I do not own Mass Effect or Bioware

Day One: Arrival

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.-Socrates

I'm not an elite soldier, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to fight. I spent four years in the Alliance military as a mechanical engineer. Mostly developmental work with heavy kinetic weapons machinery. Which is to say I helped to develop the large weapon arrays on most of our fleet's class delta dreadnaughts.

My contract was up but I decided to stay for a couple more years to gain more technical skills. I chose explosives, it's the best thing I could think of that would transition nicely into chemical engineering. I know I wouldn't have the knowledge that most chemical specialist have, but at least I would have somewhere to work from. Two years went by as quick as they had started and my CO began pushing the issue of making me into a career military man. I gave it some thought, but I was tired of the grind and sought prospects elsewhere.

At first thought Omega would seem like a bad place to be if you are human. On the contrary, if you had the money most other species didn't care what you were.

I thought I knew what to expect leaving Alliance space and heading into the Terminus systems. I thought to myself this is a tough neighborhood, but I can hack it. As I was riding along on the transport ship to carry us to Omega thoughts of regret passed by. I say this because the "us" in the ship was filled with sand pushers, mercenaries, a couple of rival gang candidates (namely eclipse and blue suns), and a whole assortment of low life scum. The transport itself was actually not a transport for people, more or less for cargo. The charter captain had fitted it with seats that faced each other in three large columns that spanned the length of the hold. Not comfortable but practical.

As we neared the station I could see that Omega was nothing more than a relic, just barley above space junk which added to my discomfort. On our final approach I could feel the sudden deceleration as we neared the station.

I checked my omni tool and made sure it was calibrated to the official time on Omega. Days, weeks, months, years, no longer have any standard value in galactic space especially when every station, planet, ship, and god forsaken rock has a different value for every single one of those period measurements. Planets have different rotational speeds and different radii from their parent star which in turn defines their revolutionary intervals which defines how long their 'years and days' are. The Citadel has its own official time, but that only influences ships and planets within Citadel space. Every species has their own system of measuring time as well, but that is only the official time if inside their 'space' so to speak. I personally have developed my own thirty six hour 'day' based on a standard sixty minute hour. It is quite a hassle to keep up with the time of your location not to mention your own internal clock.

As I look up from checking the time the interior of the ship was suddenly illuminated with a deep red glow that began to pulse. It reminded of the battle stations alert that I had so often been drilled on during my stay with the Alliance. I peered outside and spotted that marker buoys illuminated the course to our destination and our passing by was creating the light show.

Passengers began shuffling and stretching as they anticipated our arrival. Needless to say my spirit was plummeting, until I heard her. It was the laugh that caught my attention. It's a funny thing, if you hear someone laughing what's the first thing you do? You either smile or chuckle to yourself.

Two asari sat opposite me and two seats to my left. Oddly enough they were half dressed in Eclipse recruit combat armor. One's skin was a deep magenta that seemed to glow. her face was of a lighter shade that deepened towards the edges. Her face and forearms were kissed with beautiful blue markings that would catch the eye of anyone passing by her. The other was of a lighter blue and also had a beautiful array of white makings that ran the lengths of her arms.

The blue one of the two decided to catch some sleep during the ride. She must have been a heavy dozer as the beacons didn't seem to phase her from rest. Her friend tried waking her up several times unsuccessfully, and in a last ditch effort slapped her on the back of her head. She jolted to life frightened and breathing heavily. That's when I heard her laugh, and that's also when the other now awoken asari spotted me ogling them.

"Don't even get near that thought human." She grumbled.

Obviously she was angry from being woken up. I thought about a quick comeback , but since I was the only human that I could see on the transport I decided not to create a scene. I simply looked out my window again., but that did not last. Unable to help myself I shot a quick glance in their direction again. To my surprise I saw the magenta one whispering to her unhappy friend.

I could still see the hand covered smile around her face as her eyes met my own. My first thought was defensive, great now they are laughing at me cause this stupid human has nothing else on his mind other than getting some asari tail.

I was surprised to see the magenta asari standing up to approach me. I was caught off guard and a little panicked. Only a couple of feet away from me she bent over until our eyes were level. Her eyes now closer and more beautiful than my imagination could ever conjure up. Water or the oceans would not be a good descriptor. The blue in her eyes were too intense, too vibrant.

"I apologize for my older sister. She…is a little over protective." she hesitated searching for the right words. I leaned slightly to my left and noticed her sister watching us very closely.

"No worries. She's just doing her job." Another pause. "My name is Ethan Bowers, it's my first time to visit omega. I'm starting over, going to try to make something of myself. And you?" I questioned trying earnestly to keep the conversations going.

"Oh, you're sure in for a surprise." She gritted her teeth. "This place can either make or break you. And my advice to you is to stay on this transport and go back to wherever you came from, trust me you don't want to be here." her tone was sincere as if she actually cared for my well being.

"And trust me, you're not the first person to say so. Sorry I never got your name." I questioned hopefully.

"Tiera V'Myre," she stated with a smile.

"So you and your sister," I leaned over again to my left, she was still watching ever closer, "You come here as eclipse recruits?"

"Yeah, we are not full members yet, but we will be soon." she stated with a hopeful tone. Suddenly the transport jolted violently as the docking bay arms clamped to the hull.

"Well it seems we have arrived. I wish you and your sister luck with the eclipse and hopefully this won't be the last time I see you."

"I wouldn't mind that either." she smiles and turns to rejoin her sister, as she does a small medallion swings from her neck.