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Chapter 14
And so it is...
"-and yet in the darkest hours are where most of us find our greatest strengths. With that said I would like to present this Star of Terra, an award bestowed only to the most courageous and dedicated, to those that go above and beyond their line of duty to protect innocent lives without regards to their own, to the War Hero of Elysium, Staff Lieutenant Jane Amelia Shepard."
There was a deafening roar of applause as the blonde stood up and walked confidently towards the podium. Despite her limp, the formally attired Shepard looked the epitome of a perfect soldier: smart, beautiful and professional. Her long hair was combed back into a neat, tight bun while her polished uniform shone underneath the great lights. She shook hands with the Admiral and the Prime Minister, both uttering words of congratulations before the Prime Minister pinned the medal to her chest. As both men saluted her, the crowd went wild. Sky could see a small, but proud smile grace her sister's face before she returned the salute.
"Are you watching what I think you're watching?"
The dark-haired woman paused the recording with her omni-tool and the image of Jane's triumphant grin froze on the wide screen. Tearing her attention away from the heart-warming sight, she quickly hopped off her couch and jogged towards the hologram of the Alliance's newest hero. Grinning, Sky stepped into the metal round platform that she knew would transmit her own silhouette to the communication hub on the Arcturus station. "Jane!" she cried out in relief.
The hologram was not perfect, but it gave her enough to identify the blonde's new outfit. Whistling appreciatively, she had to admit, she was impressed; rank did have a great impact after all. Her new armor fit her better, and paired with the contrasting stark white and pitch black the soldier appeared larger, stronger and far deadlier than before. Raising her eyes, she took in the newer collection of scars and bruises that decorated her sister's tanned skin. Sky frowned at the split lip and the dark bruises that dusted her jaw line. Strange, she didn't notice the injuries in the news report. "Sky." Jane greeted, "good to see a friendly face."
"Thank God you're okay. You had me worried sick there."
"Yeah… Sorry." Jane grinned sheepishly as she dragged her gloved fingers through her hair. "The past few days have been crazy."
The shorter woman shook her head at the apology, dismissing it immediately. "It's fine. I had a feeling that the Alliance would need to enjoy their new 'Staff Lieutenant'. Congratulations at the promotion by the way."
"Thank you." Although the younger woman tried not to show it, Sky coud tell that she was positively beaming. "But 'enjoy' would be a bad way to put it. Didn't managed to get to you until now. Which by the way, was surprisingly easy. Why did you leave you channel open? Have you forgotten how to program-"
"Come on, I'm not that bad!" She ignored Jane's deadpanned looked. "Plus, for your information, I left it open, on purpose. You're the only one that reaches me through this line anyway."
The blonde sighed. "'Again, sorry, As soon as I was ready for action they booted me out of bed and had me running about till now. Oh how I hate politics."
"Who doesn't? They seemed to have been in dire need for a poster human. And you're it."
"I hate trying to act all perfect… But anyway, they intend to ship me off tomorrow. I'll spare you the details since I don't have much time anyway." She leaned backwards, as though assessing some unknown situation behind her that Sky could not discern. "You would think that being declared a 'Hero' would earn me some down time."
She laughed, if only you knew half of it. If Jane expected 'down time' for anything, she is in for a huge surprise in the coming years. "How are you bubs? I know things must have been rough down there."
Anyone would have missed the slight dimming of light in her sister's eyes, but not Sky, she was after all, an expert on behaviour. Her heart clenched slightly at Jane's forced smile. "It was no easier than Mindoir, I give you that. But we all pulled through." The dark-haired woman nodded, urging her to continue. "I did everything I could to save everyone, but we both know that everything is often not enough… But I'll be alright."
"I know you will. You're strong Jane, stronger than anyone I know." Oh how she wished she could reach across the Universe to grasp her hand. "And you did what you could. I am so proud of you."
"Thanks mom." Sky thanked all the higher powers above when she saw the sadness slowly diffusing from those breath-taking purple eyes. She was sure a lot happened down there, but even though the soldier looked understandably upset, she could tell that the she was going to be okay. Maybe it wasn't nearly as traumatic as she thought it would have been. Or maybe Sky just greatly underestimated her strong heart. Either way, she still counted her lucky stars.
After all, there had to be a reason why the 'War Hero' option gave them extra paragon points in the game.
"I watched that recording of your award ceremony almost 10 times."
"I had a feeling you would. You're such a worry-wart." Despite her chastising, the affection was clear in her voice. "How is work for you?"
"Same old, same old. I don't want to waste time talking about me though, we can-"
"Sorry hold on." The blonde interrupted as she disappeared from view. The older woman sighed, and crossed her arms. "Okay back, sorry about that. Like I said, it is rather crazy around here."
Sky smiled gently, shaking her head. "You have to go?"
"Yeah…" Jane said regretfully. "We have a briefing session… But I'll send you a message alright?"
"A good, long, detailed one?"
The soldier laughed, "I promise."
"Okay good. Take care of yourself sweetheart. Don't do anything stupid."
"Will try my best. Love you."
"Love you too." And with that, the fuzzy 3D image of her sister flickered and vanished.
Sky stood there for a moment, staring into empty space, before walking over to her study almost mechanically, toes digging into the warm carpeted floor. Sitting down at her desk she pulled out a pair of colored books from her locked safe hidden behind the drawer.
When she first got into this world, it occurred to her that it would probably be a good idea to record down all she knew about Mass Effect 1 and 2. After all, who knew how long she would be stuck here, she wanted to ensure that memory degeneration would be the least of her problems. She did not have all the information, having forgotten almost everything but the most basic of facts in ME1, but she made up for it in bulk with her knowledge on ME2. The timelines were a little messy and so were the finite details, but whatever she knew six years ago was stored in the little yellow book. All she could do was hope that the hardcover would never fall into the wrong hands.
The second one, however, were full of scribbles and ideas on what she could do to prepare for the events of the trilogy. As she flipped through the pages now she could see the many ideas that she drew up, edited, only to discard after a few weeks of contemplation. But the six years did give her a lot of things to think about and she managed to come up with a solid list of 'things-to-do'. She knew that Shepard was around 30, give or take two years, when the geth hit Eden Prime. Given that the blonde was now 23, that gave her about five to six years before the action truly begins.
Sky didn't know if she was excited or nervous. But the prospect of the 'true story' beginning in such a short amount of time was rather overwhelming.
Jittery with anticipation she quickly committed the first few plausible items on her list to memory, before leaning down to return her little secret holders back into their hiding place. But at the last second, she opened her the yellow one and jolted down very quickly in Chinese:
Year 2176 - Mystery Man
She wasn't sure if she was ever going to see the Alliance marine any time soon, but she certainly hoped so.
Locking her safe she brought her mind back to the present.
Five years, ten items. Should be simple enough.
###
Year 2183
Lord she felt old.
To be technical, she was actually 188 years old. But still, she couldn't believe she biologically turned 30 this year, the big three-oh. Oh how age was catching up with her…
But as she leaped over the metallic cover, muscles stretching and flexing fluidly to her will, she knew that she was kidding herself. Sure thirty did felt like a large number, but it definitely had nothing to do with her physical abilities.
Hitting the ground, she rolled and was on her feet within seconds, not even pausing for a breath. Heavy perspiration rolled down her taunt face as she expertly swerved to avoid the rocket that was heading her way. The projectile hit the location where she had been moments before, blasting the weak metal into pieces, but the force of the blast did nothing to stall her momentum. She charged straight into the enemy's encampment, halting sharply right before the first mech and placed her pistol beneath it's head before pulling the trigger. She grinned as circle of red light flickered and died, and before its two partners could return fire she was gone. The dead mech exploded, throwing the two other robots down at the same time. As the synthetics attempted to get back on their feet she reappeared seemingly out of thin air, a bullet into the centre of each light, and boom, they were gone.
Laughing, Sky took a couple of steps back. That was the last of them. Wiping the sweat from her brow she breathed in deeply to calm her adrenaline filled heart.
"And they told me you're a psychologist."
Caught unaware the slim fighter spun around, gun up and aimed at the head of newcomer. The pistol was filled only with practice slugs of course, but Sky had been hit by a couple of them before, and they hurt. Registering the face of the man before her she grinned and holstered her favourite weapon on her back, before bounding up gleefully towards him.
"Anderson!" She called out, before hugging the older man. Since she left her 'surrogate family' at 18, Anderson was the closest thing she had to a father in this world. He was her teacher, trainer and motivator all at the same time. She smiled at his familiar cider scent. Screw being 30, she was going to act like a child whenever she saw fit.
The dark-skinned man returned her hug briefly, before pulling away. "Sky. It's good to see you." He then raised an eyebrow at the mess around them. They were currently in one of the few Alliance training facilities on the Citadel. To be more specific, they were in one of what used to be one of the few training facilities, assuming the otherworldly woman did not just destroy all of their training mechs. "You're lucky that I gave you lease to use this place." He shook his head at the destruction. "What did you do? Set them on the highest level all at once?"
Sky shrugged. "What can I say? I was bored."
"Well…" He responded dryly. "Next time go read a book."
She grinned cheekily. Already a few of the not-too-badly-damaged mechs were coming back online, although most were beyond repair. The techies were going to have a field day with this one. She was sure they would be happy to know that she had come to the conclusion that this place no longer held any challenges for her and this would be her last session here. Speaking of which, she had better get out of their reach before they attempted to kill her again. "Come on, let's go somewhere to talk."
The pair chatted as they strolled through the Presidium. It has been a long time since she saw her favourite Captain, but the past six years flew by so fast that it still felt like just yesterday when they were having lunch to celebrate his promotion.
"I must say… You've improved." Anderson chuckled as he leaned onto the railing overlooking the large fountain.
"You were watching?" She hadn't heard him coming in and she was extremely astute when in 'battle mode'. Were her senses failing her now?
"No. I wasn't. But you did leave quite an impressionable mess behind."
Sky bit her lower lip, trying not to smile too widely at his compliment. She had come a long way indeed.
Perhaps the one thing she was most grateful for was being given ample time to prepare herself. She shuddered to think how difficult her life would be had she appeared in this Mass Effect world any later. Thirteen years of hard work: training, studying, working, making connections. Life back in her own 'reality' felt… like a dream, like a blurred memory that she was totally detached from. Of course, she constantly reminded herself that she still had to find a way home, find answers; but as each day passed, as she conformed to the norms and values of the society here… Well, let's just say she was in no hurry to leave.
The sixteen years old her was still inside somewhere. But she was no longer that skinny, weak girl that she once was. Nope, she was now a full-fledged adult. An adult that, she proudly admitted, was able to kick a substantial amount of ass.
"What are you doing back on the Citadel anyway? Did the Alliance finally give you some shore leave?"
The Captain barked out a laugh. "Alliance? Leave? Never. I'm just here to pick up some data from the Council before I'm back on the Arcturus station."
"Must be some important data if the great Captain David Anderson has to come all the way here to get it himself. Want to divulge what this all-important information could be?" She nudged his shoulder slightly, showing that she was joking around.
"I wish I could Sky. Now if only you were a soldier…"
The dark-haired girl faked a frown. "Both you and Jane were so against me becoming one so many years ago."
"Maybe we underestimated you…"
Sky laughed and shook her head. "It's fine. I like my life. I'm glad you guys stopped me. I'm very happy with where I am and who I've become."
"Good… And how is your sister?" He asked kindly, turning to look at her.
"Doing well, I think. I haven't spoken to her in a while actually. You know you soldier types, so busy doing Lord-knows-what that you don't have time for family." She ended her sentence with a pout.
Anderson rolled his eyes at her bad attempt for sympathy and continued, "So she hasn't told you yet?"
"Told me… what exactly?"
"We've been assigned to a new ship, and she is going to be my second-in-command. A new frigate, the SSV Normandy-"
Anderson continued talking, but Sky had stopped responding. Her heart pounded like a battle drum in her ears and all she could hear was this new information going in loops in her brain.
Normandy. Normandy. Normandy.
Sky gulped.
Holy crap.
###
Very short chapter, I realized. But I have been having this in my head for the past few days and I just had to get it out. No worries, I promise you a good long one for the next one. It will fully explain what Sky has been up to for the past 6 years, etc. etc. I know there was a reaaally big time jump (again) but I did warn you, I want to get to the events of ME1 as soon as possible.
Anyway, it is haaaapppeeniiiingg. Finally. To be honest, I did not expect my story to take THIS long to get to this point. I don't know... Am I rushing this too much? What do you think? Does it flow okay?
Thank you all for your comments, reviews, for reading and subscribing. I apologize again for that random upload, but the site was being a little weird, but anyway all is good now.
Nanobot5770 - Yes she would. Aha, this wouldn't much be an ME SI if she didn't. But yeah, I do see what you mean. But again, if I raaandomly appeared in the ME world, I would SO join the Normandy. =P Soon soon. =D
greed11 - You are absolutely right. I tweaked the previous chapter, added a paragraph about details on the ward. It's not much because I didn't have enough knowledge about the Citadel to make sound architectural comments. I myself can't even imagine what it might look like. But do check it out if you have the time?
Also Generator X, S058, Liege Lord, ExploitingReality and Helljumper 1337, thank you for your continuous support. Honestly, it is because of you guys I can find the will to keep writing.
Oh and about Rahan...? I guess you're just going to have to stay tuned to see. ;]
Erm, I also tried out the ME3 multiplayer today. You're right, pretty fun. But I'm a vanguard player, and I love getting up close and personal with the handy shotgun. It sucks to play a vanguard at such a low level though. =[ Sigh. AND I'm sorry to disappoint (I'm assuming here) but I can't play with any of you guys because I share accounts with my brother. =[
HOWEVER, I am always up for a little rant session, or just to talk, or anything with anyone. =] So do PM me whenever.
Woah, long author's note. I have GOT to stop doing that. I swear it takes up half of my 'words'.
Until next time.
Love,
Fee
ps. I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIA FOR UNIVERSITY!