"I don't understand daddy. Why do you have to leave?" the young girl's dark blue eyes filled with tears. Kathryn had just turned fifteen and so far her family had been lucky as her parent were Alliance soldier and so far had always been posted at the same space station or ships together. This time however was different and the young girl that she was didn't take well the change that was too happened.

"Because honey, your mother and I are soldiers and we have to go where they need us. Right now some people need me there to help them and to protect them" He was trying to convince himself more than his daughter at this point. John Shepard at first look was a very muscular man, your typical soldier. He was very tall and had short black hair. Despite the fact that he was a marine, John preferred to be in space in a small fighter then on the ground. He was a terrific pilot for that matter and an excellent leader, and for those reason he was needed elsewhere. "Remember what we talked about Katy, we decide our own path, to be strong is not everything but…"

"By choosing to protect the weak and those that cannot defend themselves we show true strength." She interrupted him with a sad smile "I know the family motto dad"

The entire family was standing in the waiting area of the docking bay of the Arcturus station waiting for the transport that would take Kathryn's dad away to that new assignment. It was hard for her it was the first time that her dad had to go away for so long and she couldn't help but feeling like something was going to go wrong if he left. She had spoken of her fear to her father but he had dismissed it as a kid just feeling afraid and sad facing a situation so unfamiliar.

John notice the girl looking away with a look on her face that he knew all too well, a look that he had seen many time on his wife every time he had to go ground side on a mission or another. He put his hands on her checks making her make eye contact with him "hey, hey now, I know that face. You are worried, but we talked about this, honey. Nothing bad is gonna happen over there, ok? You'll see." he tried to reassure his daughter.

Hannah Shepard wasn't a very tall woman but she still had a very impressive presence, even for her daughter with whom she was really close. Regardless she was still the strict one between her and John when it came to their daughter. But not this time, she understood why her daughter was reacting the way she was. Even her age it was hard to understand why one of your parents had to leave for as long as John had to. To be honest she was as worried as her daughter, but she had to be strong for her daughter and for her husband as she understood all too well the duty of a soldier been one herself. She went to Kathryn's side and put her arm around her shoulders. "Sweetie…"

"I don't understand, mom…" Kathryn interrupted her with a bit of anger in her voice "it's not fair that dad has to leave" What she was not telling her mother was the real reason behind that anger was that she was having a guts feeling that this was not just some simple good byes. More like a definite farewell.

"I know you don't understand sweetheart" she replied to her daughter trying to be as gentle as possible "One day you will…" feeling her emotions taking over she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding before continuing "… the most important thing you have to remember right now is that your father and I love you so very much."

Seeing his wife emotion taking over John took over "Your mother is right, but in the mean time you will need to work very hard at school and be the best you can be. I'm counting on you to help your mother as it will be hard for her as much as it will be for you." He locked eyes with his wife with a sad smile.

Hannah feeling in control of her emotions again took over the conversation " Not only will we be proud of you but time will pass so very quickly that your dad will be home before you even notice. We will be together again, the three of us, I promise". Little did Hannah knew that she had made a promise that she could never keep, as John passed away a few months after beginning his new assignment while been part of some classified mission.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shepard remembered all too well that feeling she had on that day where she said her farewell to her father. That horrible feeling that something big was going to happen, something bad. And now of all day she could feel it again and that terrified her. As she looked at Alan before running away for cover she could feel it all too well. Since it was her first real live combat situation she waved it off as nerves. She took a deep breath and then concentrated into the battle ahead.

Putting up a biotic barrier around her, she moved forward, sprinting to two Batarians that she knew were under cover behind a crate. Just as she got there one of them got up to fire in at the human's direction. Surprised he found himself face to face with a woman that second later blew his head off with a shotgun surprising the second Batarian who tried to aim at her in vain as she shot him in the chest. Shepard ducked for cover using the same crate that the two Batarians where using just a moment ago. She closed her eyes a second, taking back control over her adrenaline and regulating her breathing. The other Batarians who witnessed the scene decided to shoot mercilessly at her position.

After a little while their situation was getting dire. More Batarians seemed to appear as more of the security forces were falling. Alan was in a support position so that Kathryn could do her thing but it didn't feel like it was doing much of a difference even though they had been helping Harley's men. They were good men and women but it was obvious that they had no real military training other than Harley.

"This isn't working Sir" Alan finally told Harley.

"Yeah I noticed to, even though your friend knows how to kick ass" pointing in Shepard's direction as he said so. "We need to retreat to an easier defendable position" Harley told him "My men are falling like flies"

"Agreed! You will need people to stay and cover your retreat" Alan told him.

Harley glanced at him "I'd hate to ask you son, you didn't come here for this and.."

"And yet here we are Sir," Alan interrupted him before he could speak his mind "We enrolled so we could be shooting at the bad guys like those over there", he nodded in the direction of the Batarians. "We may not have come here for that, but we did sign up for this when we joined the Alliance" he said with a weak smile. "Plus me and the private have a better chance of survival then any of your people would have" he said matter of fact.

Harley could only nod at his statement "I can't say that I like it, but we'll do it your way" he put a hand on his shoulder "I'm not normally a religious man but may which ever God you believe in protect your ass and that young girlfriend of yours"

Alan surprised at the last part of his comment and lost for words asked "what… how did you…?"

"I might be old son but I'm not blind" he tells Alan with an amused smile then looked at one of his man "Adams sound the retreat, take everyone to the bunker" he looked back at Alan "We'll make our last stand there, good luck son" he said a sad smile on his face knowing all too well that those two were probably not getting out of here alive.

As Harley and his men were making their way to the bunker Alan made his way closer to Shepard so that he could tell her about their situation. "Hey beautiful, come here often?" he joked as he reached her side.

"Only when there is a promise of a firefight", she replied with a smirk.

"Speaking like a true marines already I see" he joked.

"So what's going on, are we falling back?" she asked as she pointed in the direction of Harley's men who were all but almost gone.

He looked in the direction she was pointing to and let a sigh. "They are…" then looked at her again with a grim face "… and we are not"

That bad feeling came rushing back, that's when she knew something was going to go wrong so she decided to protest "Alan we can't…"

He cut her off "This isn't up for debate, Shepard". Just the fact that he used her surname, she knew that he meant that there will be no discussion about it. It didn't help that she was having that bad feeling again, but when it came to the battlefield, they had promised each other to follow rank no matter what, and right now Alan was the ranking officer.

After a moment of silence she allowed herself to express at least her concern in a whisper "I don't like this Alan".

"I know Katy" he replied with a soft voice. Putting a hand behind her neck he pulled her in for a kiss. He rested his forehead on hers and whispered "we'll get through this you'll see, and then we'll be able to pick things where we left them" he tried to smile in reassurance.

"I'll hold you to it" she replied as she pulled back from the small embrace. "Now let's do this, I need some pay back for ruining my shore leave" she said this time with confidence before charging up her biotic barrier.

They had been fighting the Batarians for almost ten minutes all by themselves before they started to feel a bit overwhelmed by them. Kathryn was starting to feel the strain of using so much biotic power for so long. She knew that a lot of people were counting on them. That's when she remembered her father again and what he was always telling her, we decide our own path Kate, to be strong is not everything but by choosing to protect the weak and those that cannot defend themselves we show true strength. She could almost hear her father's voice telling her those exact same word, word that he told her so many time, words that she strangely found comfort in at this moment where all hope seemed gone. She took a moment to look in Alan's direction only to have a feeling a panic taking over.

She saw Alan raised himself to be able to fire his rifle at the enemies over his cover when he noticed from the corner of his eyes two Batarians that had managed to flank him. He started turning to aim at them but it was too late. One of the Batarian fired multiple shot to his chest. Everything was happening in slow motion for Kathryn. Her eyes widen as she saw him fall to the ground. She screamed "Alan!" as a mix of panic, fury and urgency took over her as she decided to do something she always hated to do. Gathering a good amount of dark energy in her body she suddenly released it in a biotic charge at one of the two Batarians making him fly to the nearest wall killing him instantly on impact. The other Batarian surprise by what had just happened froze looking at his companion, when finally looking at his aggressor only to be greeted by the barrel of a shotgun before been shot in the head by it. She stopped discharging her weapon once it overheated. The nausea created by the biotic charge was overwhelming as she fell to her knees and threw up.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harley had just exited the bunker, sealing it behind him. He had gone inside to check on the people inside. All civilians, some kids, some old people but scared to death of what was happening. They couldn't fail, they had to try and hold them off long enough for the Alliance to get here. His men were making a barricade to give them some cover and to try in hope to halt the Batarians from reaching the civilians in the bunker. Hope, he snort at the thought, that's when his thought went to those two kids he had left behind to try and buy them some time. So far they had lasted longer than he had thought possible. That is when he noticed the distant firefight had just died out. He closed his eyes and whisper more to himself than anything else "I'm sorry kids, hope you gave them hell" He started walking in the direction of the barricade pulling out his rifle and yelled at his people "Happy time's over people get ready to meet those bastard. Whatever happens I don't want to see one of them reaching the bunker as long as even one of use still draws breaths" that's when he heard it, a scream like he never heard before.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shepard once done emptying the content of her stomach crawled to Alan's side assessing his wounds knowing very well he couldn't be saved. Where is a med kit when you need one, she thought as she put a hand on the gun shot in hope to slow the bleeding. If only she had medigel. Her eyes filled with tears she grabbed his face gently with her other hand "Don't you dare leaving me now Alan… don't you dare" she said between sobs then leaned in and gave him a soft kiss "I love you, you big idiot" she whispered "so don't leave me" she begged him.

He raised one hand to her cheek "I've always known that you did even if you were to stubborn to say it" he said with a weak voice as she put her hand over his "Now get the hell out of here"

She shook her head "I am not leaving you" she replied in sobs.

His hand fell from her cheek as life was leaving his body "No, no, no…" she pick up his upper body and cuddled him. She let out a primal cry of pain as her eyes filled with tears; she buried her face in his neck.

Unnoticed by the grieving woman three Batarians had reached her position, aiming at her one spoke "Surrender Human if you want to live" he had said those words with such hate. Shepard didn't show any response to his warning as he continue "I would rather keep you as a slave Human but I can go with killing you as well"

A mix of anger and rage started flowing through her. She gently put down the lifeless body of the one she loved. Just as he was safely on the grown she did a biotic charge at the Batarian that had spoken to her grabbing his riffle by the barrel as she was sending him flying in the air, she then whirled around slamming the butt of the rifle into the skull of the second releasing the weapon with the force of the impact killing him instantly while sending a warp in the direction of the third sending him falling on his ass. A bit stunned by the impact he shook his head trying to clear his vision again.

Shepard bent down to pick up the weapon of the second Batarian she had kill and walked towards the last one aiming at his head with only anger showing in her face. She was literally in some blood rage trance as she shot repeatedly the man in front of her until the weapon overheated. She then looked up to see more of them coming her way. She couldn't possibly take them all, but she didn't care anymore. She would take down as many as she could so that other people wouldn't fall to them like Alan did. With that in mind she did a biotic charge to the closest enemy, ignoring the nausea it was creating in her as well as the exhaustion she was feeling from using so much biotic power. She resumed her slaughter of those responsible for taking away from her the man she loved more than anything in this galaxy.

She stopped only after killing the last Batarian that was close by. She had been killing so many, she realized she had no clue how long she had been at it, but she knew she had been shot a few times at least but it was like her body didn't care about the injuries. Then she though, how long had it been since I was force to say good bye to Alan. Everything was a blur, she couldn't remember killing all those Batarians that were lying on the ground of what she had made her battleground. Taking in the situation that was around her she could see another group of them heading her way. She was just standing there looking at them with an empty look in her eyes. With barely the strength left to even stand she let go of the weapon she had in her hand "this is it" she said to herself in a whisper, looking up to the sky "we'll be together again very soon my love, just wait for me" she said as she closed her eyes. She could now hear them getting close, but she didn't care anymore.

Suddenly just before they got into firing range of her she heard the loud noise of several shuttle passing over head. As she opened her eyes to see them fire at the Batarians, they were blue with the Alliance logo on the side. One of the shuttles hovered in mid-air between her and the Batarians and dropped some troops on the grown. Two of the marines that hit the grown seeing Shepard just standing there starring in the distance covered in blood, ran to her "Ma'am are you alright?" one of them asked as they reached her. She blinked then slowly turned her sight to the man before collapsing and letting darkness take her. "Shit!" was all he could say while trying to catch her "Call a med evac, she is one of ours" he said to his companion as he noticed her dog tag hanging from her neck.