"Samuel! Get back here!" Abigail leaned out the front door of the fabricated unit and saw her youngest disappear over the hill. "Augh." She turned to her eldest. "Jessie, sweetheart, will you go chase your brother down?"

The teenager dutifully stood up, grabbing her jacket as she went. Abigail waited until she too, had disappeared over the hill. Hopefully, Samuel would be able to keep her distracted long enough. She stuck her head into the room that contained her husband and other daughter. "Alright, she's gone. Get the decorations."

Brenda giggled as she dove into the cupboard and began pulling out the banner. "Did you get her the bike?" She glanced at her father.

"You only want her to have the bike so she can take you places." He shook his head fondly.

"Well, yeah."

#

Jessie slipped around the trees to cut off her brother's escape. Fortunately, at six he was pretty predictable. He was glancing back over his shoulder when she moved in front of him. As soon as he started moving again, he ran directly into her.

"Oof."

"How long did Mom tell you to keep me out of the house for?"

Samuel grinned up at her. "I told her you'd figure it out. I mean, it's not like you don't know when your birthday is." He shrugged. "An hour."

"Want to head over to the river see if we can catch one of those lizard things?" She ruffled his hair before offering him her hand.

He took it and smiled broadly as he followed her down the hill. "Can I name it Fred?"

"Well, they are ugly and stinky." She smiled at him. "So we better name it Sam."

"I'm not -" He tripped and would have fallen if he hadn't been clinging to her hand.

She knelt, and let him climb up on her back. He let out a joyous whoop as she began to run, leaping over the ruts in the field.

#

Ted looked up at the sound of the odd humming noise, and shrugged. He stepped out into the backyard. Abigail was hanging the banner wishing their eldest a Sweet Sixteen. "Honey, did you hear -"

The sound came again, and then his wife was lying on the ground, the top half of her head missing. He screamed her name. A figure turned towards him, gun moving, and he ducked back into the house. There was a burning pain in his side as he grabbed his daughter's hand and began to run.

#

"Jessie?"

"Stay behind me." Jessie saw the smoke rising from the circle of homes. People were being rounded up. Others were trying to run or fight. She heard a familiar voice scream, and saw Samuel's teacher being incinerated. She caught her brother before he could see, and dragged him from the scene.

#

"Mommy?" Samuel's voice was small.

Jessie saw the figure on the ground. There was nothing left of the face, but the corpse wore her mother's dress. She could still hear the sound of weapons fire from the other side of the village. She caught her brother's hand. "That's not Mommy, sweetie. Mommy's waiting for us in a safe place." She pulled him with her. "We just need to..."

An armored figure stepped into her way. All four of the man's eyes stared at her as he started to aim his weapon in her direction. He might have said something. She couldn't hear it over the rush of blood in her head. As soon as the weapon turned towards her brother, she launched herself at the batarian, knocking him to the ground.

She landed atop him. Somehow, her hand found a rock. She brought it down on his face once, twice, she wasn't sure how many times before he stopped moving. She looked behind her, and saw her brother cowering. Blood coated her hands. She took a deep breath, and picked up the weapon. "We need to keep moving."

There was blood on her hands. She wiped it off on the grass before reaching for her brother. He swallowed and took it, and pride filled her. "That's it, Sammy. I just need you to be brave for a few more minutes."

#

Brenda was sobbing. Ted pulled his daughter to him. The bodies of his neighbors, friends, and colleagues littered the ground. Those that had surrendered were being rounded up into cages. He saw no sign of his eldest or youngest child. "Brenda, sweetie, I need you to be quiet for daddy."

She nodded, and choked down the tears. "Okay."

"That's my brave girl. We just need..."

Something kicked the door in. Despair filled him as four batarians entered their hiding place. He screamed for Brenda to run as he launched himself at them.

#

She saw them drag her father out into the street, and threw him to his knees. One of the batarians aimed a weapon, and...

#

They were almost out of the habitat. Past the farms, into the forested area that had yet to be terraformed. No one would find them there. The batarians would go, and help would come, and they'd be safe.

She heard the sound of weaponfire behind her, and Samuel stumbled. She swung him up onto her hip and kept running.

#

Red.

A hole through her baby brother.

She put her hands on the wound, trying to stop the flow.

His eyes closed.

They didn't reopen.

Something broke.

#

Anderson looked over the wreckage. Mindoir had been a pastoral world. A quiet world. A safe world. He could smell charcoal and burned flesh as his unit walked through the burned out remains of what had been homes.

Most of the batarians were already gone, along with those they'd taken as slaves. Their scans had picked up several ships, pirates looting from the dead.

They were moving towards what had been a hospital when they encountered their first hostiles. Batarians and Vorcha fired on them before fleeing. Vollan started to give chase, and Anderson was moving in to provide backup when Vollan stepped on the mine. The explosion killed Vollan and sent Anderson flying. He hit a wall, and saw a vorcha smile as he started to level his weapon.

Something blew the vorcha's head off. The vorcha's companions started to turn in the direction of the fire, and Anderson realized a heartbeat later that none of his squadmates were in that location.

He got his own gun into position and opened fire as his squadmates joined the fray. Three of the batarians ran, and he gestured to some of his squad before following.

Before they caught them, two of the batarians had fallen to weapon fire. The third closed with whoever was firing and roared a battle cry before a machete hit him in the side of the neck. The blow staggered the batarian, but it took four more before the attacker had done enough damage to make him fall.

Anderson approached. Blood matted the girl's hair to her head, and there was a crazed gleam in her eyes. She adjusted her grip on the blade before aiming the pistol in her other hand at him. He saw his squadmates start to move, and held up his hand. "Hold." He took a step closer. In addition to the pistol, the girl had two batarian style shotguns in a makeshift holster across her back, and a second pistol had been secured to her leg. And he was pretty sure the bag tied to her waist contained grenades. But the real shock was that he could see still more dead pirates in the building behind her, and it hadn't been his team that had killed them. He held his hands out to his sides, palms open. "My name is Anderson. I'm with the alliance."

She tilted her head at him as if trying to make sense of his words. And the pistol in her hand didn't shake in the slightest. He tried again. "Are you hurt?" Not all the blood on her the right color, but the front of shirt was stiff with dried reddish-brown blood. "There is a doctor on my ship. Dr. Chakwas. She's a real nice lady." Carefully, he took another step.

The pistol wavered just slightly. He took a deep breath, and took another step forward. "My name is Anderson. What's your name?" He was only a couple feet from her now.

Her eyes were hollow. And then they met his. Slowly, the pistol was lowered until it was pointed at the ground. Gently, he took it out of her hand. She released her grip on the machete, and let it fall to the ground. "Will you come with me?" He offered her his hand.

For several long seconds, she just stared at it blankly. And then she put her hand in his.

#

"Has she spoken yet?" Anderson looked at the girl sitting on the examination table.

"No." Dr. Chakwas looked down at the datapad.

"How badly is she hurt?"

"None of the blood was hers." Dr. Chakwas sighed, and met his eyes. "Though based on the results of the scan, most of it..." She glanced back at the girl. "Came from a family member."

"She's the only survivor." He rubbed his forehead. "Not just a survivor..." He folded his arms. "Karin, we found over twenty dead pirates. She killed more than my entire squad did." He frowned. "Do you have an ID?"

"We weren't able to recover records from the city computer. I've sent a request for the backups from Earth." Dr. Chakwas walked back over to where the girl was sitting.

Anderson followed. Dr. Chakwas asked several questions, and the girl did not respond to any of them. She walked back to the medication unit. Anderson looked the girl over again. Now that it was clean, her hair proved to be red. There were a few small abrasions on her face, and bruising around one of her green eyes. He shifted, and she raised her head to look at him. "Do you remember me?"

Slowly, she nodded. "Anderson." A few seconds passed. "Alliance."

"That's me. Anderson. I'm with the alliance."

She was silent again. Dr. Chakwas came over, holding a small syringe. "I would like to give you something. It will help you sleep."

The girl stared at the needle before looking back up at Anderson. "Will I have bad dreams?"

He wanted to tell her no, but knew that answer was unlikely. "You'll dream of a warm place. And when you wake up, you'll be in it."

For a long moment, she was silent. Then she nodded. "Okay."

"Can you tell me your name?" He brushed the hair back from her face as she laid down on the table. Dr. Chakwas gently pushed the needle into her arm. "What should I call you?"

She stared up at him before her eyes started to close from the sedative. "Shepherd."