The shuttle ride to London only took an hour but it felt longer. When Shepard and Ashley boarded, they were happily surprised to see that Hackett had arranged for their armor and weapons to be on board the shuttle waiting for them. For the first part of the ride, they gave every piece of equipment a thorough going over. With all the unknowns Hackett told them they were to expect, the last thing they wanted was to worry about their equipment failing. When the weapons check was over, they remained seated in silence for the rest of the trip. They weren't in a talkative mood as they thought about what was waiting for them in London.
The night sky greeted Shepard and Ashley as they stepped off the shuttle. It was hard to believe that only an hour ago they were seeing a sunrise and having breakfast. But that was what happened when a person jumps ahead nine time zones. They ended up not having to look far for their contact. Shortly after stepping off the shuttle, they heard a voice call out to them.
"Hey Loco! Ashley! Happy Anniversary!"
When Shepard and Ashley saw who the voice belonged to, they both felt that things were starting to look up. Greeting them when they arrived was none other than their old squadmate and N7 marine, Lieutenant-Commander James Vega. Vega joined Shepard's squad after the Reaper's invaded Earth. He wasn't totally in favor of leaving Earth to get help for the fight but eventually accepted that Shepard was right in insisting that they needed allies to even have a chance to beat the Reapers. He remained under Shepard's command for the duration and even received his N7 commendation while serving with him. It was also during that time that he started calling Shepard "Loco" because of how crazy he figured Shepard had to be to do most of the stuff he had done in his career.
Shepard had lost track of Vega after the war ended. The last time he saw him was at his and Ashley's wedding. By the point he had completed his training and had become a full N7 marine. His training had allowed him to overcome his fear of being a leader that he developed after losing all but one member of his last command on a mission against the Collectors. He eventually took command of his own squad of marines. The only thing that happened to Vega since Shepard saw him at the wedding was that he had been promoted from Lieutenant to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander.
"Vega!" Shepard exclaimed when he saw him. "You're the task force commander?"
"Yep," Vega replied while shaking Shepard and Ashley's hands, "my squad and I were brought here to provide security for the commemoration of the park. After the ceremony was over, palace security took over for the reception and we were supposed to leave Earth for our next assignment. Our shuttle was just about to take off when we were informed of the takeover. We were ordered to stay and join the task force. Since I'm the highest ranking officer I was put in charge."
Shepard and Ashley grabbed their gear and followed Vega to the shuttle that would take them to Buckingham Palace. Along the way, Vega gave them an update on the situation. When his squad had first arrived at the palace, they attempted to launch a counterattack to retake the palace. Unfortunately when they reached the ballroom they realized how drastic the situation was. The terrorists had locked down all the hostages into the ballroom and booby-trapped all the room's entrances with explosives. To further complicate things, they could hear a moan coming from the other side of the door. The terrorists had placed hostages directly behind the door to discourage tampering with the bombs.
Realizing that a counterattack wouldn't work, Vega and his squad retreated from the palace. When they got outside they started trying to make contact with the terrorists. They launched a comm. terminal into the ballroom through a window and repeatedly called it. Three times they tried to call but the terrorists didn't answer once. Vega then called Hackett with the update and it was during that call that Hackett told him to expect Shepard and Ashley's arrival. He concluded his update by saying that nothing had changed since Ashley and Shepard were called in.
"So in other words we still have no idea what's going on in the palace," said Ashley.
"Sad but true," Vega replied, "all I know is that my orders are to turn command of the task force over to you Loco since you're now the highest ranking officer. Hopefully with you in charge, maybe we can come up with a plan that will be loco enough to work."
"We'll see Vega," said Shepard, "let's just get to the palace so that Ashley and I can see what's happening for ourselves."
Shepard never had a chance to see Buckingham Palace when he was in London for the final battle of the Reaper War. Even so it didn't take much for him to recognize it when he saw it outside the shuttle's windows. Despite the constantly evolving architecture of the surrounding buildings, Buckingham Palace remained mostly unchanged from the way it looked back during the 21st Century. The only major difference from the way it looked in pictures was the countless police and military vehicles surrounding it.
During the shuttle's final approach, Shepard was able to see one thing that Vega didn't mention back at the spaceport. On the rooftop directly above the ballroom, four terrorists were patrolling and two of them were mounted on anti-aircraft guns. The guards and guns on the roof explained why storming the palace from above didn't seem to be an option. Or did it? A thought entered Shepard's head as to how they might be able to infiltrate the palace but he decided to keep it to himself. It was better to wait until he saw the entire situation first hand. The plan he had was a risky one and he wanted to be sure that there was no other option before he would suggest it.
The shuttle touched down a few yards from the front of the palace near some temporary huts. Vega called the place the operations center. A bunch of salutes greeted Shepard and Ashley when they stepped off the shuttle. Their reputations were definitely preceding them. Eventually Vega escorted them to a hut that had a wall filled with security monitors. Unfortunately the monitors didn't show much. All cameras labeled as exterior shots only showed the ballroom's windows were curtained off while the ballroom's interior cameras showed nothing at all.
"I'm guessing that the terrorists disabled all cameras inside the palace," Shepard said.
"Yeah," Vega replied, "that was the first sign that something was wrong. Unfortunately by the time palace security was able to respond, the terrorists had already locked down the ballroom."
"How many hostages do they have in there?"
"There are a total of seventy-five hostages in there. Sixty of the hostages are the diplomats and their guests. The other fifteen are palace staff members that were in the ballroom when the terrorists took it over.
Shepard was now rubbing his chin while he stared at the monitors, "Well we may not know who these terrorists are or what they want but I'm already starting to get an idea of how skilled they are."
"What do you mean skipper?" Ashley asked.
Shepard continued, "Somehow these guys were able to infiltrate a heavily secured party with weapons and explosives. Then they managed to disable the cameras, get everyone in the room under control and lock the room down before palace security had any time to react. There is no way an amateur squad could pull that off. We are more than likely dealing with pros."
"You mean like Eclipse or Blood Pack?" Vega asked.
"Yes and no. It's definitely a group that's as skilled as they are but there is no way it's one of them. Both those groups are still under Aria T'Loak's control and I know that she would never approve of them doing something like this."
The conversation was interrupted when a terminal in the hut started beeping. A message was coming through. Shepard looked to Vega and saw that he was surprised by the call. Instantly Shepard was able to figure out why the call was such a big deal. The call was coming from the terminal that Vega's squad launched into the palace to communicate with the terrorists. Now after countless attempts to contact them, the terrorists were now reaching out to the Alliance.
Shepard quickly issued orders for the men to get to their positions so they could monitor the call. He then pulled up seats for himself, Ashley and Vega so that they could be near the speaker. The last thing Shepard did was ask Vega to answer the call. Shepard wanted to simply listen to the call for a while to see what he could learn about the caller. Once the others gave a thumbs up signaling that they were ready, Shepard signaled for Vega to hit the accept call button on the terminal. Nearly everyone in the room took a breath with Vega as he pushed the button and began to speak.
"Hello? This is Lieutenant-Commander Vega of the Alliance Navy. To whom am I speaking?"
A male voice responded, "I'm sorry Commander Vega but I'm not interested in talking to you. I'm calling because I just got a report from my men on the roof that the legendary Spectre Captain Shepard has just arrived. He's the one I want to talk to."
Everyone in the hut turned to Shepard. Shepard didn't even notice because he was too busy processing what he had just heard. There was something familiar about that voice but he was having a difficult time placing it. He figured it probably didn't belong to an old friend. None of his friends were terrorists. It was more likely an old enemy. Sadly that still didn't narrow it down because most of his enemies were dead and he couldn't think of the few that were still alive to place the voice. Eventually he decided speculation wasn't going to get him anywhere and stepped in front of the terminal.
"This is Captain Shepard of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance," he said.
"Shepard! It has been too long since I've heard your voice," the voice replied, "are you and your Mrs. doing well?"
Shepard let out a slight chuckle, "you seem to have me at a disadvantage. You know me pretty well but I don't even know your name."
"Are you saying you don't remember me Shepard? I know it's been a while since we last saw each other but I remember you. It's your old buddy Finch."
The minute Shepard heard the name Finch, a chill ran up his spine. He quickly reached for the mute button to silence his end of the conversation. With the line silenced he just stood there frozen solid. Ashley could have sworn that Shepard had just seen a ghost from the look on his face. She reached up and put a hand on Shepard's shoulder.
"What's wrong skipper?" she asked. "Do you know this guy?"
Shepard nodded. The look of shock on his face was giving way to anger.
"Yeah I know him," he growled, "we met back when I was growing up on Earth. I had hoped that I would never see him again."
MAKE A CHOICE:
The next chapter is one that I was really excited to write as it deals with something that is rarely talked about in the Mass Effect Universe: Shepard's past. However before you proceed there is a choice you need to make. Whenever I play through the first game with an Earthborn background, I purposely skip the mission where Shepard and Finch interact. The reason being it is the only time in the entire series where there is mention of Shepard having been part of a gang as a kid. That was always the one detail that made it hard for me to pick the Earthborn background. So I decided to skip the mission and, in my head canon, established the continuity that Shepard was never in a gang. I want to keep that same canon in this story. But Finch was still a character interesting enough to deserve an appearance. So I came up with a new way for him and Shepard to meet but without Shepard actually joining Finch's gang. But I also wanted to make a version for those who do play the assignment and want it to be in this story. Now it's time to make a choice.
1.) To see how the story plays out if Shepard had never been a member of Finch's gang and thus never completed the "Old Friends" assignment in ME1, simply click on the next chapter button on the bottom right corner of the screen. (My personal canon choice)
2.) To see how the story plays out if Shepard was a member of Finch's gang and did complete the "Old Friends" assignment in ME1, click the chapter selection button and skip ahead to chapter 22.
The choice is yours.