Chapter 4

Balak turned, following Shepard outside of the training room. After a day's work together, Balak was actually getting to like the man. He was a skilled soldier, no doubt about that; Balak still had a headache from where the man's Phaeston had scored a few headshots. Shepard walked into a small side room from the hallway, with a set of windows giving view of the empty void around the station.

Shepard's face was in his hands, fingers rubbing his temples. "Good Lord, Vega ran right out into my line of fire, I barely avoided taking him out, but I know I shredded his shields. Thanks for taking him down Balak, better if you hit him than if it's my fault, or even worse, if the tactic works."

Balak's mouth opened in a smile. "Of course Commander, I was happy to."

Shepard's hands went to the table, his mouth forming a small, wry little smirk as he turned to his soldier. "Good work out there Alenko, you had Orun down before he even used a full clip. And nice save with Jenkins."

Alenko nodded at the praise, "Thank you commander" he paused, "I take it you wanted to see me for more than that sir?"

"I did, it's about Vega." Shepard was staring a few windows on the outer wall, literally staring into space. "Records say you served with him on the SSV Toronto for three months, do you know what happened to him?"

Alenko paused at that, unsure. "I only met James in passing sir; there were a lot of marines on the ship." he continued hesitantly "What do you mean by 'what happened to him'?"

The Commander continued to stare out the window for a moment, Balak remained silent in his chair. He didn't know what Shepard was talking about any more than Alenko. "Six years ago," Shepard began slowly, almost unsure "The colony of Akuze went silent overnight. A ship was sent to the system to investigate. They found no hostile ships in orbit, ruling out Pirate attack as the cause of the blackout. They figured it was a technical failure, even though the colony still couldn't reach them on short-range communications. They followed regulations and sent down a platoon of marines to investigate." Shepard paused, his lips pursed. "Five Kodiak shuttles went down, each loaded with a dozen armed marines. It was on the descent that they saw how bad it was. The colony was in ruins, most of the structures either turned over or broken. Some were ripped in half; others had whole walls or roofs melted away by acid. They spent twenty minute searching the ruins, finding bodies, wreckage, and no survivors, no signs of life beyond a few household plants. Most of the bodies they found were also melted by acid, or they were ripped apart. "

Balak Grimaced. Acid wasn't a weapon anyone would use in firearms, easier just to throw together a mass accelerator and an ammo block. He knew where this was going.

"They were only about halfway through the ruins when they were found. Thresher maws, giant creatures, think subterranean Caterpillars the size of blue whales. Now imagine a half-dozen of the monsters, rising from the sand around you, spitting waves of acid and screaming so loudly that it feels like your head is splitting open. With trusted comrades being eaten or melted all around you, some shooting the monsters to no visible effect, others just running for their lives only for the creatures to appear right below them." Shepard described with a visible shudder.

Alenko was wide-eyed; he was probably trying to picture it too. "That sounds like a pretty solid vision of hell."

"And we can only imagine. Vega was one of only seven survivors from the ground teams, and he's the only one still in military service. Four are in mental hospitals, all were given honorable discharges." Shepard said, not going into further details on the massacre. Balak was grateful.

But there was one thing he had to know. "Commander, why are you telling us this?"

Shepard looked Balak in the eyes, his expression grave. "You're an XO, you should know when any members of the crew have problems, and Kaiden" He turned to the Lieutenant. "You're on the team with him. I told Jenkins Before the exercise because I wanted Jenkins to try and work with him, be his friend. I was hoping it wouldn't come up, but…" he trailed off slightly. "After the simulation, I'm worried about him."

"What I don't understand, is that he's still in the navy after he went through that." Alenko said softly. Balak could tell the lieutenant felt sorry for Vega, and so did Balak for that matter.

But he still knew the answer "Because Vega feels like he has nowhere else to go. He lost everything that mattered to him, he can't go back to live a life on some calm colony, he has no reason to care. And besides that, he'll probably flash back to Akuze if he ever sees another prefabricated building in his life."

Shepard nodded, looking out the window again, hands back to his temples. It was Kaiden who spoke first. "If he's PTSD, he hides it pretty well."

"I don't think that's it, I think he's more depressed than anything else." Shepard said without turning from the window. "He doesn't care if he lives or dies; his own life means nothing to him." Shepard shook his head, burying it in his hands. "I guess I should be grateful that he hasn't tried to shoot himself yet."