My Own Alternate what if I not specifically me but someone who could be me came entered Mass effect in some way or form and knowing I shouldn't be here.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything bioware has done and make no profit in this

Captain Robert Sheppard, United States Marine Corps, Classified NATO Taskforce

September 3rd, 1983

Easter Europe, beyond the Iron curtain

The dark sky helped set the mood for Captain Sheppard's men. They were now deep behind soviet lines, and the entire team was now on edge. There was a breeze in the air making the forest feel more alive.

"Reynolds on me" Sheppard ordered quietly, as he opened his tarp up.

He used the tarp to conceal himself and Reynolds in a place where they could use a light to look at the map. Reynolds joined his Captain as Sheppard began looking over the mission details. The rest of the squad was providing a perimeter for their leaders.

"So, how far we out from the compound" Reynolds asked.

Sheppard marked an area on the map, determining the distance. "Just a few clicks, I want hound two to take positions in the hills surrounding the compound. While we go in with hound one"

"You sure you want to go in Robert?" Reynolds asked concerned for his friend and mentor. "I don't want to have to explain to Samantha how her fiancé died on a supposed training exercise" He smirked, thinking of what their cover story would be if they were killed. Doing something so important that would make it seem like you went down in an accident, rather than as a hero.

Sheppard shook his head. "No, I need to see this through Reynolds. If they have a device anywhere near like the last one we found, then we have to get it away from the damn commies"

Reynolds huffed in slight disappointment, yet he wasn't surprised one bit. "Alright, I'll take the first fire team on the eastside, while you take the second on the west."

Sheppard nodded, still looking over the map. "Hound two's sniper teams can clear the way for us."

With that Sheppard cut his light, and folded the tarp up. They explained the situation with the fire team leaders and proceeded on mission.

The Taskforce took longer than expected in reaching the soviet compound. They stood close to a road to observe any patrols, and avoided them as needed. They knew if things got loud they would have to evacuate fast.

The taskforce was split into three main squads. Hound one, lead personally by Sheppard, and second by lieutenant Reynolds, Were to move into the compound. Hound Tow would set up a defensive perimeter around the compound. While Hound three was to secure the extraction route, which is why they were observing patrols on the main road.

The soviet compound was deep in Eastern Europe in soviet controlled territory. Because it was so deep, Intel stated that the guard detail on the compound would be small. The soviets still had no idea what they had recently discovered. They had to move fast, they were going in with no unit patches, no support, just the way Sheppard liked it. If they were compromised or discovered in any way the United States would deny any involvement. In fact Sheppard's superiors highly advised not to proceed with the mission, but it was Sheppard's task force, so the decision lied to him.

The Taskforce he formed was made up of different branches and armies within NATO. Sheppard wanted only the best for his unit. He served in force recon himself, and recruited a few former squad mates that served with him in missions back in Vietnam. Lieutenant Reynolds was a green beret, although Sheppard didn't get along with him at first, the two later became close friends. There was also a few British SAS Soldiers in their unit.

Sheppard held up his hand in a fist, signaling the taskforce to hold. Everyone took a knee holding scanning their sectors, while Reynolds slowly moved his way up to Sheppard.

"So that's it, doesn't look to well guarded, finally Intel was right about something" Whispered Reynolds, as both he and Sheppard looked onto the compound.

Sheppard didn't reply, he looked over to Lieutenant Hall, a British SAS and squad leader of Hound two. Sheppard gave him a nod, and Hall signaled his squad to take position. Hound three was already doubling back towards their evac route. Sheppard now looked over to Reynolds.

"Into the Fray Reynolds" Sheppard whispered back, and Reynolds just rolled his eyes at Sheppard's usual comment. For some reason it was one of his favorite sayings, but Reynolds did not know why. Reynolds took his fire team towards their objective. Sheppard looked on to the last three men behind him, his fire team. He gave a move out signal with his hand, and the men followed.

Sheppard's fire team was held up behind a bush, as he looked onto their entrance of the compound. The Compound was basically just a main building, with a few guard post around it, not really much of a defense. There was one guard sitting on a char by their entrance. Sheppard turned towards his men, giving them one of his many hand signals.

Sheppard's squad members moved through the bushes towards the right, one making a few weird sounds, which caught the attentions of the guard. The guard nervously grabbed his weapons, moving just out of the tip of the bushes. He shined his flashlight into the darkness, but could not see Sheppard's men. The guard seemed sure there was nobody there, which was his big mistake. The second he turned around one of Sheppard's men quickly, but quietly moved out of the bush, grabbing the guard as he slit the man's throat. The corpse of the guard was dragged into the darkness, after that Sheppard ordered his team to move out.

Entering the facility seemed to be the easy part; hell the door wasn't even locked. Sheppard's fire team only encountered a handful of guards between here and their objective. Just like the guard outside they made quick and easy work of them. They also ran into a few civilians, which Sheppard guessed had to be scientist. He had his team just knock them out.

They were now outside the entrance of the main facilities room. Sheppard and his team stacked up on the door, and they quickly moved inside securing the room. That's where Sheppard's saw it, a large tower like alien device just sitting in the room. To Sheppard's surprise Reynolds and his fire team was already inside. They had taken cared of the rooms guards.

"What took you capt" Reynolds spoke up, as he and one of his squad members were sitting up the charges. The Taskforce wouldn't be able to secure such a large device behind enemy lines, so they took this mission simply to destroy it. The egg heads back in the states ran test on the device they already had, figuring it would be safe to destroy it.

Sheppard looked around the room, noticing there was hardly any data lying around. "Reynolds make sure the device is taken care of, I'm going to go look through the facilities labs, or whatever else is here"

Reynolds looked concern. "By yourself, you don't want any backup?"

"No, the compound is secured. I'm just looking for anything we could salvage"

With Sheppard gone Reynolds had the rest of the men set up the charges. He had Sheppard's fire team remove the unconscious bodies of the civilians away from the blast zone. Reynolds noticed Sheppard was gone for a long time, so he went to investigate, leaving his fire teams sergeant in charge.

Reynolds went down the corridor the Captain took, when he suddenly saw Sheppard ran out of a room that looked like a cell, with a woman in his arms. Reynolds could see the woman looked badly injured, but what caught his attention was what looked like a four year old kid, tugging on the Captains leg as he followed him.

"Captain…what's going on?" Reynolds asked, but Sheppard just ignored him, heading straight towards the rest of the Fire team's.

Sheppard came up to the squad member with the long range prototype radio. Without even asking he quickly jabbed the radio form the soldier, nearly yelling in the damn thing.

"This is Hound Actual to Hound three come in"

Reynolds was stunned; thinking what the hell the Captain was thinking breaking radio silence. Sure there radios were prototypes that couldn't be intercepted, but they weren't suppose to take that chance, at least that's what the Captain said In the first place.

"Hound three to hound Actual go ahead" The voice of the squad leader of Hound three replied through the radio.

"Contact base evac, advise them to bring a medical team." The captain instructed looking over the injured woman in his arms "Let them know Taskforce Cerberus needs immediate evac. Mission complete"

With that the Captain looked towards Reynolds, who could tell he wanted answers, but now was not the time and the lieutenant knew that. They had to evacuate now, questions could be asked later.

Major Andrew Reynolds, U.S. Army Intelligence, Head of Taskforce Cerberus

December 4th, 2014

The major awoke in his car, as he had just dreamt of the operation that started everything. He could remember nearly screaming at his CO the second they boarded the chopper at what he was thinking. As well as all the crazy questions he asked. Although he was given bare minimum answers to his questions. It wasn't until after the Captain retired to raise his family that he learned of the truth in sealed documents. He knew then and there he should of reported to his superiors of what the Captain hid, but he simply couldn't do that to his friends. He still couldn't to this day, even with everything that was happening.

The Major looked through across the street, waiting for the subject to make his move. He and a few other Taskforce members where now trailing the three soldiers that were sent back stateside. They were back in Texas, as that's where the three soldiers division was stationed.

The Major was currently following Sergeant McNeil. And what caught his attention next was to where the Sergeant was heading, straight for the Sheppard property. The Major smirked as he thought why. He had a theory as to what the devices did, and so far the Sergeant was proving his theory.

Texas, Sheppard Property

Samantha had been spending the last few days cleaning the mess that was left from the family gathering. After the news of her Sons Death, The family all came down to the Sheppard property for her support. The Army pronounced Ryan MIA back in med October, Along with the rest of his company. They gave up the search for Bravo Company not two weeks after their MIA status. When only three soldiers were found, they said the rest were all but gone and dead.

She could still remember that day the two Army officers came on her doorstep. Robert her husband hasn't said much after that day. He just sits on his chair on the porch, looking towards Ryan's Large Shed that was converted and expanded into his old personal house not 5 years ago. Most of the family that stayed after the funeral had already left. Sean her youngest, enlisted in the Army not long before Ryan's death. She was fully against the idea now, but there was nothing she could say or to stop him now. The whole Idea of worrying was pointless. The war Ryan died in didn't even last a week. That just made everything about the Idea of Ryan's death even more meaningless.

'What did he die for, what was the purpose of Flaming boulder' she thought to herself, becoming angry at mere thought of the name. Operation flaming boulder, the name was still heard on the news, as well as all around the town in the people's voices. She never wanted to hear the name of the war in her house ever again. Samantha was so busy with the dishes she didn't hear Mike come up behind her.

"Hi mom…how you holding up?" Her oldest son asked, standing beside her as he tried to help. Samantha just slightly tapped his hand, signaling she didn't want help.

"I'm fine son" she grumpily muttered, cleaning a plate with her rag. "You don't have to ask every time you see me"

Mike just sighed, as he began to walk towards to living room stopping in his tracks he looked out the window. "Um, Mom"

"What is it Mike, you really should head back home. It's a long drive back to Louisiana" Samantha replied in an annoyed tone. She was thankful mike hadn't left, but he has his own life to get back to.

"Are you expecting company?"

Samantha was confused at what he was getting at. She stopped what she was doing and turned to her son. "What was that Mike?"

Mike pointed towards the window. Samantha looked out to see a car pulling up on the property. Both her and her son went outside on the porch while the car pulled up. Robert was still sitting on his chair, not at all caring for what was going on. She knew her Husband would come back to reality in time. He served in the Marine Corps back in Vietnam, and throughout the cold war. If he could get through that, than he would eventually get through this.

The car finally came to a stop, as it was on the end of the driveway. A man came out of the car, and samantha recognized his Army BDU anywhere. "Leave!" she firmly yelled.

The man was not teetered to her demand. "Ma'am, if I can have a momentof your time…"

Samantha cut him off before he could finish. "Get off my property before I call the police. I don't want to have anything to do with your military anymore"

"It's about your son" The soldier said stopping at the entrance of the porch.

"Whatever you have to say about Ryan I don't want to hear it. He's gone and I don't want to here anymore of it"

"He may seem gone, but he's not. Ma'am I served with Ryan Sheppard for the better part of the last three years"

She couldn't believe what bull this man was giving her. Samantha had already had enough, this was the final straw."Now I know your lying Because Ryan was barely in the army for two years. NOW LEAVE!" She now said in a much more demanding voice. She already started to walk back in the house, keeping her threat about calling the police.

The Man spoke up again. "Ryan says He's sorry about what happened on the beach in Galveston"

She stopped her hand, mid way turning the door knob. Not believing what she just heard, she turned back towards the Soldier. "What did you…How do you?"

Mike staying quiet in the conversation leaned into her ear to whisper. "Nobody but you, Sean and I know about what happened in Galveston. The only other person is Ryan"

The soldier slowly walked up the steps. "I'm Sergeant Brendan McNeil Ma'am, and I think you want to hear what I came to say…please I'm one of the three surviving soldiers of Bravo Company" The soldier was much more insistent.

That hit her dead in her tracks; she heard three soldiers were found a few weeks ago back In Iran as the surviving soldiers of Bravo Company. She only knew because she carefully looked through the names to see if Ryan was one of them.

After the minute of silence she spoke up again. "Will you come inside?"

The man just stood still, grabbing for something in his pocket. "I can't, what you have to see is for your eyes only, I promised the Corporal." He held out his hand to give her something.

Samantha took the object noticing it was a Small USB drive. "What is this?" she asked quietly

"A message he spent the last few weeks working on. Put it in your computer, and watch all the vids in order. I must also ask that you destroy the drive when you are finished with it"

Samantha was still all confused. "Why?" She asked.

"I can't say for now, but…I can do one thing for you." The soldier took in a deep breath, looking like he was about to regret what he was about to say somehow. "When you're finished with the message call this number" He handed her a not with a phone number written on it. "I'll come back and help you try to understand, the corporal was insistent I just give you the message and never speak to you again, but it's the least I can do for you and your family. I owe him big for saving me from a Batarian slave camp" The soldier started to walk back towards his car.

Samantha was confused. "batara what?" she called out.

The soldier just smiled as he opened his car door. "It'll make since after you watch all the vids. Better start now, there's about 5 hour's worth of footage on that" he gave a slight laugh as he entered his car, driving away.

"Wonder what that's all about" mike commented as he started walking back in the house.

"get my laptop" she said turning towards mike.

"C'mon mom, you can't believe this" Mike argued.

"Just do it" Samantha said in her motherly demanding tone.

"Fine whatever, but this is a waste of time"

Samantha looked at her husband as she realized he Finlay made a movement, looking straight at Samantha muttering. "He did it"

AN: More detail will be given about Captain Roberts discovery when we look into the memories and background of Jeremy (Aka Raider)