[. . . AWAITING PRIMER FILE . . . ]
[. . . STANDBY. . .]
[LOADING PERIOD ELAPSED. AWAITING COMMAND.]

% $ grep –A 3 –i "Immediate Hierarchy" firstname_lastname

[. . . RETRIEVING. . .]
[5.09 x 10^5 RESULTS LOCATED. ADD ADDITIONAL FILTER? Y/N]

Y

[SPECIFY]

# lastname

[INDICATE VALUE FOR FILTER "lastname"]

Shepard

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[NO RESULTS LOCATED. RETRY QUERY.]

$ logoff execute

[LOGGING OFF]

Rannoch – Huel Continent
Galactic Year 2198 – 12 years after Reaper War

As usual, Roahn awoke before her alarm could rouse her.

She resisted groaning out loud, fearful that such an outburst would go noticed amongst the people in close proximity. Roahn stretched her limbs out as she lay upon her cot – a reflex to iron out all the kinks she had accumulated during the night – and titled her wrist to activate her chronometer, emitting blocky numbers in a sickly, orange glow.

Roahn frowned. She still had an hour to go before the morning's events were to begin. So much for squeezing in every available second of sleep. Roahn was rather annoyed at her inability to fade away into a deep slumber that she so desperately wanted to use one of her mother's favorite curses as a way to deal with her frustration, but Roahn was too mindful of her surroundings to take up that action, so she settled for mouthing the rude word instead. Roahn had made the mistake of uttering a bad word like that in front of one of her mentors a few weeks ago, and while she was not punished for such an infraction, her mentor's disapproving stare was enough to dissuade her from saying that word ever again.

In a way, waking up this early in the day was a mixed blessing for Roahn. At least she had an easy transition out of her rest rather than her chronometer emitting a loud and angry blare to shock her awake. Roahn had banged her head many a time upon the low ceiling that the cot afforded – clearly an oversight in design, for the natural instinct of a person that is so abruptly awakened is to violently jerk in any direction that their body was afforded, upwards being the most common direction in this case.

Roahn had garnered enough bruises on her forehead to last a lifetime. This way she could have the satisfaction that her sleep was going to be completely devoid of injury. It's the little things that count.

But waking up prior to her dictated hour presented another problem for Roahn: what to do to occupy her time with until the events of the day began in earnest. She could very well continue to lie where she was and hope to squeeze in a few more minutes of precious sleep. Ancestors knows that the rest would definitely be gratifying.

Unfortunately, it was too late for that. Roahn was already wide-awake and antsy. Sleep was just a trifling memory now, a filter dream. A state that was now far out of her reach.

What to do… what to do…

Not content to let herself lie about until the day started in full, no sense of being languid existing within her, Roahn rolled off of her cot and gingerly placed her suited feet upon the floor. Upon the corners of her vision, Roahn could make out the sky blue tinges of color that threatened to encroach upon her entire world in addition to the tiny and seemingly meaningless symbols being portrayed in the upper right hand corner of her heads-up-display, obscuring her sight with a singular hue. Such were the usual fixtures that came with having to wear a helmet all the time. Roahn quickly got used to the sight in mere seconds as she awoke. For her, it was easy to ignore such trifles.

It was all merely part of being a quarian, after all.

Roahn flexed her fingers, noting the miniscule crinkling noise her enviro-suit made as it was scrunched up near her joints from her movements. She heard the noise, to be precise, but no thought was given toward it. Despite the logical roadblocks an enviro-suit caused for the wearer, Roahn was able to forget the fact that she was wearing it, at least for most of the day. She had been living inside suits like this for most of her life. This was a second skin to her – her suit practically defined outward appearance to individuals, and was responsible for coloring the perceptions of the people around her.

It did not mean that Roahn liked wearing the thing, though.

Enviro-suits. Full-body getups that tightly adhered to the wearer and were coupled with heavy metallic helmets to safely house and protect the skulls of quarians. An individual pocket that completely isolated the quarian from any outside stimuli, be it the puff of wind or a kiss upon a cheek.

Make no mistake, the enviro-suit was the best and yet the worst thing to happen to quarians in their entire history.

Quarians had no choice at wearing the suits. Their immune systems were simply too catastrophically weak for them to walk around unmasked and vulnerable. Exposure to foreign environments was, all things considered, a lethal endeavor as quarians could not adapt in time to anything that might cause an allergic reaction. It was a symptomatic curse that all quarians had to bear, a character trait that could have been more easily managed had fate been kinder to them.

Because the universe has a cruel sense of humor, fate turned out to have it out for the quarians.

In perhaps the largest dose of unfairness for the species, the quarians had suffered a serious defeat upon their homeworld, Rannoch, three centuries ago that had forced every single person to depart the one planet they could walk around without masks. Three centuries in space tends to degrade bodily processes something fierce, and as a result, the immune systems of all quarians, already poor, had languished even further to the point where enviro-suits were an absolute necessity, no matter where they were. There was no argument against this fact for the quarians. Seal yourself off, or face a certain and painful death from your airways swelling and cutting off your air as a result of a fatal reaction.

Not surprisingly, the quarians learned to live with the suits.

Roahn had only been in enviro-suits for four years now and already she had managed to drown out the knowledge that her sense of touch had essentially been stripped away from her. Being nine years old, it was particularly easy for her to forget the brief moments during her infancy where she did not have a care in the world. Part of her still wondered what it would be like if she were to strip off her glove, though, and run her bare, three-fingered hand along everything in this room. A jolt of glee ran through her at the thought – a natural inclination towards her disobedient imaginings. She was not ready to take that plunge just yet. Roahn remembered a story her mother had told her when she had accidentally been exposed to the outside air and Roahn did not want to experience that firsthand. Being confined to a bed for a week and having to breathe through a filter, constantly coughing up a lung, did not sound like fun at all.

Looking down, Roahn finally slipped her suited feet into her upright boots, which she had set next to her cot before she had gone to sleep last night. She then knelt down onto the floor and pulled open a drawer underneath the frame of the cot. A couple of belts and a vivid piece of blue fabric were all that lay inside. She took them all out and lay them upon the stiff mattress.

The two belts helped to form an infinite loop that held a metal, ovular disc in the middle. Roahn unbuckled one side and slung the two belts over her hips before clasping it back into place, making sure that the metallic disc, her ryhl, was facing outward. The ryhl was emblazoned with a simple crest – a hollow circle surrounded by another circle that had a missing gap right at the top. It had been her grandfather's, Roahn remembered as she gently traced the pattern with a finger. A memory of a man who had died long before she had been born. He was not spoken of much in her house, though. Her mother had… mixed feelings towards the man, and her father had never even met him at all before he had passed.

Roahn then focused her attention to the other trapping that she had previously removed from the drawer. The blue fabric would not hold much significance for anyone other than a quarian, but for Roahn, it was priceless beyond belief. This was not just a piece of cloth, this was a sehni, the most distinguishing aspect of Roahn's entire person. The sehni was meant to tightly fit over Roahn's matte helmet, acting as a hood of sorts. Quarians had always used sehnis in their culture, before they had even known how to travel to the stars, but they had specifically altered their enviro-suits to accommodate them once the need to isolate their immune systems became a problem that could not be avoided. The sehni was arguably the one item that could differentiate a quarian from another based off sight alone. Roahn's was particularly identifiable due to the raised pattern of white fabric upon the blue backdrop that formed fractals of hurricane-like swirls in an unceasing storm upon the sehni. Roahn loved looking at it – the swirls played tricks with her eyes and made the pattern look like it was constantly shifting. Her mother had made it for her, using materials that she had gathered herself.

With a distinct reverence, Roahn's fingertips lightly plucked at the sehni, placing it atop her helmet and pulling it taut. Snaps at dangling ends of the fabric connected each end as they looped around her arms and soon Roahn pronounced herself complete. Her blue visor hid her smile, but it was only to herself that this smile was meant for.

However, the smile quickly cooled as Roahn folded her hands together and closed her eyes, her breath now being emitted deeply and quietly.

"I hope you're proud of me," she whispered. "Wherever you are, I hope you're proud."

Quarian culture usually dictated that all prayers would typically be directed towards a person's collective ancestors as a way to bestow an even amount of reverence, but Roahn truthfully found it hard to give a damn about a bunch of relatives that she had never even met before. She had always been willful in this regard, never too keen on adhering to the religious dogma that her mentors had tried to instill unto her. She just could never see the point in it – until she had proof that these prayers were performing a tangible effect on her life, she was not going to bother.

However, she still remained respectful in certain aspects of her prayers but Roahn made sure to direct them onto one person only.

Roahn spent the next half hour playing a mindless game upon the console in the corner of the room, making sure that the volume was muted. It was rare that Roahn got some free time to herself these days and she learned to treasure these moments. Most of her waking hours were spent in the animated company of others, as was quarian custom, but Roahn sometimes felt like she needed to disengage from everyone once in a while. It was like there was a crushing pressure in her chest the longer she spent around a group of people and that pressure merely increased as time went on. By the end of the day, Roahn would find herself exhausted and on edge.

The room that Roahn was in was small and boxy – a prefabricated construction made of steel and white plastic. Aside from the desk that held the console she was playing on, there was only enough room for two double-decker bunks placed in an L-shape within another corner. The building itself was not quarian in origin, but human. Apparently structures like this were quite common place for many of the space-faring races, or at least, the species that had homeworlds to themselves for a while. These individual sleeping quarters were designed to be quickly installed on colony worlds as a way to provide quick and cheap accommodations without having to manually construct one from the resources that the colony world in question came with. The fact of the matter was that the quarians on Rannoch had considered these prefabs a benediction when several races had loaned them over years ago with the intent on helping Rannoch become colonized again. The Council species must have seen it in their interest to get the quarian race in the running for potential citizenship once again – decisive politicking, no doubt.

But Roahn had a keener mind than most would imagine. No one gave out necessary resources for free – there was always an unsaid bargain that would require satisfaction in the near or far future. She knew that the Council invited only civilized worlds into their ranks and currently Rannoch was far from civilized. The galaxy still needed stability after suffering a debilitating war (or so Roahn had read) and the inclusion of a new member into its ranks would definitely help turn the tide for contentious votes, if need be. The rapid development of Rannoch would set the stage for the quarians to earn a say in galactic politics, but that would also open them up to the agenda of others, enabling their vote to be enlisted in affairs that could potentially be problematic for other races.

Of course, first Rannoch had to reach a developed stage for all that to happen, which by most predictions, was still several decades away. Still, the propping up of quarian society as a potential puppet was a subject frequently commented upon in extranet chatboards – ones that Roahn devoured in an interest to gain insight into the galactic community at large, to understand how she came to be here, individually and collectively.

In any case, Roahn knew that she had no right to complain about the status of her accommodations. Even though her quarters were less private and quite barebones as compared to her actual room back home, these were still far more luxurious than the cramped bunks quarians had used on board their ships as they desperately roamed the stars for a new home years ago. Her elders would have sharply called her ungrateful if they had caught her griping, but Roahn was wise enough to keep her mouth shut.

The minutes continued to tick on by and Roahn's mind wandered. She thought back to her mother and her father. She would have tried to kill more time by looking up more articles about Rannoch's recent history on the extranet, but they were out of range of a comm buoy right at this moment – the next one wouldn't be in direct orbit for at least another hour (a result of an infrastructure still in progress). Roahn continually felt frustrated that there were aspects of this planet that she still felt that she was ignorant to, but it seemed like no one had any good answers as to what happened on this planet twelve years ago.

No one talked about what went on back then. No one had been around, on the ground, to see the miracle that had freed this planet from control of the Reapers.

And the only person Roahn could talk to about that refused to even bring it up around her.

Sighing in disgust, Roahn deactivated the console, causing the holographic screen to quietly blink into nothingness, just as a stirring sound emitted from the cot above Roahn's empty one. A maroon visor poked out from the bunk and Roahn saw the girl's eyes behind the thick glass level upwards in recognition as they made eye contact.

"You need to tell me your secret, Ro," the girl yawned, also having woken prior to her own alarm.

"What secret?" Roahn said innocently as she watched her friend clamber down from her bunk using the ladder bolted onto the side of the wall.

"You know what secret. How is it that you always get up so early in the mornings? I can hardly manage getting up now."

Roahn paused before answering. Her father always liked to get up early in the day and only now did Roahn realize that she might have been unconsciously emulating him.

"Discipline, I guess," Roahn fibbed. "Maybe I just like to see you and everyone else suffer, eh, Nee?"

The girl named Nee laughed. "Uh-huh. You were just watching Fleet and Flotilla again without me, right?"

Fleet and Flotilla was Nee's favorite vid. Roahn liked it well enough, but not nearly as much as Nee's obsession with the series.

"Would you believe me if I said that I was studying?"

"Studying? For what?" Nee was incredulous. "It's the end of term, what could you possibly be studying for? You're already done with your final project – you said so yourself. You couldn't at all still be working on it… right?"

"Not for the project, fool. Just a bit of light reading for myself." Roahn then adopted a faux-whining tone, "Am I not allowed to do that?"

"If you say so," Nee shrugged, losing interest in her interrogation. "Ah, but maybe's it's about the end of term, right? After all, we're turning in our projects today! You still think that you're going to get a good reception?"

Honestly, Roahn did not care that the end of her schooling term was almost upon her, but she was somewhat relieved that she was finally able to present her final project to her mentors, finally. It had taken her a few weeks of solid and focused work, simply trying to make sure that all of her research had the proper context and that her design implementations were satisfactory. Hopefully it would make an impression with her mentors, but she was already so confident that her work was going to turn out fine that she knew she had not woken early on account of that.

"Think that all five mentors will consider your work sufficient?" Nee pried again before going off into a tangent. "I knew someone who threw up during their presentation, he was so nervous. You're not nervous, are you, Ro?"

Roahn's arms instinctively folded against her chest and she tilted her head, hoping that the obviousness of the gesture would relay her attitude. "Totally," she teased in a flat tone. "I'm so unbelievably petrified that I'm about to pass out. Go ahead, feel my arm. You feel it shaking? Do you?"

Nee did not bother playing along, her eyes taking an unamused look. "I think you're fine," she drolly proclaimed.

"Was I being too sarcastic?"

"Nope. I'm not playing this game, Ro!"

Roahn and Nee both laughed at their own weird senses of humor only to be met with more shuffling noises as two more girls bounded from the adjacent bunk onto the floor. Cevni and Zayhn were had been Roahn's friends ever since their term began – they had all met each other because they had been assigned as bunkmates. Naturally, fierce friendships had formed from such a close-knit grouping. The four of them did everything together, took the same classes, and had the same interests. Cevni had even gone so far as to affectionately dub their little group as "Shepard's Squad" out of reverence, but truth be told, it made Roahn a little uncomfortable to have that name be associated with her. She never brought that tidbit up, though, because her friends liked the name so much.

"Last day of term, you guys," Cevni announced with a spring in her step. "Everyone ready?"

Zayhn groaned as she bent to put on her boots. "Ready for it to be over, you mean."

"Well, I'm kind of sad, personally. It's going to feel like a long while until we're back here. I'm ready for more, in fact."

"Speak for yourself. Mentor Ihren's tutelage was mind-numbing. If I don't see his vacant expression for as long as I live, it'll be too soon."

Cevni blanched. "Okay, you have a point. Keelah, I can't believe I forgot about Ihren. Him and his strict grammatical rules."

Roahn twitched, a little flustered. "He wasn't that bad, guys."

"'That' bad!" Nee pointed out, laughing. "He marked me down because I forgot an accent on one of my words in his script studies. It was one little microscopic marking that was missing and I still got called out for it! Like anyone else would have mistaken it for any other word!"

Zayhn gave a shake of her head, her eyes squinting. "Sorry, Ro, but… I think he went out of his way to be nice to you. It's… because… you know what I mean."

Roahn felt her cheeks grow hot in indignation, knowing full well what Zayhn meant. "You really think that's the case?" she asked. "I doubt that any other mentor on this planet would be influenced to grade me easily all because I have the same last name as my father. How many kids of veterans are in our class right now? Do they all get graded on the same curve too?"

Zayhn raised her hands, obviously not prepared for this onslaught from Roahn. "Just a thought, Ro. Just a thought."

But Roahn did not think that Zayhn sounded convinced. She clenched her jaw, though, not wanting to discuss the matter further.

"Hey guys," Cevni put her arms around Nee and Zayhn as she leaned over in Roahn's direction, seeking to change the subject, "you'll never guess what kind of shipment I got yesterday."

"If it's another malfunctioning Shepard VI that only says those same four annoying phrases, Cevni, I swear that I'm going to throw it out the window," Nee warned. The windows were an inch thick and made of durable plastic, easily able to withstand an assault from a nine-year old quarian, but the threat registered among the group nonetheless.

Cevni just shook her head blithely as she reached underneath her bunk to pull out a brightly colored package. "My dad picked this up on Illium," she said proudly as she withdrew the object that was inside. "It's the latest model."

Awed oohs were uttered amongst the group and the girls leaned in closer for a better look.

"The Garrus Vakarian action figure!" Nee jumped in glee as she took the miniature model of the turian in her hands. "The second generation, too. This only came out a few months ago! Look, it has replica carbon scoring on his collar! And his Mantis rifle has custom attachments on it, too!"

No shortage of admirers among us, Roahn thought to herself. But she had to fight to keep her braggadocio down because she already owned this particular action figure in addition to the first generation model, which portrayed the legendary war hero in an alternate armor style that was cleaner, giving the toy a more heroic light. Roahn's personal figurine of Garrus was back in her house, along with her other collectibles. She kept quiet as the toy was passed around the group, wanting to give Cevni her moment.

To be honest, it would be hard-pressed for anyone to find a bigger fan of Garrus Vakarian than Roahn herself. There was just something about that turian fighter, with his scarred face and weathered sniper rifle, that just gave off this bleeding edge of coolness about him. The man had rarely been seen out of his blue and silver armor as well as his curved eyepiece that was positioned over his left eye. He was a skilled and brave fighter, a member of an elite squad of soldiers that had saved the galaxy from destruction years ago. His status as Commander Shepard's right-hand man during the war was known to all quarian children, and all the young ladies had schoolgirl crushes on the man because they found him handsome and, by his own admission in his biography, he once admitted that he was a massive dork.

Handsome and modest. No wonder the ladies loved him.

"Neat," Zayhn breathed as she took the model in her hands.

"Very cool," Roahn agreed, trying to be polite.

"Isn't it?" Cevni said proudly as she took the figurine back. "This makes it number seven in my collection. I've asked my dad to keep an eye out for an Urdnot Wrex model, but those are always all sold out!"

"I know," Nee sighed. "At this rate, they're all going to be out of stock before I can ever look at one with my own eyes!"

Roahn's cheeks darkened behind her visor bashfully. Truth be told, she owned all twenty-five figurines including their various incarnations all released by the same toy company, including an Urdnot Wrex model. She had them all lined up on her desk back home: a Mordin Solus, Legion, Liara T'Soni, Jack, Kasumi Goto, and even a Javik model. She was not going to mention this because it just felt so un-quarian to boast about her more lavish means. Most of her friends lived in rudimentary shacks back in their hometowns. It just felt wrong to blurt out that she had an expansive house over by the coast with her own room. People knew that Roahn came from a family that never wanted for anything, an obvious aspect due to her heritage, but the only reason that she had friends right now was because she tried so hard to not be a jerk with her boasting. She wanted people to like her.

Eventually all the talk about action figures made way for casual discussion about the most recent vids that had been released within the past solar year. Roahn relaxed, as this was a topic she could talk about to no end because all of her friends were pretty much on the same page as her in terms of their accumulation of pop culture. It was simply far more of a relief to discuss the latest epic war movie than it was to compare how many action figures everyone had in their collection.

Sadly, their conversation was soon cut short as all of the girls' omni-tools began beeping all at once – an indication to start heading over to the commissary for their morning meals. The girls all groaned in unison and shuffled off to their bunks to get all of their items in order (Cevni had to shove her Garrus figurine back under her cot) before they headed out for the day.

Roahn had been ready for at least an hour, but she still waited for her friends to be on the same page as her before she keyed the door to let themselves out.

Like many of the days that had come before, the morning was frigid, a fact made obvious by the nearly intangible swirls of heat that rose from the fabricated structures as they sat upon the bare ground. The temperature barely made an impression upon Roahn as her enviro-suit did an admirable job in keeping her body temperature in check. The most she felt was perhaps a slight inclination of a chill, but nothing that would otherwise hamper her today.

It was summer in the Huel region, but that meant very little as the surface temperature tended to hover around the 270 K range for most of the day. That, and the sun technically would not set below the horizon for months, due to Roahn being so close to the northern pole of the planet.

From beyond the circle of prefabricated structures that made up the main youth academy, Roahn could see snowcapped mountains gently rise above barren plains of long, dead grass while nearby frigid lakes rippled in response to erratic blasts of wind. This sort of setting was not at all typical for Rannoch as the majority of the planet was arid and filled with craggy rock formations, but near the poles the lower temperatures combined with a slight increase in humidity enabled for some diversity in terms of Rannochian landscapes. Still, it provided a nice deviation for Roahn compared to the environment she lived in back home, which was a couple thousand kilometers to the south of where she was.

A scene quite picturesque in its serenity. Roahn felt she could stare at the glassy lake for hours. Once Roahn had dipped her gloved hand into the freezing water and had been fascinated to find that ice crystals were starting to form around her fingers. It was a much different place than Roahn had ever been to. Some part of her wished that she could stay here for quite a lot longer.

In the open air, but still trapped within the stuffy confines of her helmet, Roahn sighed longingly.

Around her, exiting from their similar housing units, was a mass of similarly aged children all streaming towards the commissary. The academy here had been founded nearly seven years ago as an initiative by the quarian Conclave as part of a new stimulus package at the time. The newly-created academy would offer the next generation of quarians an education free from distractions and its primary focus would be fiercely aimed at developing the children here into keen thinkers. The children on Rannoch were the future of the species and it was unanimous in thought that the new generation be provided with the sort of education that would enable Rannoch to rise with their collective knowledge. The Conclave did not want mindless robots as citizens, they wanted free-thinking individuals. The quarians had a planet to take care of now and new ideas were sorely needed.

Enrollment in the academy was completely optional but, as an incentive, there was no fee per child. A smart move, given that, for centuries, quarians barely used syndicated currency amongst themselves. The kids had their room and board given out to them gratis, due to the fact that all the equipment here in the region had been received as gifts from other races. The government could afford the potential loss of income, anyway. There were two terms held in the academy per solar year, with a break of a few weeks in between. The kids were all kept on the same "campus" to cut back on commuting costs (that, and most quarians on Rannoch did not own transport on their own due to it being too expensive for them to afford) and the military supplied shuttles at the beginning and end of each break to ship the kids to and from their homes.

Roahn had no proof, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she had been enrolled here as a way for her father to get her out of the house. The man had not exactly endeared himself to her these past couple years since her mother wasn't around anymore, but this whole deal of sending her away to the academy smelled like a scheme to her, based on the fact that her father never made much of an effort to be a part of her life in quite a while. With her far away, he would not have to face the possibility of even looking upon her, the coward.

She had to bite her tongue at that and Roahn shook her head as she stepped off the ramp that lead to her room and onto the dry grass, which crackled under her boots. She had several friends at this academy, so being here was a blessing in disguise anyway. Their company was so much more appreciated than what her family could give her at any rate.

The commissary was on the opposite site of the prefab circle and already a line was starting to form out the door. Roahn double-timed it to the line, not wanting to be stuck with the nutrient paste flavors that no one liked.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry, Ro?" she heard Nee laugh behind her. Roahn did not respond back for she was too concentrated on getting breakfast.

She made it to the line in time to score a decent spot. Roahn let her friends cut behind her to the tune of some disapproving grumbles from her classmates. Roahn ignored them. It was pretty much an unsaid rule that kids could allow their friends to cut in line behind them (but not in front of them!) She waited patiently for the line to shuffle through the opening where members of the staff were sorting out tubes of the easily digestible food onto the counter for the kids to grab. Crestfallen, Roahn could only watch as several of the tubes of her favorite flavor, Cipritine Heron-Egg, vanished one-by-one as the kids made a beeline for the yellow-colored tubes. It was the most popular flavor, after all.

To Roahn's relief, there was one tube of the Heron-Egg flavor left when it was her turn to select her meal. But before she could reach out and grab it, someone rudely shoved her upon her back, causing her to stumble forward and against the counter rather roughly.

"Move, runt," a harsh voice cackled and Roahn looked over to find Tri'Zaahn, a girl a couple of years older than her, snatch up the last tube of Heron-Egg and abruptly depart with a cruel look. It had happened so fast that neither Roahn nor her friends had any clue how to react until Tri had come and gone.

"Bitch," Roahn spat out of Tri's earshot, the rude word feeling glorious on her tongue. Her fingers started to curl into fists, but she relaxed in the blink of an eye, not wanting to do anything stupid.

For some reason, Tri had had it out for Roahn since the beginning of term, which never did progress beyond minor name-calling and some light shoving but it was still enraging all the same. Roahn knew that Tri was just exercising her advantage of being taller and older than her and that she was showcasing her superiority through her bullying tactics. Even if Roahn wanted to do something about it, she couldn't. Tri was the daughter of a prestigious admiral in the fleet, a fact that Tri went to great lengths to remind everyone about in an incredibly annoying sing-song voice, no less. It didn't stop Roahn from frequently fantasizing about punching Tri's visor so hard that it cracked, though.

"What a bosh'tet," Nee grumbled beside Roahn as they watched the laughing form of Tri waltz away. Nee grabbed a blue-colored tube, an inferior flavor but still adequate, and handed it to Roahn, who took it gratefully.

"If anyone could get away with punching her in the throat," Zayhn offered, "it'd be you, Ro. Who cares if Tri's the daughter of an admiral?"

"I care, for one," Roahn sighed. "And so will the mentors. Not to mention my father. Tri's dad will go absolutely ballistic if anyone touches his 'precious' daughter."

"Anyone… except you," Nee pointed out. "Not even Tri's dad will raise his voice towards you. You have more license than everyone here. No one will dare threaten your dad's daughter."

"Right…" Roahn replied warily. "But what will my father say to me if I hit an admiral's daughter? What will happen then?"

Her friends had no answer for her.

Silently, the girls collected their food and made their way towards one of the unoccupied tables that had been placed outside the building as a sort of outdoor cafeteria. The cheap plastic creaked as Roahn and her friends sat upon it, but that was the extent of the noise it made. Everyone soon resumed chattering about the plans they were going to make during the break after term and even Roahn's spirits seemed to perk up little by little as she conversed with her friends.

However, Roahn soon caught a glimpse of Tri sitting upon the far perimeter, laughing with her friends as she ate her food. Roahn's food. The food that rightfully should have been hers.

Roahn felt her fist tighten upon her plastic food tube, not noticing that tiny fractures were beginning to form from where her fingers were clenching upon the slick surface.

Usually, during a normal term day, Roahn's entire time would be occupied with her and her friends sitting at assigned tables while her mentors delivered their lectures on their requisite subjects. However, since this was the last day, all the students were waiting around the middle of the hastily constructed campus so that they could present their final modules to the mentor board, or as the students liked to affectionately dub it, the "Admiralty Board." The kids had been given direction and guided help on the topics that they had chosen to present and today would be the day that all their effort would find fulfillment.

Roahn felt that she had been adequately prepared for this day. She had truthfully enjoyed all of the subjects that she had taken throughout the term: applied mathematical functions, communication comprehension, physical sciences, general history of the quarians, and a brief foray into strategy analysis. Roahn had practically devoured all of the necessary materials required for comprehension and insight into her choice of final project and she felt that her schooling had been immensely helpful in that regard.

All Roahn was hoping for was that her project would merit a satisfied response from her mentors. Assignments here were not doled out some arbitrary metric of grading, they were judged more by their experience and actual participation in hands-on work, whether that be utilizing their knowledge of chemical compounds to predict the half-life of certain elements or by programming automated workflows to reduce menial console labor. The point was not for the student to be judged if their work was completed, but if they truly understood the material.

Mahav Dah'Vohsk. The Final Lesson, this ordeal was known as. A pass today would merely seem trivial but a failure would reflect badly not only on the student, but on their family as well. Roahn shuddered to think how her father would react if she failed here. Even though he was distant towards her most days, his disappointment in her would still sting nonetheless.

The butterflies in her stomach were becoming almost painful now. She couldn't go anywhere, though. She was due to present to the board in mere minutes. She was just going to have to suck it up and go on ahead.

Right on cue, the doors to the building in question opened and a boy of Roahn's age shuffled out in a daze. His nerves must have been shot during presenting, Roahn figured. She checked her chronometer to confirm that her time was indeed approaching and confidently strode up the ramp into the darkened room.

Roahn took a breath as the door closed behind her.

All five of her mentors were seated upon a singular bench near the far wall of the prefab. It was just them in this room, no other trappings adorning the place so that the students had room to breathe. Roahn's feet seemed to momentarily stick to the floor but she managed to walk into the center of the room, giving a heavy swallow as the dim lightning threatened to root her to the spot. Her fingers started to tremble but she clenched a fist in denial. No! She was going to do this without fear!

The mentors had been chatting amongst themselves when Roahn had arrived and the one in the middle, Mentor Sodin, kindly held up a hand so that her colleagues could cease their conversation.

"Roahn'Shepard," Sodin announced as the girl stood her ground confidently. "How are you today, child?"

Roahn resented being called a child, but Sodin was her elder and she was only nine. She tried to not let her indigence show too much.

"I'm…" Roahn started but gave a slight cough as she realized she was speaking too quietly. "I'm doing fine, Mentor Sodin."

"That's good to hear," Sodin said earnestly. "I'm sure you're more than ready for today." Roahn liked Sodin. She had been one of her favorite mentors throughout the term because she constantly prodded her students to challenge themselves without being unreasonable. That, and her subject of expertise, mechanical applications, was a topic that Roahn had been greatly interested in and had somewhat influenced her final choice for her project.

Another mentor, Jayt, shuffled next to Sodin as he made a gentle gesture in Roahn's direction. "Well, Roahn, I'm sure you're just as eager as the rest of your comrades to finish up for today and to finish up your term. Your father must be excited to see you back at home, no doubt."

Roahn highly doubted that but nodded all the same.

"So in the interest of providing you with all the time you need for your presentation," Jayt continued, "you may proceed whenever you're ready. Don't be nervous. Feel free to speak as you would to a friend."

That, Roahn felt she could do. She closed her eyes for a full second and took another deep breath, focusing on calming herself so that she would not stumble upon her words when she spoke next.

Roahn tipped her palm upwards, towards the ceiling, and ignited her omni-tool, which materialized as a series of shifting orange circles that levitated just above her hand. From Roahn's tool, a visualization of a tall staff-like object became projected in a blown-up view, standing more than a meter tall next to the girl as she waited for her project to load.

Well… this was it. Roahn figured she might as well enjoy this.

"Mentors," Roahn began as she folded her hands together in respect, "let me say that it was a privilege to learn from you this term and that I hope to find myself under your tutelage in the near future."

It was quarian courtesy to be reverent to one's mentor. After all, they were responsible for helping to shape her future from their teachings. After this, Roahn could proceed in full.

"If I may be honest," Roahn started, making sure that she still had on a deferential air, "it was fairly simple for me to narrow down my area of interest for my presentation. I wanted to focus on something that would be representative of the studies that had been imparted on me this past year, and also to focus on our shared ideals as quarians with my subject in mind."

"My topic was inspired about all those trips we took to the northern waterways to discuss geological formations and how they were influential in shaping cultures," Roahn continued as a digital projection of the area in question became overlaid next to the blueprint of the mechanism that Roahn had initially loaded. "In particular, I noticed that Mentor Sodin's lessons on fluid dynamics seemed to be hinting at greater societal issues that quarians on Rannoch are still trying to overcome, namely the revamping or, in some cases, additions to the overall infrastructure. All of us know that in the twelve years since Rannoch has been reclaimed, we have been struggling to repair the damage sustained during the last few wars as well as the decay caused since we were forced to leave our homeworld behind. Quite simply, there are still many long term projects on our world that require our undue attention. I hoped to at least shed some light on one of them today."

Roahn was speaking in general terms, for she had been born after Rannoch had been taken back during the Reaper War, but it was still engrained in every young quarian's head how lucky they were that they were going to know what it was like to have a world of their own for the rest of their life.

"It is no big secret that Rannoch's infrastructure is inferior to nearly all comparable races in the galaxy," Roahn said as she lifted her arms in a grand fashion, enlarging another satellite image behind her. "But that should not be seen as a sore point for us. Rather, we should envision this as an opportunity. Take our capitol city, E'ryda, seen in this satellite image, here. Just fifteen miles to the south is a wide branch of one of the largest rivers on the planet. Millions of gallons of fresh water flows through that delta every hour – a water supply like that would satisfy the entire population in the city, and then some. The only problem is, the water needs to be abstracted for it to be used by the people."

Roahn then flipped to another image of yet another river, this one a depiction of a rapidly flowing ribbon of water with white crests foaming where rocks broke the surface. "But having a simple supply of water is not enough for us. We need the power necessary to disperse it to the people. All of the generation plants on Rannoch were severely damaged during the war, and some of the generators there have not even been repaired to their peak efficiency. But rather than having to deal with the inconveniences of procuring radioactive isotopes from foreign agencies to generate our electricity, hydroelectric power is a reliable source of electricity that we have the power to create by ourselves. The humans and the salarians still use hydroelectric power on their worlds, so why not us? There are still plenty of dams around the world, built centuries ago, that have not been sent repair crews to bring back online, due to a lack of resources. This is a situation where we already have 75% of the infrastructure in place – we just need focus our attention on the aspects that matter most for our people."

Then Roahn gave a giddy smile, hidden behind her blue visor, except for the fact that her eyes lidded upward in anticipation. "But what if, instead of simply bringing those dams back online again, we could make them better?"

The topographic images vanished to make room for the blueprint of Roahn's theoretical construction, the staff-like object. The bulky cylindrical item attached to the top of the staff's head was zoomed in at this point and various objects inside were being pointed out by little tick marks, explaining the functionalities of the item that Roahn was proposing. Roahn was glad to see that all of the mentors were rapt with attention as they fixated their gaze upon her provided materials. It was relieving to see that she had managed to hold their interest. There hardly anything worse than presenting to a distant audience.

"What I understood from Mentor Sodin's lessons is that we not only have an obligation to bring Rannoch back to the way it was but to make sure that we lift it to a better state than we could have imagined. That is, we should not settle for the status quo but should rely on our own ingenuity."

"This is a rough idea of the kind of device I would propose to make," Roahn now pointed, fighting hard to keep from speaking too fast in a garbled mess. "At its rudimentary core, this is what I call a geologic survey rider. Basically, I've combined existing technologies and inserted them into a simple construction, as you can see. The rider uses a variety of wavelengths to map out an area about a kilometer in radius in all directions, giving the user an accurate scan of the sort of geologic area they happen to be working on. Take a look – infrared scans pinpoint the dispersion of geologic formations, sonar pulses determine the density of particular deposits, and all of the digitized results, hundreds of terabytes in size, are instantly accessible on your omni-tool thanks to the rider's utilization of microwaves in the SHF band to send it to you in seconds."

Intrigued murmurs came from the mentors and Roahn paused a bit to take a few needed breaths as well as leave a gap for any potential questions. There was one, apparently. Mentor Jayt made a brief gesture in the air, a polite request to speak. "These technologies that you have previously mentioned," he started, "to which I'm referring to the infrared scanners, the sonar device, and the microwave transmitter, are these all theoretical to your project or does this have a firmer basis in reality?"

Roahn tried not to notice the brief sting, as she quickly realized that Jayt was simply asking for clarification rather than trying to pick her project apart.

"Oh, they are all completely based on existing appliances," Roahn bobbed her head. "Those components that you have listed are actually already available in several markets. I've even included the serial numbers from their respective companies in my schematics to prove my point. The housing for the components is my own design, but everything else can be attainable immediately, in fact."

Jayt liked the sound of that. "And the metal that you have listed to fabricate your housing from. What sort of material were you considering?

Roahn grinned. "Actually, I wasn't considering using metal as that could potentially interfere with the magnetic sensors."

"Ah. Right."

"I was thinking that a carbon-based mold would be more suitable. Make it more lightweight, you know."

One of the quarians, Ihren, the mentor that Roahn's friends said was the most boring (as well as the strictest with his expectations), leaned forward a bit. "The attention-to-detail is certainly impressive, Roahn," he said and Roahn beamed, "and I'm sure that if we had given you more time, you probably could construct a well-versed case for many of the committees trying to persuade the Conclave on where their attention should be focused on that planet."

Roahn could hardly believe her ears. Ihren rarely gave out compliments. She was going to pass!

"With that in mind," Ihren kept on speaking, "I'm interested to hear if you've given additional thought to what your contraption, this 'rider,' can provide. What sort of considerations were you intending for your project to provide the user?"

"Considerations? A few, definitely," Roahn provided instantly. "I'm hoping that this rider, if it gets put into practice, can provide recommendations for people on how to improve existing dam construction or suggest new places where dams can be placed in addition to their desired function. I think I mentioned the river near our capitol, yes? Low dams, or weirs, would be a perfect style of dam for our purposes, given that the valley there is not a typical floodplain nor do we need to divert water flow in any way. As for how these considerations are made, the scans the rider makes would typically look for factors such as permeability of the surrounding rock, if there are any earthquake faults in the area, the stability of nearby slopes in case of landslides, potential impacts on habitations and the environment, and effects of the water table on such a dam."

Ihren chuckled politely. "'A few,' indeed," he murmured to the deferential amusement of his colleagues.

"Very much like her mother," Sodin said, knowingly.

"No doubt," Jayt said. "Roahn, I think I speak for all of us, despite my candid speech, that you might have presented at least two projects worth of information during this session. Was compiling all of this… somewhat challenging for you?"

"Not really," Roahn shrugged. "It sort of occurred to me that if I wanted my presentation to make sense, I needed to provide a lot of context."

"But the technology behind these topographic scans… your ideas for microwave beaming… these could have easily been separated into their own topics."

"Perhaps, but I've been told that if I could do more than the bare minimum, I should always keep going."

"And who told you that?" Ihren leaned forward. "One of the mentors here?"

"No sir," Roahn straightened. "That would've been my mother."

The mentors all looked amongst themselves, the shadows falling across them once the glow from Roahn's omni-tool faded. The color drained from the room, the elder quarians now looked like sketches of charcoal upon thick paper, the diffused glow from the sun coming through white instead of orange.

"Roahn," Sodin spread her hands, "What kind of path do you want for your life? Judging from your enthusiasm, it's plainly obvious that you've taken a keen interest in the field of engineering."

Roahn nodded. "I've had a lot of fun with that for the term."

Sodin seemed proud at that. "I can tell you that, if you're still interested in the subject, there are many apprenticeships on Rannoch that definitely correspond to your interests. Why, in a few years, as you are probably aware, you'll be eligible to actually apply for these apprenticeships. If you keep this up, I have no doubt that you will manage to secure a slot."

Roahn glowed from the praise. Not only had she obviously passed her project, but her mentors were offering up career advice in such a warm fashion! It was difficult not to jump for joy but that notion was easily quashed when Mentor Jayt spoke next.

"Do you think your father has any opinion on where your interests might lead to? Sometimes the advice of a parent helps the focus of the student."

Something was boiling within Roahn's gut and she felt a scowl come to her face. Why did every action in her life have to revolve around her damn father? He wasn't even here! In fact, Roahn had no idea if her father had any interests of his own. He never talked, for crying out loud! It was all just long moments spent in sullen silence, hoping that his own child did not notice the churning conflicts that were battling in his head, a desperate fight for the need to look his own daughter in the eye and explain—

"I don't think so," Roahn said as mildly as she could muster.

That did not seem to be the answer that Jayt was looking for, but thankfully, he did not press the subject further. Instead, he made a little murmur to himself and made a quick note on his omni-tool.

Sodin looked at her colleagues before focusing her attention back to Roahn. "I think that concludes it for today, child. You did very well, Roahn. Your family will no doubt be proud of the efforts that you have demonstrated throughout the term."

"Thank you, Mentor Sodin," Roahn dipped her head in respect.

"I look forward to seeing you next term. Keelah ni'veh."

"Keelah ni'veh, mentors."

Taking that as her cue that she was dismissed, Roahn smartly turned on her heels and walked back out the way she had come. Hot sunlight blasted into her face as the door opened, but the visor rapidly darkened, filtering out the blinding rays in a nanosecond. As usual, the heat of the day failed to make an impression upon her skin.

Roahn smiled warmly as she saw her throng of friends approach her, eager to find out how her presentation had went. But her smile suddenly chilled for a brief moment from the knowledge that she was about to leave this place… and head back home for a while.

Her lingering words to her mentors found their way back to her tongue.

"Keelah ni'veh," she whispered.

By the homeworld I look upon today.

A few hours later and Roahn and her friends were all shooting glowing looks amongst each other in the main hold of the shuttle as the vehicle shot through the sky. Subtle vibrations jittered through the craft as it left the academy far behind, now headed south towards the capitol, where most of the students' parents would come to pick them up and take them home, at least until next term. The interior of the craft was windowless, so the passengers were unable to see the shuttle spear through the puffy white cloud formations as it hurtled through the atmosphere, but even if it did, the kids inside were too engrossed in their own conversations to stare out of the window.

Roahn and all of her friends, her bunkmates, were seated next to each other, somewhat relieved to be offered a temporary reprieve in their studies. They had all passed their term presentations, having impressed upon their mentors that they had, in fact, been paying close attention to their teachings throughout the past few months. Now they could relax and focus on other topics, anything besides schooling.

Roahn felt an elbow nudge her ribs sharply. She looked over to see Nee leaning over towards her. "Hey, Ro!" the girl said eagerly, "what are you doing tomorrow?"

"No idea," Ro honestly replied. "Why?"

Nee gestured amongst Cevni and Zayhn for emphasis. "We're meeting up in the morning to go exploring. Also, I've got something cool to show all of you tomorrow."

Now Roahn gave a sly grin. "Another action figure?"

"Ancestors, no!" Nee laughed. "It's way better than that. Trust me."

Roahn arced an eyebrow but this gesture was partially veiled from her visor. Even so, it appeared that Nee got the gist. "Okay, I'm certainly interested," Roahn said. "When did you want to meet?"

"A few hours after daybreak. We'll come over to you at your house."

"Nee, my house is miles away from yours!" Nee lived in the capitol city whereas Roahn lived in the outskirts, where the property initially established by her parents had an impressive amount of acres in their name, but that came at a lack of neighbor interaction, with what the main city being a good fifteen-minute transit at a fair clip.

Nee did not seem to be disheartened at this fact. Actually, she merely seemed emboldened. "I've got that covered. Don't worry."

As much as Roahn wanted to ask Nee about the specifics of her little logistical problem, an announcement from the pilot indicating that they will land at E'ryda port in less than two minutes caused her to lose her train of thought. The chatter in the shuttle immediately died down to a muted throb as the engines of the craft slowly began to whine to a lower pitch.

The acceleration dampeners embedded into the craft meant that Roahn was unable to feel the bump as the shuttle gently glided down onto its landing pad, back onto solid ground. It was only when the doors roughly slid open on their ragged rails did all of the kids stand up, very much a Pavlovian response, and eagerly shuffle out into open air. Hazy sunlight streamed in, immediately followed by a blast of warmth, and in seconds Roahn found herself blinking in the arid heat, her sehni flapping from a salty ocean breeze.

The landing pad was on a small crested plateau that overlooked the capitol city down below. E'ryda was all a ramshackle collection of hastily made shacks coupled with blocks upon blocks of prefabricated structures, the exact same types that Roahn had seen at the academy. Construction on a few residential towers had begun a few years ago, outsourced to a human company, but progress had been so agonizingly slow that the skyline of the city itself was still relatively low to the ground. Millions of quarians down there, all fending for themselves, living just a few steps above total squalor. But at least the people were happy with what they had – after three centuries of every single individual having to share a room the size of a broom closet up in space with five other people, a three-room shack was practically a mansion. Roahn then remembered that her friends were planning to meet her at her house tomorrow and she shuffled her feet on the pad, suddenly anxious. Her house had been designed and paid for completely out of the usual bureaucratic loop on Rannoch – her parents had amassed quite a large amount of money to pay for a substantial home that, all things considered, could house four quarian families alone. It made Roahn feel somewhat guilty that she got to live in such luxury while her friends barely had carpets covering their floors.

All the more reason why Roahn was so eager for the next term to start. At least there she was more of an equal amongst her peers.

One by one, her friends departed into the waiting arms of their parents, and Roahn bid them all goodbye. She would see them all in a matter of hours, so there were no longing feelings threatening to tug upon her heartstrings. She was too smart for that.

The crowd of children and parents gradually thinned out in mere minutes as more kids left for their home. Roahn swiveled left and right, trying to see if she could spot the person she was looking for in the mass, but she found herself out of luck, and her stomach began to sink as if she had swallowed a lead weight.

"For once in your life…" she spoke to herself, imagining anyway that her chiding words would impact the person they were meant for. "Come on. Come on. Where are you?"

Roahn was becoming more and more incredulous with each passing second. Did he not know that today was the day that she was coming home? Had he not been getting all those messages from the academy explicitly instructing him to be here at this spot at this very moment? Roahn frantically gulped down her anger, trying to adopt her mother's more reasonable attitude and mindset.

That sort of mindset was quickly discarded, seeing as how, at this point, Roahn was the only person left standing on the pad. Even the shuttle had departed ten minutes ago, not at all content on waiting to see if all of the passengers had been met by their guardians on the ground.

Now completely angry, Roahn stomped her foot on the ground and hurled her fists downward in frustration, an annoyed grunt escaping through her throat. It had now been thirty minutes since she had landed and there was no indication at all that someone was coming to pick her up. Beside herself, Roahn frantically fidgeted in place as she struggled to rein in her emotions, to keep her from exploding with fury and vitriol at her father's failure to remember this day, of all days.

Needless to say, she failed.

"Unbelievable," Roahn growled in a frustrated haze. "Nice job, bosh'tet. Really nice job, dad!"

If there was any moment to use one of her mother's favorite swear words, to let it ring abound within the nearby canyon walls, then there would never be a more opportune time for Roahn to let loose.

So she did so in earnest.

Keelah, that felt good!

A/N: As you can tell, no doubt, I've failed to learn my lesson about taking any long-winded breaks between stories. Suffice to say that in the interim when I have nothing to write about, my overactive imagination ramps back up - clearly my work ethic's worst enemy. So, here we are again.

Of course, I'm sure you're all wondering exactly what Cenotaph is specifically going to entail. Well, my main intent with this story is to portray an unusual family dynamic revolving around Shepard and Roahn, his daughter, in a postwar setting - the details of which will become a lot clearer with subsequent chapters. This is not intended to be part of a new series, but will merely stand on its own. If you are familiar with my usual methodology of favoring stories with a dark and depressing edge, rest assured that this will not get down to some of the lows that I've portrayed in prior stories. No, this will not be like Patriarch, mark my words, but there will be a somewhat cynical edge regarding a few concepts further down the line. As to what that means, well, you're just going to have to wait and see!

On a side note, I have no idea what my current release schedule is going to look like in the near future. I may be somewhat occupied to the point where I might not get to work on Cenotaph as much as I like, considering my current obligations. That being said, I will take into account audience interest as well as my own desire to never leave a story unfinished as motivators to devote a fair amount of time to this story every week.

I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts on Cenotaph and I hope that you enjoy it!