So I've always wondered what it would be like if the Angara came to the Milky way instead. I've also wondered what would happen should Shepard and Evfra meet. I hope you enjoy it.

One hundred thousand!

Evfra had spent hours going over the numbers, but still came to the same conclusion every time. The cold hard truth hit him in the face, bringing sobering and depressing thoughts to his mind. There were only one hundred thousand Angara left and that was diminishing by the hour. A once proud society hunted and abducted into extinction.

He failed.

At least, that is how he felt. He tried so hard, fought for so long to keep the Angara alive, but it wasn't enough. Every day he developed new strategies that forced him to send people out to fight, putting their lives on the line and more often, than not never returning. He took control of the resistance after his family were taken by the Kett. It was the only reason he was still alive now, giving him a new purpose. De Tershaav's went down fighting, if an enemy wanted them dead, then they'd have to work for it.

He pressed his face into his hands, his heavy mind weighing his head down. The door to his office pinged, but he ignored it. He couldn't find the mental energy to deal with the interloper. Unfortunately, the mystery person was not put off so easily and continued to ping the door, no doubt until they got a response. Evfra grunted angrily, slamming his fists down on the desk. "Come in!" He barked.

His de facto second in command, Jaal entered placing a data pad on the desk, sliding it towards Evfra. "The "Isharay Project" is nearly completed. Governor Minaat thinks you should give your approval for the passenger list."

"No." Evfra slid it back across the desk to Jaal, wanting no part in that decision. "I will not be involved in that project nor will I be going."

"Evfra!" Jaal scolded, feeling the last slither of patience leave him. "The resistance will need it's leader. We have no idea what we will find.

"Have they even decided where they intend to go?" Evfra asked, highly irritated.

"To the Masaf Shell galaxy." Came a matter of fact reply.

Evfra laughed humourlessly as he got up from the desk, standing in front of the window, staring down into the streets of Aya. "How can they start anew with only forty thousand people?"

"The scientists think it plausible. They have already taken biological samples from people who won't be joining the project." Jaal joined his friend at the window, tapping him affectionately on the shoulder.

"Are you going?" He asked.

Jaal shifted uncomfortably on the spot, looking down at his feet. He hadn't managed to summon up the courage to tell his friend he would be going. "My family have been accepted so I have to go."

Evfra slumped his shoulders in defeat. Jaal had became the closest thing he had to family left, if he went he would be left with nothing. "How can I leave sixty thousand of my own people to the mercy of the Kett?"

"A necessary evil as the Governors put it." Jaal spat out. He knew that they could easily accommodate more Angara if they wish too but politics got in the way.

"It's not just that Jaal. We could abandon sixty thousand just to take forty thousand to their deaths."

"Our options are running out." Jaal said quietly. "There is no place safe for us anymore."

The resistance leader steeled himself, rolling his shoulders back. "If they want me to go, then they need to make room for more. We need to make sure the children are going."

Jaal chuckled to himself. "I'm sure they'll find a way."

Evfra stepped back from the window, taking a seat at his desk once again. "When do they plan to depart?"

"In 6 months. I have to get back to Havarl to help mother prepare."

"Have a safe journey. Stay strong and clear."

Jaal nodded with respected. "Stay strong and clear." Jaal left the office, smiling to himself that he convinced Evfra to go. He was important figure to the Angara. They'd do anything to make sure he was onboard for the journey.

It had been three months since Jaal had convinced Evfra to join the "Isharay Project." In those three months they had lost another twenty thousand to the Kett. Evfra and many others wondered how many more would be lost until they departed to the Milky Way. Upon Evfra's wishes, all the Angaran children were moved to the project site on Kadara, along with their parents. Unfortunately, due the Kett abducting entire families, only 20% of the passenger list were children.

Evfra stood in his family's home, remembering all the good times that took place in those walls. The day his first nephew, Jaap was born. When his sister, Etiva got married. When Evfra himself became engaged but he refused to let that memory dance in his mind. Eveleka had been a free spirit and a perfect compliment to Evfra's personality. She was the first to go and Evfra buried it in the back of his mind and never thought about it again. But that didn't stop him from sub consciously searching for her name when reports came though from resistance members.

It never did appear.

His mother, Merna was a beautifully kind and generous woman, forever taking on the waifs and strays of Havarl. Those who lost family and needed love and shelter. She was truly the head of the family and her word was law, but no one complained. She was just a natural leader, a quality that she passed down to her youngest child. If she were there, she would tell him, it was his duty to get married and have children, to restart the family, but it didn't seem right to him. How could anyone have children to replenish the population of a species being hunted to extinction? A life filled with loss and pain. The last thing he wanted to do was create more innocent targets for the Kett.

He moved through the home collecting mementos of all his family members. Things that would help him remember his roots. It was surreal being back in the home he abandoned after his final family member died. It was like time forgot to take place in the home. It angered him, all that life and all those memories destroyed on the whims of Aliens. Aliens who had tricked them into a false sense of security. Evfra didn't know what it was like when the Kett first arrived, but he had been dealing with the aftermath since.

His eldest brother, Syaan was the final member of his family to be lost. It was something that Evfra would forever blame himself for. They had been camping on the ever frozen, Voeld for weeks. Seeking refuge in a small abandoned Daar. It had been Evfra's turn to go out to hunt for food, but the young and arrogant man had forced his older brother to go. He waited for hours but Evfra never saw his brother again. He stayed hidden for days, rationing what little food he had to make sure he wouldn't starve. It wasn't until Jaal's father, Galen Ama Darav found him, that he finally escaped from Voeld. The resistance leader had been spent the proceeding years punishing himself for his selfishness.

He collected the small trinkets he had gathered and with one last look over his family home, he said his final Isharay to the memories of past. Jaal had been waiting outside for him, sharing the same mournful emotions, knowing that they'd never be returning to Havarl again. The two stood in silence looking up the night sky, before heading to a waiting shuttle, Kadara bound.

With less than a day to go until departure, Angaran numbers had fallen yet again. Only seventy thousand remained. The passenger list had opened to any others not already on it, but only another one thousand chose to join. The rest had massed on Aya, hoping that the Kett would not find them. They had chosen to stay, refusing to leave their home and lives behind for the unknown. Evfra had made sure that Aya was prepared with weaponry, stockpiles of food and ways in which to replenish those stocks. He would not leave without giving them a fighting chance for survival.

Evfra stood on the station orbiting Kadara, looking out at the ship that he'll spend six hundred years sleeping on. He would never admit it, but he was scared. They were travelling to a new galaxy with only small snippets of information on what they would find. They knew that there would viable planets for them, but no one could know if those planets had inhabitants or if there was intelligent life to meet. Jaal on the other hand, was excited. He was a born explorer, the stars didn't represent the unknown, they were the unexplored.

The Moshae joined him at the window, casting an eye over her former student. "You seem troubled?" She stated.

"I…am scared." He admitted. "We have no idea what awaits in at the end of this journey."

"New beginnings, I am hopeful. I know you are reluctant to do this, but we have no other option."

"I failed, Moshae." Evfra muttered, grimly.

"You did not fail." She argued, vehemently. "We fought so hard, but the Kett grew in numbers. We could not continue to fight."

Evfra and the Moshae stood in comfortable silence until she was called to be put in her sleeper pod. Evfra wasn't due to go into his for another two hours. He knew Jaal was already in his so for brief second, he thought about not going through with it. He decided against it when he imagined the anger on Jaal and the Moshae's faces. Jaal had been right, the resistance needed their leader. A strong military presence could be the difference between surviving or dying in the new galaxy.

Eventually, Evfra was called by the scientists to go into his sleeper pod. It didn't feel quite real for him. To know that once he woke, they would be in the new galaxy. He muttered a quick prayer, begging the ancestors for forgiveness. He failed his people once; he would rather die than do it again.

Sealed in his pod, he spoke once last time before he slept.

Isharay