I do not own Mass Effect or any of the associated contact. Jagher Shepard is my Shepard and Fayelle Shepard is my friend's Shepard. This is a collection of moments set throughout the games. They're rated for language and violence mostly.
Mass Effect 2: Moments.
A Moment to Break Down.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Jagher looked at Joker and nodded. It was the most sombre she'd ever seen Joker, but she appreciated it. "I'd have to do it sooner or later, right? Who else should do this?" She looked out the window, down at the snowy planet beneath where the wreckage of the original Normandy lay scattered, where her ship lay broken and forgotten by most. They'd come rushing out here from Omega as soon as she'd received the request from Hackett. The dossiers could wait. This was important. "Who else could do this?" she whispered.
The pilot reached up and placed a hand on his friend's arm. "I'll leave a comm. channel open to me, but other than that you'll be by yourself."
"Thanks Joker."
Jagher gave him another smile before she turned and walked through the ship to the shuttle bay. She climbed into the smaller vehicle and settled herself behind the controls, adjusting her weapons to make it more comfortable. After sucking in a deep breath, she keyed in the sequence and the shuttle left the shelter of the Normandy and zipped down to the planet that was to be the memorial site for her ship. The planet where she had died. As the shuttle neared the ground, she felt the tears on her cheeks.
"Damn it," she cursed, wiping at her exposed cheeks. She looked down at her helmet on the seat beside her and then radioed back to Joker. "Is the atmosphere breathable?" she asked.
If Joker heard the tears in her voice, he didn't say anything. "No. It's mostly methane."
"Shit. Okay."
When the shuttle touched down and Jagher was standing on the icy surface amongst the rubble, the tears flowed freely and she couldn't stop them, although she tried. She hated having her helmet on when she cried.
She moved towards the first piece of the Normandy she saw: the platform where she'd stood to access the galaxy map. A memory of Navigator Pressly flashed through her mind; he had been her XO, her second in command.
As she moved deeper into the wreckage, a glint of silver caught her eye and she moved towards it. A dog tag. As she bent over to pick it up, the e-mail from Admiral Hackett came back to her, asking her to find the dog tags so they could be returned to the families of the deceased and the missing. She also had to place a memorial statue.
She balled her hand around the chain and turned to leave the piece of wreckage. By the time she reached the snow again, she was sobbing quietly, but she moved towards the other pieces of wreckage, gathering dog tags as she went and suffering the flashes of memory of her crew, her friends, all of whom were gone.
When she had all the dog tags in her grasp and was followed everywhere by the jingling of the metal, she moved towards the last piece of her ship, a piece of the hull that had held the name emblazoned on it in giant letters. Part of it was missing and part of it was buried in the snow, but Jagher felt its impact like a punch to the gut. All the wind went out of her lungs and she staggered a few steps before she fell to her knees in a puff of powdery snow. Her grief made her feel as if the cold fingers of the wind were reaching through her armour. She started to shiver.
Jagher groaned and pushed herself to her feet. She was a Commander of the Alliance military. She was the first human spectre. She was a respected figure. She couldn't be breaking down here in the snow, in front of the remains of her old ship. Setting her jaw, Jagher moved back towards her shuttle where the intended statue for the memorial sat. Once it was retrieved, she carried it back to the piece of the hull and placed it on the ground in front of the letters that meant so much to her, that meant so much to so many people, that carried the memories of those she had worked with, those she had grown close to, those she had loved. With the statue placed and the dog tags collected, Jagher could leave.
Instead of heading back to her shuttle thought, she approached the hull and placed a hand on the metal for a moment. She closed her eyes and just remembered what she had lost.
And what you still have.
Her team was still alive, just not with her. Most of the people on the Normandy had survived.
Jagher opened her eyes and headed back to the shuttle, knowing no one, least of all her, would forget the Normandy.
Author's Note.
This DLC hurt so bad. I legit cried the whole time I was looking for dog tags.
Next Moment: A Moment Of Old Friends.