It was ten in the morning and Elizabeth Collins had already worked on two whiskeys when the Normandy touched down on Earth. She'd been readying herself for home after another brutal graveyard shift. Instead, Elizabeth raised her hand to the bartender for a third and gladly took the glass when he offered it. She wanted to keep drinking until she was numb to the taste.
The bar she sat at was mostly quiet, but it fell silent as the other patrons watched the whole fuckfest on screen. Commander Shepard in cuffs. Elizabeth scoffed into her drink and went back to ignoring the vidscreen.
It seemed like the whole galaxy only heard about Shepard about two years ago after the attack on the Citadel and her supposed death that soon followed. Maybe some had heard of her seven years after the assault on Elysium. Both times Shepard was named a hero.
But when Elizabeth had first heard of Shepard, she was just some loud mouth eighteen-year-old who got dropped from the biotics program in basics. Heard that Shepard could barely hold up her barrier without passing out. She also heard from others that Shepard was an ass who'd probably get dropped from basics within a week.
Although Elizabeth never saw that side of her. Shepard was a smartass for sure, she kept her head down and worked diligently along with the rest of the recruits.
They had bullshitted about plans for when they got out. Elizabeth had gone on and on about wanting to go college to become a teacher while Shepard talked about law school at times, but only fleetingly. "After four years, I'm taking my benefits and walking" is what Shepard said a lot.
Elizabeth took a drink from her whiskey. I'm sure that worked out for you, Commander. She rolled her eyes as if she was talking to Shepard right there at the bar.
Shepard was a friend who kept Elizabeth going through basics and soon the infiltrator program for those four years. They were a team, always with each other, alongside training, missions, and even shit detail duties.
Except whenever they were on shore leave. Shepard had kept blowing her off and stayed on the ship or base during those times.
Until one shore leave, Elizabeth had enough of Shepard blowing her off and dragged her ass out to a local club. That was Elysium. That four-year plan went out the window for both her and Shepard after that.
Shepard had gotten nominated to the N-school, became a household name for the Alliance, and even a damn movie after the attack. While Elizabeth took her four years and walked, bitter and angry at the Alliance, at Shepard, and the whole damn affair.
To add insult to injury, the movie got most of what went down on the colony wrong. Her character even died halfway through it.
Elizabeth looked up from her glass to the screen again. Shepard had passed, her face in full view for just a matter of seconds. Her eyes cast down towards her wrists. A hulking guard escorted her inside the base, out of sight from the public and cameras. Hackett, for once on Earth, took the brunt of the questions with grace as reporters worked him over.
Elizabeth turned her attention back to her drink and memories. They had experience on ground side missions. They were sent in to take out a target who never saw them coming. Those were usually quick, clean, and controlled. Elysium was anything but that.
The whiskey swirled on her tongue causing her to wince. It was Shepard's choice to reenlist after Elysium. Shepard could have stayed on the base if Elizabeth hadn't dragged her out that night. Who knows what would have happened then.
Elizabeth bragged about wanting to see real action. To lead when shit hit the fan and get her shot. But not like that, with civilian lives on the line. It was foolish of her to think it would be so easy, that there wouldn't be consequences for such a want.
Hours into the attack, they had a handful of civilians amongst the remaining marines. While the pirates had countless batarians and few turians, krogans, and humans as the opposing enemy.
With their small group, they had been held up on the top floor of a tower towards the edge of the colony. Just adjacent to where the pirates had set up in one of Elysium's defense bases. They were tired, dirty, and Elizabeth had just wanted to sleep after hours of backtracking and running.
Shepard was portrayed a lot more eloquently on screen. The vids never showed her look of absolute panic when the Alliances stated they were still hours out from reaching the colony over their emergency comms.
"Alright, fuck, um." Shepard paused, running her hands through her hair while looking over the maps on her omni-tool, Elizabeth stood quietly to the side.
"I'm not waiting around for my child to get killed out there while the Alliance is too incompetent to protect us. I'm going myself." A woman yelled with a shaking voice as she headed towards the exit. The rest of the civilians had become restless and had started to charge with her.
Shepard let out a loud whistle to get the crowds attention while Elizabeth remained silent amongst the roaring crowd.
"If that's how you want to get yourselves and children killed, then that's the perfect fucking plan." Not so eloquent, but it worked enough to stop the crowd.
"Then what the fuck are we going to do?" One the grunts asked, not helping the situation at all.
Elizabeth stood in the corner as Shepard paced the room thinking of an answer.
"Collins and I are trained snipers. Let us use the higher ground and we'll thin out their numbers. Right now is not time for anyone to go taking potshots and giving them more time and chances to find our position."
Fear trickled down Elizabeth's spine when Shepard volunteered them. Shepard turned to her for acknowledgment and Elizabeth just gave her a hesitant nod.
Elizabeth watched on as Shepard brought up the map of the colony from her omni-tool. The hologram of the map filled the room. Shepard's voice pulled in the others to listen to the plan, while Elizabeth had only heard static with only several words cutting through. Blood pounded in her ears, only causing the static to grow louder. Elizabeth was trained for this. Why couldn't she concentrate?
"They're holding our people and your families here." Shepard pointed towards where the pirates outpost. A ringing noise pulsed through Elizabeth mind with Shepard's voice piecing randomly through.
"After that we'll signal for a team to secure the area, flanking from here and here." Shepard continued to point, but Elizabeth couldn't for the life of her focus. All Elizabeth could remember thinking was she couldn't believe they were actually doing this.
And that's how Shepard's command of their small militia started. With Elizabeth on the sidelines, unable to focus as the civilians and fellow marines began to ready around her.
Shepard's cool soon dropped when it was just the two of them setting up and preparing for their assault on the base.
Elizabeth remembered Shepard barfing when they had to peel the armor off of dead security officers that they had found earlier. The shields had been damaged beyond repair. But it had been better than the tattered dresses they'd been in for most of the fight.
Shepard wiped the bile from her mouth chanting to herself. "This is for the best. This is for the best." Only Elizabeth had overheard her as the others prepared themselves for the assault.
Their small group moved into position and flanked the pirates base, waiting for the two snipers signal. The morning was beginning to rise. The crisp air cut through Elizabeth's armor as she set up her position. Her rangefinder had shook unsteadily in her hands. The Alliance still wouldn't get there for another two hours.
Elizabeth had acted as Shepard's spotter during the assault. They had traded off the responsibility with each mission. Why should Elysium be any different?
"It's my turn right? Looks like you'll be crunching numbers instead of getting your shot. Don't worry you can get it next time." Shepard had tried to joke, giving Elizabeth an uneasy laugh.
"Yeah, next time." Had been the first words that Elizabeth spoke since Shepard had taken charge.
Her shot? Elizabeth couldn't even care about that. All she could think about was how she wasn't ready. How her hands shook in the cold. How she could barely focus on the calculations that her omni-tool spat out.
Tons of numbers on temperature, wind speed, bullet drop, how many targets were around and within the base. The pirates had dozens, almost a hundred while they barely had twenty.
Shepard's voice came over Elizabeth headset and cut through those thoughts.
"It's just like training. It's just like training. It's just like training." Shepard had repeated to herself as she placed her rifle through a window. It was a quiet shaking chant not meant for Elizabeth. Shepard must have forgotten to switch off her comm. Those words had brought little comfort to Elizabeth.
She had tried to focus past Shepard's chanting towards where their people were stuffed in cages, waiting to be carted onto a ship.
Her rangefinder zoomed in a particular child. A curly haired boy who yelled and shook the bars of his cage. His screams were silent to her, but the sight pulled her in.
Shepard's chatting had stopped at some point. Elizabeth didn't take notice until her voice, more collected came back over her headset. "Collins, our people, are in position, I need you to start feeding me the numbers."
The words washed over her as she watched the child. There were tears in his eyes with control collar tight around his neck. Elizabeth didn't answer.
"Collins? I need you here with me."
If they messed this up, if Elizabeth messed this up, all those lives depended on them. That child depended on her.
"God dammit! Give me the fucking numbers! Get your shit together they're counting on us. I'll do it myself if I have to!" Shepard's pep talks weren't so cool and collected as in the movie. But it still snapped Elizabeth back away from looking at the child.
Elizabeth stilled her breath, searched through her rangefinder, calculated and considered everything she could. She remembered the numbers falling from her lips, and soon enemies had begun to fall within her sights.
And then they had won. Well, there was more to it than that. But that moment in that tower with just Shepard and her had been the turning point in the battle.
Elizabeth sipped at her whiskey and let it sit on her tongue.
It was at this point in the movie that Elizabeth's character got shot in the neck by enemy fire.
Elizabeth remembered just laughing as the spectacular scene unfolded in the vid. Her character gave Shepard and overly melodramatic speech to "win this for her" with way too much blood pouring out her mouth. It was meant to push Shepard on as motivation, to single-handedly stop the insurgents. Save Elysium, and be the hero they needed.
That's not how it happened, sure she was the leader of their little militia, but the vids really like to play up the hero worship. There was a lot more cursing on Shepard's part that got left out. A lot more panicking. They didn't even show her chanting to herself or nearly pissing her pants just like the rest of them.
Or how that curly haired boy didn't make it out of his cage alive. How he ended getting hit by a stray bullet from enemy fire. Just a one of the few casualties on their side from the assault, a calculated risk on their part. Elizabeth found out later that his name was Devin Sawyer, a child who lost family during the initial attack.
Was Devin even considered when Shepard, barely an adult then, clobbering together their plan? Elizabeth hadn't stayed around Shepard long enough to ask. She shot back the rest of her whiskey, finally numb to the taste.
Elizabeth had killed that boy when she hadn't spoken up when she didn't consider that maybe they were putting the hostages a risk with the assault on the base.
But maybe if they hadn't attacked the pirates would have escaped enslaved or killed them anyway. So maybe it was just calculated, needed risk that allowed Shepard to rise as a hero. And now Elizabeth sat a bar, alone amongst the patrons, staring at the vidscreen.
The public looked to Shepard as the Hero of Elysium, the first human Spectre, and the Hero of the Citadel. Now they needed a scapegoat, so, of course, the job fell to her.
The channel switched to talking heads as Hackett finished his questions. Elizabeth flipped over her glass and closed her tab. She had enough of watching screens and being lied to again.