First off i just want to apologize for not getting this out to you guys sooner and I will try to stick with my plan on having more chapters out each weekend.
Alpha Draconis69: So what do you think of Jeromy's situation?
Stealer-L1F3: Pretty depressing.
Alpha Draconis69: Oh?
Stealer-L1f3: Yeah, the guy wakes up finding his life to be a lie and then sees his only home get blown to hell. That's pretty depressing.
Alpha Draconis69: You think he has what it takes?
Stealer-L1f3: If he doesn't dump his job in the trash can, then he definitely has the guts to beat the geth with his bare hands.
Alpha Draconis69: those odds doesn't look good for him. I mean, do you think he will be able to join Shepard and the crew?
Stealer-L1f3: Quite possibly.
Alpha Draconis69: What do you say find out?
Stealer-L1f3: I say we should.
Alpha Draconis69: Want to do the honors?
Stealer-L1f3: Alpha doesn't own Mass Effect, if he did i believe things would have been a lot different.
Chapter two: So it Begins
Somewhere hidden in orbit above Eden Prime...
Standing there, looking through the view screen at the planet below, seeing the Reaper and it's thralls had shown up to take the Alliances precious cargo. Watching Sovereign lower itself to the surface of the doomed world, my operations chief informed me that the Human ship "Normandy" made it to the system and is already making it's way to save the inhabitants. "I'm still amazed that nobody, of this galaxy, can see through this ship's stealth system, even when a Geth ship nearly rammed into us." the captain thought to himself. He walked back to his command chair and said "Helm, set a heading out of the system, then jump to the Hope System." Thinking as he looked at the planet one last time "It's good to see you old friend, with you here then maybe this galaxy will stand a chance."
Meanwhile, on the surface...
Kuri looked up at me with a surprised look evident in her body language and asked me "How did you know about the artifact?" Thinking on how to respond to the question, I say "My father had told me before we hit the relay to this system." "It's in that direction." She said while pointing west of Glenn's property. I just nod in acknowledgment and started to walk in the indicated direction, but I saw that Kuri was just standing still. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "I need to grab my things from my room in the house." She said. "Alright, I will go with you." I said as I followed her into the burning house to look for her things. Looking around, I asked "So, what are we looking for exactly?" "Two things, one: a holo of my parents..." There was a long pause before she continued "And some tech that I invented." So as we got to her room, I noticed that it almost matched her suit, I looked at Kuri and though to myself "she is what... 5'6" and with a nice shade of blue with very interesting designs on her suit." I looked around and saw that most of the room was untouched by the fire, so I quickly snapped a picture on my omni-tool and thought to myself "when am I ever going to see another Quirian inspired decoration?" Then a portion of the ceiling came down, which caused Kuri to jump to me with her arms around me. Out of instinct I wrapped my arms around her slender form and our gaze met, at which point I thought "What is up with me today?" "We need to get out of here, it's no longer safe." I said.
Before we left the house, I recovered my guns from where the body of our fallen friend lay. "Hey, Kuri, here, have these." I handed my shotgun and pistol to her and she smiled, thanking me. I smiled back and headed towards my life pod, which was in the same direction as the Prothean artifact. We both got there and I looked around the pod for anything that could help us. "What are you looking for?" Kuri asked. I glanced at her for a moment before responding with "Answers." After looking around the in the bod I found a few things. "Okay" I thought to myself "I found 2 pistols with the letters "M-77" on them, but something was different with them and I also found 2 packs of Medi-gel." I looked at Kuri and said "This is all I could find." handing her a pack of medi-gel. As I made my way out of the pod, I tripped on the mess I made inside and what caught my attention was a holo of my father.
I picked up the holo disk and asked "Dad?" To my surprise the holo replied with a mono-toned voice "Voice patterns recognized, recorded play-back starting." I looked back at Kuri who was watching me and the holo with a bit of curiosity, then the image of my father popped up from the small device:
"Hello son, if you are watching this, then that means I am either dead or captured. Either way, I am a lost cause as within this disk is all the information about this universe as well as information on you, like where you were actually born, how you have biotics and a list of who can help to train you. If you want to know more, I made this holo into an interactive play-back keyed to your voice and bio readings. Be aware that this program is limited to what it will say until the time is right. Go on, ask your questions."
I thought a few seconds about a good question to ask. "Why did you have me taken to a different universe?"
Then the holo replied "Unable to answer, you must ask the right question." Kuri put a hand on my shoulder, saying "We need to get out of here, come on. I will show you to the artifact." I turned off the holo and stored it in one of my pockets. I looked into Kuri's eyes and said "You're right, I can do this later once we're safe. Check your gear, we're moving out." I did a once-over of my weapons and armor and helped Kuri to do the same. Then we made our way to the dig site, "It's not too far away from here, maybe ten or fifteen minutes."
About five minutes had passed and we started to run into Geth units, mostly drones. "Kuri, we need to flank them. We don't have the numbers to deal with them head-on." I said over our comms. "Okay." she replied. As we pushed on, we came into a clearing that had these metal spikes everywhere. "Keelah, what are those?" Kuri asked out loud. Thinking to myself "Dragon's teeth" I replied "I don't know, but I don't like the look of them." Just then, we heard weapons fire come from a different direction and we took cover to see if we could get the drop on whatever was coming. "The gunfire was coming from the edge of the dig site." Kuri stated. As the sound got closer, I peered around the corner of my cover and saw a Human woman in pink armor running from Geth fliers. Then the thought hit me "That's Ashely Williams." I watched her run away from the robots from hell and quickly dispatch the fliers chasing her. I watched her take them out with only a pistol, while laying on the ground but before I could pull myself back into cover, she saw me, so I motioned her to come to me as I covered her. She bolted over to Kuri and I "Thanks, I thought I was done for... Wait a minute, what are you doing here Kuri? Why aren't you at the O'Brian farm?" I looked at the woman "We can pick this up later, for now, we just need to make sure those metal bastards stay away from us." I said and they both just nodded in agreement.
There were still the four platforms closing in on us now. Looking where the Commander was supposed to come from, I thought to myself "Where is Shepard?" before ordering Kuri to cover me. Putting down two of the four with my lancer and turned to shoot the one next to me when it's head just exploded in a shower of goo and sparks. Then the last one flew back as a result of being impacted with a shotgun blast. I looked to see where the blast had come from and that Kuri was walking towards me with the Alliance soldier.
Then I heard two sets of footsteps coming towards my direction and saw Lt. Kaiden Alenko and Commander Shepard was a woman brandishing a nice sniper rifle, a Mantis if I had to guess. I looked at Ashley "Are you alright now ma'am?" I asked. "I am now, thanks kid, what's your name?" She replied. Before I could answer, Shepard spoke "Report, Chief!" By this time, I had tuned out their conversation and turned my attention to Kuri, who was looking around frantically. "Are you okay? You seem to be a bit on edge." I asked, but all I got from her was the "Did you really ask me that?" look. "Look, I know we just met, but if you need someone to talk to, I am here for ya." I said as I walked back to the group of marines. Then I looked back at the woman in front of me and asked "Who are you and where is the backup?" She looked at me and said "The name is Commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Alenko, as for the backup." She looked towards her lieutenant then back to me. "We are the backup, in fact... we were the only ship in range." With the entire group looking at me, then Kuri, Shepard asked me with a slight shock evident on her face. "What's your name, kid?" I groaned slightly at the word 'kid' "First off, it's not kid, my name is Jeromy." As soon as I mentioned my name, Shepard's eyes grew wide "You're coming with me and I won't take no for an answer." I looked at Kuri who then looked right back at me "If Jeromy goes, then I go." she said. I looked into her eyes and asked "Are you sure?". She nodded "I made a promise to Glenn." she replied. "Thank you." I said, turning to the commander. "there you have it, we both go or we both stay." Shepard nodded and ordered Ashley to take point and lead us to the Prothean artifact. We walked for about ten minutes until I start to see something familiar, like the dig site and thought to myself "if only they dug a little deeper."
The walk to the site was rather uneventful, all that changed once we got closer to the site itself however. Before we reached the site, I thought to myself as I looked ahead of the team "those boulders would make great cover should we come under fire." then it hit me, I keyed my comms to the commander "Shepard, I suggest caution, it looks like a great place to have a firefight." "Copy that" she replied. We all got into our nearest cover and Shepard went off to her cover, Ashley and Alenko took up cover with each other while Kuri and I found cover for ourselves. "Kuri, stay close. I'll keep you safe." I told her, I didn't get a reply so I looked back towards her only to watch her blow a trooper's head off with her shotgun at ten meters. I thought to myself "I think I'm in love..." but the thought was short lived as Kuri pulled me back to the real world. I popped out of cover to see if I could shoot some Geth, only to find that they were all dead. With the Geth here dead, we made our advance into the site. When Kuri and I got there, I heard Ashley say "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here, it must have been moved." "By who? Our side or the Geth?" asked Alenko. I let them talk and went over to a nearby crate that had my attention "Kuri, think you could help me get this open?" I asked. "Sure, I'll see what I can do" she said as she activated her omni. After a few seconds the crate's lock went from red to green. "There you go Jeromy." She said. I smiled at her and looked through our 'loot' and found a few ammo blocks and 800 creds. After a quick bit of thinking, I walked up to Kuri and gave her half the creds. "What's this for?" She asked me. "To help with your pilgrimage." I replied with a slight smile. Then I walked up to the other part of the squad "Kuri and I found these ammo blocks." holding out 3 blocks "One is incendiary, the other is armor piercing but I'm not sure about this one." Shepard grabbed all of them and put them in her armor's pockets for safe keeping. Then I see the commander walk a bit away from the group with one hand to her head for a few moments and came back. "Okay, new plan: Williams here will take us to the space port after we check out the camp, move out." She ordered.
Shepard took point with me and Kuri in the middle, while the chief and the Lt took the rear. It took us a few minutes to reach the camp site of the researchers and what I saw there, let's just say I wasn't ready for that. There were bodies laying everywhere, soldiers and lab coats alike filled with holes. I even saw a set of legs, but the owner was nowhere to be found. I felt as if I were going to vomit at the sight I saw, after a few seconds though, I held down the urge. I looked over to my Quarian friend who looked like she was just a statue with the look of fear evident in her body language. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked as I placed a hand on her shoulder, though whatever I said or did must have worked because she jumped a little. "Sorry, what did you say?" She asked "I asked if you're okay." I repeated. She just nodded. "It's a good place for an ambush, keep your guard up." The Lt stated. The only thing that crossed my my was "oh damn, the Husks. Those little shits were hard to kill in the game." Right on cue they started to lower themselves from their spikes. "Oh God! They're still alive!" said Alenko with a look of mixed feelings. "Don't just stand there! Shoot them, now!" I yelled. That seemed to knock everyone back into reality because everyone started to open fire on the Husks that came toward us. For what felt like ten minutes was actually ten seconds, the Husks laid dead at our feet, for real this time.
"The hell were those?" Williams asked everyone. I looked at her and said "Zombies, they're damn space zombies." with a look of horror on my face. Shepard turned to us and ordered "Alright, cut the chatter. Fan out and search for any survivors." Each of us chose a direction in the camp to go and search for anyone that happened to live through the battle. The camp itself looked like a tornado had gone through it, there was rubble on fire, bodies everywhere and three shacks still standing. The chief and the Lt went around to check bodies, Shepard went to an opened shack and I went straight towards the shack with the locked door. Looking around again, I saw something glowing a few feet from the locked shack, in the dirt. I stared to walk over to it and Kuri asked me "What do you see?" "I'm not sure..." I replied as I knelt down and picked up the hidden object. As I pulled it free form the dirt I noticed that it was some type of data pad, but the pad was fading fast due to a loss of power. I brought up my omni and started to copy everything I could and stored the pad in a storage compartment in my armor. "What was on that data pad?" asked Kuri. "I don't know yet, I'll look into it after we get to safety." I told her. "Commander, I have something over here." I reported "What is it?" She asked, over the comms. "it's a locked door and I'm getting movement inside, possible survivors." I said. After a few minutes, the rest of the team all came to my location, taking notice of the locked door. I was about to ask Kuri to take care of the the door when Alenko walked over and unlocked it after a moment or two. The Lt said "okay, there you go Commander, it's open." with a smile.
When that door flew open we saw two very scared people, both Human: a male and a female. Shepard ordered us all into the shack and locked it behind us. "You're Human! What is that doing here?" pointing at Kuri. This caught my full attention "I'd watch my tone if I were you." I said while staring at the female scientist. "Stand down kid." Ashley said. "Don't worry, we will protect you." Said the commander. Not willing to listen to this conversation any further, I leaned against the nearest wall and thought to myself about everything up tot his point. "How did I get these powers...? I mean, I know how you can get them. For example, you can get them by being exposed to Eezo while still in the womb and if you get born on Thessia..." I laughed softly to myself "Boy do I have a lot of questions for my... 'holo-dad?'" I said under my breath. I looked up and noticed that Shepard was looking at me, so I said "What?" Shepard just replied with "Come on." before walking out the door.
Nobody said a thing on our little hike to the spaceport. As we rounded a corner, that's when we saw it: A Reaper, a real life, honest to god, Reaper and we just stood there for a moment. As we started to climb the hill in front of us, we all heard a single gunshot go off. That sound made all of us jog that much faster, but as we reached the top we saw the Reaper lift off the ground and disappear into the sky and out of sight. "What was that thing?" Alenko asked. "It was a ship and a HUGE one at that!" Ashley exclaimed. All I did was put my finger to my mouth and everyone had stopped talking. "What is it?" the commander asked in a low voice. "I'm getting movement on sensors." I replied. "I can confirm that." the lieutenant confided. "Commander, do you see those explosive containers? The ones with the four Geth are standing by?" I asked. "Already on it, let's get this show on the road." she replied.
With that said, she disappeared out of sight and seconds later I heard a loud thundering sound go through the air and a fiery explosion where the group of Geth were at. "Now it's time to kill husks again... wait a minute, there are way more than there were in the game. This isn't a game anymore." I thought to myself. With four husks coming towards me and the other team members occupied with the ten headed for them, I did something you should never do in a zombie outbreak: I ran into the group of husks, planting a single grenade on one and taking cover as it went off, only for two of the four to die. They were still coming after me so I pulled the 2 M-77's I found in my pod and fired a few shots at them until they were no longer moving. "Report." Shepard called out. "Williams here, I'm alright." "Alenko here and I'm alright Commander." "What about our help?" the commander asked as I walked up to Kuri and replied with "Kuri and Jeromy here Commander, we're good to go."
Shepard's POV
I had just got done popping off the head off one of these zombie things when I noticed the squad below me and a group of hostiles that were flanking them. I was about to notify them, but I saw one of the survivors run off into the enemy group and planted something on one of them. I was just about to rip him a new one when I saw the explosion go off. After the explosion, I saw Jeromy pull out two strange pistols and unload into the husks. Looking at Jeromy, I can't help to think I know him, I will ask him once we get out of here.
Jeromy's POV
After my little fight, I noticed that everyone was looking at me. "What?" I asked as I looked up to where Shepard was and I saw her staring at me as well, almost like she's deep in thought. I think to myself "Okay, That's just weird how they're just looking at me like that." I made my way to where the group was at and Lt Alenko said "That was a crazy stunt..." before he could finish "You're lucky you didn't get killed or worse, get us all killed." Shepard berated me. I was about to say something back, but I just hung my head and said "Sorry Commander, it won't happen again." "Good, now, let's move out." she said. As we made our way to the spaceport, Alenko spoke up "Oh no, Commander... it's Nihlus." Laying there on the ground was the body of a dead Turian. Kuri looked at the body "Who is he and why is he here?" she asked. "He was on the same ship as me when the distress call went out, as for who he is. He's a Spectre agent." Shepard answered.
After she said that I heard a small noise behind some large crates but dismissed it as the wind. Then it happened again, this time the whole squad trained their weapons on the noise. "Wait, don't shoot! I'm Human." the unknown survivor exclaimed. "Who are you?" Shepard asked. "My name is Powell, I work... I worked here at the docks." he replied "I saw what happened to that Turian. The other one shot him in the back, after he let his guard down. But I heard him say his name first, I think he said his name was Saren." he continued. "Are you telling me this 'Saren' is leading the Geth?" I asked in disbelief. Powell looked at me, his fear quite evident "Look, I don't know okay? I do know that Saren hopped a cargo train to the other platform, probably going after the beacon." he said. Alenko turned to his CO and said "Commander, we need to go after him. We can't let the beacon fall into his hands if he is leading the Geth." Shepard nodded. "You're right, alright team, let's move out." she ordered.
Knowing what was going to happen next, I pulled out my pistols and I hid near the pillar of crates that was close to where we were. Catching weird looks from everyone that was watching me, once again I brought a finger to my mouth and looked back to the noise coming closer to me as two Geth troopers rounded the corner. Looking straight at me, but before they could bring their weapons to bear, I shot one of them square in it's flashlight as the squad took care of the second, rather unfortunate trooper. Shepard walked up to me with this amazed look on her face and asked me "How did you do that?" I looked back at her with a confused look "Do what?" I asked "Never mind, let's head to the beacon ASAP." We made our way to the cargo train, moping up some Geth along the way. After disarming five bombs, about twenty or so Geth units and a few husks. We finally reached the Prothean Beacon, while the marines were talking to each other, I stood near a balcony area overlooking where a town once stood. When Kuri walked up and said "I guess this is it, huh?" I looked over towards her and smiled "I have a feeling that this is just the beginning." I said. "Beginning of what?" She asked, "Hopefully, the beginning of our friendship." I said, starting to grin. She smiled back and held out her hand "Then to the beginning of our friendship." Taking her hand in mine, I said "May the Traveling star guide our way in this journey."
During our little introduction I saw Ashley get too close to the beacon and she started to get dragged in by the artifact. I was about to run in and save the overly curious soldier, but Shepard had beaten me to it. Now she was stuck in the Beacon's pull. I tried to get to her, but nobody would let me even get close. That all changed when the beacon exploded, throwing Shepard into Alenko and Williams.
As the beacon exploded, a large piece of the heavy artifact flew towards Kuri. The shard was flying at her so fast that I wouldn't be able to save her and realizing this, I broke my word to my father and I mustered what strength I had left and my body began to glow an odd dark blue color. I felt my body get lighter and the glow grew brighter before finally, I shot across the platform at a speed I had never traveled before. I tackled Kuri and threw both of us out of the way of the shard. "What the hell did I just do?" I asked out loud to nobody as the glow around my hands started fading away. I checked over Kuri and helped her get up as I asked "Are you okay?" She just nodded an affirmative and I went over to the Commander to see if she was okay too, but before I could make it half way to her, my body started to feel extremely heaving. As I slid to one knee, I reached out only to catch onto nothing on my way down and then I only heard a voice calling out to me.
Kuri's POV
was standing at the railing where Jeromy first was, watching a real working piece of Prothean tech. A part of me hoped that Shepard would be okay, then I saw Jeromy trying to go and get Shepard from where she was but the Alliance soldiers wouldn't let him. Instead, the commander was thrown from the artifact into the other soldiers, by this time I saw Jeromy's face showing a sense of dread, so I followed his gaze and saw a huge piece of what used to be the beacon flying straight at me. Looking back at him I saw that he was running at me, but I knew he wouldn't make it in time so I silently thanked him for being there for me then I felt something hit me before I hit the ground. Moments afterward I heard a loud crash and upon opening my eyes I saw Jeromy standing above me, a hand out to help me up as he asked me if I was okay. I couldn't really say a thing so I just bobbed my head up and down as he picked me up. He then moved off toward the other Humans but before he could make it halfway there he fell to his knees and tried to grab onto something, but he fell to the ground and as I saw him fall I cried out for him and ran to his aid.
I sat there on the ground with his head in my lap to make him comfortable. When Chief Williams walked up and scanned his body, after a few scans she had a confused look on her face so I asked "What is it? What's wrong with him?" She looked at me "Sorry, but I don't know... maybe the lieutenant knows." she apologized as she signaled for him to come over. Alenko walked over "What is it chief?" he asked "Take a look at these readings, I'm not sure what to make of them." she answered. Looking at the data that the chief recorded, Alenko's eyes widened "What is it Lt?" the chief asked. "If these readings are right, then we need to get him some help. Don't worry, the Normandy is on its way and our doctor is ready for them."
About ten minutes passed when I heard the roar of a ship's engines. The sight of the small ship caught my attention as it was not the standard Human ship anyone would have seen. Soon the ramp of the Normandy lowered and what I could only guess to be the med team rushed to our fallen friends. Then a dark Human male came up to the lieutenant and I while the team picked up Jeromy, "Hold on there, let me see this person." He said, so the med team allowed him to see him this time, it was the Human's turn to go wide eyes. "Get them to the doctor, now!" he ordered. Then he looked at me and said "Who might you be, miss?" Feeling a little put on the spot, I stared playing my hands "M-My name is Kuri'Adas nar Tonbay" I finally answered. "Nice to meet you ms. Adas, my name is Captain Anderson. If you want, you can come with us, we'll be heading to the citadel." I looked around at all the carnage and death around me and I got the feeling that I would be safer going with them. "Who knows, maybe I can find something on the Citadel for my pilgrimage." I thought to myself. "If you will allow it Captain, I would like to go with you... O-Only because I'm worried about Jeromy." I said, walking towards the ship.
Capt. Anderson's POV
'Did she just say Jeromy, as in Jeromy Storm. It can't be, if he is back then that means only one thing' thinking to myself, looking to the sky, ' things are about to get worst'.
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