Out For Karma: Mass Effect

[Book One] Chapter 01: The fall of the garden

Chapter 01: The fall of the garden

Eden Prime was worthy of its name. An idyllic agrarian world, beyond the Charon mass relay. A world that humans had colonized. One of the first, actually as the colonization began in the year 2152. Yet as of now Eden Prime was burning and its population slaughtered by the Geths.

 A synthetic race, whose A.I. was developed more than 300 hundred years ago and rebelled against their creator who were forced to flee their homeworld with what was left of their people. 

All because a prothean’s beacon had been unearthed. Why did the geths want it? No one knew but they did and they were not the only ones. Currently a three man squad was making its way to the starport to reach the beacon, destroying synthetics and helping people along the way.

“I can’t believe it. Those weapons and mods could have helped the alliance and instead they…”

“There is nothing we can do about it now, Williams.”

“I know ma’am. It’s just…. My squad…”
“I know, but it won’t do anyone any good to…”

The woman who was talking and clearly the leader of the squad stopped mid sentence when loud gunshots were heard.

“That’s coming from right ahead commander.” said the third member and only male of the squad.
“Soldiers still alive?” asked the leader to the gunnery chief.

“No, my squadron was the last, it must be colonists, ma’am.”

“Then let’s hurry and give them some help.”

They started running at a good pace down the small hill they were traveling on, the gunshots getting louder and louder. Quickly arriving at its foot they saw someone kneeling behind a container, getting some cover. Making their way to reach them they saw numerous geths bodies scattered here and there on the ground. As they reached their target, the man broke cover and fired two rounds with his pistol in hand, hitting the heads of the last two geths still standing.

Getting closer the squad leader called out to the mountain of a man in front of them and got a better look of him. Tall, very tall, at least 6 feet 5 but probably more. He was definitely not a system Alliance’s soldier as he didn’t have the standard uniform or standard armor. No, he was clothed rather simply, a simple shirt, pants and boots. He wasn’t a bulky man, quite the contrary, but his muscles were well defined. It was clear they were not just for show and the result of training outside the gym. If the geths’ bodies laying around and the display they saw wasn’t indicative enough, his posture definitively was. The posture of an experienced fighter.

“Hello, there.” said the leader.

At hearing someone calling out to him, the lone man turned around in a flash, his gun raised.

“General Kenobi.” he replied with a synthetic voice, which no doubt was an effect of the helmet he was wearing.
“Gene…” began the commander when she was interrupted by a surprised Williams.

“Rick?!” the gunnery Chief exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Pinkie.”

Quick on the uptake it was the man of the squad who spoke.

“A friend of yours, Gunnery Chief?”

“Yes.”

Without further explanation she approached her friend and put a hand on his upper arm.

“I’m glad to see you alive, is Ana…” she began but stopped when Rick did a very small shake of the head.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” she said in a sorrowful voice.

“Not your fault, Pinkie.”

“Williams?”

“Sorry commander. This is Rick Wald, a friend of mine. One of the few colonists who didn’t treat us badly.” she explained before turning to Rick to introduce her companion.

“This is commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.” motioning to the female and male respectively. 

Kaidan greeted him with a simple nod while Shepard spoke up.

“Nice to meet you and nice display you show there.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know you were former military.”

Rick stayed silent, focused on the commander ever since she called out to him and he turned around. A 5 feet 8 woman, he’d say from his estimate, with shoulder length red hair, emerald eyes, and a light amount of freckles under them. A rarity in this day and age, even more than blonde people.

The silence and the, despite the helmet completely hiding his face, starring made the moment rather awkward.

“Is there something on my face?” asked Shepard.

The silence stayed a few more seconds before Rick said “your nose” and turned his head to look at his friend.

“I never was in the military.”

An answer that shocked Williams as clearly he was military trained if what he did to the geths was any indication.

“Really? I seriously doubt that.” she replied in a suspicious tone after recovering from her surprise.

Any reply Rick would have made never came as a lone gunshot from close by was heard.

“You can talk later! Sir, find somewhere to hide and…” She didn’t finish what she was saying as Rick was already moving quickly to the location the gunshot’s noise came from.

“Commander?” asked Kaidan.
“Let’s get moving.” she ordered.

The trip was short. Five minutes at best. Five minutes during which Shepard's mind was stuck on the encounter she just had. She knew this man was dangerous, her guts and every fiber of her being were telling her so, and the way he stared at her with absolute focus didn’t do anything to change her mind nor did his monotonous voice. But he wasn’t hostile nor was he threatening towards her, so she decided to wait and see for now with a lot of caution.

They quickly arrived at a warehouse  and find Rick kneeling down on the side of a body. Getting closer, both Shepard and Kaidan recognize who it was. 

“What’s a turian doing here on Eden Prime?” Williams asked with a strong hint of prejudice in her voice.

“That’s Nihlus, the spectre who came with us to retrieve the beacon.” Shepard explained.

“I doubt that.” Rick stated, examining the body and making Kaidan frown.

“We arrived on Eden Prime with him.”

“That he was a spectre.” the colonist replied without sparing a glance to the lieutenant. Instead he turned thebody’s head around showing a hole at the back of the skull.

“He was shot in the head and from the extended burns on the skin around the wound it was at point blank range. The blood pattern on the ground suggests he was standing and not crouching or kneeling…”  he began to explain, pointing to the blood.

“So either he conned you all, was incompetent or the qualifications to became a spectre are very low now. A spectre is always on alert and wouldn’t be killed like this one was, especially on a battlefield.”

He finished his explanation, and stood up, leaving the three others silent.

“The last possibility is that he knew personally the one who killed him and let his guard down. If that was the case, I’d put his death in the incompetent category. Never let your guard down on the battlefield, rookie mistake.”

“Never was in the military. Suuuuure.” said Williams who began to wonder who was the man in front of her. She didn’t recognize the friend she had known for the past two years. He had always been cold around strangers and in public and she was used to this monotonous tone he was using, synthetic voice or not, but there was an edge, a hardness in it that she never heard before. Paired with this very analytical explanation, she felt like the man under the helmet wasn’t actually her friend but someone else. Were it not for the use of his nickname for her that he only did use in private, she would have held the man at gunpoint and questioned him.

“I had a life before Eden Prime.”

Any further talk was cut short when they heard some noise from the side. Everyone raised their assault rifle except Rick who went for his shotgun instead of the pistol at his side.

“Who’s there?” Asked Shepard.

“Don’t shoot! Please don’t shoot, I’m human!” said a man who appeared from behind crates.

“Powell.” Rick said.

“That’s Powell?” asked Williams in anger.

Feeling that things were not going his way Powell quickly spoke.

“I know who killed the turian! The other one shot him.”

The commander was about to start questioning him when she was beaten to the punch by Rick.

“ ‘The other one?’ An other turian is here?” he asked his shotgun still on point.

“Yes, yes! The dead one, he called him Saren! They talked a bit and the moment he had his back turned the other one shot him in the head! After that those robots arrived and the turian gave them some orders.” he said in obvious panic, his eyes fixed on the shotgun in front of him.

“So he did know his murderer. Where did he go?”

“That way! Towards the starport.” the scared man replied, pointing with his finger to show the direction.

“Good. Now hand over what you have.”

“What?!”

“What you smuggled you shit stain.”

“I don’t…”

Any protest was cut short when Rick’s shotgun was right under Powell’s jaw.

“You either give me what you have or I take it from your headless corpse. Either way I get it, your choice.” the helmet man threatened.

“Alright! Alright! Take it! I just have a few weapon mods and high explosive grenades!” he yelled before Shepard could do anything to stop Rick. 

“Those could have saved lives had the alliance had them you asshole.” Williams stated in anger.

“Alright, that’s enough.” the commander ordered. “We don’t have time for this, we need to go after that Saren guy.”

With one swing of his shotgun Rick knocked out Powell and without a word or waiting for the rest, made his way towards the star port.

“Is he always like this?” Kaidan asked Williams.

“No. He’s always been cold but violent?” the pink armored soldier shook her head. “No, he never has been. Analysse would have dropped his ass on the spot.” she explained as the group too made its way towards the starport.

“Analysse?” Shepard asked.

“His wife.” Williams replied mournfully.

“He’s married?”

“Why is he going after Saren instead of… Oh!” Kaidan began to ask before realization hit him and then Shepard, putting an end to the conversation.

They arrived just in time as Rick was in a difficult situation, he had just dispatched a geth trooper at point blank range with his shotgun when a second one from far away was about to shoot him. Shepard was already aiming at him, finger on the trigger, when Rick was suddenly in front of the enemy, a blue aura surrounding him, weapon raised. In an instant the geth lost its head.

“Holy shit!” Kaidan exclaimed.

“He’s a biotic?” Shepard wondered in surprise.

“And a powerful one commander. A biotic charge is not something easy to do. I know I can’t, though to be fair it’s not my area of expertise.” the lieutenant explained.

“Williams, it would have been nice to warn us.”

“I didn’t know ma’am.”

“You didn’t?”

“How come you didn’t know your friend was a biotic?”

“I never saw him use any. Rick was… he was just a tech expert, taking care of anything with code. Never has he done anything that I’ve seen him do today in the two years I’ve known him. It’s like a completely different person.”

“Are you sure it’s really him? You didn’t recognize him when we met him and with the helmet…”
“It’s him, commander, he called me Pinkie. Only he called me that in private. In fact, besides him and Analysse nobody even knows about that nickname because he only calls me Ash in public. That and his reference to Star wars.”

“What reference?”

“General Kenobi. It’s from a very old movie called Star Wars. 200 years at the very least”. Ashley replied. 

“I guess he has a lot of explaining to do to you.” Shepard said.

“That he does, ma’am.” replied Ash.

They quickly joined him on the dock of the train leading to the starport. Rick was mauling down any geth in its way with stark efficiency, leaving the geths on the side to be dealt with by the squad. Once the area was cleaned, they hopped onto the train and activated it. Ash went straight to his face.

“What the fuck?!” she yelled in his face.

“What?”

“You’re a biotic?!”

“I am.”

“ ‘I am?!’ ‘I am?!’ Is that all you have to say?”

“Simple question, simple answer.” he asked, puzzled by his friend’s outburst. Ashley nearly punched him for that answer.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Did she know?”

“It was irrelevant. I didn’t need my biotics for my job, for one. Two, the stigma against biotics is strong and in a colony where most people are racist or xenophobic laying low was paramount for a peaceful life. And yes, she did know, I had kept no secret from her.”

“Makes sense.” Kaidan said.

The lieutenant knew what he was talking about as a biotic himself. He knew and felt the discrimination of his kind from the people, thankfully the alliance welcomed them with open arms. Not surprising as biotics had abilities very useful for combat which Rick clearly demonstrated earlier. And while there will always be bigots even in the Alliance, the discrimination there was absolutely nothing in comparison to the civilian populace, especially on colonized and rural worlds like Eden Prime. Had the colonists known Rick was a biotic, they would have made his life a living hell. Or lose theirs if the man's actions were any indication to what he would have done should they have tried.

“The biotics, the military training, anything else I should know? ‘Cause right now, I feel like I don’t know you at all.”

“Who taught you how to use your biotics? And where? I was in the BAaT and no one there was skilled enough to learn a biotic charge.”

Rick completely ignored Kaidan and instead answered his pink cladded friend.

“That you should know? Nothing. That you want to know…anything before my life here… It’s in the past and it’s best to not go there. Though I’d tell you this: I’m not a criminal. Never broke any laws.”

He ended the conversation there, leaving Ashley with a scowl on her face and Kaidan wondering as his questions were unanswered. Meanwhile Shepard was on the side, watching the man carefully. What she thought of him didn’t change but she was intrigued. Like her squadmates she had the same questions. Excellent military training, powerful biotic and a coding expert from what Ashely said. The commander wondered if he wasn’t a former black ops operative; though Rick said he never was in the military she couldn’t ignore the fact that he might have been lying. However she believed him; she didn’t know why but she did. Something was telling her that he was telling the truth and while she was still cautious of him she decided that for now she’ll put some trust in him. What perplexed her the most was the way he looked at her or rather starred. Intently.

Not that it would matter for long, once they stopped Saren and got the beacon they’d go their separate ways. 

The train finally arrived at its destination and the group were welcomed by a nasty surprise. Right on the side was a bomb. Bipping. Rick hurried towards it and disarmed it in a few seconds, bypassing the security in place and turned it off.  Standing up he looked at his three companions of misfortune who looked stunned.

“You’re done gaping? It’s likely it’s not the only one and I doubt the geth…”

A projectile missed him barely, shot from a geth on the other side of the ram. Rick immediately took cover while Ash fired at their assaillant, putting him down.

“Right, let’s hurry up and shut them down. Two man teams each going on each side of the ram. Kaidan with me, Williams with…” ordered Shepard, who stopped when Rick was suddenly on the other side, having done a biotic charge right onto a new group of geths.

“Williams, with me too. Let’s go.”

She wanted to yell at the man, but there was no time and he wasn’t under her command anyway. Besides he seemed to do well on his own and time was ticking.

They quickly disarmed a bomb on their way and were advancing smoothly when they were stopped. They needed to cross a suspended bridge but geth were waiting on the other side behind a barrier they had put in place. The barrier fell quickly but the heavy fire and with no cover made crossing impossible. Kaidan put the geth trooper who was heavily armed and therefore the most dangerous in a stasis which allowed the squad to make a run for the enemy group, counting on their shield to withstand the three others geth fire. But just as they went for it a blue flash collisioned with the geth trooper making a powerful biotic explosion, destroying every geth but the trooper itself who finally fell after a shotgun blast to the face, courtesy of Rick who was now standing in the center of the explosion.

“What was that?!” Ashley asked.

“A biotic explosion. His biotic charge acted as a detonator on the status I put on the trooper.”

“Well, that was effective. How come you don’t do that?” Shepard asked.

“It’s dangerous and it’s difficult to time. Had a bomb been in the explosion radius it could have set it off.” replied Kaidan.

Nodding, the commander didn’t ask anything more and followed Rick who went deeper into the starsport. She found him on one knee disarming a bomb.

“Are there anymore?”she asked.

“No. This is the last one.”

“We’re good then.”

As he rose on his feet, the commander grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him towards her, her head looking up at him because of the height difference, with a scowl on her face.

“You were reckless! You could have detonated a bomb with your antics near the bridge, should one have been there. You were lucky you didn’t kill us all.”

“There was no bomb in range.” he answered with his deadpanned synthetic voice, clearly not caring one bit.

“And how could you know that?!”

Raising his left hand his omni-tool flared revealing a map of the area in a radar like manner.

“Like that.”

“And you couldn’t have told us?!”

“Shouldn’t an alliance soldier like you be equipped with a scan for high explosive?”

That made her speechless because yes, she should. Every alliance should actually. Yet she didn’t because it was not a standard on the basic military grade omni-tool which she was using. One thing she would correct soon once on the citadel.

“By the way, here’s your beacon.” Rick said pointing on the side with his thumb.

Taking a few more seconds to look at his hidden face, Shepard released him from her grip and looked at her mission’s objective while Kaidan and Ashley joined them.

“Kaidan, contact the Normandy. Update Captain Anderson on the situation and ask for a shuttle to bring us back on board with the beacon.”

“I hope I’m included in the us.”

“Why should you?” she asked, turning around to look at Rick.

“Because I want that turian dead and you’re my ticket to get off this planet.”
“Now see here…”

“Williams!”

They turned towards Ashley who was caught in a green aura emitted by the beacon. Without thinking both the commander and the colonist moved towards the gunnery chief. Grabbing her they pulled her backwards violently and were caught instead. Powerless, Kaidan could do nothing but watch as they were suspended in the air, while he helped Ashley get up. When they fell to the ground, both soldiers made haste towards them and picked them up, before the beacon, which was clearly charging up in energy, blew up on them.

With the beacon destroyed and two unconscious people on their arms it was Ashley who broke the silence.

“What now, lieutenant?”

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