Commander Shepard / Jane

Jane awoke with a start, breathing heavy and drenched in sweat. She was still exhausted, and it felt as though she hadn't slept at all. Visions of a massive monster bursting from below the sand, crushing a vehicle that they had been moments from climbing into still played in her head. Akuze. The nightmare that wouldn't leave her alone, following her even in her sleep. It didn’t seem to matter what she did or said, all everyone seemed to care about was that she was the survivor from Akuze. The mission had resulted in her being promoted to commander, as if having your entire unit killed qualified you to lead others.

She would laugh at the idea if it still didn’t terrify her. She was a soldier, a good one, and she could recognize that her training and upbringing made her more than qualified to lead ground teams. She was a powerful biotic, even as an L3 she was a rare exception where her natural power could compete with even L2’s, and with none of the side effects. That combined with her proficiency in weapons made her a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Even if she couldn't kill that Thresher Maw* she was still able to scare it off, a feat greater than most.

She knew all this, she could acknowledge each part of it intellectually and understand the brass’ reasoning in promoting her, and in Anderson's push to have her aboard the Normandy. It didn't change that she was afraid to lead. She wasn't even in charge of that mission and she had been the only survivor. If she had been in charge on the ground in Akuze would things have gone differently? Thoughts like these had raced through her head over the entirety of this past week. The longer it had gone on the more suspicious she had become that this couldn't just be a dry run. The ship was running a full crew, equipped with a frankly overqualified ground team.

Kaidan was an L2 biotic, and could compete with her in combat capability with that rivaled her own biotics, and was no slouch in his training. He was a textbook military man, only ranked a lieutenant due to a lack of field experience. He would be in a leadership posistion on most standard ground teams, and here he was supposed to be following her orders. And then there was Jenkins.

She didn't know what to think of Jenkins, he was odd, even by alliance soldier standards. Seemingly brilliant, but very odd. He worked in a unit below Anderson, and like Kaidan was hand selected to be part of the ground team on this ship. He was the youngest out of any of us, and while he was a gifted engineer, he came off as reckless and inexperienced. Almost as though conflict was some kind of game to him. He was also the worst out of everyone for watching her. Everyone on the ship paid attention whenever Jane was present, she could feel their eyes follow her as she went about her various tasks aboard the ship, and Jenkins was the by far the worst offender.

It didn't make her feel gross or uncomfortable, unlike others whose eyes were filled with curiosity or pity, Jenkins seemed to stare in awe. It was the same look he gave the ship when he boarded originally, as though she were something he had never imagined to encounter. It wasn't a bad feeling perse, but it was odd. Even with the stories of her mission that got out it wouldn't explain the fascination, and she had been eyed up by horny soldiers on shore leave before, this was different. It was confusing and she would need to speak with him more, try and figure out what his deal was. If they were supposed to work together on the ground in combat scenarios he would need to be able to follow orders and take things seriously.

She rose from bed, heading to her cabin's private shower to wash the sweat of nightmares from her body. Finishing that, feeling clean was immediately a better feeling. The grossness of sleep and the memories of her nightmares faded as she dried her hair, letting the crimson color fall down to the top of her shoulders. She dried her face, and stared in the mirror for a moment letting her eyes wander across her face. She left Akuze not just alive, but unscarred. Not an ounce of evidence of the life threatening experience she had gone through marked her.

She opened the mirror cabinet, removing her eye liner, a gift from her mother and the only makeup she would ever wear. It was an ‘intimidation technique’ her mother said. Made her eyes pop more distinctly, had her appear more aggressive than she might otherwise. She hadn't really used it very often, but in the weeks since Akuze she had found it being much more effective to side eye annoying journalists while wearing it, so it had found a way into her regular wardrobe. Her mom was deployed currently aboard the SSV Kilimanjaro, and while after Akuze she took a week off to support her daughter she was back to work shortly after. They tried to call and speak when they could, but communications got tough while working throughout the Attican Traverse and Terminus Systems. Still Jane loved her mother, having that support had been everything, and had kept her sane more than once during her military career. She would message her after their mission today, fill her in on what happened.

Jane reached into the closet, clasping open and sliding into her N7 armor, gear she had gone through hell to earn, and which had saved her life more then once. Ensuring everything fit and was sealed properly she took a second to double check her omni-tool. The larger extension protruding from the end was a device designed by Jenkins, one she had been cautious to equip at first. However after hearing Anderson’s praise and seeing that both Kaidan and Jenkins were using it without difficulty she gave in. Her biggest praise for it was how unintrusive it was, didn't change her gears layouts or settings, it operated exactly as it had before and that’s what she liked. Seems Jenkins follows one code of military doctrine well, and that's to keep it simple stupid.

She smiled lightly as she finished equipping the gear, thinking of all the over the top expensive upgrades military brass have tried to institute before, just to have soldiers reject the overcomplicated bullshit in favor of what worked. She turned off the lights and made her way out of her room. The hallway of bunks for ground teams was relatively empty, only three of the rooms were in use including her own, so the space didn't get much traffic. As she moved through she came out into the common area, empty of people. Everyone was likely already up and beginning work, but that was okay. Commander Shepard's role was to lead the ground team on missions and follow the orders of Captain Anderson, being up bright and early thankfully wasn't part of that mission set just yet.

That said it doesn't make a good impression to be too late to work, fashionably late makes an impression, but at a certain point it's just being late. Quickly grabbing a protein bar and scarfing it down Jane made her way up the steps and onto the deck of the ship. She marches quickly and effectively, dodging crew as they work past her and she makes her way up to the cockpit of the ship as Jokers voice rings over the ships intercom

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“The Arcturus Prime relay is in range. Preparing transmission sequence.” Shepard gives Navigator Pressly a nod as she walks past headed towards the only view outside aboard the ship.

“We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination. The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations are secure for transit.” Shepard falls into step behind the pilot's seat, standing next to the Turian Spectre Nihlus. He gives her curt nod before turning his attention to the structure visible out the window. The mass effect relay*.

The structure was large, floating freely in the vacuum of space; it featured two large disks floating in line with two long pointed prongs nearly 15 km in length and pointing out into the vastness of space. As their ship begins to approach alongside the structure those large metal rings begin to spin, generating the recognisable blue glow that marks a mass effect field.

“The board is green. Approach run has begun. Hitting the relay in 3… 2… 1.” As Joker begins the countdown the energy generated by the structure reaches out, enveloping the ship and as he reaches 1 space bends and in a single moment, the Normandy travels thousands of light years.

The transition is barely noticeable. Unlike unassisted light speed travel, relay jumps are near instantaneous, traveling a predetermined path across space in moments. The discovery of these relays are the events that propelled almost every species aboard the citadel into intersolar civilizations. They are fundamental to all galactic civilizations, and are necessary for travel between colonized worlds. The relay we had arrived at wasnt far from our destination, Eden Prime.

“Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift...just under 1500 K.” Joker says idly, reading over the information the ship's console is feeding him after the relay jump.

“1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased.” Is Nihlus’ only response, as he turns to leave the cockpit, giving Jane another nod which she returns before he leaves.

“I hate that guy.” Joker turns towards Kaidan as he gives the remark just as Nihlus steps out of view.

“Nihlus gave you a compliment… so you hate him?” Kaidan that’s sitting at a console to Joker's right, asks the question, clearly incredulous at his pilot's reaction.

“You remember to zip your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That’s good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that’s incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don’t like having him on board. Call me paranoid.” Joker’s personality shines through yet again, he’s a damn good pilot, but as his nickname suggests, he's had an attitude problem, one that keeps him in trouble more often than not.

“You’re paranoid. The council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their project.” Kaidan again jumps to the Spectre’s defense, a good soldier but a little too strong a faith in institutions like the council. There are plenty of moments where selfish or foolhardy decisions get made by those institutions in the name of greed.

“Yeah that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story.” Again Joker's attitude and approach is improper for any member of the alliance navy, but he’s not completely wrong in his assessment either.

“They don't send Spectre’s on shakedown runs.” Jane chooses her words carefully, enough to let Kaidan know not to trust the initial mission brief, without stepping out of line or questioning said orders. She has experience in finding a way to let her opinions known without stepping on the toes of those who rather she didn’t.

“So there’s more going on here than the captain is letting on.” And yet again Joker shatters any illusion of subtlety, speaking his mind with no care for etiquette. And as if on cue, Captain Anderson’s voice comes through the pilots comm terminal, a private channel.

“Joker, status report.” His voice rings out clear and to the point, and if Jane can hear correctly, sounding a little frustrated.

“Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid.” As a point in Joker’s favor his reply matches the captain's tone, leaving it short, simple and to the point.

“Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime.”

“Aye aye captain. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way.” Not one to keep things fully professional, Joker just has to get in one last remark. Much to his detriment.

“He’s already here, Lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing.” As the Captain cuts off Jane begins to feel concerned. While the captain was definitely upset at something, it wasn't just Joker’s comments, something else was going on.

“You get that Commander?” Joker doesn't bother to turn his head when he asks, knowing full well Jane was still standing behind his chair.

“I’m on my way.” She keeps her response short, turning to make her way to the comm room before she even finishes. As she walks away she can hear Joker and Kaidan talking.

“Pff. Is it me or does the captain always sound a little pissed off?” She can hear him asking Kaidan

“Only when he's talking to you Joker.” Kaidan's response is quick, and Shepard has to suppress a chuckle as she walks away.

Heading down the walkway and towards the comm room she can Pressly standing at the edge of the line of consoles that make up the galaxy map, apparently in heated discussion.

She overhears him speaking with Engineer Adams over comm, arguing about the role of Nihlus on this mission and how Pressly believes him to be up to something. That is until Adams tells him to calm down before he gets another ulcer.

As Jane approaches Pressly cuts off the comm to speak with her. They talked shortly, and he eventually filled her in on his concerns. Pressly didn't believe there was any chance that this mission was just a shakedown run to test Normandy's stealth systems. All the things, from the ship's full crew, to the spectre on board, to the ship captain being one of the most decorated officers of the Alliance meant there had to be more to it. His major fear seemed to be that the Spectre had hijacked our ship for their own mission of some sorts. Eventually he admitted this fear was less based in evidence he had gathered, and more the result of a grudge he held against Turians from the First Contact War.

Jane sinks in the information she picked up, and was glad to have more conversation outside herself and Joker that things didn't feel right about this mission. Something wasn't right, and she was going to ensure that Captain Anderson filled her in on what was going on. If this mission was supposed to be far more dangerous than she had been informed, then she deserved to know. She wouldn't let what happened on Akuze happen to her ground team.