Kaidan

Kaidan dropped the latest status report on the defense towers. It was frustrating, seeing how little he had accomplished in the year he been here. Excavating and building the generator alone took six months. The actual turrets were only finished a month ago. Now they were having problems with the targeting program, and no one in this entire damn colony knew how to fix it.

Kaidan stood up and walked to the window. He took in several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. It was no use blaming the people here. Most didn't even want the defense towers. They didn't even know he was coming when he showed up one day in an Alliance cruiser. They thought it was a slave run and ran to the safe houses. It wasn't until whatever constituted as a leader here came out and explained the deal he had made with the Alliance. He was removed from office only a month into Kaidan's stay and basically ran out of the colony a few days later. If that didn't send a clear message to the Alliance marine, nothing would.

But he couldn't leave just yet. He had a mission here he couldn't abandon, one that went beyond the goodwill program he was using as cover. But that assignment hadn't bore any fruit yet either. Kaidan hadn't found any evidence of Cerberus or any group for that matter on Horizon. The small colony didn't even have that much to offer. Beyond its outstanding crop yield, there was little of value here. He was beginning to think Councilor Anderson had been given some bad intel.

As his eyes swept over the colony, tranquil under the midday sun, a slow, relaxed smile crept over Kaidan's face. Even though this colony might be unassuming and dull, he could see the appeal of living here, spending the day doing hard but honest work before heading home and unwinding. There were no missions, no people shooting at him, no decisions that could end in death. A part of him craved that simple life.

Kaidan knew the ideal was on borrowed time, however. The Reapers would get here eventually, and everyone would be in for the fight of their lives. Worlds would burn. Billions of people would die. He couldn't relax yet. He needed to stay vigilant and do what he could against the coming threat.

"Kaidan," a voice said from the door of his loaned prefab.

He turned to see Lilith walking toward him. Once she got to him, her hands went to the side of his face, and she pulled him down for a kiss.

Kaidan was always surprised by her abundant displays of affection. Of course, he didn't mind them. It was fun, discovering the little quirks a person had when they were comfortable enough to show them to you. He had forgotten how good it felt to be in a new relationship.

Lilith was the only one that was warm to him after the initial scare. The others were, at best, wary of the marine. So, she quickly became his go-between. They spent a lot of time together, organizing the plans and fixing problems.

Looking back on it, their new relationship seemed inevitable. They were up late one night, trying to correct a debilitating problem involving the construction of the underground power generator. Lilith had gotten up and went to the kitchen. She returned with two beers, offering one to Kaidan. He tried to decline, saying how they really needed to figure out this obstacle.

"We've been staring at this problem all night," she had said. "If I don't get a break, I'm going to lose my mind. Lighten up, Commander Alenko."

So he did. They had a beer, talking about their lives. When they drained the first, she had gotten up and retrieved a second. Then a third. Then a fourth.

Before he knew it, Kaidan was slightly drunk and flirting with her. The flirting turned into kissing which led to the bedroom and finished with a full night of various styles of sex.

He should have stopped there, but found he couldn't. He was tired of being looked at as a cancer in the colony. He wanted to feel needed, and Lilith moaning his name into the shell of his ear did that for him. So it happened again and again, and, before long, Kaidan found himself truly caring for her.

But he couldn't completely enjoy it. He knew it was a bad idea to sleep with one of the colonists. It was especially stupid for him to sleep with the only one here that could stand his presence. If the relationship ended, he would be left working with either Lilith, an extremely awkward situation, or one of the other, more distrusting colonists. It would make his already difficult job that much harder.

Still, having Lilith in his arms right now felt good.

"Hey," Kaidan said once they broke their kiss. "I hope your day has been more productive than mine."

The scowl that formed on her face told him it hadn't.

"Our communication tower went down a few hours ago. We haven't been able to pinpoint why. Everything looks like it's working, but we can't contact anyone, and we don't think our transmissions are getting through."

"Is it being jammed?" he asked.

She shrugged. "If it is, we can't find the signal. It's just so weird. We've never had a problem like this before." She shook her head. "How 'bout you?"

Kaidan glanced at the report still sitting at the table. "I still can't figure out a way to calibrate the targeting matrix. Those defense towers are useless if we don't find a way to fix it."

"I wish I could help, but we can't spare anyone right now. Getting our comm system back online is the priority."

"I understand," he said with a nod. "Has anyone tried to blame that little problem on me yet?"

"Delan said something, but everyone knows he's just a surly, old grump," Lilith said smiling. "No one pays attention to him."

Kaidan tried to smile, but it wasn't genuine. She noticed.

"Hey, listen to me," she said, holding his face in between her hands. "It's nothing personal. The people out here came all this far into the Terminus to get away from the Alliance. They don't trust them."

"I am very aware of that," he solemnly replied.

She kissed him again on the lips. It was light and reassuring. "I hear there is one colonist that is quite taken with you."

He smiled brightly. "Oh? Well, I'll have to try my hardest to stay in this person's good graces."

"You better," she said coyly before jamming a finger into his armored chest. "Ow. Why are you wearing that thing anyway? You expecting a fight?"

"I thought most women liked men in uniform or armor."

"I'm not most woman," she answered. "Besides, I like you better with far less on."

Kaidan smiled again and closed in for another kiss which he hoped led to a pile of the clothes and tangled sheets. But Lilith pulled away, her attention fixed on something outside the window.

"What is that?" she asked.

He turned and saw a mass of clouds being drawn toward the ground. He initially thought it was a tornado, but it didn't have the swirling vortex normally associated with one.

"Stay inside," he commanded.

Kaidan grabbed his rifle and went out. He looked through his weapon's scope. Hidden behind the clouds, he could just barely make out a large ship. It didn't look like a ship he had ever seen before.

"Can you see it?" a voice asked behind him.

He turned to see Lilith standing just behind him. More colonists had also left their homes to see what the commotion was about.

"I told you to stay inside," Kaidan said forcefully. He shook his head. Now was not a time to pick a fight. "Listen, you need to get everyone you can to the safe house. We don't know what we're dealing-"

Screams interrupted him, and he turned toward the sound. People were running in his direction, away from a swarm of what appeared to be tiny insects.

"Go!" he yelled before opening fire from the approaching cloud.

Kaidan fired controlled bursts, insects dropping with every trigger pull. It didn't seem to affect them though. They closed the distance before he could do any lasting damage.

One landed on his shoulder, and he felt a stinger pierce his armor. It sank into his neck and pulsed a few times before Kaidan ripped the bug off and threw it to the ground. He started to turn to follow the others to the bunker but found he was frozen in place.

He struggled, trying to force any part of his body to shift even a centimeter, but every muscle fiber was immobilized. He watched as one colonist after another was stung and paralyzed. He felt completely helpless when he realized Lilith was frozen only a few meters from where he was.

More bugs came, but they were different from the swarm. They were humanoid, standing on two legs and carrying what appeared to be weapons. One by one, they loaded the colonists into pods and took them away.

When they lifted Lilith and placed her into one of the pods, Kaidan fought against the paralysis with renewed vigor. He wanted to scream, yell at them to stop. Just as the two bugs carrying her pod were about to vanish from view, Kaidan unleashed a whirlwind of biotic power. Whatever he did must have overridden the bug's paralytic control because he fell to his knees in exhaustion. He hadn't released that much energy since he defended Rahna back at Brain Camp.

He didn't know how long he was dazed like that, but, when he finally looked up, Kaidan realized he was alone. He ran through the colony, trying to find where those bugs could have taken Lilith and the colonists, but all he found was empty prefabs and deserted streets.

Just as he was about collapse into despair, he saw a few aliens from before buzzing over him, heading to the center of the colony. They seemed to be in a hurry, and Kaidan thought they could lead him to wherever they were taking the pods, so he hurriedly followed them.

Heavy guns sounded as he ran down the streets of the colony. He expected the ground to shake with each impact, but they never came. Kaidan realized that it was the colony's defense turrets firing, not the ship's weapons.

But that couldn't be possible. The targeting system never had a chance to be corrected. Who could have possibly fixed it in the middle of an attack?

Then, the large ship began to take off. Kaidan could feel the ground tremble underneath him and smell the ozone in the air as its thrusters burned away. It rocket off world in a matter of minutes.

Kaidan still ran, hoping to find some answers to the countless questions he had. He slowed down when he heard voices. He peeked around the corner and saw three humans and a krogan. He should have been surprised by the large alien's presence, but, after all that happened, nothing seemed to faze him.

Or so he thought. Kaidan recognized one of the humans but didn't know if he could trust his eyes. The Alliance had intel about the commander's reappearance, but he would only believe it he saw it himself. And now he had.

"Commander Shepard," Kaidan said as he walked out into view. "Captain of the Normandy. First human Spectre. Savior of the Citadel." He turned to the colonist which of course had to be Delan. Fate couldn't be kind to him a leave behind someone he cared about. "You're in the presence of a legend, Delan. And a ghost."

Shepard's face remained neutral, and he didn't respond.

"All the good people we lost, and you get left behind," Delan sneered. "Figures. Screw this. I'm done with you Alliance types." He walked away, back toward the safe house.

Shepard remained motionless, so Kaidan made the first move. He closed the distance, gave him a small smile, and offered his hand.

"I thought you were dead, Commander. We all did."

He smiled then, seeing Alenko's gesture. He took the hand and pulled him closer for a one-armed hug.

"It's good to see you, Kaidan. How have you been?"

"That's all you have to say?" Anger welled up, and Kaidan was barely able to control it. "You show up after two years and just act like nothing happened? I would have followed you anywhere. Where the hell did you go? Why didn't you try to contact any of us?"

"I didn't have much of a choice. I got spaced. I spent those two years…" Shepard seemed to struggle with what he was trying to say. "I was unconscious during that time. As soon as I woke up, I wanted to find you. But no one would tell me where you were or how to get a hold of you. Then I got swept up in this. Cerberus-" He stopped short, wincing at the name of the pro-human group.

"So, you're with Cerberus," Kaidan said, backing away from the man he thought he knew. "I can't believe the reports were right. How could you?"

Shepard matched his anger. He knew he struck a nerve with the accusation, and the commander wasn't one to take a slight sitting down.

"Look around you, Alenko. The Collectors are kidnapping our colonists. I hate Cerberus, but they were the only ones willing to do anything about it before more of them got hit. If I went back to the Alliance, I would have spent months in lockup until they could figure out what they should do with me. More colonies would have been hit. I couldn't let that happen."

It certainly sounded like the Shepard he served with, but the new association still bothered him.

"We both know what Cerberus is like. You know what they've done. What if this is all just a set up? What if the Collectors are working for Cerberus?" The words coming from his mouth sounded absurd even to Kaidan.

"You can't honestly believe that, can you? That's crazy. Do you hear yourself?"

"Fine. Maybe you're right. But I don't trust Cerberus, and I can't believe you do. You turned your back on everything the Alliance stood for."

He barely finished his sentence when Kaidan felt his back slam against one of the cargo containers in the area. Shepard had him pinned, a fierce and wild look in his eye.

"I may be many things, Kaidan, but I'm not a traitor," Shepard snapped. "I'm doing this to protect as many people as I can. I'm doing this to save them."

Kaidan couldn't answer. Shepard had his arm on his throat, stopping his ability to breath. He tried to fight him off, but the commander was stronger than he remembered.

Finally, Shepard realized what he was doing. His eyes went wide, and he quickly backed up. Kaidan rubbed his sore neck and coughed roughly.

"Oh God. Kaidan, I'm-"

"Don't," he said roughly. His voice hadn't come completely back. "I have to report back to the Alliance. They can decide whether they believe your story or not."

He started to walk away but found himself turning around, unable to leave the conversation where it was. Knowing the commander's choices in missions, this could be the last time they saw each other.

"Goodbye, Shepard. And be careful," he said, surprising himself about how much he meant it. After that, he walked out of sight as quickly as possible.

It hadn't even been a week since the attack on Horizon. Kaidan wanted to stay and help the colonists rebuild, but they were done with Alliance interference. He was practically forced to leave only two days after.

He had been thinking since then. The conversation with Shepard left a huge hole that he didn't know why it was there or how to fill. But he did know one thing. The Alliance needed someone or someones to counter Shepard if the worst was to come to pass.

A call came in on his omnitool, one he had been waiting on since sending the mission report. He answered and was surprised to see who was on the other side.

"Admiral Hackett," Kaidan said. He saluted as a habit before realizing it was unnecessary over a comm channel. "I'm sorry, sir. I was expecting Councilor Anderson."

The admiral nodded. "Anderson resigned from the position a week ago before leaving."

That was a drastic change. "Do you know where he's gone? And who is the new human councilor?"

"They haven't picked one yet, but Donnel Udina seems to be the frontrunner. As to Anderson's whereabouts, we have no idea. People reported seeing him with a blond haired woman before he disappeared, but that is the only clue we have. Now, what did you want to speak to Anderson about?"

"He had offered me a job training a biotic special task force. I would like to take him up on the opportunity."

There was a pause before Hackett responded. "He's been asking you about that task force for over a year now. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Kaidan swallowed. He had hoped that they would just accept, and that would be it. He didn't really want to explain his reasons. "If Shepard is really with Cerberus now, we can't count on him anymore. We need as many special forces we can get for the coming Reaper invasion."

"By all accounts, Staff Commander, Shepard has not joined Cerberus. He has tried to undermine them every turn, even sending us Cerberus intel. The Council has even reinstated his Spectre status. He seems to be doing what he does best, helping as many as he can, however he can."

Now Kaidan felt extremely guilt over what he said on Horizon. Shepard had every right to react the way he did.

"But I don't think your idea is a bad one," Hackett continued. "You request is approved. You will receive your orders and a list of potential candidates shortly."

The call ended, and Kaidan sank into a chair. For better or worse, he was now an instructor of potentially one of the most elite groups of marines, biotic or otherwise. Kaidan just hoped he was up to the task.