Central Park, New York City, North East Region, North American, Earth, Systems Alliance Core / May 27th 2366
A teenage couple strolled through Central Park, their hands intertwined. 16-year-old John Shepard looked at the girl walking next to him. Her long jet black hair moving with the soft breeze, her marble white skin was the opposite of his bronze tan. She caught his gaze with her icy blue eyes in which he could lose himself, and smiled. He loved her dimpled smile, despite rarely making an appearance, it would cause John's heart to skip a beat when it did. They had known each other since they were toddlers, their families having a friendship going back to the dark days following the Third World War, now known as 'the Great Reconstruction'. Throughout the years, their families would meet and both grew up together. It had only a year ago, that John had expressed his feelings for her, which she returned.
"Why are you thinking about?" Her refined Australian accent interrupted his thoughts.
"That you have to go already." the girl glanced at her omni-tool before looking back into his eyes.
"I know. But you know how my father gets." When she saw the disappointment on his face, she quickly gave him a kiss, before resting her forehead against his, "You'll see me next week again. I promise, John."
A bodyguard, standing on a respectable distance, cleared his throat, causing John give the man an angry glare. "It's time, Miss Kellan. Your father is on his way to the airport. And he expects us to meet him there."
The girl looked over his shoulder at the bodyguard, "I'll be right with you, Gabriel." she moved her hands to hold his face and gave him a kiss, which John gladly reciprocated.
"I love you, Eleanor." John mumbled against her lips.
"I love you too, John." She whispered, before the guard interrupted.
"We really need to go, Miss. Your father will not like it if we are late." Eleanor nodded, gave John one more kiss and move towards the park exit.
John watched as Eleanor entered a luxurious sky sedan and flew away. When the car was out of view, John made his way towards the father's skycar. The ping of his omni-tool alerted him of an incoming message. He smiled as he saw whom it came from.
[Eleanor N. Kellan, Robbins Island, Earth [to] John W. Shepard, New York City, Earth]
[ I really had a good time today. I miss you already. Look at this beautiful picture of us.]
[ File attached ] [ File Downloading ] [ Download Complete ]
John opened the attachment and saw the photo Eleanor had taken earlier. The photo showed the two of them, John stood behind Eleanor as they posed for the picture. John's arms were wrapped around her waist as her hands rested on his. The both of them smiled, while her head rested on his shoulder. John continued to read the message.
[ I love you. See you soon. X ]
John smirked as he read the last sentences of the message, he had already planned out how he was going to surprise her next week.
Alliance News Network, BREAKING NEWS: Kidnapping of Eleanor Kellan, Kellan-fortune heiress / June 1st 2366
It's been a day since the brutal kidnapping of Eleanor Nathalie Kellan, daughter of trillionaire Henry Kellan. On May 31st, while Mister Kellan was away for business, Eleanor Kellan disappeared from the family property on the family owned Robbins Island of the coast of Tasmania, Earth. Coinciding with the disappearance of Miss Kellan was a violent break-in. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen a group of armed men entering the property and several perpetrators appeared to be carrying heavy bags when they left the premises. At least 14 security guards were killed during the break-in and all data-servers were destroyed, yet nothing was reported as stolen. Law enforcement suspect that Miss Kellan was kidnapped by these mysterious men, yet there are currently no leads. Neither, Henry Kellan, nor any family member was available for comments.
The Kellan family rose to prominence in the days after the Third World War. Kellan Construction Company grew into a conglomerate during the Great Reconstruction under General De-Tierra after a merger with Benissa Mining Industries. In the centuries that followed, the conglomerate branched out into numerous industries, including but not limited to exploration and colonization, mineral extraction, biotic research, pharmaceuticals, space ship construction, …
The family has members in the boards of directors of companies such as MarsGene, Sirta Foundation, ExoGene Corporation, Noveria Development Corporation, Eldfell-Ashland Energy, and many more. The Kellan family is considered to be in the top 20 of richest and most influential families in Alliance Space.
The 16-year-old Eleanor Kellan lived with her father on the family property on Robbins Island. Sole daughter of Henry Kellan and Rachel Harewood, she lived a very sheltered life, away from the camera's, until recently. This is attributed to her father, who pulled back from public life after the death of his wife in childbirth. Despite her sheltered life, since last year she was often a guest at exclusive parties on Earth, Bekenstein, Elysium and Arcturus Station, where she represented her family's interests. A source close to the family confirmed that Miss Kellan had been romantically linked to John William Shepard, son of Marine Major Adrien Shepard, the famed First Contact War and Frontier Rebellion hero; grandson of Marine Lieutenant General Richard Shepard, commander of 5th Marine Division on Reach; and part of the Shepard family. John Shepard nor any Shepard Family member was available for comments.
New Dunant Space Port, in orbit above Nouveau Genève, Helvetia Province, Mindoir, Mindoir System, Alliance Frontier/ 20.12.2370
Arcturus Naval Academy Midshipman Third Class John William Shepard stepped out of the docking tube into the busy primary terminal of New Dunant Space Port. John had been able to hitch a ride on the MSV Starhawk, a Clipper-class light freighter owned by the Grisanti Shipping Company, as it had left Elysium 27 hours ago. Sixty years ago, Grisanti Shipping had been the first to provide supplies to the then new colony of Mindoir, now it operated a fleet of 24 starships, ranging from the very fast, yet small Clipper-class freighters to Kowloon-Class freighters to the enormous Athabasca-class freight-transports. The entire terminal, having been decorated for the Christmas period, was filled with people either waiting to catch a ship leaving Mindoir or moving around towards the main building. While most were human, John spotted several aliens: a group of Turians who John recognized as being part of the Blue Suns, around 2 dozen Asari and two Salarians who were engaged in a heated conversation. As he walked through the doors leading to the main building, John acknowledged the two men belonging to Alliance Aerospace Force Security standing guard at either side of the doors. They were outfitted with the basic grey-colored Aerospace Force duty uniform with light chest armor and a sidearm, while they kept an eye on all the activity happening inside the terminal. John moved towards the space elevator as he checked his messages, having received several messages from fellow midshipmen wishing him a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. As he had to wait for another 45 minutes before the elevator went planet side, he decided to catch up on local gossip on the Mindoir news sites.
Groundside Mindoir Space Elevator facility, 5 km south of Nouveau Genève, Helvetia Province, Mindoir, Mindoir System, Alliance Frontier/ 20.12.2370
John heard someone shout his name the moment he stepped through the doors of the tether facility, then seconds later something slammed into him. John was forced to take a step back and let his duffle bag glide out of his hand as he looked down at what, better saying who, had slammed into him and had thrown its arms around his torso. Looking up at him were deep grey eyes, identical to his, framed by a round face covered with shoulder-length blond hair.
"Hey." A little girl smiled at him.
"Hey there, little lady." John crouched down and give the girl a proper hug.
"Are you here to spend Christmas?" Katherine Shepard, John's 9-year-old sister, asked.
"Yes, I am." He stated, before looking over the girl's shoulder and seeing a young woman with curly, auburn colored long hair and large brown eyes approach them. His 17-year-old step-sister, Rebekah Vandermeersch, smiled as she approached him from a parked terrestrial Martian-made Amarr 'Duster' SUV. Letting go of his little sister, he greeted the young woman with a kiss on her cheek and muttered the word 'sis' as she embraced him. Katherine, or 'Kat' as her family called her, carried his duffle bag back to the SUV, refusing his help, proudly stating that she was old and strong enough to carry his heavy bag all by herself. John got behind the wheel and drove towards the Shepard residence, located in the most affluent suburb of Mindoir called Nieuw Ghent, right next to the massive Toblerone Lake. Taking the scenic route through the hills south of the city and following the Maas-Verdun River to end up west of the city, John and Rebekah chatted about how the past couple of weeks had been.
John told her a story about how a few fellow midshipmen had involuntarily involved him in a prank on another midshipman, which had gone bad. In the end, it had involved a Marine Gunnery Sergeant, two instructors and a Navy Captain. Most midshipmen involved had received an official reprimand, while John got off lucky with a month of helping Master Sergeant Larsson in the Academy Armory. Rebekah, or 'Bekah' as she only allowed John and her younger siblings to call her, told him about how the last couple of weeks at Nouveau Genève High School, how boring her classes had been since she was ahead on all of them, how her friends were planning on going to Bekenstein to celebrate New Year and how she was trying to persuade their parents to allow her to go. She told how her mother, Claire Vandermeersch-Shepard, a woman John cared more for than his own biological mother, had been working closely with the planetary administration to develop more towns on the other side of the massive Bourgogne Mountain Range. And how to connect the other side with the planetary capital and space tether. Their father, a former Marine Major, Adrien Shepard, had been training the local police forces and planetary defense force for the past weeks after being offered an instructor roll at the local police academy. Rebekah informed him that their father had gone into the New Black Forrest with a group of 16 to 19-year-old Scout Troopers, teaching them wilderness survival techniques and wouldn't be home for another day.
Arriving home after a drive of around an hour and half, John greeted his mother with a hug, a kiss on the cheek and a bouquet of light blue colored Arcadian Roses, her favorites. In turn she surprised him with making his favorite meal: a Mindoinese T-bone steak covered in Vektan Hot Sauce, with potatoes and Apple Sauce made from apples out of their garden. While John was busy eating, his mother sat next to him and explained him the detailed plan for a major expansion to the other side of the Bourgogne Mountains, which John took in effortlessly, enjoying a normal life after 2 years at the Academy.
Shepard Residence, Nieuw Gent Suburb, Nouveau Genève, Helvetia Province, Mindoir, Mindoir System, Alliance Frontier/ 22.12.2370, 05:30 Local Time
The past two days had gone by in the blink of an eye. The day of his arrival he had spent with his family, catching up with everyone. The following day, John visited dozens of acquaintances and invited friends over. It was in the evening that he was surprised when he opened the door. There stood his girlfriend, having come over to surprise him and spent some time together. The surprise was total since Lauren had previously told him that she would be spending the holiday period with her parents and siblings on the Citadel visiting family.
John woke at 05:30, the military routine that had been drilled into him since he could remember, didn't stop the moment John had some leave. Snuggled into his left side, was the body of his girlfriend, Lauren Kyra Sutherland, an arm draped across his chest, and her head resting on his shoulder. Carefully lifting up Lauren's head and arm, John got out of bed, dressed in PT gear he had brought with him and proceeded to leave his bedroom, but not before taking one last look at his sleeping girlfriend as her blond hair covered her face.
John walked through the house, the hallways dim lit and the rooms silent as the rest household slept, he thought back on how he had met Lauren. Shortly after the disappearance of Eleanor, John fell in a downward spiral of depression, no longer caring about anything, often coming home drunk and/or high. It took about two months before his father had enough of his behavior and moved the entire Shepard-Vandermeersch family as far away from Earth as possible, stopping for several weeks in Arcturus Station, followed by a month and a half on Reach before finally arriving on Mindoir where he was offered a job by an old friend with whom he had served during the Frontier Rebellion, settling into a house in the wealthy Nieuw Gent suburb. John and Rebekah were enrolled into Nouveau Genève High School while Katherine went to the Nieuw Ghent local Kindergarten. During their third week on Mindoir, John and Rebekah were dragged along with their parent to a fancy social gathering which the planetary governor and his family, including his 15-year-old daughter, also attended. That evening John Shepard met Lauren Kyra Sutherland for the first time, yet didn't give the blonde much attention while he brooded in the room's corner. Rebekah however looked up at the governor's daughter and was happy that she made a new friend.
At Nouveau Genève High School, John had become a new sensation, as he was a good-looking, athletic 16-year-old who originated from Earth. Many times, students came up to him and asked him questions about Earth and life in the Inner Colonies, much to his annoyance and frustration as everyone was trying to get to know and befriend him. John kept to himself, thus only adding to the mystery he was. About a week after his arrival somebody had found out that he had previously been romantically involved to the missing Eleanor Kennan, everybody's interest reached new heights, only annoying him further. His frustration had reached its breaking point when the local school bully, named Flinch, had thrown a biotiball at the unsuspecting John, breaking his nose and had made a rude comment about Eleanor afterwards, saying that she probably disappeared because he was a whining little kid; something in him had snapped and John attacked the biotic bully. Despite Flinch advantage in a fight with his biotics and larger body mass, John had trained since before he could even walk. The fight was over in seconds as the only way to negate biotics if you didn't have your own, was to prevent the communication between brain and body. John knocked Flinch out cold and then proceeded to pummel the unconscious bully. It had been the intervention of Lauren that stopped John from beating Flinch within an inch of death. Lauren, despite being the school's most popular girl and daughter of the planet's governor hadn't give him much attention, yet was a friend of Rebekah. This was the only reason that John stopped from killing the school bully.
Afterwards, an internal review by the school had found Flinch as the instigator, yet suspended John for 2 weeks. Following the incident, John had become a social pariah, only Lauren concerned herself over him, it had taken months before she had formed some cracks in the massive walls that John had built to protect himself. At the end of the year, Lauren and John had become an item, despite John's dislike of the objectification of their relationship. Finally opening up again, his popularity had skyrocketed and even eclipsed Lauren's own when they graduated the following year. Since John attended Arcturus Naval Academy for the past two years Lauren had often visited Arcturus Station to spend time with him after months of being apart.
After writing a message on a datapad saying that he was out for a run, John pulled the backdoor behind him shut and ran along the western coast line of the Lake, away from the houses.
John was 6,5 km away from Nieuw Gent and completely alone when the sky lit up and an explosion was heard. John watched in horror as pieces of an Alliance Navy Frigate fell from orbit into the Lake. Looking from where the frigate had crashed to the city, he saw that dozens of fires were burning, while he could hear several explosions. Then hundreds of small shuttles, supported by what looked like gunships and fast-moving fighter jets filled the sky, all descending on the city. Despite feeling his muscles complaining from the previous exercise, John ran back to his house, hoping to safe his loved ones.
Intensive Care, DuPontier Military Hospital, Arcturus Station, Arcturus Stream, Systems Alliance Core / 24.12.2370, The Burning of Mindoir + 2 days
"Tell me doctor, how bad is it?" An older man in a Marine Corps Service uniform stared with concern through the glass wall, looking into the hospital room. Within the room, on a hospital bed lay his 20-year-old grandson, John Shepard, comatose. The hospital hallway was filled with members of the Shepard family, most of them still in the uniform of their respective branch, be it Marines, Army, Navy or Aerospace Force. In the room with his grandson, was his wife, Geneviève, his eldest granddaughter Jane and his former daughter-in-law Hannah Sevchenko-Shepard. On a large monitor covering the south wall of the room, a scan of his body showed numerous fractures and wounds, and displayed his heartrate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, temperature, …
The doctor looked up from his datapad at the man standing next to him, his eyes moved over the marine officer's black uniform, stopping to look at the wall of ribbons on his left chest, travelling upwards to look at the three stars on his shoulders, showing he was a Lieutenant General, before finally resting on the grey eyes the general shared with the young man comatose in the hospital bed and dozens of male men currently present in the hallway.
Clearing his throat, the doctor spoke. "General Shepard, your grandson has suffered multiple severe injuries. He has suffered serious head-trauma, numerous deep cuts, lacerations, a broken Tibia, we had to pry shrapnel from his right shoulder, 3 gunshot wounds to his torso, and so on. It was a miracle that he was still walking when they found him." The doctor noticed that several men and women who he could only related to his patient and the man in front of him, had moved closer to hear his verdict. It took two minutes to explain to the general and the others who had now crowed around them to situation Midshipman Third Class John Shepard found him in.
"How long until he wakes up?" Somebody at the back of the group asked, the concern clear in her voice.
"That depends, sometimes it takes days, months, years even…." The general clearly wasn't happy with this news as the doctor could see a flash of anger in the man's eyes, neither were the others since most male members had the same reaction, a flash of anger and annoyance went through their eyes. Feeling that the situation would only grow worse with his continued presence, the doctor excused himself, mumbling an apology of having to see another patient in a nearby ward, before hurrying out of the hallway.
The general stood there for 5 minutes, staring at his grandson before the sound of a message made him look at his omni-tool, after reading the message, he glanced one more time into the room at his grandson, catching the eyes of his wife before signaling his attaché and guards standing at the end of the hallway and left for the military HQ, entrusting the recovery of his to the care of grandson into the hand of the men and women of DuPontier Military Hospital.
Military HQ, Arcturus Station, Arcturus Stream, Systems Alliance Core / 24.12.2370, The Burning of Mindoir + 2 Days
As Marine Lieutenant-General Richard Shepard was walking through the hallways of military headquarters towards his office, he encountered a group of four Naval Special Operators who had just come back from debriefing their CO, among them SAN Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson, an N7 with Special Reconnaissance who gained renown during the Frontier Rebellion. The Naval Special Operators had been attached to the responding Plantagenet Carrier Group and had been one of the first units on the ground. The men saluted, which Shepard returned but kept up his pace, his head clearly occupied with his grandson.
"Lieutenant-Commander Anderson, walk with me." Anderson complied and quickly fell into pace next to the general. The general's guards and attaché kept a respectable distance while the general and Anderson talked. Anderson didn't know who to start the conversation so inquired about the condition of the young ANA Midshipman he had found on Mindoir.
"How is your grandson, sir?"
"In a coma, but he'll pull through. Us Shepards always do. Now tell me how you found him, Commander."
"I wrote it all down in my after-action report, sir." This clearly was the wrong reaction as it caused the general to stop dead in his tracks, and made a 90° turn to look at Anderson, fury written all over his face.
"I don't give a damn about your report!" The general's outburst made a couple of heads turn. Knowing that this conversation should be held in private, they moved into a meeting room which was filled with low level technicians, whom the general ordered to clear the room, while his guards waiting outside. Once the room was empty, he continued. "Tell me yourself. How did you find him?"
Clearing his throat, Anderson started talking "We were send out to investigate an Alliance Personnel Emergency Beacon in the Nouveau Genève suburbs of Nieuw Gent. When we, me and my team that is, arrived at the outskirts, it was a disaster. Dozens of buildings were smothering ruins, crashed vehicles and bodies everywhere. When we moved down the streets, taking out a few slavers along the way, we found bodies of both colonists and Bats. It seemed that the Bats had taken by surprise when they were killing prisoners. Among the bodies was the body of your son, he was wearing light body armor and had an Avenger in his hand. It seemed like he sacrificed himself so someone else could live. Later we would learn that that someone was be his son, your grandson." The general remained stone-faced hearing the way his son had died.
"Yes, that sounds like Adrien." Despite having had a big falling out with his eldest son more than a decade ago over his divorce from Hannah, which hadn't been resolved at the time of his son's death, he still loved his son immensely. "Continue."
"We continued to search the houses, we found more death slavers and dozens of death civilians, most of them gunned down. It was then that we heard a hoarse voice calling out a name. At first I couldn't make out what it was saying, but it became clearer and clearer. The voice called out for someone called Lauren. It was then that we came across your grandson, as he stumbled into our view. He looked extremely battered, bare-chested, his body covered in blood, an Avenger held loosely in his hands. He just ignored us, as he shifted through the ruins, turning over bodies to look at their faces. Then suddenly he cried out, he sunk through his knees and clutched the body of a girl around his age against his chest." Anderson briefly looked away.
General Richard Shepard's thoughts were solely focused on his grandson. It seemed as if John's bad luck hadn't stopped. First the messy divorce of his parents, which had become a fight between both parents and a lengthy court-procedure; then the mysterious disappearance of John's girlfriend, and now the death of his father, step-mother, step-siblings and his girlfriend, and 2 siblings either taken as slave or just gone. It would be a while before John would recover from this.
Anderson continued. "The sound he made, sir, that wasn't human. I've seen my fair share of horrors, but in my long career, I have never heard a man make such sound." Anderson looked at Richard, somewhere asking if the general knew why his grandson made such an inhuman sound.
"The girl he was searching for and found death was his girlfriend, he told me he was going to ask her to marry him. Lauren Kyra Sutherland, nice local girl, daughter of Mindoir's governor. It wasn't the first time that he lost someone who he loved." Anderson's eyebrows shot upward. "Do you remember the disappearance of the Kellan girl?" Anderson nodded, the case was still unsolved, the girl had never been found. "Eleanor Kellan was John's girlfriend at the time of her disappearance." Richard stayed quiet for a while, letting the information sink in.
'How can someone so young experience so much loss.' Anderson thought to himself.
"I think John was really in love with that girl, and then she just disappeared, without a trace. It appeared if she never existed. It took him 2 years and moving to the Frontier to get over her, when he fell in love again, he asked Lauren to marry him. I personally think John did that because he didn't want to loss someone he loved again. And now he lost so many people he loved." Both men remained quiet after the revelation.
After a long silence, Anderson continued. "So your grandson held the girl to his chest and was crying. After several minutes of watching and making sure it wasn't an ambush, two of my men carefully approached him. They had their weapons slightly raised, ready to respond to anything. He didn't even look at them as they approached him. He was not responsive when they introduced themselves. They stood next to him for about two minutes, trying to get through to him. When they tried to have him let go of the body, everything went wrong."
"What happened?"
"One of my men tried to pry the girl from his arms, John reacted. My man, who was the hand-to-hand specialist of my unit, was disarmed and unconscious within seconds, the second didn't fare much better. He was taken down as fast as the first. Your grandson used him as a human shield, as he pointed a handgun at us. I don't know who taught him those moves, but they sure as hell don't teach those at the Academy, sir."
"My son taught him. He had been teaching him everything since John was born."
Anderson took the explanation for what it was and continued. "Yet it weren't his fighting skills that shocked me the most, sir, it were his eyes. When he stood there with that handgun pointed at us, he looked me straight in the eyes. They weren't the eyes of a twenty-year old I saw," Anderson stopped, looking uncomfortable bringing back the memory. He shook his head, as if he wanted the image he had just described to disappear from his mind and swallowed hard before speaking again. "I don't know what he had seen and been through, but with all that happened, I can only imagine."
"How did you manage to defuse the situation, Commander?"
"I kept talking, put him at ease. After about 10 minutes, he let my man go, dropped the handgun and then he just collapsed. We had called a medivac when a couple of my men had found a heavily wounded survivor. Your grandson and the other survivor we transported back to the SSV Plantagenet in orbit. Twenty minutes later the city was flattened by the thermobaric bomb."
Shepard remained quiet as he absorbed the information. Shepard moved his hands to his face, his index fingers pointed upwards, resting on his nose, while he rested his head on his thumbs. The room was silent for several minutes, before Shepard rose from his chair and put out his hand towards the Lieutenant-Commander, Anderson followed suit and shook the general's hand. "Thank you, Commander, for the clarification."
"I was my pleasure sir." Richard Shepard started to leave the room, while Anderson let himself fall into the chair and sighed.
"Oh, Commander," Anderson looked up and saw the general standing in the doorway.
"Yes, sir?"
"Your men? Are they okay?"
"Yes, sir. Apart from a couple of bruises and two bruised egos, they are okay."
The general nodded at that. "Good, give your men my thanks."
"I'll do that sir." And Richard Shepard walked out of the room completely.
Meeting Room 5, Alliance Bureau of Investigation Headquarters, Arcturus Station, Arcturus Stream, Systems Alliance Core / 29.04.2371, the Burning of Mindoir + 4 months
Midshipman Third Class John Shepard looked around the room. Meeting Room Number 5 in the main building of the Alliance Bureau of Investigation Headquarters had the same look as any meeting room inside an official Alliance facility. The same greyish color on the walls, a brown wooden table and slightly uncomfortable chairs. On the walls hung the flag of the Systems Alliance, the seal of the ABI and a picture of the current Prime-Minister. In front of him sat 3 Alliance Officials, each one belonging to a different agency, Senior Special Agent Rasleen Lorimalanah represented the Alliance Bureau of Investigation, Chief Special Agent Rafael Vizcaya represented the Alliance Intelligence Agency and the last one was Captain Kekoa Kahoku, present for the Military Intelligence Directorate.
"And what happened when you heard the explosions?" Special Agent Lorimalanah asked, looking up from the datapad on which she was making notes as he talked.
"The moment I heard the explosions I ran back. I pushed my body as much as I could. By the time I arrived, everything was burning. The house was a smothering ruin yet I found nobody at home. Slavers were driving survivors in a group, I managed to get the drop on a Bat who was wandering off. I slit his throat and took his equipment, a shield generator, a M-3 Predator pistol and a Batarian knock-off from a M-8 Avenger. I managed to take out a few of them with improvised weapons, yet I was captured. They put me together with the other residents, I recognized most of them as my neighbors, yet none were my family. I was beaten and tortured, they demanded to know who else was there, since they had also lost contact with others in Nieuw Gent. When I answered that I didn't know they started killing my neighbors. It turned out that it was my father. He ambushed them and killed most of them before he was killed. In the confusion, me and several others managed to escape. While I tried to take them with me, they ran the other way and were killed later on. The firefight that my father had started killed most of the slavers, and unfortunately all the people they had captured were killed by the few remaining slavers just minutes after my father died."
"What did you do then?" Special Agent Lorimalanah continued her line of questioning. The two intelligence officers let her be while they took in as much information as possible.
John stared down at his hands, trying to remember what he did afterwards. For minutes the room was silent, as John could only hear his own breathing. Finally he looked up and his eyes met Captain Kahoku's.
He shook his head and spoke. "I don't remember. I remember being hit, kicked, slashed and stabbed, electrocuted with a stun baton. I can still feel the slaver's blood coming out of his mouth and him falling over. I can still hear the chaos, the screams, the gunfire and then the silence. But after that, it's all a big hole…." John emptied the glass of water standing in front of him into his throat. Everybody stayed quiet while John took his time. "But sometimes, in my dreams I experience flashes, I see myself holding the body of my father, shooting a couple of slavers, cutting a Batarian his eyes out, I can see … I can see myself holding her…."
"Holding who?" Vizcaya asked, curiosity in his voice as he heard something he hadn't heard before.
"Lauren." John met Vizcaya's eyes, his face set in stone as he refused to let them see his pain. "Lauren is… was my girlfriend. We had been together for about 2 years. She wasn't even supposed to be here."
"What do you mean with that Midshipmen?" Captain Kahoku questioned. The captain had previously worked together with several members of the Shepard family and had established a long-lasting friendship with the now-deceased Adrien Shepard.
"She was supposed to celebrate Christmas and the new year together with her parents at her aunt's place on the Citadel, yet she had decided last minute to stay and celebrate with me and my family. She wasn't even supposed to be on Mindoir."
The rest of the debriefing took only half an hour before the three intelligence officers were content with what they had been told. While the intelligence officers were gathering their things after concluding the debriefing John thought back on what happened the past 4 months.
He had remained comatose for four days since what the media had started calling 'The Burning of Mindoir', before waking up with his grandmother, Geneviève Shepard, holding his hand. Following the doctors' advice, his family gave him several days before telling him the bad news about what happened on Mindoir after he was transported to the responding Plantagenet Carrier Group. He knew that his father and Lauren had both died in Nieuw Gent, yet he was clueless about the fate of his mother and siblings. Claire Vandermeersch-Shepard and the 2-year-old Michael Shepard were both killed during the Nouveau Genève Sport Stadium Massacre along with 58.000 Mindoians. The Massacre had started when the Alliance had destroyed the Slaver ships in orbit, yet had been unable to enter Nouveau Genève because of heavy resistance. The 9-year-old Katherina was one of the 1586 girls and young woman taken by the slavers. Only the status of Rebekah was uncertain. It was suspected that she was among the tens of thousands who died when the thermonuclear device left by the slavers exploded, flattened the entire city and killed close to a 100.000 people.
John spend the next week in his room, refusing to see anybody despite family and friends from Earth and the Academy trying to visit him. The only people he allowed in his room were the nurses and his doctor, not for the lack of trying by his biological mother, grandmother, sister and younger cousins. His grandfather and other male members of the Shepard family understood his desire and never even tried, having come to the understanding that John needed time along to process all what had happened. On day number 8, John walked out of the hospital room and started his revalidation. Four months of intensive revalidation made John return to his previous condition and had the doctors give him a clean bill of health. Next week, John would start attending ANA again, having many classes to catch up on.
Special Agent Lorimalanah had left the room by the time John's thoughts stopped wandering, yet the two others remained, both whispered and occasionally glanced at John, before walking towards the door.
At that moment, John rose from this chair, straightened his uniform and asked.
"Captain Kahoku, can I ask a question? Sir?" Both men stopped, turned to looked at each other, and then at him. Captain Kahoku nodded and gave his permission to speak.
"Speak up, Midshipman."
"What do I need to do to be part of the teams who strike at the Batarians, sir?" Again, both men traded looks, before turning their attention on John. Captain Kahoku looked John straight in the eyes. They were having a small staring contest, while it only lasted a couple of second it seemed like hours to John.
"As a midshipman at Arcturus Naval Academy and a member of the Shepard family, you should know that the Systems Alliance is not at war with the Batarian Hegemony, as such the Alliance does not take any sanctioned aggressive actions against Batarian forces, … But if such actions were to take place, only Special Operations Units falling under JSOC, preferably with N6 and N7 designations, would be able to complete any such operations. However, since you are still a midshipman and that such actions are not the official policy of the Alliance, it is at the moment no concern to you, Midshipmen."
"Yes, sir!" John responded, before gathering his things.
"On a personal note, Shepard…" John looked back up to see that the Captain stood by the door. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you when they will be of a concern to you." Then the Captain gave John a quick nod and both men turned to leave the room.
Administration, Arcturus Naval Academy, Arcturus Stream, Systems Alliance Core / 29.04.2371, the Burning of Mindoir + 5 months
John Shepard sat motionless in the wooden chair. His back straight and eyes front while he waited to be called into the office of superintendent Vice-Admiral Rai. The past weeks had been hard as John was spending all his free time learning everything his fellow classmates had learned in the past 4 months on top of what they were learning now. It was going to be a hard process, but John did not stand alone, he had the possibility to call upon dozens of classmates and professors who had offered their help. Just 30 minutes earlier, he had been called to the superintendent's office while in the middle of the early 21st century history class. The professor had been talking about how the tension between the United States of America under its 45th president and the People's Republic of China skyrocketed and almost led to a war, which was only adverted when the American president was impeached for numerous reasons and together with his cabinet trialed for high treason among other things.
The office door slit open and John jumped at attention, but it wasn't the person he had expected to see who came through the door. Standing in front of him was Jack Harper, a man John had seen many times in the past. After all, Jack Harper had been Lauren's favorite uncle and a good friend of John's grandfather and the family patriarch, Richard Shepard. While John didn't know what Mister Harper's exact job was, Lauren had told him vaguely that her uncle worked in the intelligence service, it might have been for the Alliance, or that he had a private intelligence firm, this was never specified, not to her or to him. Richard Shepard had confided in John that Harper worked for a joint AIA/MID/JSOC operation, but had been unwilling to go further into the details.
"John, how good to see you again." The first thing John noticed were Harper's cybernetic eyes, three small blue dots circled around a black pupil. He wore a black tailor-made suit with white and orange trim, even to John who didn't know much about clothing, it was clear that the suit had cost several thousands of credits.
Not knowing how to start a conversation, John did the first thing that came into his mind. "My condolences for your loses, sir." Extending his hand.
Harper shook it, before he lay his hand on John's shoulder "I appreciate that John. But while Lauren was my favorite niece, she was your girlfriend, so I must offer my condolences to you to. Not only for Lauren, but also for your parents and siblings."
John acknowledged them with a small nod, yet Harper continued. "Your father and mother were dear friends of mine and will be dearly missed. If you ever need something, do not hesitate to contact me, John." This took John slight aback as his father had made his dislike of Harper all too well known before his death. His omni-tool pinged as Harper added his contact info to John. "But I'll have to leave you. I have another meeting I absolutely have to attend." Before disappearing out of the office, Harper briefly turned around, catching John's attention as he walked into the Vice-Admiral's room. "John," he waited for John to turn around and look at him before continuing, "I'm sure that you'll do great things if you put your mind to it. You have a lot of potential, you only have to find it and use it." Before disappearing.
"Midshipman Shepard." John looked at the superintendent of Arcturus Naval Academy as the doors slit shut behind him.
