Shepards War

“Run!” Harker screamed as he pushed the marine in front of him forward. Bolts of pure energy exploded around the squad as they ran down the long corridor of the cargo ship ‘Argon’. What had happened to a nice cake walk? Suddenly it had all gone to hell. One moment you’re dealing with a routine rescue and the next the bastards pull out compression rifles and starting shooting everyone. Fleet would not be pleased. At the moment, neither was Harker.
“Move, move, move!” He shouted again, his heart beating so hard he found it difficult to hear his own voice. But the shrill whine of energy weapons blasting off behind him were ever present. The squad practically dived behind several large crates in the hanger bay.
“Jenkins – get that door open now!” A loud explosion shook the ship.
“They’re using rockets! Are they mad?” Shouted the biggest of the marines in Harkers squad.
“No my friend. We’re not mad. We just want you all dead.” Came a voice from directly behind Harkers ear. In a dream like state Harker slowly turned around. His muscles were gone, his arms dead weights. His heart began to slow, a bright pain building in his chest. He began to heave great gasping breaths as his vision blurred. But then just as suddenly as the voice had appeared it was gone. And Dante was standing in front of him, shaking him.
“Captain! Sir! I said are you alright?”
“Yes… yes.”
Suddenly Dante collapsed to the floor. His brains pasted to the wall behind him. In a rage over Dante’s death, or perhaps over his own delusion Harker rose up from behind the crates like a wrath from the pits of hell. His shotgun firing round after round of radiated shells into the ranks of the enemy.
“Aaaaaarr!” He screamed as he pumped shell after shell into the enemy. His attack caught them completely by surprise. One, two, three dead in the first few seconds.
“Oh shit!” Shouted Jenkins as he saw his captain begin to walk forward, fire bursting from his shotgun. Jenkins didn’t need to see Squirrel start to run forward. He knew how this was going to end.
“You killed Dante you sons of bitches!” Harker began.
His killed two more, the bullets of his enemies slamming into his shields. Light by the demonic blue glow of his collapsing shields Harkers eyes began to glow. A deep dark fire that spread across from his iris, across his eye and then bursting forward to consume his entire body.
“Now you will pay!” He howled before arching his body. Violently he snapped forward, releasing the biotic energy he’d been bred to control. The force of the kinetic energy tore through the corridor, ripping the last few pirates in half. Those who survived were missing arms or legs. From beneath heavy brows Harker looked at the carnage. At that moment Squirrel ploughed into him, dragging him down to the deck.
“Captain! Captain!” She shouted, smacking the sides of his helmet. For an instant the blue fire began to grow around him. Squirrels eyes desperately sought a connection with his, anything to bring him out of the ‘Captain’s little problem’.
“It’s me! It’s Squirrel!”
“You will –“ He began.
Quickly she kissed him. Pushing her lips against his, pouring her love into him, projecting her own magical energy into his. For a moment he resisted, his head jerking back, his teeth clamping down. But the pure power of her conviction, her love for him, battled his own carnal rage. Finally he relaxed, his whole body going limp in her arms. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she held him. Held him as his body began to convulse. As he shook himself asleep in her arms, she looked at Jenkins, her eyes sealing his lips to this secret that their captain bore. One look from him though told her that he to would never break the captain’s trust.

Slowly the clouds of helium and dust parted revealing the immense bulk of Citadel. For all of the Alliances advances in technology nothing could rival it. Of course, none of the other species had made it either. Something so powerful it had withstood the ravages of millennia. A symbol of unity throughout the various races.
But cold, hard eyes were looking at it now. Was is a symbol of peace? Or a hammer with which a new super power could be forged? Why bother with a counsel? Why democratic rule? Surely a strong hand might be better. A single purpose. A single unified galaxy. The opportunities for advancement would be unparalleled. Instead of petty squabbling over sectional power, the Empire would be able to forge ahead, eradicating all forms of discord. But someone was doing that already. The signs were clear. War was coming and it was only a matter of time before the Citadel either became the Hammer, or the power keg. Either it would hold the universe together, or destroy it.
“So – control it, and you control destiny.” It was spoken softly. But coldly.
“General Jakar – we have been given permission to dock sir.” Came the pilots voice over the comms.
“Understood. Take us in Mr. Hall.” Jakar looked once more at the massive arms of the Citadel. Force wouldn’t be able to take her. She would need to be won over. For a moment Jakar paused, sucked his teeth. Was he doing the right thing? Who was to say? But he either had to go ahead with his plan, or stop now. With one final glaring look at the station getting closer and closer, Jakar fixed his resolve and strode out of the observation room.
He had an Empire to forge.

“So then he says: Saren is a traitor and I ain’t stopping till he’s dead.”
“Well I never. Who knew Shepard had it in him?”
“He’s a spacer. You know what they’re like. Born in the coldness of space. It does things to you. You know what I mean?”
“I hear you.”
The bar was uncommonly noisy tonight. Shepard, the target of the two drunk sailors conversation was talking to some Turian general. But after some heated debate he left.
“See. Isn’t even afraid of the Turi’s. Makes him tougher than nails in my book.”
“Aye. I hear you.”
“Now here this, now here this all crewman of the SS Sharpe report on deck. Shore leave is cancelled.”
“Ah. I knew it. I knew it. I said Harker isn’t the type to just sit in dock. Not with this issue with the Eden Prime. He’ll get us all killed.”
“And I haven’t even had my lap-dance yet.”
“Come on.”
The two men got up, tossed a credit chip onto the table and left. A moment after they left a figure moved away from the shadows near their table and began to follow them. It had a hunched appearance, and limped.

“Alright! Listen up. We’re headed for Eden Prime. This is a search and rescue mission, understand?” Harker barked as he looked at the four marines standing in front of him. Jenkins tapped the side of his head three times.
“Ready to go sir.”
Harker laughed. It was absurd. Here they were, prepping for a drop into hostile territory and Jenkins was clinging to his superstitions. But perhaps, he thought as he strapped his helmet on, it had kept the kid alive. After all, it was Jenkin’s who’d kept himself alive on Sparta during an attack by pirates. The kid had something.
“Captain – we’ve got an unidentified number of synthetics in grid 5, section 4 sir.”
“Understood. We start there. Our priority is to get the civilians out of here. Then we sweep through for any remaining synthetics. Right?”
“What about supplies – we saving those sir?” Squirrel asked. A glint in her eye as she calculated the net worth of some of Eden Primes exports.
“We take nothing… that slows us down.” Harker said, nodding to her. She nodded back. Christmas bonus time!
Then as one team the four marines followed Harker as he jumped from the main bay of the Sharpe. As they entered freefall their suits began to build up a resonance charge in their shields. Calculated to the millisecond the shields discharged rapidly slowing the marines freefall and landing them neatly on the ground. Except Jenkins who hit a tree. But he came up smiling.
“Damned thing came right out at me.” He said, dusting himself off.
“Yeah right. Lets move!” Harker said as he began to head for a large superstructure that punctuated the burning landscape. His squad pulled in behind him. Each one chose a specific weapon to hunt with. Squirrel, favoring long range engagements had a good old fashioned sniper rifle. It was old, but accurate, and it could stop a Krogan in mid charge. Jenkins, ever the show off had gone with a heavy Lancer corp rifle. It could spit out a barrage of bullets faster than anything else on two legs, and generally he hit with most of them. The kid had talent. The other two – Hellfire and Bite – had both selected standard Alliance weapons; reliable, solid, and user friendly. He himself, preferred a shotgun. It was close range, but then, they had Squirrel for anything over a 100 clicks. But it was stop a charging Tragle Beast dead in it’s tracks. And cut most humans in half.
Slowly the team made their way through the ruined streets of what had once been downtown New Eden. The capitol of the settlement. Windows had been blow out, and personal transports lay abandoned in the roads. Several had crashed. It must have been some kind of electronic pulse that had disabled them. Typical of synthetics. Take out the power and usually everything stops working.
Suddenly a noise caused the group to dive to the floor.
“Left clear!”
“Right clear!”
“Aft clear!”
“Fore clear!”
“It’s a dog! It’s just a dog.” Harker stood up, pointing his shotgun at the approaching dog. It looked weak. But it still managed to wag it’s tail, if feebly. It padded cautiously up to Harker, its deep brown eyes seeking out Harkers. For a moment he stood, coldly watching it. How had it managed to survive the attack? But the innocence in its eyes convinced him. This creature had made it. Against the odds, and was now looking for help.
“It’s okay boy.” He said, bending to scratch behind its ears. It looked like some kind of mixed breed. A heavy guard dog mixed with a long haired princess. The poor thing had teeth, hair, and eyes. Somewhere there was a dog. But like all dogs across the expanse of the universe it trusted humans.
“Stay with us boy and you’ll be ok.” Said Jenkins as he lent down and patted the animals shaggy back.
“It doesn’t understand human you jerk.” Snapped Squirrel. She didn’t like dogs. They were too trusting. Cats, now cats she could handle. As she looked at the ruined shops, their burning mannequins testimony to the fate of the inhabitants, their shattered front windows, their destroyed facades she caught sight of movement.
“Incoming!” She screamed.
The blast stuck Bite in the back. His shields shrieked under the pressure before collapsing. But the weight of the blast pushed him forward, knocking him down onto his knees.
“Return fire!” Harker yelled, raising his own shotgun to his cheek. In one motion the squad opened fire. Streaks of blue energy hurtled forward into the shop. Blasting the dead mannequins to pieces. After a moment Harker ordered the cease fire.
“Where did it go?”
“Must have gone in the back.”
“Damn.”
“Bite – you ok?” Hellfire asked as he offered a hand to his fallen comrade.
“Yeah. Shields took a beating though.”
“Thank god for shields eh?” Said Jenkins.
“Bite, Hellfire – check out the shop. Jenkins, Squirrel, you’re both with me.” Harker began to move, his troops splitting. He didn’t like this. The main road was an ambush waiting to happen. A noise to his left. He dove flat, rolled onto his side and fired. But the creature was not there. Just the sad remains of a dress, flapping in the breeze.
“This is not fun.” Jenkins whispered, as he reloaded his weapon.
“We’re all edgy. Lets just get to the refuge area and get out of here.”
Slowly they made their way past of the remains of a bank, down into the food markets, past rotting fruits of all kinds, and into the open park.
“According to Eden Prime engineering plans, the refuge bunker should be directly below the founders statue.” Squirrel said, looking at her holo-display.
“Smart move.”
“Well when you start on a colony this far from home, you have back-up plans. Only an idiot-“ Squirrel began.
The rapport of weapons fire from behind them silenced her.
“Captain! We’re found them! We’ve found a whole damned army of them!” The voice of Hellfire crackled over the comm.
“Pull back and wait for us.” Harker ordered as he and his team began to run back to Hellfire’s last location.
“Negative sir – they know we’re here! We’re surrounded – captain!” The comm went dead.
“Move!” Bellowed Harker as he pumped his legs forward. Dashing through the market they headed for the shop. Suddenly the dog, who’d followed Harker without question stopped and began to growl. Much affected by the animals complete trust in him, Harker stopped as well.
“Captain?” Squirrel shouted, looking back at him.
“Hold up. Something’s not right.”
“Yeah, you’re waiting for some tired dog whilst Hellfire and Bite are in trouble.” She said, her eyes narrowing. He wasn’t like this. He didn’t do stupid things. He was as sentimental as a table. In their four years together he hadn’t once acted like this. Something was wrong.
“Jonathan, what is it?”
“I don’t know.” He began. But he never got to finish his thought. From several storeys above them a Geth sniper fired. The blast cut through Squirrels shields and punched a hole in her leg. Screaming she collapsed. Without a thought he raised his shotgun and fired. So did Jenkins. The sniper took a hit in the head, staggered backwards and toppled from the balcony. It spiraled once before slamming into the concrete road. Jenkins shot it again. Harker ran to Squirrel. She rolled onto her side, biting her lip.
“Jenkins, pick her up and let’s get to Hellfire and Bite. Now!”
Suddenly blasts of energy smacked about them like demented hailstones in a thunderstorm. Running as fast as they could they headed for the nearest building. Their bodysuit shields blooming under each Geth shot.
“Damn, it’s a bloody ambush. I knew it!” Harker said as he looked out over the street from his vantage point in the building. They were moving through the building on the opposite street. Their singular blue eyes tracking the humans, looking for targets.
“How bad is it Jenkins?”
Jenkins looked up from the shatter, bloody remains of Squirrels leg. She was loosing blood fast, and her suits shielding grid was so badly damaged nothing could help her now.
“If her shields were working we could … maybe help but…”
Without even thinking Harker stripped off his suit.
“You’re bloody mad. If the Geth hit you with one of their pulses it’ll cut you in half.”
Jonathan was looking out the window again, ignoring Jenkins. The cool air of the evening was firing up his senses. As it brushed across his exposed skin it felt for just a moment like paradise.
“Put her in the suit and fire up the shield. It’ll help keep the wound closed.” He said, quietly. His shotgun felt cold and hard in his bare hands.

“Ambassador.” Dakar said as he stalked into the ambassadors offices. Udami looked up. He hated Dakar. Over ambitious, arrogant and a man of secrets and lies. But his position protected him from Udami’s grasp. Perhaps that was why he hated the man so much.
“Dakar. I wasn’t expecting you.” Udami said in his deep voice.
“I know. I’m not usually expected.” Dakar said as he took in the view of the citadels main habitat ring.
“What do you want?” Udami said, irritated at the man’s abrasive responses. “I don’t have time to waste – things are happening in the counsel. Shepard’s been made a Specter.”
Dakar paused for a moment. He’d heard rumors. Someone had tipped Shepard for Specter status. But how had the counsel decided so quickly? Eden Prime was still a hostile environment.
“That is good news for the Alliance is it not?”
“That depends. Shepard is hotheaded, and too independent for his own damned good.” Udami hated to admit it, or to give Dakar any ammunition. Dakar however smiled, turning his back on the ambassador to hide his pleasure. If Shepard was independent it meant Udami had less control than he’d generally let others know about.
“But tell me Admiral: What is Alliance Intelligence doing about it’s rather poor performance on the Geth’s presence on Eden Prime?” Udami said, lashing out a sore point. “You dropped the ball. At least according to Shepard.”
Dakar’s smiled faded. He touched the scar that ran from his left eye to his mouth briefly, as it ached. It always ached when he was reminded of his mistakes. It was happening too frequently for his tastes these days.
“We reported the Prothean find. We reported as ordered. According to Shepard’s report – some kind of jamming signal was used. Even Intel operatives can be jammed.” There. The ball was now in Udami’s court.
“It seems Shepard is now our joint problem.” Udami said bitterly. The man was wreckless, impulsive, and totally uncontrollable.
“It’s reckless.” Quipped Dakar as he sensed the ambassador’s mood change.
“Impulsive.” Udami added.
“And a liability to Alliance peace.” Dakar said, twisting the knife in deeper. Udami looked up at him. Dakar wasn’t handsome. In fact he looked near death. The long twisted scar made his gaunt face almost look cut in half. As if he was a corpse reanimated for the purpose of tormenting the universe. His hair, slicked back across his skull seemed more a shroud than natural. And he was thin. Impossibly thin.
“You have to admit it would be unwise to leave him on too long a leash Ambassador.”
“What are you suggesting? He’s a Specter. I could no more control him than you could control the wind.”
Dakar suddenly leaded in close, bringing his cadaverous face in close to Udami’s dark face.
“But don’t you see Ambassador? If you authorize me to launch an inquiry into Shepard, I can follow him. I can’t act without authorization.”
“Don’t be a fool. He’s been assigned the Normandy. It’s our most advanced stealth vessel. Nothing can follow it. Besides, what you’re asking is for me to grant one of your men an amazing amount of latitude. I can’t do it.”
Dakar tensed for a moment before returning to the window.
“You yourself said it. He’s reckless, impulsive, and without authority. I would think it’s our duty to monitor his actions: He is still a member of the Human alliance the last time I checked.”
Udami looked down at his desk. How did the man do it? He came in, lording over the place as if he owned it, and then after a few words, got you to do whatever he wanted. He was right though. Shepard was a liability to the Alliance.
“He could undo all you’ve worked towards Ambassador. Getting him into the Specters was one thing. Now you must surely focus your attention on getting your seat in the Counsel. If he’s running around the galaxy, doing heaven knows what damage, what kind of example does that send the Counsel about humans?”
Dakar waited for a moment before turning to leave. The ambassador needed to change the flowers in his office, and the Keepers were not doing their jobs properly.
“Wait.” Udami said slowly.
Dakar hovered at the door. Innocence turning his face into a ghoulish leer.
“I’ll sign it. But I get to pick your officer.”
Dakar’s smiled dropped in mock protest. But he’d anticipated that. He’d already found someone ideal. He wasn’t part of Intel, so Udami would choose him from the list Dakar supplied. And the man had a secret that he needed keeping. Which meant that Dakar could control him.
“I’ll supply you with a list by tomorrow.”
“But how will you find Shepard? He’s already left, and his flight plan is top secret. Even I don’t know where he went.”
“I’ve already taken care of that. I know precisely where Shepard will be.”
“Oh? How’s that?”
“Because I know how he thinks.” Dakar said. And I’ve planted some evidence on a planet that he won’t pass up. I don’t run the Intel division without being able to control the flow of information. Shepard would pick up the distress call, it would seem like Saren had done it, and he’d go and investigate. It was almost too easy.