Mass Effect: Frontier

by Walkeroflonelyroads

It's not easy to blaze a trail when carefully-crafted plans go out the window. Yet, that is the exact situation the colonists aboard the Nexus find themselves in when their arrival at the Heleus Cluster is marred by unforeseen circumstances, challenging everything they know. The frontier that is Andromeda remains open - if they are able to rise to the occasion.

11. Try

So… after a couple of false starts, here it is, I suppose. My first proper personal log entry in… well, forever – I've never actually kept a proper journal my whole life. Dr. T'Perro has been encouraging me to keep a personal log, to speak my thoughts out loud, since I'm not too great at writing them down. I mean, I can write reports, but when it comes to personal stuff, I just… can't.

Excuse me. (cough cough)

Gaaaaah. Why is this so hard? I told Dr. T'Perro this is a bad idea, but she's persistent. If it were anybody else, I would have simply told them to fuck off, but this is Dr. T'Perro we're talking about; she helped me through the shit that I've been through, and there's a shit-ton of it, let's be honest. That takes a lot of dedication and patience, patience that no one else had. So I owe her that much to try, at least. But… ugh!

No, I gave my word. I'm trying now. Deep breaths, man. You can do this.

Where to start? I guess, like Dr. T'Perro said – I still call her Dr. T'Perro, feels improper to address her as Lexi – I guess I'll start from the beginning. So… my name is Jonathan Chang. I am twenty seven as of the current year, twenty eight eighteen.

It's weird, being twenty seven for six hundred years…

Anyways. I became a Systems Alliance citizen at the age of eighteen, enlisted in the military, and was assigned to the Engineering Corps. Spent almost eight years there, a lot of it working alongside the Geo Services, doing mineralogical surveys. I also spent some time in the Verge, rebuilding homes and other damaged infrastructure. This was after the Blitz; too many destroyed homes and families.

Then the Andromeda Initiative came knocking, offered me a place on Ark Hyperion. I trained for a year, then got reassigned to the Nexus, and now, here I am in a whole new galaxy. Two-point-six million lightyears away from all the bad stuff I left behind. A fresh start, a new beginning, which I'm grateful for. It means I can become the person I wanted to be, not the person my younger self would have become, ending up in an unmarked landfill somewhere, like… Chester.

I think that's enough for now. Now how do I stop this recor–

AUDIO LOG 0001 (PERSONAL)
DESIGNATION: A-10-MALAPA
ID: RECON SPECIALIST CHANG, JONATHAN W. (ENGINEERING - COMBAT)