Frost: Hey there folks! It's me, your friendly neighbourhood writer and coffee coinsure. And this time, I'm not alone!
PlanetJapan: Sup bitches?! Hope you're excited for this next chapter, finally Frost, Slick Rick and I are together to write!
Frost: It's time to deal with the aftermath of Vega's death, so here we go!
PlanetJapan: Remember to read the disclaimer so we can continue this glorious, horrible masterpiece! Frost! Stop looking at Tony the Tiger porn!
Frost: Um…Uh…Um…On to the show?
The sun filtered through Derek's window as he slowly stretched and slipped out of his lube covered bed. "Ohhhh boy! Graduation! I'm finally going to get recognized for my ability to speak French!"
French had become a lost art in the 12 years since Commander Shepard had passed. Now, only 2 people on the whole Citadel spoke it, Derek having learned it from one of the Outreach trainers, Mr. Falanagus, before his untimely disappearance 4 years ago.
Derek slipped over to his closet, and peeled it open. Inside, he hunted for his dress clothes. He had to push aside 4 different pairs of ass-less chaps before he came across it. Slipping out of his pajamas, he changed into his cadet uniform. On the other side of the room, a male voice called out.
"Derek, come back to bed!" the voice said. From under the covers came a large, incredibly muscular Turian. He rested on his side, showing off an impressive eight-pack of abs.
"Get out of here Rodrique, you have to go get ready for graduation too you know!" Derek said as he fastened his tie around his neck. "We'll resume this once we got on the ship" he said, turning for a slight moment and winking at Rodrique.
"Whatever." The Turian said as he pulled on his own clothing and left through the door. The Turians involved in the Outreach program had went through intense, physical, pure Combat training. It had hardened most of them to a point where they didn't like showing their emotions, but Derek had known Rodrique since the beginning, so he could tell when he was worried about something. Derek was worried too. Today, they would leave the Citadel, their home for the past 11 years, to travel into deep uncharted space, along with the other 1198 recruits that were part of the program. Placing the cuff links through his shirt, Derek flexed his fingers. A blue lightning jumped from one finger to another, before fizzling out. Derek like all of the other Humans had been trained in a Sub-program of the Outreach program, known as the Vanguard program. The Vanguard program was a Biotic-Combat cross program, designed to strengthen both the outer body and the inner mind. Each race had been trained in a separate Sub-program. The Asari went through a rigorous Biotic-only program, called the Adept program. The Turians bodies were pushed to the brink in the Combat oriented Soldier program. The Volus were taught how to manipulate and use the latest Tech in the Engineer program. Drell students went into a joint Tech-Biotic course called the Sentinel program, and the Salarians were taught in the Infiltrator program to utilize Tech as well as Combat maneuvers, making them both quick and deadly. Since the Salarians are already middle-aged, many have been married to other Outreach recruits.
Over on the other side of the Citadel, Keepers scurried across the SSDS, preparing last minute chores so that the ship could make the leap into deep space. After the Citadel had been rebuilt, the Mass Relays recreated, pointing towards the Reapers last known location. However, once the SSDS made the jump, they were on their own. The hunt for the Reapers would have to take place without the convenience of a Mass Relay.
In front of the large ship, others rushed around, getting the Graduation area prepared for the ceremony. Mrs. Vega sat in one of the chairs that would be reserved for the Recruits later on, and recounted what she had seen to a member of the Citadel Council. The Asari representative, Chancellor Liara T'Soni, listened to Mrs. Vega's story for the second time, unable to make any more sense of it than before. Mrs. Vega had simply went to see why her husband had left to go back to the office so late, and had found her husband dead, killed by a masked man who vanished into thin air right before security arrived. There had been no video footage of the event, because Vega had ripped out the cameras power cell. None of what had been uncovered made sense, and even Asari couldn't come up with even a speculation as to why her old comerade had been killed. All she knew was that she didn't have time for any of this right now. Today was too busy a day to try and piece together a murder mystery.
"Well Mrs. Vega, I'm sorry, but not much of this makes sense to me either. I'm going to leave you with here" Asari said, pointing at a man who was standing patiently behind her. "He's a sort of identification master. Just let him do his work, pick your brain, and we should be able to come up with a picture of what your husband's killer looks like."
"Thank you" said Vegas wife responded "and I'm sorry to be such a bother on this busy day" the women offered a weak smile to Asari, a lame attempt at lightening the mood.
"It's really no problem at all" Asari lied, before turning and walking away. The mystery could wait till after Graduation, Asari thought, as she pulled out a copy of the speech she would need to read, and went over it to make sure she wouldn't make any mistakes.
Meanwhile in another dorm room similar to Derek's, a Drell named Ecrive put on his tie, tightened it, then removed it and redid it again, for the fifth time. He was more nervous than he had ever been in his life. Mr. Vega had let it slip several days ago that Ecrive would be named captain of the Outreach vessel, and he had been freaking out ever since. He hadn't told anyone, but he knew that some of his fellow students would react poorly. It was mostly the Turian jocks, who Ecrive could never agree with. Ecrive knew he'd need to find a way to unite his crew, but that was a problem for after the ceremony was done. Finally satisfied with his tie, Ecrive jogged out of his room, heading to where all the recruits would be meeting before the ceremony; the training gym.
Frost: Wow that took a while to write! Sorry 'bout that guys, had a bit of writers block. As always, thanks for reading. Leave a review, and we'll see you in the next installment!
PlanetJapan: Peace!