Disclaimer: Mass Effect is mine…in my dreams

Disclaimer: Mass Effect is mine…in my dreams

Penelope Shepard sat in the barracks on the SSV Montezuma repairing her weapons. She had been using these ever since the Blitz, in the back of her mind she thought that they had brought her luck. Considering it was with these weapons that had helped her hold off an entire platoon of hostiles, single handedly; no one begrudged her for thinking like that.

She removed the pouch she had strapped to her belt and pulled out the Kunai she kept in there. She used these small throwing knifes when her weapons over heated or she ran out of ammo and had to reload. When thrown with Biotic force they have been known to pierce some of the thickest layers of armor.

Penelope was a N7 special operative, the modern day green beret, aside from extensive training with weapons and enough tech or heal herself and others; she could open locked boxes, decrypt transmissions or programs, and she had Biotic powers. How she got them she never knew but the L2 implant she had was enough to be able to throw a man into the air and then slam him down with enough force to break his ribs.

Her mother and father where both in the Systems Alliance Navy, her mother served on the Dreadnaught Kilimanjaro as a Staff Commander, and her father was a Major in charge of engineering and the construction of the Dreadnaught Quetzalcoatl. Penelope was a Navy brat born and raised, signed up as soon as she graduated high school. She had risen through the ranks quickly after the Blitz, and was awarded the Star of Terra.

Penny had just finished sharpening the last of her Kunai when the door opened she hurled the knife at the intruder and stopped it with her Biotics holding it an inch away from the offenders throat.

“Glad to see the fame hasn’t dulled you senses Commander.” The intruder spoke with a laugh. After realizing who it was that had entered the room, Penny pulled the knife back to her, stood up and saluted the man.

“Thank you, Admiral.” She said as he returned the salute.

“Shepard, you’ve been reassigned to the SSV Normandy effective immediately. We will dock on Luna and that is where the Normandy will pick you up.” Admiral Hackett sighed. “You are the best the Systems Alliance Military has and the Normandy is the newest prototype ship in the fleet. If you do well on this you may well get a promotion.”

“Thank you Admiral, I should collect my gear sir.” Penny said with a salute.

“Alright soldier I’ll leave you too it, good luck kid.” Hackett said turning on his heal and walking out. Penny grabbed her gear and started stuffing into her duffle bag knowing they were maybe just over two clicks away from Earth at FTL travel.

WMWMWMWMWMWMW

“Welcome to the Normandy Commander.” Captain Anderson. “Our first mission is a shakedown run. You have today to get to know the crew we leave tomorrow.” Anderson finished with a salute, then turned on his heel and walked away.

“Damn it, one day. Well at least I won’t get too attached to any females aboard.” Penny said with a sigh as she headed to the lower deck to deposit her stuff in her assigned locker. She saw someone coming towards her out of the corner of her eye, as she placed her spare uniform in the locker. She stood up and faced the new comer.

“Nice to finally meet you Commander.” The dark haired man stated with a salute. By his uniform she could tell he was a Lieutenant, and from his eyes she could tell he was a Biotic. She returned the salute and straitened out her fatigues.

“Hello, Lieutenant…” Penny said leaving off so he could fill in the blank.

“Alenko, Kaidan Alenko ma’am” he said with another salute.

“At ease Lieutenant. You coming over to help me settle in, and get comfortable on the ship, Alenko?” Penny smirked.

“I would’ve said give you the nickel tour of the ship ma’am.” Kaidan said trying to hide the obvious blush on his face. Penny didn’t notice anything because the lighting in the area was so weird.

“Alright Alenko you have one hour, to show me around, then I really need to get back to preparing for the mission tomorrow.” Penny said putting her arms behind her back.

WMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

“Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story.” Joker said snapping Penny out of her pre-mission thoughts. Alenko had introduced her to the crew and walked her around the Normandy, but Penny was starting to feel nervous about working with people that she had never met before, aside from Captain Anderson that is.

“They don’t send Spectres on shakedown runs.” Penelope said thinking about what the mission was really about.

“You get that, Commander?” Joker asked again snapping her out of her thoughts.

“He sounds angry. Something must have gone wrong with the mission.” She said frowning. Penelope turned and walked down the corridor towards the Comm. Room, but stopped when she heard Navigator Pressly arguing into an intercom.

“Congratulations, Commander. Looks like we had a smooth run. You headed down to see the captain?” He asked with a salute.

“Sounds like you don’t trust our Turian guest.” Penelope said looking him in the eyes.

“No, it runs in the family ma’am. My grandfather fought in the First contact war lost a lot of friends.” Pressly said saddly. “Something big is going on.”

“I’ll see if I can get some answers when I see the captain.” Penny said and walked off.

“What do you think commander? We won’t be staying on Eden Prime to long will we? I’m itching for some real action.” Corporal Jenkins asked with a salute.

“I sincerely hope you’re kidding, Corporal. Your ‘real action’ usually ends with me patching up crew members in the infirmary.” Doctor Chakwas the CMO retorted.

“You need to calm down Corporal.” Penny said trying to end the bickering.

“Sorry, Commander. But the waiting’s killing me. I’ve never been on a mission like this before. Not one with a Spectre on board!” Jenkins apologized.

“Just treat this like any other mission and you’ll do fine.” Penelope said.

“That’s easy for you to say you proved yourself during the blitz. I wanna show people what I can do.” Jenkins said slamming one fist into his other.

“Don’t do anything stupid that’ll get yourself killed.” Penny said with a sigh. “The captain’s waiting for me.” Penny walked off as Doctor Chakwas said goodbye.

WMWMWMWMWMWMW

“Thanks for your help commander. I didn’t think I was going to make it.” Ashley Williams said after Alenko finished bandaging her up while Shepard kept watch. “Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here Ma’am?”

“Are you wounded William?”

“A few scrapes and burns nothing major.”

“Where’s the rest of you squad?”

“We walked into an ambush…”

“Don’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault Williams.” Penny said and then to round the conversation down knowing there were enemies about she stated firmly “We could use you help Williams.”

“Aye, Aye Ma’am. Time for some Payback.” Williams saluted and then pulled the M7 Lancer I off her back.

Penelope dove back into mission mode (where she blocks out everything but battle); the only things breaking her concentration were the few colonists that had survived. After obtaining a pistol and an upgrade from a group of farmers the goupe headed for the space port only to find Nihlis, dead. Nothing else mattered, Penny Shepard didn’t let the tears fall even though they where coming. To many people had died under her command, or had died counting on her; how many would have to die before she could rid herself of this grief. Penelope straightened and vowed on the body of the Spectre to do better.

Ash, Kaidan, and Penny fought their way to the Cargo Trains and headed for the other platform. Kaidan helped Penny defuse the bombs while Ashley held the Geth at bay. After the last bomb was defused they headed for the beacon which they could see was active. Penny unloaded her Storm I into a husk taking it down; she then threw one of her Kunai at a Geth, that was aiming for Kaidan, hitting it right in the eye killing it instantly.

Kaidan and Ashley where talking about the beacon when Penelope radioed for pick up. It activated and began to pull on Alenko. Penelope not knowing what the beacons intent was decided to step in, maybe she could prevent the loss of another, but she wasn’t expecting what would come next.

FLASH

“Beware, they are coming.”

“Everywhere they go they leave nothing but death and destructions.”

“They came from Dark Space. Through the Citadel.”

“Beware the Reapers.”

FLASH

“Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she’s waking up.” Someone said as Penny got up and sat on the bed. Her head throbbed with pain as she tried to focus her thoughts.

“How are you feeling commander?” CMO Chakwas asked flashing a light into Penny’s eyes.

“Light throbbing nothing major. What happened?” Penny asked.

“The beacon overloaded and blew, knocked you cold.” Lieutenant Alenko said. “It’s my fault commander I must have activated a security system or something, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t blame yourself lieutenant you had no idea what would happen.” Penelope said trying to comfort the man she considered a friend. She didn’t notice the smile Kaidan had on his face.

“I detected an unusual amount of Beta wave, and an increase in your rapid eye movement an indication of intense dreaming.” Dr. Chakwas said.

“I saw… I don’t know what I saw death, destruction, nothings really clear.” Penny replied.

“Hmm, I better add this to my report. It could be… Oh, Captain Anderson.”

“How’s out XO holding up Doctor?” The captain asked firmly.

“Physically she’s fine.” Chakwas said tersely.

“Good. Commander I need to speak with you in private.” The captain said quickly.

“I’ll be in the mess if you need me.” Kaidan told Shepard with a salute to the Captain.

“Sounds like the beacon did a number on you. How are you holding up commander?”

“I don’t like losing people under my command.”

“Jenkins, wasn’t your fault. He will be missed but you couldn’t have changed it. I read the report.” The captain said.

“Did we leave Gunnery Chief Williams on Eden Prime?”

“No, I had her reassigned to the Normandy.”

“Good, she deserves it sir.”

“Lieutenant Alenko agrees with you, that’s why I had her reassigned.” The captain said.

“You wanted you speak to me sir.”

“I won’t lie to you Shepard. It looks bad Nihlus is dead, the beacon is destroyed, and the Geth are invading. The council won’t like this one bit.” The Captain said.

“Sir I didn’t do anything wrong, Hopefully the council will see that.”

“Commander, permission to speak candidly; not cameras, no scripts, no regs, what is wrong?”

“Sir you do know I’m a …………Lesbian, right?”

“It’s not in your military file, but yes Admiral Hackett did mention previous encounters with you and non military ‘female’ crew.”

“Do you know why I always ask to be transferred a couple months on dutie?”

“No, no one does.” Anderson admitted. “Your record is pretty spotless, and exceptional. Star of Terra and several commendations for your exemplary skills in technology and Biotics. Several ribbons for marksmanship tournaments, and… are you crying commander?” He stopped seeing her shoulders quake.

“I lost someone I loved on Elesium. She was on the front line as was one of the first casualties accounted for, if it hadn’t been for her sacrifice I never would have made it through.” Penny sobbed. Penelope Shepard Commander and Woman dried her eyes the best she could and walked out of the Med-Bay. Anderson stared after her, not only was she a hero but she was sensitive. She was the perfect choice to protect the Galaxy.

FIN