Hello all! And wow 60 Follows and 31 Favs! I'm blown away.

Anyway, sorry about the wait. My sister just had her first kid. She had to induce labor a full month early, so everyone was running around unprepared and I was drafted to help. My little nephew is adorable though so I've got no complaints.

I'm also going back to school this coming Monday, and needed to get ready for classes. In short real life reared it's head and FanFiction just had to wait it's turn.

Now enough excuses! Many reviews await!

Six Samurai: I'll get there, but not for a while yet. Thanks. And upon further reflection you may be right. I'll need to figure out the actual stats to make sure.

Wolfund: Yep, honestly is anyone surprised?

HikariNiwa: I'm glad you think so, and you shall see soon enough. Oh yes... ;)

kingraven1138: Yes they will, both western and eastern. Mad... maybe but you'll just have to wait and see.

OMAC001: You and me both.

The-Incubus: Very true, and you're not the only one to bring up that concern. I'm going to look up the actual stats and alter things accordingly. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I'll try to update quickly. Sadly school is coming and things will get busy.

MADMatt6: Really? That's cool, and if you had ideas you'd like to share you can PM me. Credit will be given where it's due. I'll try not to disappoint.

undeadfarmer: Energy Weapons! Yes, I have them! ...But not right now, sorry.

darkfinder: Yep, most people thinks she'd a bit of a bitch. Anyway, hope I can impress.

Done! jeez that was a lot of responses. Not that I'm complaining mind you. But lets just get to the story now shall we? But before that there is one last thing. *sigh*

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Mass Effect or Fallout. They belong to Bioware / Electronic Arts and Bethesda Game Studios / Softworks respectively. I make no money on Fallout First Contact nor does anyone I know.

Onward!

Liz took a few steadying breaths as she centered her target in the scope. It wasn't likely she'd miss at this range but there was no sense wasting ammo by being careless. "Just a little under 200 yards... alright here we go." she grabbed a stone and tossed it down from the ridge she was currently laying prone.

The radscorpion combing through the scrub below twisted around as it sensed the vibrations of the landing hunk of rock. It primed its stinger and raised its claws in a show of aggression, unfortunately Liz wasn't impressed. A loud shriek pierced the air as a .44 magnum round tore into the scorpion's face, obliterating several eyes. The creature thrashed about, sending splashes of bloody discharge into the dirt. Liz barely batted her eye at the gruesome scene, she'd witnessed much worse after all

Blinded and in pain the creature fell onto its side, exposing its soft underbelly. Liz smirked and sent one more shot into its gut. The giant arthropod gave a few last spasms before letting loose a low death rattle and going still. "Bang your dead" Liz said as she panned over the field, checking for more targets. It wasn't uncommon for radscorpions to travel in pairs, not to mention the numerous scavengers native to the wastes.

Her grandparents had taught Liz everything there was to know about surviving off the land. A huge part of that involved dealing with the wildlife, a lesson Liz had kind of learned the hard way. Forgetting to clear the area after a kill had let a gecko swarm get the jump on her when she was only 7 years old. She'd obviously managed to fight the pests off but her mom had given her a tongue lashing that day that stung even worse than the bites. Liz paused at the memory of her mother, more and more of them had been popping into her head since that morning's news report.

Hannah Shepherd had had a legendary temper, but she'd been a great parent. Since Gramps and Granny had taken over her survival training, Hannah had been the one to teach Liz to shoot. Whenever she'd hit the practice targets, usually sarsaparilla bottles, Hannah would say "Bang! Nice shot baby-girl."

Liz shook off her sudden melancholy and finished her sweep "Ok, looks clear" she muttered under her breath as she stood and made her way down the ridge.

Hunting and scavenging was a good way to stretch your supplies, sometimes it even provided useful materials. Radscorpion poison could be processed for a general anti-venom or used as the main ingredient in a tasty stew. Other than the practical side of things, Liz liked to use it as an excuse to explore. When she was following a trail or just admiring the landscape she could shove her worries aside and just 'be' for a while.

Sometimes, when she was scouting an old-world ruin, her mind would conjure up images of what things must have been like before the bombs fell. Pictures and videos could be found on ruined terminals if you could get them running again, and Liz loved uncovering those half-forgotten shards of the past.

The people of the back-when times captured some amazing things on camera. Snapshots of near alien environments covered in green as far as the eye could see. Startling cityscapes filled with towering spires made of shinning glass and unblemished steel. A photo of the planet Earth taken from the surface of the moon.

Despite her fascination at these awe inspiring sights, it was the pictures of the people themselves that Liz liked the best. A mother feeding an innocent looking child as they sat in the grass under an apple tree. A group of men watching a baseball game in a huge arena while eating hotdogs and drinking beer. A family sitting on a hill unafraid as multicolored explosions went off in a darkened sky.

Nowadays mothers had to teach their kids how to take care of themselves, innocence was fleeting for all but the most sheltered. Men were more likely to watch a cage match between gladiators than waste time on a simple baseball game. Explosions of any kind were a thing to avoid, signaling an imminent bandit raid or a battle between warring factions. But in the end all that didn't matter. There was little use in complaining. Life was hard and people had to adapt.

Liz's dropped her idle musings as she made it to her prize. She slung her trail carbine over a shoulder and looked over the scorpion's carcass with a measuring gaze. It was a decent sized specimen, around 4 feet long with a healthy looking carapace. "Should give me a few pounds of meat and a nice big poison gland." she said as she pulled her skinning knife from its place in her boot. "Well, now comes the fun part..." she looked around the area once more before pulling down her goggles, pulling up her scarf, and plunging the blade into the radscorpion's abdomen.

Liz expertly dressed her kill and stowed the bounty away in a leather sack. She looked up at the sun's position to get a bearing on the time as she cleaned up with a rag and water from her canteen. The sun was just past its zenith, so she'd been hunting for some time now. "Better get back to the convoy before Granny starts to worry." Liz shrugged the meat sack across her shoulders and readied her carbine for the trek back to the I-15. She'd probably fallen behind by now, so she'd have to angle herself east on the way back.

… Scene Change …

Shepherd's boots left prints in the sand as she walked west along the road that most folks called the Long 15. She'd grown up on this road, living the nomadic life of the caravans. It showed in the way she expertly maneuvered through the burnt out wrecks that littered the lanes, and the way her eyes picked out all the potential ambush spots.

At the moment however she was more concerned about the lack of Brahmin tracks that signaled a convoy's passing. By now the group her family was traveling with should have been ahead of her, not behind. Something had to have held them up and she needed to find out what. Liz fought down her anxiety as thoughts of crimson clad Legionaries wielding bloody machetes drifted through her mind. "Damn it, I hope everything's alright." She said to herself as she hopped over a rusty hunk of metal.

The next few hours or so were spent in much the same way. Liz would worry, check her surroundings for danger, curse a bit, and then repeat, all while making her way steadily west. "Ya know…" She said in an attempt to distract herself. The sun continued to sink lower in the sky and there'd been no sign of anyone "I really need to stop talking to myself." She continued to contradict her words as she kicked a small rock and watched it smack into a dead semi-truck "I mean it gives away my position, makes me seem like some weirdo loaner, and dries my throat out to boot."

She jumped up onto a wrecked convertible and peered down the road through her scope. "Granny gets on my case for it too." She lowered her gun and continued on her way "It's always 'Lizzy you stop your yammering now ya hear me! You sound like some kind of crazy when you go on like that.' Then she gives me The Look. Then Gramps starts laughing about how I'm just like mom…" Liz trailed off as she inadvertently brought her mother up yet again. She sighed "Fucking hell… this is really getting old." She decided to clam up for a while, lest she prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had some major issues.

As dusk started to paint the horizon in shades of yellow and orange Liz came to an abrupt halt. She cocked her head to the side and focused on the faint sounds of yelling mixed with the occasional clang of metal. She crouched down and snuck towards the source, using every trick she knew to stay undetected. Before long she got close enough to make out words. It was a woman's voice, and oddly enough it was somewhat familiar "Argh! Start already you fucking overpriced piece of shit!"

Liz raised an eyebrow as she recognized the voice of that tattooed lady from Dusty's place. She crept along a ruined bus and peeked around the side, levelling her carbine towards an abandoned Poseidon Energy station. Sure enough, she spotted the older woman yelling in frustration as she beat on an unusually new looking motor cycle. "Well," she whispered as she centered the lady's head in her scope "didn't think I'd ever see her again."

For a moment Liz thought about putting a round between the lady's eyes. Not a nice thought to be sure, but the world was rarely a nice place and Liz was on her own right now. She had to look out for herself, even if that meant taking a human life. But as her trigger finger began to curl a little voice in the back of her mind, which sounded suspiciously like Mr. New Vegas, made her reconsider the action. "A helping hand huh… well here goes nothing. Sure hope it doesn't bite me in the ass." She lowered her rifle and raised her voice as she greeted the potential bandit/bounty hunter. "Hey need some help with that?"

The tattooed lady reacted instantly, moving into cover and bringing her shotgun around to Liz's position. The whole thing was done in a smooth almost elegant fashion that proved the lady knew her way around a firefight. The words shouted back however were far less impressive "Fuck! Don't come any closer bitch, or I will destroy you!"

Liz rolled her eyes at the almost cliché response. But that didn't stop her from ducking back into cover herself. "Yeah, I'm sure you will. Listen, if I wanted to kill you your brains would be splattered all over the wall right now." Liz waited a few seconds but didn't get a response "Hey you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah just give me a sec!" Liz heard a low resonant humming sound and tensed up a bit. For all she knew the lady had some kind of energy weapon on her. The things were expensive and hard to maintain but there was no denying their power.

"Alright just be cool. I'm only trying to lend a helping hand here. Ya know like a Good Samaritan." She brought her gun back up just in case.

"Samara-what?" The lady poked her head over the barricade and got her first clear look at Liz. Her brow furrowed as she said "What the fuck? Aren't you that kid who fixed up Dusty's shitty radio?"

Liz's eye twitched at the 'kid' comment but she tried to keep the irritation out of her response. When she had put a lid on her temper "I'm almost sixteen you ass!" …well mostly, she stood up and lowered her weapon with a scowl.

The lady chuckled at that, but followed suit "Alright calm the fuck down brat." A smirk was pulling her lips up at the corners "You can't exactly blame me for thinking you were younger." She slung up her shotgun and made a cupping gesture over her chest "I mean it's not like you've got a huge pair of tits or an ass to make it obvious."

Liz sputtered and strode forward indignantly. She stopped a few feet from her former target and crossed her arms while cocking her hip. "Who the hell uses things like that to gauge a person's age!?" She pointed at the now grinning lady "You're not exactly stacked yourself you bitch!" The woman was about a foot taller than her and sporting a modest C-cup. Liz squashed a familiar flair of frustration at her still petite build. Granny said that Shepherd women tended to be late bloomers but that didn't make her feel that much better right now.

"Yeah but with me you can just tell I've seen some shit." She crossed her own arms but her tone was still teasing "And stop your yapping, it's about as intimidating as a baby mole rat."

Liz opened her mouth to retort but stopped as she thought better of it. The lady was obviously messing with her, why play along. She huffed as she pushed past the lady, over to the motor cycle, and started gathering up the scattered tools "Whatever, just shut up and let me get a look at this thing."

Liz ignored the lady's quiet laughter as she inspected the bike's engine. Whoever had restored it did a pretty good job, some of the parts even looked newly fabricated. The biggest issue was that the Lady obviously didn't do regular maintenance. The oil needed changing and a lot of the pieces seemed to have been jarred loose by rough handling. "You really think you can get it to work?" The lady said as she leaned against a nearby wall.

Liz hummed absentmindedly as she kept on poking around. She checked the battery, and sparkplugs but they all seemed to be in good enough condition. She moved on to the wiring next, disconnected the kill switch to check the coil. "Don't know for sure but I'm willing to try. Where'd you even get this thing? People hardly ever use motorized transports nowadays." She picked up the Lady's volt meter and checked the connections and starter.

"I got it from this greasy little fucker who opened up a shop on the strip a couple of weeks back. He apparently knows some guys or whatever who put cars and shit together from old wrecks. They're getting pretty popular and there's even talk about organizing some races out in the wastes."

"No kidding? Well I'm heading over to Vegas soon, maybe I'll take a look at his stock." She verified that the coil had a weak signal and smirked as she cracked her knuckles and started to work her mechanical mojo.

The lady was struck speechless as Liz started rewiring things seemingly at random then applying far more duct tape than any engine had ever needed. Ever. After simply staring at the humming redhead for a few minutes, the lady ran out of patience "Ok what the hell are you doing?"

Liz grinned as she finished up, closing the engine casing, hiding her alterations. Making a grand sweeping gesture towards the newly jury-rigged bike, Liz started speaking with the voice of a professional preacher "Just showing my devotion to the holy tape of the duct, oh ye of many ink stains. Soon, you too shall bear witness to the miracles of the divine adhesive and those who hold its favor." She put her hands on her hips and continued in a normal voice "Try starting it up. I put together a bypass so it should work now, I promise."

The lady gave her a less than subtle look of disbelief, but mounted the bike anyway. She hit the ignition and her eyebrows shot up as the motor revved and the dashboard came to life. "Well fuck me sideways, it actually worked." She looked at Liz with a faint glimmer of respect in her eyes "Ok brat, I'm impressed. How much for the repair?" She shut the bike down and moved over to her pack for some caps.

Liz smiled as she waved the lady off. "Honestly you don't need to pay me. It was a simple fix and it's always nice to be able to work on something like that. It lets me practice my skills. Keeps me sharp."

The lady raised an eyebrow and looked Liz in the eye for a moment before shrugging "Fine, whatever." She stood and looked toward the darkening horizon "Only about an hour before sundown, you got a place to camp for the night?"

Liz frowned as she was reminded about her family's unknown fate and the approaching night. "No, but I think I'll keep on going. I've got people I need to meet up with."

The Lady looked back at her "You mean the geezer from the bar? That deep voiced guy with all the scars and squinty eyes."

Liz snorted at the description, gramps was old and he'd definitely gotten that way by being really hard to kill. Liz nodded "Yeah him and my Grandma too. They own a trading convoy that runs all over the Mojave, and even to the NCR. They're the most experienced pair of traders you'll find this side of the Divide." The last was said with more than a hint of pride. The Shepherds were one of the few companies that survived the rise of the Crimson Caravan monopoly. She was pretty sure The CC still had an open offer posted for their contracts and shipping rights.

"That just means they're fucking old." The lady said with a chuckle. Her mirth drained away quickly as she continued "You do know that traveling at night can be damn near suicidal. Especially this far away from a settlement."

Liz shifted uneasily but gave no sign that she would change her mind, even if the lady was right. A lot of really dangerous creatures were more active when the sun went down. Packs of rabid coyotes, the aptly named night stalkers, deathclaws, the list went on and on. "I know, and I don't care. My folks would walk through fire for me. I'd never be able to live with myself if anything happened to them. Especially if I could have done something about it." Mere danger wouldn't stop Liz from making sure her family was ok, nothing would.

The lady looked at her incredulously but Liz just set her jaw and crossed her arms stubbornly. The lady realized the futility of trying to talk Liz out of it, so she pinched the bridge of her nose and hissed out a few very exasperated words "Fucking noble dumbasses." She turned away, grabbing her pack off the ground and shoving the tools into one of her bike's saddlebags. "Well let's get a move on. If we're lucky, we'll reach your people before something big and hungry finds us."

Liz didn't bother hiding her surprise at the lady's declaration "Wha..? You're coming with me?"

"It's not like I want to idiot!" She grabbed the handlebars and guided the bike to the road "But I can't just let you go out there especially after you went out of your way to help me. You wouldn't last more than a minute if something got the jump on you. And you heard the news," She lowered the kickstand and started lashing her pack to the bike's side "the Legion would just love to snatch up a pretty little lady wandering the wastes all alone."

Liz scowled at the lady as her pride was stung by the words "Hey! I can look after myself just fine thank you very much! And who exactly was it that got the jump on who like ten minutes ago hmm?"

The lady scowled right back "Oh just cool it kid. There's a huge difference between that and walking around the badlands at night." A cocky smile spread across her face "Besides, you wouldn't last two seconds with me in an actual fight."

The redhead's temper flared, all her pent up stress and frustration feeding the flames "Want to bet?" Liz hopped away from the lady as she reached for the 10mm pistol strapped to her thigh. But before she could actually draw, something impossible happened. The lady jabbed a palm towards her and a blue orb shot out, impacting Liz's torso and diffusing over her whole body. "What the shit!?" Liz cursed as gravity apparently decided to take a break, making her float upwards without control.

Instinctively she started to windmill her arms for balance, but this just caused her to spin around in midair. As she fought to right herself a part of her mind registered the same humming sound she'd heard when she and the lady had first started talking. Whatever this was produced some sort of energy field and the hum meant it was charged up.

The lady smirked upward as Liz continued to flail around. Just when the younger woman had finally managed to level out, gravity got off its lazy ass and started working again. She fell half a dozen feet back to the ground and landed hard on her belly, causing her lungs to empty themselves painfully. She spun onto her back and gasped for air but froze as a shotgun barrel was pressed right up against her chest.

The lady's face was now devoid of all amusement as she spoke in a dangerously monotone voice "That was pretty stupid of you brat. You're old enough to know what going for your weapon means out here."

Liz just narrowed her eyes. The lingering anger driving her common sense out the window. "Screw you bitch!"

The older woman's eyes widened with a mix of shock and some other emotion Liz couldn't readily identify. After a minute long stare-down the lady snorted and abruptly pulled her shotgun away. "Damn, is this what the old man felt like back then?" Liz snapped out of her daze at the odd turn around. Her anger abruptly left her but before she could do anything the lady held out her hand with a grin. "You're fucking insane kid. But I like that, so it probably says something about my own screwed up personality." Liz hesitantly gripped the offered hand and let herself be pulled to her feet.

"Um, thanks I guess?" She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly "And well... sorry about that, I've been a little on edge today."

The lady just shrugged and mounted her bike. "I know what that's like, believe me." She revved the engine and looked over her shoulder at the completely perplexed younger woman "Well don't just stand there gawking, get the fuck on!"

Liz took a quick inventory, making sure she hadn't lost anything in her impromptu flight session. When she was done she gingerly settled herself on the backseat and gripped the lady's torso. The Lady nodded once before hitting the accelerator and starting off down the road.

It occurred to Liz that this entire situation was getting a little ridiculous. She'd just met the lady and now they were traveling together. They hadn't even introduced themselves yet! As they started to pick up speed Liz decided that if this was actually going to happen she might as well go all in "Hey," she said, raising her voice above the sound of the engine "I'm Elizabeth by the way. But call me Liz, most everyone does."

The lady glanced at her with a slight smirk "The names Jack, don't fuck with me and we should get along just fine." Liz nodded and the two companions lapsed into silence. Liz still had a bunch of questions for her new acquaintance, especially about the freaky telekinesis, but it'd have to wait until after she found her grandparents. They were all she had in the world, and she'd be damned before she let anyone take them away from her.

... AN ...

Well things are starting to warm up. Did any of you see this coming? I threw a very tiny hint in about Jack towards the end of chapter 1. This should be the last purely set up segment for Liz, things will start getting exciting in the next chapter.

Next are some thoughts and clarification stuff, don't read if you don't care.

Jury-Rigging: I'm not a very tech savvy person, so when I get stuff like that wrong please feel free to point it out. I was basically BS-ing the whole bike repair scene with my extremely limited knowledge of motor vehicles. It was a little painful when I went back and re-read it but their was little I could do except slap on some humor and call it a day. "Praise the almighty Roll! The tape of the duct aids its chosen few in their times of need!" *Coughs* Yeah...

Jack's Biotics: In Mass Effect Cannon Element Zero is nearly non-existent in the Sol System but so is Alien blaster ammo in Fallout. Who's to say some eezo never made it to Earth via meteor impacts or whatever. Also I've got a whole original backstory for Jack that I'm toying around with right now.

Energy Weapons: Yep, one of the biggest differences between Mass Effect Tech and its Fallout counterpart. Like I said before I'm not a super technical person, so the exact science escapes me. I'll do the research and try my best to get things right but please be patient with me. I am but a lowly FanFiction writer.

NOTE: If anyone is willing to help me with the details on Energy Weapons (or tech stuff in general) I'd be eternally grateful.

... Thoughts/Clarification end ...

There we go, all done for now. Do any of you have some thoughts you'd like to share, some criticism just chomping at the bit to jump at me? I'm really interested in some feedback.

Besides that I hope you enjoyed Chapter 3. Till next time.