Atmospheric reentry, the technical term for the act of falling towards a planet at supersonic speeds in a burning tin can while being shaken like a milkshake. It had been quite a while since Gabriel had been in such a situation, but it is not a sensation you forget. While reentry is a quite unpleasant experience, it does however get easier to handle with time, and Gabriel had done it more times than he bothered to remember. Tania on the other hand did not take it so well, judging by the pool of vomit at her feet.

He yawned and said: "Your first time in a drop?" She nodded silently, desperately trying to keep whatever was left in her stomach from escaping. "Ok, I know a trick that usually works for humans, but I don't know if it will work for you. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, focus on your heart beating and calm down." He began massaging where he assumed her temples would be, and she started… purring? She calmed down rather quickly, and just in time. Gabriel looked out the window the moment she calmed down and saw the ground rapidly approaching. Apparently the parachutes hadn't opened in time. He managed to yell: "Brace for impact." Moments before the pod made violent contact with the ground.

Rain, he could feel the rain on his skin, how long had it been since last time, years? Decades? He used to hate the rain, yet now he welcomed it, he loved how it felt on his skin, it felt somehow refreshing. He pushed some debris off of him and got to his feet. The pod was relatively intact, intact enough to be a shelter for a night or two. He saw Tania move, and she did not appear to be hurt, he walked over to her and pulled her to her feet.

He looked around, trying to get his bearings. They had landed near the end of a cliff, he walked over to the edge of it. He stared out over the landscape, forests, lakes and mountains, but no sign of civilization. Suddenly he felt a need, like some part of him desired release, he knew what it was. He screamed, at top of his lungs, one word, freedom. When he finally ran out of breath, he fell to his knees and whispered: "That felt good." Tania stared at him, a bit confused, but she could understand how after twenty six years in a cell, you might need a second or two to get some things out of your system. She was not the only one who heard him, the hounds of Hades were on the hunt.

Being a Cerberus commando was dangerous work, especially during the last few months where commander Shepard had made it her cause to bring down every single member of Cerberus she could get her hands on, Lucas and his squad were among the few survivors of Shepard's rampage through the Rachni project. He knew that there were something fishy about this mission, they are told that they are to break out a first contact vet, but when they arrive in the system they are told to wait. A few hours later the ship they were supposed to board blows up, and they are told to prepare to extract the target, multiple times he had to ask himself just what the fuck was going on here.

When they approached the landing site they heard someone screaming… freedom? The guy screaming was either a showman or he had been imprisoned for a very long time. They approached using state of the art cloaking tech, prototypes just out of the skunkworks. At the wreckage they saw a turian female talking to a human. He activated his comm. and said: "Command are you seeing this?"

Within a few seconds came a response: "There is a change of plans, apprehend both targets."

"Yes sir." He closed the line to Cerberus command and opened the one to his comrades and said: "Change of plans guys, we apprehend them both, surround and hold position I'm engaging.

His team surrounded the crash site, while he approached the targets, he raised his weapon, deactivated his cloak and said: "You're coming with us, both of you." The girl wisely threw her hands in the air and looked completely terrified, the human on the other hand reacted with a glare in his eyes and a snarl on his lips.

A plan began to formulate itself I Gabriel's head the moment the commando revealed himself, but it was thrown out a few moments later when more commandoes revealed themselves. He reverted to a very old strategy, intimidation. He glared at the leader and yelled: "Do you even know who it is you are threatening boy?" His expression darkened as he continued: "I can have you over that edge and headshot each of your friends in six seconds flat."

The leader of the commandoes gave a scornful laugh and said: "Go ahead and try old man."

"You will regret saying that boy." Gabriel sprung into action, opening up with two rapid strikes to the head followed by a fist in the throat, thereby disorienting his opponent and cutting off his air supply. The commando dropped his weapon. Gabriel grabbed the commando by the throat and with one hand lifted him out over the edge of the cliff.

The commando was baffled, he had made a beginners mistake, he had underestimated his enemy´, and It was about to cost him dearly. The process of him getting overwhelmed had taken less than 4 seconds. He was desperately trying to breathe, which was pretty hard since the old man was in the process of strangling him, while holding out over a cliff, and the punch to his throat didn't help things either. Lucas had been in many a though situation and he rarely got frightened, but while he was struggling for air in the strangers iron grip, he could not help look into his eyes, and what he saw scared him. Those eyes were completely devoid of compassion, his eyes were burning with pure fury.

Lucas' comrades didn't have time to react before their leader was being held out over a cliff. They knew that Lucas was at the mercy of his assailant, but they all pointed their weapons at him anyway. One of them stood forward and yelled: "Put him down NOW."

Without looking away from his captive Gabriel said: "Are you sure? It is hard to survive to a five hundred meter drop."

The Mexican standoff was interrupted by a new arrival, a raven haired woman, dressed in a black and white uniform. She approached the crash site saying: "I'm impressed Gabriel, I didn't think you would be up to the task when last we met, looks like I was wrong."

While being strangled Lucas managed to blurt out: "Miss Lawson, what the fuck is going on here, who the hell is this guy?"

Miranda chuckled: "In a moment." She looked at her men and said: "Men put your weapons down." They complied. She looked over at Gabriel and said: "Will you please put down my commander, and then we can have a civil conversation."

Gabriel looked back at Miranda, looking very annoyed and said: "Fine." But Miranda didn't say where or how to put him down, so he threw the commander into one of his comrades. He walked over to Miranda, saying: "There I put him down, now tell me what the fuck is going on here."

She looked over at her men, raising an arm pointing it at Gabriel and said: "Gentlemen may I introduce you to Major Gabriel Shepard, The Wolf of Shanxi, The scourge of Morran and most importantly of all, father of commander Jane Shepard."

The commandoes were astounded, completely lost for words, until one of the broke the silence by saying: "Are you telling me that we threatened the granddaddy of the alliance? We are lucky to be alive."

In the background Tania looked at Gabriel very confused, was he that monster from the stories, the man that murdered an entire colony without a second thought? Legends it seems have a tendency not to be so grand in real life.

Miranda simply nodded.

I am currently trying to figure out the best way of splitting up sections of the story, if anyone can tell me how to do it properly I would appreciate it.

And as usual, if you read and don't review Gabriel kills a turian.