over me, so I try and distract him with the arms, and finish off by kicking up with my leg. He jumps up slightly, just enough to allow my knee to reach that one place on a man's body that's a guaranteed knock out.
He swears and almost flies off.
Though humorous, I can't laugh. I recast the cloak and look around for a gun.
"You're good!" he jokes, in pain.
"I could be crouched over you waiting to twist your neck around, and you're laughing?" I ask.
"Ah, so you're a woman. Explains how well you know how to get out of holds," he's still on the ground, looking around.
"I'm supposed to kill you," don't know why I said that, I guess the pressure of losing my first job ever is mounting up.
"Go figure," he says, and gets up.
I'm still invisible, looking desperately for a gun. But the cloak wears off.
I can tell he smiles when he sees me, and charges for me. Just before the first blow hits, he stops, teleports and attacks from my right instead. I'd call it fighting dirty.
"You need to improvise more," he says from my left, before appearing in front of me and kicking my stomach. I manage to dodge, but miss my hit, losing my balance.
So I improvise.

Data-log entry #5:

If he can teleport rapidly, I can equal.
The cloak is fully recharged; I turn it on, move around, turn it off, and attack when he next lands.
Lucky it's a direct hit, but before he has a witty comment to say, I disappear again, jump more to the right, and hit him again, after reappearing.
We continue like this, and I somehow manage to get him against the door.
Of course, he probably planned this. He teleports through and I'm now trapped inside, alone.
Suddenly, the door on the other side opens up, and Cerberus troops flood in, guns pointing at me.
"Freeze!"
And that's when I thought it was over. Zeta had ruined my job, my career, my reputation. I had failed.
A lot of things happened at once then.
The troopers took aimed and fired at me, I closed my eyes as Zeta flashed into existence, grabbed me, and we teleported away.
Outside, I'm stunned.
"You saved me?" I eventually ask.
He just stands there, and nods.
"I guess I did," he said.
There's a pause.
"I couldn't let them kill you; I had to finish you off myself. We both failed our jobs, so now I propose one thing. A fair fight. No teleporting, no invisibility, no guns, just fists and skill," he says.
For some stupid reason, I nod, and attack him.
He dodges, attacks back, I dodge, kick his shins, he blocks, and we fight on.
We've ended up on a large railing outside of the base, linking the front to the back. Around us are nothing but a drop into snowy cliffs and a rail stopping us from falling.
We fight to about the middle, and that's when both our lives change forever.
Firebase White explodes. We plunge together into the snow beneath us. And then we fall.

Data-log entry #6:

Zeta and I finished falling about 5 minutes ago. We've just been sat around, weapon-less, thinking of what to do.
He's more resourceful than I thought. He's come up with two ice-picks, sword sized, hard as steel, for weapons, but we're not fighting each other. I'm just going along with it so we can get off. I don't really care if he dies. If we make it out alive, I'll kill him then.
Turns out he's adept with a sword, he's even offered to train me.
We've both activated distress signals; both our suits are fitted with one.

Data-log entry #7:

I have to admit, he's quite charming to be around. I've never thought of what may happen if we don't make it off, he's so optimistic. We found an abandoned research shack on what looks like a snow desert.
We've fought off three attacks from snow beasts so far with our 'ice-swords'. He can somehow infuse biotics into his and power up his attacks. I've tried doing that with some techy stuff, but nothing so far. It's given me something to do, and he said he'd love to see me perfect it.

Data-log entry #8:

By now, my employers will know I've failed.
My reputation lies in ruins. First failed job and it's all downhill.
This Zeta is actually a vanguard, he takes on small missions to extract information and clear up unwanted visitors. He's quite the biotic himself. I never make friends with enemies, but out here, I don't think I'd have lasted this long without him.
It's been… a month and a bit now?
We've survived by the edge of our teeth. The distress signal is close to failing, I don't know his plan for after; maybe we'll fight to the death.
But… I think I wouldn't want to do that. It's probably the utter terror that's getting to me, but, I like him. I think.

Data-log entry #14:

I've decided to stop these here. Once again, I've assumed isolation.
All I'm going to say is; we made it off that planet. But I don't plan on seeing him again. Ever.
I finally bought a weapon as well. It's a sword. A proper sword.