Excerpt 1 : PRE-ME1 Timeline
Back story : The Origin: Take 1:
Earth, Local Cluster, Milky Way,
November 15th, 2012,
Kale, 17
Her ears were ringing painfully, the constant thud thud thud pounding in her head like drums as she tried to push her body upwards, only then realizing she coudn't even budge when something really heavy was lying on top of her. She opened her eyes to take a look, when were her eyes closed anyway? And nearly screamed: a pale, familiar face was staring at her, eyes blank and glazed, its skin deathly cold where it brushed across hers.
Drip, drip, drip came down the dark droplets of blood frothing from the corpse's mouth, splashing on Kale's horrified face as she struggled to push away the body. Oh god, memories of being thrown across the room, the screams of her class mates as they struggled to run from those... Those things. The explosions.
(Moments ago, the ground shook violently and Kale assumed it was an earthquake, until she sees a bright flash; and the strange alien like structure suddenly appears out of thin air; then the walls of her class room blew apart.)
She hastily scrubbed the blood that splashed across her face as the body rolled away from her.
Kale scrambled to her feet and looked around, shaken awake from her stupor. Her classroom - Or what was left of it, was a smoking rubble; bodies strewn haphazardly across the room, familiar faces all gone under soot and debris. A scream pierced through her thoughts and she instantly ducked towards the nearest wall she could find, peeking slightly through the cracks.
"Please! No! I want to go home! I just -" Kale's eyes widened at the crying girl's face, that was Kaylin! She cursed inwardly, how was she going to play the hero now? She wasn't about to charge in blindly, having no experience in combat and weapons as it is, she wasn't comfortable about going toe to toe with that glowy-eyed alien thing now was she?
Kaylin screamed even louder. Kale hissed in frustration, she was. And then she was going to die embarrassingly along with her friend. She silently prayed that the death would be quick and crawled towards the nearest dead body she could find, dragging it across the room; she kicked the body through the doors with a loud bang, hoping it would be enough of a distraction. Kale walked quickly towards her hiding place and plastered herself on to the wall, trying to steady her breathing when she heard one of the aliens mutter a jumble of gibberish.
She peeked at one of the cracks, the one holding her friend was gesturing towards her direction, ordering the other alien to inspect. Well, she grasped the scissors on the floor with clammy fingers, this was going to suck.
The alien burst in to the room and Kale charged at it, taking its surprised moment by thrusting the pair of scissors deep in the creature's mouth, which was just an expanse of teeth and pink flesh ohgodthisisgrossI'mgoingtodie; where it gurgled and spewed foul smelling yellow liquid. The alien tried to fling her off and Kale kicked the alien hard, causing it to drop its gun with a loud clatter.
Shit. Now the other alien was going to come.
She scrambled to get the gun, it was heavy and since she played gun-related video games, firing a gun was easy, right? Kale wasn't at all ready from the knock back the gun produced when she pulled the trigger, she nearly lost her balance; a beam of light flashed and the alien gurgled once more, dropping to its knees as it dell dead due to the hole in its body.
The other alien burst through the doorway, shouting gibberish as Kaylin screamed and tried to twist away from its grasp. "Oh for, Kaylin, stop screaming and just duck your head!" Kale screamed back at the girl, who simply looked at the other with shock as she followed Kale's instructions with a numb nod. Kale winced at her throbbing arm as she fired quickly, the gun's punch still unfamiliar and the other alien simply sprawled on to the floor with a thump.
She snapped her head towards the direction of running footsteps; company. "Kaylin, we don't have time, grab the other gun and let's get out of here," The other girl nodded frantically and took the alien's gun, grimacing at the slight sheen of yellow slime across it. "We can't go out through the hallway! I saw more of them!" Kaylin said, wide eyes darting around the room as the sound drew close.
Kale looked out at the hole, which led out to the back of school. "We'll climb." Kaylin looked pale.
Kale nearly slipped, the loose stone under her feet gave away as she tried to scale the school's nearly demolished wall. She was shaking with adrenaline and fear, but she couldn't stop, not when they were dangling three stories high, and definitely not when homicidal aliens were trying to find them.
"Stop, stop, stop!" She whsipered, waving her hand to signal her friend to stop moving. Kale heard soft cries and moans from the level below, a couple of boys and girls from the younger grades were probably stuck in there; Kaylin glared at her as if she knew what Kale was thinking, and hissed out her obvious disagreement.
"No way, we can't save them now! We'd get ourselves killed!" True, but still. Kale narrowed her eyes at her.
"Oh? I could've gotten killed when I decided to save you, you bloody ungrateful girl. Now hold this," she handed the gun to Kaylin, who simply huffed and didn't retort anymore, "now I'm going to drop myself on the lower edge, and when I signal you to throw the gun, throw it." The girl nodded reluctantly and Kale dangled herself quickly as she could, toes reaching the edge where she balanced herself enough to crouch behind the wall.
Five girls and four boys; one of the boys was injured too, his leg obviously blown apart from the rest of his body from the blast of the explosion. No aliens in sight, the doors leading to the hallway were blocked from the rubble, leaving no way out for the group of students who were obviously too frightened to move.
Kaylin was keeping watch above her, eyes darting wildly around her as she gripped the guns tight, lips pursed with worry as her friend went to play hero. Someone was watching them, the feeling making the small hairs at the back of her neck rise, this wasn't good. "Kale! Kale!" she whispered urgently, she couldn't see Kale's face, but a small tap below her signaled,
What?
"Someone's watching!"
Double tap: Where?
Kaylin scanned the area as carefully as one with glasses could manage, finally noticing blue and white markings through the trees across their school, a pair sharp blue eyes that eerily tracked their every move. "Trees!"
The taps progressed in to five: Get down here.
"Can you move?" Kale asked softly as she shifted the boy, who bit his lip in pain as he nodded. She threw his arm over hers and lifted him, wincing at the pained whimpers the boy emitted. "What's your name?"
"J-Jameson Thoms." He gasped out, eyes screwed tightly shut as sharp pain lanced through his body.
Kale glanced at the others, the others were alright with minor injuries and besides being slightly shaken, they didn't fuss one bit when they were ordered to climb out of the wall and on to the ledge. Kaylin was trying to calm them down.
"Alright Jameson, I need you to work with me here; take the table leg and use it as a crutch, we're gonna' take baby steps towards the wall, alright?" The boy was exhausted and pale from the blood loss, but he managed a weak nod. "That's it..." She held the Jameson's hip firmly as she guided him towards the window, encouraging the boy to steady himself as she and Kaylin carried his body over with the help of another student.
All of them unaware of the eyes that trained upon them.
Garrus, 21
Garrus Valkarian noted the band of young humans from a distance with interest, but paid more attention the two older females that escaped the Collectors earlier before.
He couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was obvious the two females knew he was watching them.
'Vakarian, this is Nazzar here. What do you see?' He nearly fell from his hiding spot, cursing loudly as a static filled chuckle sounded through his earpiece. Bastard.
"Yeah, real funny, Naz. All I see is dead humans and rampaging souless Collectors." He said dryly whilst ignoring his team mate's obvious laughter through his earpiece, Garrus cast another glance at the human group. Only realizing they had gone some where else; the turian sighed, leaving his hiding place as he went off to search for the stragglers. He wasn't worried; god, no, he was just curious on how they'd end up.
It's not every day when you go traveling through dimensions investigating the Collector's movement, you see humans that were alive and on the run.
"Stop." Kale said tiredly and the group stilled, exhaustion etched deep on their faces as fear of being caught and the lack of rest effected them. But they were obviously slowing down. "We can't afford to rest, not until we're out of this place," she said and held up a hand to hush the protests from the younger students, "listen: if the aliens catch us like this, we're as good as dead and we've only got two guns. So, we split.
Kaylin can lead the the first group, Jameson will be carried across along with the girls; I'll take the rest and we'll go on the second round. Clear?" The students could only nod, uneasy and reluctant but desperate enough to comply.
The first group quickly crossed over towards the school's fence, Jameson being the first to be carried over as well as Kaylin. The other girls quickly climbed over as well, until a rather unlucky girl got shot in the face, her lower jaw remaining as the aliens spotted them.
"Get down!" Kale screamed, running out of her cover as she threw the other gun towards Kaylin, who fired at the aliens who were gathering at the rooftops. Her face was deathly pale as the other girls sobbed for their friend. Kale ducked an incoming shot from an alien who emerged from the other side of the building and returned fire, griting her teeth against the heavy pressure as the gun knocked back towards her.
A faint whizzing sound made Kale look up, she could see it: a gleaming missile sailing across the sky.
She pushed the boy beside her on to the ground, and the sky became bright like the bloody fourth of July.
"Kale!"Kaylin was really noisy though, who'd knew the quiet girl she befriended could be such a loud screamer.
And the world turned black.
"Do you think-"
"Is-she?"
"Oh god, her chest..."
"Brain function intact, heart rate slow, pupils dilated..."
"Dammit salarian! Just slap on the medi-gel will you?"
"I am trying! Keep her body still! I can't do this with her struggling!"
"Kale..."
"Calm down, kid."
"Hurts," she rasped out, she felt like she was suffocating; so many hands were pinning her down, so many voices. She felt disoriented, everything hurt like a motherfucker- She gave a broken whimper when she felt painful pressure being pressed down on her chest.
"I know, kid. But stay still, it'll all be over." the voice was deep, rumbling and unfamiliar. Who was that?
"Shh, Kale, it's okay." Oh, Kaylin's voice.
"Her heart rate is steady now, blood pressure not so high anymore too." An amphibian like creature filled her view, fingers prodding gently at her face. Stop that, it hurts, godammit.
"The boy?..." She doesn't even know his name.
"The one you smothered on the ground? He's fine." Jameson's voice, thank god he's okay.
"We need to move her to my ship, its the only place where I have my medi-tools."
What ship?
Kaylin's alarmed voice made her want to sit up, "How do we know you're even trying to help-", the deeper voice cut through her words, as dry as the Sahara desert, "My campsite doesn't allow any contact with humans and we kill anyone in sight, so its a no-go; and unless you have somewhere better in mind, do tell."
The amphibian like creature spoke again, it sounded irritated. "Can we please move on? I'd like to perform the surgery on the human before she bleeds to death." A sharp prick at the crook of her arm, and Kale's world turned hazy and dark again.
Kaylin, 17
She pushed up her glasses nervously, the... Salarian and the weirdly angled alien had been in that room for almost an hour now. It was eerily quiet, her hands felt cold and clammy.
Kaylin closed her eyes and shudered at the horrifying memory when she rushed over to the still form of her friend, nearly shrieking in hysteria when she saw the burns that showed on her friend's charred chest. She even retched, after they carried her to the ship, Jameson putting a comforting hand on her shoulder even when his own body was weak and hurting as well.
Why would this happen to them? Why now? Why here?
So many questions, so many answers. Kaylin didn't voice them, instead she leaned against the cool metal walls of the alien's ship and prayed;
Please.
Kale, 17
Kale felt like she was floating in thin air, head fuzzy and airy at the same time as she tried to open her eyes. She winced at the glare of fluorescent lights. A sudden frisson of sharp fear ran down her spine when she realized she wasn't in the school anymore, her widened eyes took in her surroundings: it looked like a sick bay yet it wasn't, advanced looking machinery covered the whole place like one of those Sci-Fi movies her brother loved.
Where was she?
The doors across the room slid open with a hiss, and a bird-like alien passed through them, looking at her with an expression she interpreted as amusement and relief. "Er... Huh. Never thought you'd actually make it, you're a tough human." it mused, and the familiarity of its voice rang a bell in Kale's head. "You're the one that helped," it wasn't a question. The alien smiled, well, she think it smiled.
"Well, I did all the heavy lifting; the salarian doctor did most of the meaty bits and your friend did most of the screaming. But I'd understand why she needed to scream though," his mandibles clicked, "it didn't look pretty."
Kale let out a breathy laugh, though it did hurt her chest, so she refrained from outright laughter. She looked at her down at her body and stared blankly, her chest was bandaged- no, that wasn't it, it was flat. Flat and had an unappealing shade of pink that reminded her of that alien's mouth. And painful.
"Well, if it's any consolation, on my planet scars like that are... Quite respectable?" She sighed ruefully and smiled weakly at the alien's awkward try of comfort; it hurts and maybe it still shocks her a little, but crying over spilled milk won't help her bring back her chest or fade out those scars. "Thanks... For helping..." The alien snorted, "Garrus Vakarian. And it was for the curiosity and my secret 'conscious for justice'. You seemed interesting enough to help, so... Ye-"
"Ah, the human is awake, how are you feeling?" The 'salarian' doctor walked in with Kaylin and a hobbling Jameson in tow, injecting Kale with some sort of antibiotic as he checked up on her. This was so surreal, aliens talking and abducting humans- "Wait, wait," she pushed the hands away, "why are you all here? How do we know if you're not like the previous ones that were abducting humans?" The salarian doctor and the other alien looked resigned.
"How do we even start?" Garrus mused.
"I think I'll give the humans a brief summary on the current events," the salarian doctor said, gesturing the others to sit on the other sick beds. "In the year of 2171, colonies of different races in our galaxy have suddenly been missing, though not in great numbers, it piqued the Council's interests as well as the military divisions of each race,"
"Like C-Sec Investigations' Division and like this guy in the Salarian Special Tasks Group," Garrus added.
"Yes, and leads have found that it was the mythical beings in our galaxy's dimension we call, 'The Collectors'-" Jameson nearly laughed out loud but was silenced at the doctor's stern glare, "the Collectors are an alien race unknown to all of us, though their motives are also unknown, they have a device that can jump to different dimensions. Such as yours, an Earth unlike ours yet alike as well. Excluding advanced technology and other alien races.
We, the SSG and the C-Sec are working together as you can see right now, to investigate the ulterior motive of the Collectors, we traveled to what most would call a paradoxical time rifts, or rather, alternate dimensions using what little source of energy we 'borrowed' from Collector technology,"
"Thus, time travel in light years and sight seeing. For a while though, the time rift only opens up once in a very long time." Garrus finished, feeling a tad bit uncomfortable when three pairs of eyes stared at him.
"But," the salarian added hastily to break the silence, "you do not need to worry for if my calculations are correct, the Collectors will soon return after two more days, for the time rift closes very soon, and will not be opened for another light year or so." Kaylin glared at the doctor, "That isn't helping, you know." She snapped while Jameson just fiddled with the hem of his torn shirt.
"Vakarian, do you copy?" The sudden sound made them all jump. Garrus looked apologetic. He tapped his bracer, which suddenly glowed as he spoke to it, "Yeah, I copy. I'm with one of the SSG medics, says he found something interesting."
"Alright. Listen, there's- Look-!" A sudden shrill shriek emitted from the bracer's speakers made the whole group cover their ears as the ground shook violently under their feet. "What the-? Naz? Naz?" The bracer's glow dimmed and there was no reply. The alien then growled a curse and yelled at the doctor to get the ship up and running. Kaylin looked alarmed at this.
"W-What? We're following them?" Kale wanted to smack some sense in to the girl's head as she steadied herself when the ship lurched. "Kaylin, would you rather we stay here where an alien just tried to abduct you?" The other girl flushed and retorted angrily, "I'm not that eager to leave my home and my family, you-" She tumbled on to the floor with a sudden crash and Jameson just looked sick as the ship started to shake.
Kale crawled out of the bed and balanced herself as much as she could, ignoring the pain in her chest as she looked out at one of the windows, she blanched at the sight:
The school building was crumbling down, some aliens crushed as the sudden appearance of a tear in sky sucked the surrounding air violently; there were even humans at the site, screaming and crying as they tried to escape. She reached the cockpit with wobbling legs and yelled at the two aliens who were frantically trying to get the ship as high as they can. "Garrus! Doctor! What's going on?" The doctor's webbed fingers were quick and precise as the clicked and turned the assortment of buttons on the ship, his voice was one with utmost confusion and frustration,
"I do not know! The time rift isn't supposed to be triggered now! It's impossible!" Garrus shoved her in the back seat behind the pilot's and gestured roughly towards the tear in the sky. "See that? That's the time rift! If we miss it, we get stuck for light years, and my site was compromised so they're evacuating as we're wasting time talking- Hit the hyper-drive, Doc!"
"M'aalkim-! Hang on!" The doctor punched a few more buttons and they were off, the sky closer and the ground farther as they flew with a flash of blinding blue light.
A/N: I'll edit it later and add a few more lines (I wasn't satisfied with this one, it looked so much better in my head) any typos and grammar mistakes are all mine for the taking; English isn't my mother language, so do correct me in places that I am wrong.
Please read the previous entry again if you are confused. Or maybe ask questions that are more specific and not too general alright?
Thanks for reading, I hope you find this interesting enough to give your reviews and comments.
The time line is sorta confusing atm, but I hope you can understand alil' bit after that long explanation in the doctor's words.
(Notes: The language I used for that Salarian Doctor was Albanian, since I don't really think that English is their mother tongue, I decided to change the languages a bit. M'aalkim, or Mallkim, is 'damn' in Albanian.)