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Palaven, 2183
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“First time above Palaven, Shepard?”
The woman being addressed nodded. “It’s impressive. I can see some of the fortifications from here. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were mountain ranges.”
Captain Anderson smiled - the man always seemed to be at ease. It was a reassuring trait. “I see you read your briefing packet. The Turians are a highly militarised society…the levels of conscription across their planet look more like human militaries in the nineteenth century. Boot camp begins at fifteen - so I’m sure you’ll fit right in.”
That was a joke, though Shepard winced a little, and Anderson noticed. “I’m sorry. It’s important for a Captain and an XO to know each other, so I wanted to see how you reacted to that.”
Vikram Shepard nodded. “Poorly, sir. But I’m sure the Turians would be more upset than me about the similarity.” She made sure he knew that that was a joke.
“You’ve certainly ruffled some feathers here, Commander. The Turians pushed hard to have both of our jobs held by their own people - I’m sure you had meetings.”
“A lot of them. A lot of talk about the development of our capabilities, and the need for officers with knowledge of interstellar warfare in running this. At one point they tried to scare me with the dangers of radiation poisoning from the core.”
That drew an actual chuckle from her commanding officer. “Me too. I see our partners were working to a playbook, but it seems as though the Council is willing to be a little more even-handed. A Spectre makes for a useful neutral party in all this.”
“A Turian Spectre.” His name was Nihilus - he was who they were supposed to meet today, as they boarded the SSV Normandy for the first time as its senior staff. “Are we sure we can trust him?”
“Well, Shepard, I won’t lie to you. I’m sure that Nihilus is representing more than just the Council’s interests here, but he’s a professional through and through. He’s the only Turian on our ship, and he’s not in the command chain - it’s enough of a diplomatic victory to keep the hardliners back home happy.”
“I barely know the other officers on our team. I don’t want us to end up disunited if we have to work around him.”
Anderson’s smile faded. “...Shepard, I’m very aware of your feelings towards aliens. I’ve had some similar worries in my time, but Nihilus is the price we pay for this ship. It could even be good for us all to have a little cultural exchange. As for the officers, I’ve got your own second in command and Marine detail CO here.” The door beeped. “Come in.”
The door hissed open with Turian precision, and in walked a man - about Shepard’s height, with pale skin and dark hair in a slightly-fancier-than-necessary military cut. He was wearing black armour, had a helmet tucked under his left arm, and saluted with his right. His eyes flicked to Shepard.
Kaidan Alenko saw a woman, about his height, with dark skin and darker hair in a kind of short, spiked-up style. She was wearing black Onyx-pattern armour, with an N7 tab and red stripe. She had a full assault package strapped to her back, by the looks of things, grenade launcher included. Sharp brown eyes flicked to him as she turned.
Anderson saluted the new arrival. “Lieutenant Alenko, this is Commander Shepard. Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko.”
Just like that, something changed in the newcomer’s manner. It was like a switch had been flipped. Shepard’s name had become famous after the Skyllian Blitz, even if she’d pulled every favour she’d ever been owed to keep her face out of the papers.
Vikram Shepard - Vik, she preferred, but how the papers had addressed her varied depending on their target demographic. Vikram sounded more respectable, Vik helped her appeal to the ‘youth’. Either way, she looked suitably impressive and militaristic with her black armour and Star of Terra. Footage of her - Lancer assault rifle in hand, surrounded by inspired colonial militia or slaughtered Batarian slavers depending on the stage of the battle - had become the focus of a hundred or more mass-produced recruitment posters. Even if she’d managed to keep her face out of the feeds and her day-to-day life out of the worst of the gossip magazines - she had a way with words, if she believed what she was saying, and the military had had her back - it had been impossible to stop them all vivisecting her past, stringing the deaths of her family on Mindoir out into a story of revenge, with half of its facts a lie and the other half spread thin across a copy-pasted narrative so similarly thin that the light shone through it.
She’d returned to Earth for her ceremony to find herself a hero, a villain, a victim and an icon, all at once. She’d applied for the first posting off that planet she could find, had spent four years deployed on small ships across the frontier and Citadel space, and had finally found the posting with Captain Anderson on this new ship.
The Normandy . Given how many conflicts had seemingly arisen between Humans and Turians during its construction, it would have been better to name it the Shanxi . She held out her hand to Alenko. “It’s good to meet you.” He blinked a few stars out of his eyes, and shook it a little bit too firmly - or not firmly enough?
“Likewise, Commander. It’s an honour.” Anderson looked between the two.
“Well, I’ll leave you two to get acquainted. The Turians are bound to have an issue to keep me busy.” The pair saluted him, and he left. Both Shepard and Alenko were left feeling a little clueless - him lost in the presence of a war hero, her wondering where to go from here. I’m a war hero…so what? She decided to open with that.
“I…won’t beat around the bush, Lieutenant. I don’t expect anything that happened on Elysium or in the Blitz to affect how the people around me do their jobs.” He gave a little start.
“Uh…no, ma’am. It won’t.” Shit, I was too harsh. Or he thinks I'm completely absorbed in my own hero bullshit. Change the subject, quick as you can.
“This ship we’ll be serving together on…I suppose you know all about it?” And now he thinks I doubt him. I’ve been in firefights less dangerous than this conversation . The relationship between a first and second in command was important - she and Anderson had been friends of a sort, not since Elysium, but since Torfan; the bloody conclusion of the Blitz. Lots of dead Marines, but they’d ended up knowing each other well, a fleet-based Captain and an N7-trained Lieutenant hunkered down together with a half-dozen grenades and a pair of binoculars in a forward observation trench. This newcomer, Alenko, was an unknown, but he might need to take over for her, or support her in a bad situation. She couldn’t let there be friction, but she couldn’t show weakness either.
To her great relief, he nodded. To his great relief, she asked him something he’d studied up on. “Yes, Commander. It’s a joint effort between us and the Turians. A proof of concept with regards to stealth ships, undetectable by any non-visual scan, faster and quieter than any other ship in the fleet. Not deploying as part of any flotilla for now, a few shakedown runs first. As far as the technology of it goes it has an oversized drive core, lithium sinks in the hull to store heat and allow stealth over prolonged or short periods, small crew complement, very little space.”
“You know a lot about the tech behind it, I’m impressed.”
“Uh…yes ma’am. I’m a Sentinel - engineering and biotic-qualified.” Her eyebrow raised.
“I haven’t worked with many biotics before. What can you tell me?”
“Well, I can…manipulate Mass Effect fields to produce physical results. The…propaganda talks a lot about moving objects and freezing people in time, but a lot of that’s just a product of our abilities. I can create force where there wouldn’t usually be any, the same way as our ship drives and kinetic barriers can - limited, but I’m powerful for a human. It’s all fully under control.”
“That’s good. Any downsides to it?”
“Personal ones, ma’am. Nosebleeds. Ultra-high metabolism. I eat a lot of glucose paste, and consume a lot of energy drinks. I was issued with the L2 implants - unstable, but those…side effects, are expected to appear in the future. There’s no sign of them now. When it happens, there are contingency plans in place.” There is not a single soldier in this galaxy who’d say ‘contingency plans’ unless it meant something bad .
“Contingency plans…I’m not going to lose one of my officers out of the blue, am I?”
“It’s…not that sudden, ma’am. The research is still spotty, but a lot of L2s have experienced mental degeneration over a period ranging from two to three months to a year. Severe. If that’s the case, they’ll aim to get me off the ship as soon as possible. I know the risks I could pose to the crew if that’s the case, I’ll remove myself from duty if I start to show the signs.”
It’s important to show trust. This is where a working relationship is created. “Going by your record, you’re a good officer. I trust you to do that, and I hope it won’t be needed.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
And that was it - they knew each other, and were expected to fight and die alongside each other until told otherwise. Military introductions could be strange.
“It’s…a strange mission for a stealth ship. Running out to a colony, picking up a package, and returning it to the Citadel?”
“Theirs not to reason why, Lieutenant. Still, it makes me wonder why they sent a Spectre to escort a simple pickup run.” Alenko nodded, and tilted his head.
“Theirs not to reason why, Commander?”
“Old poetry…Alfred Tennyson. He was British, I think. It’s not our job to question our orders, just to carry them out to the best of our ability.”
“Like you did on Elysium?”
Her face twitched, and Kaidan thought he’d struck a nerve he hadn’t meant to. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Just slipped out.”
“Don’t worry about it, Lieutenant. Yes, like Elysium. I was told to hold the colony and keep as many people as possible alive and out of Batarian hands until relief forces could arrive. I withdrew the civilians into a set of tunnels under the colony, made sure that the militia was well-armed and entrenched, and then held that entrance.”
“I…read about that battle. When the militia line collapsed, you held off a battalion strength of Batarian infantry and mechs for six hours.”
“They could only come at me a platoon or so at a time, and they were slavers, not soldiers. All of them were pushing to be the first in, but once the first platoon had been wiped out, nobody wanted to go in after them. When they sent two platoons abreast and attacked in force, I had explosives and some remnants of the militia who held on. It was a massacre.”
Alenko grinned at a memory. “One of my Marines in my last unit called it…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Not exactly appropriate language.”
“The Batarians said some mean things, Lieutenant. Don’t worry about language when we’re alone, as long as it has a purpose.”
“She said the Batarians went in with their dicks out, and ended up with them stuck in that hole. They couldn’t withdraw, and couldn’t push forward with you in the way.”
“Me…and the militia. The Batarians did try to rush us and escape into the tunnels when the Alliance fleet showed up overhead, and that was when the heaviest fighting took place.”
The door hissed. “An impressive feat overall - though you won’t find many of my people who would say the same.” Shepard and Alenko both turned around - they were confronted by a Turian, taller than them as most Turians were, with brown plates and white face paint. Captain Anderson was behind him, and spoke.
“Commander, Lieutenant, this is Nihlus. He’s the Spectre we’ll be working with.” The Turian stepped forward to Shepard, and - surprisingly - extended his hand to her.
“Commander Shepard. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She was taken aback by the compliment. “You put yourself in a position to do your duty, and then stayed there until the enemy was dead. In Turian culture, that’s something to be admired. The ship is this way, we can talk as we move.” He withdrew his hand, and they began to walk. “Now, I hope you don’t misunderstand me - this isn’t hero-worship. You did what a lot of Turian soldiers have in the past, stood your ground. As far as I’m concerned, that’s enough.”