Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect.

It was supposed to be a day as any other. People were doing their typical chores, their jobs, simply leading their ordinary – although considerably dull – everyday lives. The colony of Mindoir in the Attican Traverse was neither the largest, nor the richest of all human colonies. The title of the most beautiful colony was stolen by Eden Prime, and Terra Nova was the most populated, but people of Mindoir loved their home nonetheless. It was fresh, full of excitement and people were close to each other.

Which means, Maya thought grimly, that everybody knows everything about everybody, hooray. She was watching the trees swaying in the soft breeze outside the window, completely ignoring the biology lesson. She was chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully, eyes half-closed. Her tired mind was able to process only so much information, and the turian anatomy was simply too complex at the moment. However once the bell would announce the end of the lesson it would magically wake up, ready to collect all the information it could.

Besides, why would she ever need to know anything about turians? Or any other alien for that matter? It wasn't like she could meet any other species on Mindoir. Just as Maya's mother always used to say: 'Small enough to be defeated in a single raid, but insignificant enough for anyone to actually bother.' Insignificant place indeed. Absolutely no industrial area, only one primary school, one secondary school, small military base and a spaceport. Nothing else was worth the mention, according to Maya. Large farms, which made Mindoir famous, meant nothing to her. It was a way to earn money, a living of her parents and one day - her own as well. Earth, the Citadel, Elysium, Eden Prime, Omega, Illium…these were just empty words for her. Her entire world was Mindoir and her future – farming.

Partly, she was okay with it. She was resigned to this fact, but part of her would always protest against the idea. There were moments when she felt her destiny was elsewhere. However, all she needed was to simply look around to know that notion was folly. It had been difficult for her parents to let one child go, relinquishing the other would be…impossible.

John Shepard, lieutenant of the Alliance Navy, exceptional and courageous, though a little bit ruthless, soldier. He was an avatar of the famous phrase: 'Make humanity proud!'

And moreover, he was a biotic. That had been a free ticket off Mindoir and straight to Jump Zero, a station somewhere in Sol system. The Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training was definitely not to his liking, and he made sure his parents knew how much exactly he hated it there. Two years ago, the program had been shut down due to an "accident," but John never returned.

The rescue came in a form of the bell ringing loudly through the entire building; the lesson was over and she could finally go home. As if in a dream, Maya took her school bag and flung it over one shoulder, leaving the room together with her classmates.

"So…do you have any notes?" Tobias asked when they were walking down the wide corridor, straight to the exit.

"Nope," she shook her head. "I wasn't paying attention at all. Why turians? Why don't they tell us something useful? Like how to grow the best corn ever?"

"No notes? Too bad," he shrugged. "Another failed test, then."

"What test?" Maya's head snapped to the blond friend by her side. "I haven't heard anything about any test," she protested, as if by denying its existence she could make the prospective test disappear.

"Well, maybe because you weren't paying attention at all?" Tobias offered and smirked after his friend groaned loudly and used her hands to comb her hair. His eyes were captured by this motion and drawn to the incredibly red colour of the girl's hair. The rumor was, although Tobias thought it sounded stupid since the colour was an unnaturally bright red, it was the residue effect of the element zero her mother had been exposed to more than twenty years ago. Her first child, a boy, had been affected by this as well, being born a biotic. But as far as Tobias knew, Maya was just an ordinary girl, with no superpowers or ability to move things with her mind. All she had was the hair, but he didn't mind, he liked redheads.

And this one was his favorite.

"I hate tests. I hate biology. I hate school!" she grunted and took a deep breath. She forced herself to smile at her friend. "Bah, there's plenty of time 'till the next lesson. Let's not worry about it. Today…is a special day," she bit her lip and her smile became more mysterious, as if she knew something her friend didn't.

And that made Tobias nervous. "Eh…what are you up to, May?"

She gave him a look. "Just because I accidentally set neighbor's speeder on fire one time, doesn't mean…"

"Come on," he cut her off, wrapping his arm around her to bring her closer to him. Their shoulders and hips bumped together and he tried to suppress the feeling spreading through his own body; he couldn't help but simply love Maya's presence. "We both know it wasn't all that accidental."

The redhead bit her lip and gave a half-shrug. "Well…okay, maybe it wasn't, but I didn't aim for the speeder. Anyway I still don't have my omni-tool back," she informed her friend and than frowned. "What was it I wanted to say?" she hesitated. "Oh, yes! The ship!" she remembered and disentangled herself from her friend's embrace.

Tobias let his arm fall to his side soundlessly. "What ship?" he asked, already afraid of the answer.

"Well…" she started slowly and laughed shortly, "I've talked to Jane and her brother's returning from his military training today. There is a ship coming from Earth, today!" she almost squeaked, clasping her hands in enthusiasm.

Tobias looked away from Maya so that she wouldn't see his face. It was a mixture of sadness and disappointment. "May, it's…it's been two years. Do you really think…"

"Stop it!" Maya said sharply, using her right hand to cut through the air. "Now you sound like my mother."

The couple left the building and crossed the park in front of their school. Tobias lived on the other side of the colony, but Maya's house was already in their line of sight.

It wasn't a house per se. It was a container divided into several sections, rooms. If you could afford it, you could have several of these containers connected into one, making the living space larger. Maya's family had two; one on top of the other, connected by an outside steel stairway. Upstairs they had bedrooms and a bathroom. Their living room and kitchen were downstairs.

Tobias hummed something vague, and exhaled slowly. Maya was an incredibly headstrong person. And naïve. He loved it, but sometimes it wasn't very good for her. No one believed her brother would ever show up on Mindoir. He had a career in the military now. What was such a backwater colony to him?

Maya, more than slightly annoyed by her friend's response, sighed. "See you tomorrow," she said without any trace of a smile and headed towards her parents' house. What could he know? John was family. And…even though she was just six when he was sent to Jump Zero, she remembered how fond he was of her, and protective. She was his little sister. She simply refused to believe he would go against his family like that. There had to be a reason – a sensible reason – why he hadn't returned before. He could have been on some highly important mission.

"Mom! I'm home!" she yelled after the door slid closed behind her, throwing her bag at the barstool. She looked around and quickly found out she was alone here. She wanted to check the other container, but then she noticed something on a coffee table. A datapad with a note. She picked it up and bit her lip while reading:

Honey, I've gone to help dad on our farm. We should be home before nightfall, but you know how things are this time of a year. Busy. Dinner's in the fridge. Love you.

With a sigh she deleted the message and turned the device off. Casually she tossed it in the general direction of the sofa and put her hands on her hips. She looked around, unsure of what to do. She could try to ask a few of her friends to give her their notes from the biology lesson. Or she could surf the extranet. That sounded more like it. Or she could go to the spaceport to meet Jane and wait together for the ship.

She cocked her head slightly to one side and grimaced sadly. What if all of them were right? And John would be never coming home again? Was she ready for another disappointment?

How many times had she been there, waiting, hoping, only to end up staring at the leaving ship after soldiers left it, feeling empty? She had been just a little girl when John was sent to Jump Zero and her parents never let her read John's messages, but she still could read the emotions in their faces. She couldn't understand. It wasn't their fault John had gone there, nor was it hers. Why would he be angry with them?

Slowly she pushed all the thoughts aside, frowning. "No," she whispered. "He was only busy. Today he might arrive," she said, hoping that if she said it out loud it would make the knot in her stomach vanish. It was still there, however, when she turned on her heel and headed outside the house.

She moved down the dusty path at a brisk walk alongside the line of other houses, deliberately choosing this path rather than the main road that crossed the entire colony. This was a longer route, but there was a lesser chance of meeting anyone with stupid questions.

But that meant walking by the military base. It wasn't a large facility. The barracks could accommodate a maximum of approximately thirty soldiers, which was pitiful; such numbers couldn't hold against the weakest of enemies for long. Definitely not until the help would arrive. But…the colony was insignificant enough for no one to actually bother to attack it, wasn't it?

The gate to the base was, as usual, closed, so that people couldn't freely walk inside. There was a soldier stationed in front of it, guarding it. He wore dark armour and Maya knew it was a standard Alliance attire, dark blue and black with the Alliance emblem on his left sleeve, and was armed with a pistol fastened to his hip and an assault rifle he was now holding in his hands. Maya could see his eyes were on her. She smiled at him and he, for a second, as if afraid someone might see him, returned the gesture.

Hm...hot soldiers, a reason why to join the Alliance. Hey! That should be on the poster, she thought when she made her way towards the soldier. "Hey, Sean," she greeted him. "On duty again?" she smiled brightly at him.

Sean shrugged. "You know how things are. Better then what others are getting inside, though," he tossed his head to the base.

"A drill?" Maya asked and suddenly wanted to be inside the base to see them train. She had always pictured how it could look like from all the videos she'd watched. A perfectly synchronized unit led by an experienced commander who knew his men through and through, making their way through the training ground, overcoming all the obstacles, and taking down every single enemy in their path with an agonizing precision, easily reaching their goal.

Of course, she knew her images were far too romantic and idealistic. The reality had to be much harder and more difficult. The training – or any mission for that matter – scarcely went smoothly; there was always a chance of something going wrong. The demands placed on soldiers who were undertaking only the basic military training were getting stricter every year, and it was common many decided to quit before completing it due to great physical and psychological stress.

On the other hand, Mindoir wasn't Elysium. There was no need for highly trained professionals. Maya even doubted this military base had what it took for a proper training. The Alliance didn't consider this colony important enough to send it more money for that use.

"If you can call it a drill," Sean said in low voice, confirming the girl's thoughts. "But yeah, standing here all day is still much better. Anyway, why are you here?" he asked and gave her a searching look.

She shook her head and lifted her right arm for him to see. "Don't worry. Still no omni-tool," she reassured him.

Sean smirked and shook his head in amusement. "Serves you right for causing troubles."

She rolled her eyes, tired of being upbraided by everyone. "It was an acci..." she started saying, but something high up in the sky drew her attention instead. Several dark shapes of space shuttles pierced through the white clouds and were now heading towards the colony. "...dent," she finished and shook her head, letting the ships slip from her mind.

Sean brought his eyebrows together and made a move to turn around to see what had fascinated the girl so much, but at that moment his in-helmet communicator crackled.

...

Being a soldier on Mindoir was a great job. The salary was exceptionally good, the weather was nice and the countryside was breathtaking. There wasn't much of a duty either. This colony was a perfect example of how people earned their place among the other species in the galaxy. Though they were still new-comers in the eyes of other races, they managed to found several colonies, make them profitable, beautiful and self-sufficient. And on top of all that, such a small colony like Mindoir was an incredibly safe place.

Alan was sitting on the ground, his back resting against the steel wall of the container behind him. His head was leaned back, touching the wall, but his helmet prevented him from feeling the cold. His eyes were closed. He was listening to the soft music coming from the inside. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and his left foot was tapping the ground to the rhythm, a content expression on his face.

This job was the best job ever. Mindoir weather was always warm, always sunny – maybe except for today, Alan thought – and serving here was like a never-ending vacation. People respected you, because you were here to offer them a protection they actually didn't need, grateful that the Alliance was stationing soldiers here. It made them feel more significant than they really were.

It was ironic. He'd been previously serving on Terra Nova, proud to be part of the Alliance forces protecting one of the greatest human colonies. Then the transfer came, ordering him to Mindoir. It angered him, he didn't want to set a foot on such an insignificant backwater place, but in the end it turned out to be his best assignment ever.

A sound of incoming ships disturbed Alan from his thoughts. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and with en exasperated sigh stood up, taking his assault rifle he'd laid on the ground next to him in his hands. He stepped away from the container and with his head up started searching the sky. There was a ship expected to land today, but when he found several dark spots quickly coming his way, he immediately knew something was wrong. The SSV Einstein wasn't, as far as he knew, supposed to come with an escort. He approached the container and leaned with his elbows against the window, glancing inside.

On the other side of the little room, next to a large TV set, was a comfortable corner sofa with a sleeping and snoring soldier sprawled across it. His left hand was hanging off its edge and under it was the newest issue of Fornax, lying on the floor. The soldier's helmet on the coffee table obscured the view for Alan, so he couldn't see the sensual curves of a scantily clad asari body.

"CJ!" Alan shouted and then chuckled after the soldier winced and his eyes snapped open. He sprung into sitting position, unintentionally knocking his helmet off the coffee table in the process. Alan didn't give the confused soldier time to collect himself. "We have several ships coming. I don't think they are on the list, so check them out. I'll contact the base," he instructed him and retreated from the window. Putting his hand to the side of his own helmet Alan activated the integrated communicator.

...

Sean frowned in surprise, not really sure why anyone was contacting him. He definitely wasn't expecting to hear the voice he did. "Sean? It's Alan. Say, man, do we expect other ships safe for the Einstein?" The question took Sean back a little. Finally, Sean turned around as well, lifting his head up and Maya's eyes moved upwards as well, focusing on the growing shapes. Hesitantly he shook his head as if the soldier on the other side of the call could see him. "Negative. Have you contacted them? Why are they here?"

"CJ's working on it," Alan said and there was a short pause. Another voice could be heard in the background, but it sounded so far away it was impossible to make out any words. "They...they shut off the communication channel."

Instinctively Maya made a step back. She felt as if a hand grasped her stomach tightly while she was watching the ships. It was difficult to tell, but they didn't seem to be slowing down as they should while approaching a spaceport. A thought crossed her mind, that the ships weren't coming to the colony, but there was nothing else they could actually head to.

"Shit," Sean muttered under his breath. He didn't have to be exactly an N7 operative to know something was amiss. "Alan, open the channel again and tell them unless they identify themselves we'll bring them down."

"But we don't have..." all at once the communication was over.

Although she couldn't hear the other voice, Sean's response only tightened the hand around her stomach. "Is...is something wrong?" Maya asked in a shaky voice, her eyes on the sky. The ships were just seconds from their position. She was only barely aware of the soldier trying to set up a new connection helplessly via his omnitool. When he couldn't manage, with a muttered: "Disruptors," he turned around to the console to open the gate.

The explosion was deafening. Several well aimed rockets simultaneously launched hit the defenceless base in one moment, tearing the concrete and steel and making it burst like it was nothing but a mere paper box. Large pieces of the structure were scattered around as the shock wave spread from the epicentre of the explosion, completing the work of destruction and demolishing what was left from the not-so-large main building.

Maya couldn't breathe. Her chest was aching terribly and she felt as if she lost all feeling in her legs. Even without Sean's heavy, armoured body pinning her to the dirty ground it was difficult to suck in the air. Her lungs suffering from the stinging pain after breathing in the wave of the burning air simply refused to inhale more of the dusty hot air and smoke. A pair of strong hands were protecting her head, covering her ears, but she could still hear another explosion. The sound was quieter, seemingly coming from afar, but the shaking ground beneath her and the hot wave forcing its way down her windpipe again until she started coughing indicated the blast was much closer.

The pressure on her head was gone suddenly, so was the weight pressing her down. Before she could actually look around someone was pulling her up. The heat from the ablaze base was hurting her eyes, making them water, when Sean grasped both her cheeks into his gloved hands and made her look at him. His dark eyes were shining from his face covered in dust. From his hairline trickles of sweat were running down his cheeks. His lips were moving, but all Maya could hear was the loud ringing and sounds painfully resembling gunfire from somewhere very, very far away.

Her eyes, blinking both tears and the pain away, focused on his lips. The first word was obvious, it was her name. Shepard, but she was unable to get the rest. She started shaking her head. "I can't hear you!" she screamed, her throat felt dry.

She wasn't sure if he could hear her or not. His helmet might have protected his ears. Anyway, he shook his head and looked around, searching for the assault rifle he'd dropped when he knocked the girl down in order to protect both of them from the explosion.

"We need to get to the school. There's a bunker in the cellars and a communicator! We have to send out a distress signal!" he was telling her, as if she could hear him. With the Lancer Assault Rifle in his hands again, he checked its condition. Everything seemed alright, so he turned to the girl and motioned with the rifle to the direction he wanted her to go. However she didn't move and her eyes grew wide in terror. She let out a short, high-pitched shriek when he felt a dull hit on his back and he saw the blue shadow of his kinetic barriers activate, ricocheting the bullets off.

...

Maya watched in horror as two figures emerged from behind one of the living containers. It took just a second for one of them to aim his assault rifle at the soldier with his back to them. The first burst seemed to simply bounce off the soldier protected by the kinetic barriers of his armour. Sean turned around, lifting his own rifle. It managed to bark shortly, before it was silenced by the second aggressor. A pain shot down Maya's leg and she crumbled to the ground after a bullet from the shotgun managed to find her thigh. The rest of the burst finally penetrated Sean's weakened barrier and sunk deep into the soldier's body. The corpse fell to the ground, immediately turning it red.

Unable to scream, to move, to do anything, she was staring at the body right in front of her, at the bloody mash that mere seconds ago used to be a man's chest. With fear spreading through every fibre of her body, she lifted her eyes to the two humanoids above her. Batarians. She couldn't hear them, for the ringing in her ears seemed to grow even louder, but they seemed to be arguing. Her eyes slid down from their ugly, four-eyed faces to the barrel of the rifle aimed right between her eyes. She was as good as dead, she knew, but something inside her, the purely animal drive to survive, made her move nonetheless.

When the batarians noticed the motion, it was already too late. With Sean's omnitool safely in her hand, she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, flexing her arm out, using the device's energy to send forward a bright blue round. It exploded right between her and the two batarians, the sharp light coming even through her closed eyelids. She couldn't hear anything, she had no way of knowing if the impulse managed to overheat their weapons, but she wasn't dead yet, that had to mean something. Preparing herself for worse, she flexed out her arm a second time, her body already moving the other direction in a despairing attempt to escape the explosion. But not even the adrenaline flowing through her veins could prevent her from feeling the pain.

There was the light, orange and red, and then she felt the heat crawling up her right arm, licking her bared skin, clawing at it until the pain was almost too much to bear. It became the very centre of her whole being, she could not think of anything other than the burning feeling in her arm. She felt the need to cradle the arm to her body, but when she touched it and felt how slick and sticky it was her clouded mind wanted to get rid of the useless limb, of the source of her suffering.

What are you doing? Do you want to die here? You don't know how many of them are there! Others might come! You have to get up!, a weak voice in her head whispered. Together with the faint sounds of the gunfire it was slowing returning her to the reality. Come on! Get a grip and get up!

Her muscles ached when she tried to sit up slowly. They were protesting as she hoisted herself on her left elbow carefully, and then pushed, her arm shaking under her, until she was sitting.

She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the dark smudge on her trousers. You need medigel! Search Sean! Soldiers always have something on them, the rational part of her mind advised her. Crawling closer to the body, with only one healthy arm and leg, took her what seem like an eternity. Hot tears were streaming down her cheeks, sobs escaping her lips and every time her body shook a new bolt of pain shot from the injured thigh. Finally she found a medigel paste snapped to the dead soldier's side, right above the holster of a standard alliance gun. She put the tube to her mouth, holding it in place with her teeth while her left hand was trying to open it. The precious matter stained her shirt after she finally got rid of the lid. Quickly she applied it into the wound, her mind demanding almost the whole tube of it.

She still needed a bandage to stop the bleeding, but the medigel itself was enough to, at least partially, ease the pain.

Great! Now arm yourself! She looked at the gun and reached out to get it, but then her eyes spotted the omnitool on the ground and went for it instead. She had no knowledge of how to shoot a gun, but she could defend herself with the omnitool. It wasn't a secret that military issued omnitool could do much more than send a few impulses. They could focus the energy to create a combat drone. And in the case that any of those bastards would get near to you, a military omnitool have the omniblade!, the clever voice reminded her.

With the omnitool safely in her hand she tried to stand up. The pain was still there, she couldn't walk quickly, but at least she could move. Whimpering each time she stepped on the hurt leg she begun limping away from the base. Though she had no idea where to go. The gunfire seemed to be coming from every direction, the fires illuminating the small colony almost omnipresent.

Safety first!, the voice ordered and her left arm obeyed. The omnitool raised a hologram around her forearm. The world was rocking from side to side in unison with her limping pace while she was searching for a way to create the drone. She was well past the first houses when she finally figured it out, and a soft smile crossed her lips when a shiny violet orb appeared in front of her out of thin air.

For a second it was floating at her eye level, then it seemed to turn around and head forward. Its scans were quicker to find the threat than Maya's blurred mind or deaf ears. The batarians never knew what hit them when the sphere surprised them while they were dragging helpless, unconscious humans away from their houses. They let go of the weights to reach for their weapons, but it was too late. The drone's precisely-aimed bursts never gave them a chance, or their kinetic barriers, stripping them down before batarians even managed to pull the trigger.

"Behind you!" Maya caught herself screaming and her arm flew in the air to point to the other direction than the drone was facing; a group of three batarians were hurrying to help their fallen comrades. The drone didn't need her warning though; it was aware of the incoming threat and quickly turned around. It made a quick calculation. Maya's voice only drew the attention to herself and two of the three had already flexed their muscles to turn towards her. A simple burst of bullets wouldn't be enough to take the two of them down fast enough. Instead of several red flashes a single brightly blue beam left the drone's energetic body, hitting the weapons the three were holding, causing them to overheat for a limited – and rather very short – period.

By the time Maya had, of course, realized what she did was an act of great stupidity. The drone's action, however, gave her the precious time to flick her arm towards the attackers, sending another blue bolt to finish their weapon's destruction. Moreover, the blue kinetic barriers around the three blinked for a few seconds that cost them their lives. Though it wasn't the drone whose quick, short bursts turned the skins and flesh of the aliens into mushy mix of blood, insides and bones.

A crouched Alliance soldier was hurrying to her side even before the bodies had the time to hit the ground. "Alan!" Maya screamed in relief when the soldier got near enough for her to see his face under the helmet.

...

It seemed like a miracle for Alan to actually find someone alive. Though the sight of the girl wasn't pleasant, she'd been shot to leg and her arm was severely burnt, her condition was still better than what he'd seen in his search so far. The beasts were merciless and ruthless. They were kidnapping people, and those who somehow weren't to their liking were killed on the spot.

"Come! We've gathered the survivors in the bunker!" he said to her and grasped her healthy elbow, knowing the girl's shocked condition wouldn't let her to move on her own. But when she made first few steps and he saw the way her hurt leg didn't allow her a quicker pace than a hobble, he quickly changed his mind.

He pushed the button on his rifle and it quickly collapsed in his hands into an easily portable piece of metal. He quickly snapped it to the side and grasped the girl under her knees, crouching slightly to throw her inelegantly over his shoulder. Ignoring her sharp yelp of pain he steadied her with his left arm, making sure she wouldn't fall while drawing his gun from its holster with the right hand. He'd cleared the way from the school, but it was just a matter of time before batarians would show there again. If he was quick enough, he would make it there without much of a problem, at least not anything a gun couldn't handle. With the drone following hot on his heels, he quickly started zigzagging between the containers.

...

When Alan finally eased her on to the cold floor it was an end to agony for her. With his every step the pain from her leg and mostly from her arm was blinding her and she had to fight to stay conscious. Even now when she was sitting, unmoving, with her back against a wall, she was that close to begging for more medigel to finally kill the pain. You can't get more of it. It would send you straight into coma, the voice spoke up again.

The room she was in was small and smelled funny. It was cold as well and it took her a moment to notice the only entrance was from above. There was a trapdoor in the ceiling. She didn't have more time to inspect where she was as somebody crouched to her side.

"Tobias..." she whispered and traced the sweaty face of her best friend with her fingertips, while not letting go of the omnitool in her palm. He quickly took her hand in his and gave her a bright smile. There was blood on his teeth. She wanted to ask what happened to him, but she wouldn't hear him anyway.

At the moment, Tobias started talking to her, though his face was now turned to her injured leg. There was a cloth in his hand and he quickly started wrapping it around. The more he was talking, the more troubled the expression on his face was.

Maya was smiling despite the pain and waiting patiently, until he was done with the bandage, using the time to look around. They had to be in some kind of a bunker. There was a terminal nearby, its screen flashing frantically. And, to Maya's greatest terror, with herself and Tobias only eighteen people were here, and almost all of them injured. Ten of them kids, generally younger than ten years. They were crying, or had been, their eyes red and puffy.

She felt cold fingers on her cheek. Tobias put a strand of her hair behind her ear. He was talking to her and smiling softly. She shook her head. "I can't hear you," she said. "Too close to the explosion," she wanted to add, but something else drew her – and everyone else's – attention to the trapdoor. Alan's head appeared in it and he shouted something. Although she couldn't hear the words, somehow she knew what he was saying. If we are to survive, they need to close the door. And they're staying outside, they want to defend us until their last breath, the voice whispered darkly.

One of the survivors quickly run up the steps to the door and closed it. Maya had to bite hard on her tongue to stay silent while watching him lock it. It's their duty. There's still a chance the attackers could get through the locked door, so they have to try to fight them off until help arrives.

The light, informing about the state of the door, changed its colour from green – unlocked – to red – locked.

And now we have to wait, the voice went on, and hope it will be the Alliance that opens the door next. Maya closed her eyes and tightened her hand around the omnitool, wishing that her biggest concern was still just a stupid biology test.

...

It was supposed to be an evening as any other. As usual, after a long day filled with hard work, John allowed himself to let off some steam in his favourite club, 'The Seventh Heaven'. Together with the rest of his unit he was enjoying what entertainment the good old Earth had to offer; drinking, dancing, though girls were just for his men. Not that he didn't like them, but he had Katy.

But tonight something was simply...wrong. As much as he wanted to get rid of the feeling, he felt restless and nervous. Instead of dancing his feet off on the dance floor with Katy, he was sitting in the comfortable seat, playing with an empty glass, watching his girlfriend frolic merrily on her own.

Slowly, deep in thought, he brought the glass to his lips, but when no liquid touched his lips, he blinked and looked at it. With a sigh he stood up and went to the bar to order another. He liked to order his drinks himself, rather than asking a waitress. The music in the club was loud and the bar was the only place where you could actually hear anything without a need to shout yourself hoarse.

While he was waiting for his drink a TV above the bar drew his attention. His eyes grew wide and he didn't even realize he was watching the screen with his mouth hanging open. Suddenly, he sprung to his feet, his drink forgotten. As quickly as he could he made his way through the suddenly insufferably crowded club. But not even the fresh air outside could clear his head when he activated his omnitool and accessed the extranet. Quickly, with his fingers shaking, he logged into his mailbox. He watched the progress bar with unusual anxiety, the reporter's voice ringing in his ears.

"...hours ago the human colony on Mindoir was attacked by an unknown group of batarian slavers..."

"Come on..." he hissed, as if it could make the bar slid from the left to the right any faster.

"...leaving the colony completely destroyed..."

Finally, the bar disappeared and he got the access to his messages. He had ten new messages.

"...several survivors. The Alliance has decided against publishing the list of their names, stating that all bereaved families have been informed about their relative's fates..."

But only one of them held any significance to him. His heart almost stopped when he opened it and his eyes scanned the text quickly, his brain accepting only the searched information: "...Alayne Shepard...missing...Thomas Shepard...found dead…Maya Z. Shepard...alive…"

To be continued... Thank you all for reading and if you feel like it, let me know what you think about it. Oh, and sorry for the mistakes, not a native speaker here. I'm trying my best though.

[editted by BlackArtWhiteVoice]