"Thinking"
"Talking"
"Impactful word"
Location: Exodus Cluster - Utopia System - Eden Prime - Prothean dig site
Shepard POV
Jane Shepard, a war hero who almost single-handedly repelled an attack by batarian slavers on Elysium thus earning the Star of Terra - the Alliance's highest honour - though she thought of herself more than a woman of circumstances. Nihlus Kryik, one of the Citadel Council's most decorated Spectre agents was currently vouching for her as a candidate for the Spectres.
And despite all the aforementioned facts that were enough unreal as they were.
The red-haired woman couldn't believe what she had just seen.
A random woman destroyed two fully armed geth in mere seconds with her swords. It wasn't even that, what was most shocking about it, but the fact that not even an N7 of her quality saw her coming. If somebody else had told her this, she wouldn't have believed it - not in the slightest.
She knew something was off just by looking at transmission at the SSV Normandy, but that was on another level of crazy.
This mission has got a lot more complicated.
Had quoted Captain Anderson after watching the transmission with her and the Spectre and damn if he could say that again.
Now she was torn between her ideals and orders. The Captain had told them that helping survivors was a secondary objective, but he couldn't seriously expect her to put the mission above lives. He should know her better than that.
She was a Sentinel by heart and soul, protecting others by using kinetic barriers and avenging them with her sniper or pistol if she wasn't quick enough to save them.
At least one friendly face was still around when they met up with Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, though she couldn't bite back to ask about her condition. Who knew how long she had to be alone in this mess?
"Are you wounded, Williams?" she asked in a professional tone while green eyes watched the heavy breathing soldier in front of her.
"A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others weren't so lucky. Oh, man... We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit." Williams began reporting the whole story behind her survival.
"We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications," she shook her head in disappointment before adding, "I've been fighting for my life ever since."
Williams' orbs flickered back to the Commander, even though Jane would rather avoid this question right now, she needed to know what awaited them and how to make sure that Kaidan wouldn't die under her command like the young Jenkins did; a loss that hit her severely but was pushed aside to proceed with the mission. She needed to push through now.
Sometimes the face we show the world needs to be one of strength, despite the chaos we harbour beneath.
This was her motto for this kind of situation. A motto she repeatedly told herself like a believer would be a prayer. It helped her handle her emotions when under distress or when her iron grip on them threatened to break.
"Where is the rest of your squad?" asked the Commander with the slightest of emotion showing on her expression.
"We tried to double back to the beacon. But we walked into an ambush. I don't think any of the others... I think I'm the only one left."
Her voice was clattered by guilt, it was something Jane could emphasize as a Commander, so her next words were ones spoken with honesty.
"This isn't your fault Williams. The attack came like a bolt out of the blue, you couldn't have done anything to save them."
Just as she couldn't have done anything to save Jenkins.
It seemed to ease off some of the tension of the Gunnery Chief and Jane was glad to offer her the least of comfort in this situation.
"Yes, Ma'am. We held our position as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us."
"The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly two hundred years." Kaidan decided it was safe for him to join in: "Why are they here now?"
"They must have come for the beacon. The dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there." William gestured with her hand in the direction.
The might concerned the Commander more than it should at the moment and as much as she disliked the idea of putting Ashley into this position, she needed all the support she could get to withstand the enemy. The Gunnery Chief had been patrolling this area, so she could provide this mission with enough edge to be still successful.
"We could use your help, Williams." she noticed William's gaze upon asking her as if she had just waited for her to spell it out.
"Aye, aye, Ma'am. It's time for some payback," she blurted out, full of determination right after the question left the Commander's lips.
"That it is, that it is. Though what should we do about..." She pointed at the mysterious saviour of the farmer, trying to act normal in spite of how surreal her entrance had looked.
She still couldn't figure how this person was connected to all of this, well at least she had shown to be more friend than foe by helping the farmer not get impaled by the geth.
"Commander, I think we should try to be cautious around her."
"Noted, let me do the talking," she ordered before taking out her gun and slowly approaching the woman while she dealt with the farmer, even though they didn't realise that she saw them coming long ago.
Akane stared at the trio of soldiers with wary eyes while closely examining them with her Byakugan. They looked exactly like her kind in appearance. Yet with one significant difference: they had no chakra way system, which meant that they don't have chakra altogether, although she noticed something other coursing through the nodules of their bodies while the woman in white armour didn't have it.
"Strange..." she thought, not noticing the looks the three were giving among themselves. Other than that, there was nothing wrong with the three of them, except a few minor injuries.
The woman standing in the middle, the one with the N7 insignia spoke up again in their language, trying to somehow communicate with Akane. The notion was appreciated, most people would have probably shot her right away.
"I don't understand what you're saying," Akane said as slow as she could muster while giving non-verbal communication a shot. She gestured first at her mouth and then at her ear, in hopes that the soldier would get the message. She put her chokutÅ back into the sheaths on either side of her hip.
The man only shrugged while the other woman rolled her eyes lazily, though it's not like it mattered because the teen knew she had to focus her attention on the woman in the middle. After all, she seemed like their first-in-command.
Luckily for the Uchiha, the woman in question seemed to have an idea so Akane chose to throw caution to the wind and turned off her chakra mode. A risky move on her part, though it was still better than resorting to violence. Even though being a murderer, she still remained a pacifist at heart.
The man and other woman jumped as if hit by an electric shock when Akane dispatched the lightning which had been surrounding her. They made sure to hold their weapons in a stronger grip.
In the meantime, the Commander took off a device from her left forearm and Akane only watched curiously what the woman was doing, before handing it to her. Using the same procedure as their boss did, Akane fiddled with the thing on her left arm until she got it right.
She tried hard not to jerk out of surprise when the device lighted up, enveloping most of her arm in an orange HUD.
"How long have I been without technology when I get scared by a simple HUD?" She frowned mentally; her self-pitying thoughts interrupted by the woman's voice, though now perfectly translated into her language.
"Can you understand me?"
"Thanks to you, yes." Akane slightly bowed to openly show her gratitude.
"My name is Uchiha Akane and I was hospitalised here," she revealed only that much information, without any signs of emotions behind her voice or her expression. It was not necessary for them to know more... for now.
"I heard rumours of the docs finding someone near the dig site, Ma'am," quipped the woman next to her boss.
"May I know who you are, Ma'am?" The Uchiha changed the topic, no longer wanting to be in the middle of it.
"Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard, Systems Alliance."
The Commander's gaze was wary but reserved. Her green eyes met pure white, and now that she took a closer look at the teen's eyes, wondering if Akane was blind, though wouldn't she still have a pupil? Even so, she couldn't move like that without one of the most dominant senses. A question she expected Akane to answer later, now she needed to introduce Kaidan and Ashley to quickly get to the beacon.
"This is Kaidan Alenko, Systems Alliance Sentinel," she swayed her head to the right, before doing the same to her left, "and this is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams."
"A pleasure." Akane greeted the two of them politely. It wasn't frowned upon to follow etiquette, even as a shinobi. The first impression on people was the most important one, after all.
"I wish to accompany you, Commander, if that's all right with you," requested the young Uchiha, though it was obvious by the way the Commander's face turned stern that her request was difficult to affirm. Not to mention the looks of her companions meaning: You can't be serious, a kid?
"Okay, but under the condition that you will follow my orders, got it?" The looks of surprise pasted on Sir Alenko's and Chief William's faces were amusing in a way, though she didn't let her show it.
"Roger that, Ma'am," Akane replied without putting much thought to it. Following orders? That she could do easily. What else had she been doing during her time at the alliance?
"This will be very lecturing..." she thought, yet she couldn't stop a small smirk from escaping her emotionless mask. Right from underneath her high collar.