19So I don't really know what I'm doing with this, I just finished ME3 and, well. This happened. I wanted to read some fanfiction, but it was all Garrus/Shepard, and while that's my in-game OTP, I don't really like reading it. I'm more of an OC person, and it seemed like most of the OCs in this category were self-inserts, which also aren't my thing. So here I am, giving it a go.
Obviously, spoilers for ME3, but things will be changed up here and there for two reasons. One- I'm assuming most of us have played the game by now, and it's kind of boring reading what you already know happens. Two- I'm inserting a completely new character, that's got to change some things up, even though she's not OH MY GOD SO AWESOME like Shepard.
Yeah. Drop me a review/note and let me know if this is something I should continue. Because as it stands right now only the first two chapters are eating away at me, and I'd like to know if it's worth the hassle of wrangling the rest of the story into line.
Disclaimer: I bought all three games, that's as close to owning Mass Effect as I'll ever get. Unless they come out with action figures. Do they have those? I'd so buy Tali. And Miranda, just so I could have the pleasure of melting her.
_OoO_
She didn't know what to do. She wasn't even supposed to be here, she was just a Citadel engineer, what the fuck were these people thinking taking her along?
What the fuck were they thinking by putting her in charge of medical? Sure, the entire squad was biotics, but she was an engineer, she knew how to fix machines, not people- and the soldiers around her knew better than anyone that biotics were not part machine. She couldn't fix their implants any better than she could stop them from dying of a bullet wound.
And now Captain Cassidey was dead. She felt like a damned butcher, blood up to her elbows, medi gel haphazardly thrown across the man's extensive wounds. What would the squad do now? This man was their hope- he'd been issuing orders up until he passed out from the pain. He was the one that ensured the emergency shields had been placed, told her to get working on the turrets that were currently helping to protect their downed shuttle. And now he was dead.
"Lynn! The middle turret's on the fritz again, and have you managed to get around whatever's causing the radio signal to stop transmitting?" Shit, she couldn't do this, she couldn't.
The medic, the real one, was dead- had died in the initial crash; the shield generators kept getting over-run and blinking out; the turrets were made shoddily with whatever parts she could scrap from the shuttle, and as such kept over-heating and sticking in their positions. They were a small squad as it was, but the damned husks kept coming, wave after wave, and the squad was getting smaller each moment. Already the shuttle was beginning to fill with wounded, people she was supposed to be helping. She didn't think any of them would make it through the night, but she was the best they had.
And then there were the two turian children that were becoming a pain in her ass. Saren- the poor kid had been named after the spectre, back when he wasn't a disgrace to the turians- was sixteen and fresh out of boot camp. He kept getting underfoot and insisting that he be put on the front lines. Every fiber of her being screamed that he shouldn't even be handling a gun, but the kid was a good shot and they could use him- he just didn't see the logic in staying back in the cover of the shuttle and picking off the enemy from a distance.
Then there was his sister Leerah, who wasn't even eight yet, and kept clinging to Lynn. Apparently female equaled motherly in the turian culture, too; something she normally would've found amusing, (she couldn't help but look at turians as if they were velociraptors, and imagining them being motherly was humorous) but currently that meant that she had to deal with a distressed child. Not that she blamed the girl. The squad had been contacted by the Alliance and told to pick up some politician's family from Palaven- two children and a mother. The mother hadn't made it off the planet, and that had only been an hour ago.
"Lynn! That turret needs to be fixed, we're not just dealing with husks anymore!"
"Sid, stay here god dammit- watch your sister and make sure none of those things get past the shields, but do it from the shuttle. If they make it past them you're all we've got protecting the wounded," Lynn shouted at the turian as she made her way outside, fixing him with a hard stare.
The noise outside the shuttle was intense, the screaming of the husks was unnerving, and the bullets whizzing by wasn't something she'd ever been used to. She'd seen battle before, but she had only ever been with air-support before. Making sure shields stayed functioning, that engines didn't stop working and that the main battery didn't over-heat; she kept the ships flying, and let the others kill the bastards trying to take them down. Now she was stuck making sure people didn't die from a combination of their wounds and her ineptitude; dodging bullets and firing back when she could.
The path to the downed turret felt like an eternity, despite their perimeter being not much larger than the small transport shuttle they'd taken. She kept low to the ground, one hand fruitlessly covering her head, and praying that the shields held out as she listened to the bullets hit against them, not even a foot from her position.
The turret was emitting blue sparks and trying to jerk itself out of its leftward-facing position, and before she'd even hit the dirt next to it she had her omnitool out trying to determine where the malfunction was. Piece of shit had been doing this on and off for the past fifteen minutes, but she hadn't gotten the opportunity to properly fix it.
Ignoring the sticky blood on her arms she reached into the gears just under the barrel of the turret, searching around for the piece she knew needed to be fixed; she just prayed it was fixable and wasn't something that needed to be replaced.
"Son of a bitch!" She hit the ground hard as she saw a blue wave of energy make its way towards her, knowing even before her visor lit up with the information that her turret had just been hit with an overload, and that she'd been lucky to get out of the way in time. Surges of electricity usually weren't fun.
Popping her head up she scanned the area just past the shields for the one responsible, and with a feral growl she aimed her pistol in the thing's general direction. It looked like some sort of bizarre turian-geth hybrid, and she watched in horror as it appeared to be giving the husks around it light shielding.
"Take that thing out! Take it out!" She shouted as she continued to give herself cover fire. Her pistol wasn't the best, and she herself didn't have good enough aim to take out an enemy so far out. She just needed to keep it- and anything else out there- scuttling for cover long enough for her to see if this turret was fixable; or at least if it had any parts she could scavenge.
"GRENADE!" One of the men yelled, and she immediately rolled away from her turret- it was a complete loss anyway- and made a mad dash back into the shuttle. She had to keep those damned kids safe, and if the opposing force was starting to lob off grenades, then her night just got a hell of a lot worse.
She really didn't know what to do. The men on this squad weren't looking to her as a leader, but she was the only one out of the lot of their sorry asses who knew how to fix the damned radio; the only one who could build the stupid, fucking useless turrets. Hell, if she had enough time she might be able to get a drone going. Or, or maybe she could just blow up the shuttle. That might work.
Looking at the bent metal in frustration, she kicked the side of the shuttle before deciding that it was clearly a very bad idea to blow it up. Though it would be fun.
The hiss of the radio clipped to her belt brought her out of her musings, reminding her that she needed to work on whatever the problem there was. If it was the radio she could hopefully fix it, if it was the reapers scrambling the signal then maybe, if she was very very lucky, she could find a way around it. If the comm tower was down she was fucked.
Leerah clung to her leg while she fiddled with the radio, trying to curb her cursing in the presence of the young girl. it was the comm tower. She'd have to go fix it if they had any chance of sending out a distress signal. And it would have to be soon- she doubted the turians fighting on Menae would be willing to lend a hand to Alliance under normal circumstances, but with how screwed this entire situation was, she didn't think anyone would be able to answer it by morning. Their loss would be deemed acceptable if they held out much longer.
"Hahn!" Lynn shouted, absent-mindedly rubbing the thumb of her free hand across the eye ridges of Leerah.
"Yes?" Danny Hahn shouted back from the entrance of the shuttle, not bothering to spare a glance in at her as he continued to fire his gun, pausing intermittently to throw out a warp field.
"You said you took a couple engineering classes, right?" She yelled back at him over the sounds of the battle, trying to prepare the radio with a distress signal. Hopefully, if all went right, it would go out automatically as soon as the comm tower came back online.
"Yeah, for things like-"
"Can you keep the shield generators running?" She interrupted. She didn't need to know just how inept he was, it would only make her feel worse about having to leave.
"I- uh- yeah, maybe," this time he did look back at her, continuing to spray bullets without aiming, just adding more cover fire to the guys stationed directly behind the shields.
"Good. I'll show you what to watch out for, but I'm going to have to head out. The comm tower's down, and our signal won't get anywhere while it's still out for the count," Leerah squeezed at her knees, trying to get Lynn's attention.
"You can't leave us here! You can't!" She shouted, her talons scratching at the light armor on Lynn's legs.
"Shh, I'll be fine; back before the rescue party can get here, promise," she tried to soothe, but she could tell by the way her voice started to warble that the girl wouldn't believe her.
"I don't think it's a great idea, either, Lynn," Hahn said, looking nervous about being left to tend to the shields.
Disentangling herself from Leerah, she grabbed at Hahn's shoulder and walked towards the generators before speaking to him, "if we don't get this up, we won't get that signal out. If we don't get that signal out, we all- those kidsincluded- will die. Tell me again this is a bad idea. Because quite frankly it doesn't matter, it's our only choice," she looked him up and down, her arms crossed and her eyebrows scrunched together. "Just worry about the shields. They're going to try to overload these generators like they did with the turret, if that happens make sure the circuitry didn't melt. If it did you're pretty much fucked, because all you can do at that point is rebuild the whole damn thing."
It was while she was telling him how to fix damage done by bullets that her radio crackled to life, and a voice other than her pre-recorded distress call came through it.
"This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. We just received your distress call, but there was no location to pin you to attached," god damn it all, of course she hadn't finished the thing properly. And of course she would have to waste everyone's precious time trying to right it. Hopefully they'd still be there when she was done.
"Wait- Normandy? Is Jeff there? Is he still alive?" Not the time she scolded herself. She had other people to worry about right now. "Sorry Commander, I'll get right on attaching our location," she added hastily as she walked towards a secluded area of the perimeter.
"What's your status?"
"Seven wounded, Captain Cassidey is dead; our shield generators can't hold out much longer and our shuttle is completely useless."
"Hold on, we'll be there soon."
"Thanks Commander, I'll let the guys know you said so, but I can't afford to be lied to right now. Do you think you'll actually be able to make it? Because these men need an actual medic, our turrets can't hold them back much longer, and we're running low on ammo. Our only viable option soon is going to be to rig the shuttle to explode, and pray it doesn't attract more of them."
"We'll be there."
It would take her ten minutes to fix the signal.
_OoO_
"Joker, any developments on the distress signal?" Shepard's voice boomed through the ship; he'd been down on Menae longer than he thought he would, and there hadn't been any word back from the woman he'd talked to earlier. That had been almost twenty minutes ago, and he was starting to fear the worst.
"Not yet Commander, I-" Joker was cut off but a sudden ping on his dash, announcing that the signal now had a location attached. "Opening up communications, sir," Joker said before being prompted.
"Commander, you still with us?" Her voice barely sounded over an explosion in the background.
"Still here, hold on, we're coming to get you."
"Thanks, I don't think we'd be able to- shit!" She cut herself off, and in the background they heard what sounded like a child yelling out for someone named Lynn. "-shit! Leerah, get in the shuttle!"
"Lynn? Lynn you still there?" Shepard asked, already signaling for James and Garrus to meet him in the hangar.
"Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Commander, you never told me- Jeff still with you?" Her voice was rattled, and he wasn't liking how long it was going to take them to reach her position.
"Lynn? What the hell are you doing down there? You're an engineer, not some Alliance ground-soldier!" Joker sounded more upset than Shepard had ever heard him, and wanted to know more about the situation, but now really wasn't the time.
"Yeah, well, I was in the market for a new job, and since you never answer your calls or read your damned e-mails," she trailed off, before another explosion sounded in the background. "FUCK! What the hell is that thing? Kill it before it makes it past the shields! Hahn! Don't you dare stop manning the generators! Sid! I fucking told you to stay in the shuttle! Concussive shots guys, Incendiary ammo if you've got it- these are things I shouldn't have to be telling you! Damnit! Shepard hurry-" the transmission cut off abruptly, and Joker slammed his fists on the sides of his chair.
"Garrus! James! You'd better be ready, we're leaving now!" Shepard shouted into the intercom, and was surprised by the hand that Joker placed on his arm.
"Commander. Just. Bring her back, ok? She's the only family I've got left."
This was news to Shepard, he'd never heard Joker talk about family before, but he nodded and responded with, "we'll bring her back. Don't worry Joker."
_OoO_
The carcass of a Brute lay smoking just before the shields of the small perimeter, and Shepard could see from his vantage point in the shuttle another one charging its way towards the small band of survivors. They would have to evacuate quickly.
"Get on!" He yelled to the nearest soldier as the shuttle hovered itself several feet off the ground.
Jumping into the fray, he made his way towards the large congregation of wounded, preparing to shuffle as many as he could back to safety.
"Sid! For a turian you are the worst at taking orders!" Lynn's voice yelled over everything- the roar of the shuttle, the screams of the husks, the rain of dirt. "Take your sister and get to that shuttle- now! That's a fucking order, kid!"
Lynn came into view then, dragging a soldier that looked so similar to Kaiden that it felt like a punch in the gut to Shepard. She struggled with the injured man until Garrus took it upon himself to lift the man like a sack of potatoes, shooting his way back to the shuttle. Lynn didn't stick around long, making her way back to the other injured men and scooping another up to the best of her ability.
It was five minutes of hell, and he could hear the Brute just outside of firing range, making its way closer.
"Lynn! I can't find Sid!" the turian child panicked, grasping onto Lynn as she made to jump out the shuttle.
"What? Leerah, stay here, I'll find him for you. Promise."
Saren wasn't hard to spot, he was one of only two turians out on the field, but never the less Lynn felt her heart seize for the thirty seconds it took her to spot him -what if he's dead?- she kept asking herself, kept telling herself that he was her responsibility and why hadn't she made sure he stayed on the shuttle?
"GRENADE!" Someone shouted, just as she saw him.
She ran to him, covering his body with hers, and never before had she wished to be a seven-foot tall, four-hundred pound man, but damn was Sid big. He was so much larger than her- why couldn't turains stay small until they reached twenty? As it was, her arms barely wound themselves around his shoulders, and his legs were left exposed by about a foot due to her short stature.
The grenade went off just as she tucked her head over his, covering her eyes from the explosion. She could feel the heat, and the sound of the shrapnel scraping against her armor's shields was painful, like nails on a chalkboard. Her shields weren't strong enough to withstand another assault like that, and so with no hesitance she jumped up, grabbing Sid by his neck armor and hauling him after her.
"SID! SID!" Leerah shouted, voice shrill and loud, piercing over the sound of the bullets that she had no clue as to how she was dodging.
Sid's body staggered behind her, and she felt warmth travel in a soft spray across her face and arm.
"SID! LYNN!" She didn't stop, she knew Saren was still alive, she could hear his screams; if she wanted to keep him alive they had to get to the shuttle.
With a slam, she collapsed onto the shuttle's floor, pulling Sid on top of her, cushioning his fall. The other turian, the one that had come with Shepard, was right behind her, and with a loud yell they were in the air, headed to the Normandy.
"Sid, Sid listen to me," Lynn whispered into him as she rolled him onto the ground, checking him over for the origin of the wound, "Sid don't fall asleep on me now." His eyes rolled back into his head, and Leerah screamed, trying to throw herself at her brother before Lynn grabbed the girl around her waist.
"No! No, Sid!"
"Does the Normandy have enough turian blood for him?" Lynn asked, crushing the girl's face into her neck in an attempt to get her to look away from her brother. Shepard and the man next to him exchanged looks, before looking at the girl in Lynn's arms and then back up at Lynn herself.
"We should," was all he would say.
_OoO_
Alright so there's the first chapter. The next chapter (should you choose to accept it) should come out some time late tomorrow night. Drop me a line and let me know how you're feeling about it so far, I know it's kind of hard to tell about it all since there wasn't a whole ton to go off of yet.
Oh, and if you see any errors -grammar/spelling/Mass Effect related- let me know, I went through and edited everything I could find, but I somehow always miss at least one thing. It bothers me, so if you spot something let me know