My little Shepard

Commander Jane Shepard, Miranda Lawson, and Grunt were running from a brigade of Husks. The soldier wasn't one to back down from a fight, but her and her two squad members agreed they were outnumbered. Shepard ran onto the ramp of the Normandy. Miranda and Grunt followed.

The bad news was that the crowd was getting nearer the ship. Shepard and Miranda glanced at each other, and she nodded. The young biotic blasted the center of the group with a powerful singularity, decimating the majority. " Get us out of here, Joker!" Shepard shouted into her radio.

" Working on it, commander." a male voice replied. The entrance closed up, and the Normandy blasted into air, decimating the remainder of the Husks.

The trio was politely greeted by the crew. One may expect a better greeting, but this kind of stuff did happen almost every day. Jane's latest mission was to recover any survivor's of an attacked human colony. Sadly, they were too late. The only beings found were husks, if you could call them beings. This wasn't the first attack.

During Shepard's death, creatures known as Collectors began raiding human colonies. The suspected reason involved Reapers, though no one knew why they were working together.

At least no major injuries were sustained for the duration of the mission. Well, Grunt accidentally set of an explosive while Shepard was still in its range, but the worst that happened was that the young human became coated in gunpowder.

Thankful for a chance to clean up, Shepard retreated to her cabin.

Ten Minutes later, Shepard had a cleansing shower, gotten dressed, and was washing her face with a moist towelette. A few seconds later, there was a knock at her door.

Kelly Yeoman was standing in the entrance. " Commander." she greeted.

" Kelly." During her short time on the Normandy v.2, Shepard had gotten quite friendly with her assistant.

" I just wanna say you have a knew e-mail. I know how many you get, but you may wanna pay attention to this one." She walked away. Meanwhile, the soldier headed to the computer.

Shepard opened her email.

Shepard,

I don't usually call upon forces like spectres, especially deceased ones, but I feel that drastic calls call for drastic measures.

An entire exploration fleet has disappeared in the equinus system after a mission to chart the area. The Council refused to send aid, so I'm calling on you.

Anonymous.

Here we go, again, she thought.

The woman fled back to her cabin, suited up, and walked to the cockpit. " Joker, set course for the Equinus system." she ordered.

" Hah, hah, Shepard. Not even you are crazy enough to want to head to the Equinus system." Joker glanced at Shepard " Oh, You're serious. I don't mean to offend, commander but you do realize that any ship that goes there doesn't come out, right?"

" So I'm going to find out what downed them." Joker had no choice but to comply.

Shepard watched as the Normandy zoomed past the Relay. The ship slowed as it slingshotted towards the system.

The Equinus System was…odd There were no gas clouds, no satellites or shuttles, and no asteroids around the planets, making it look like a ghost town. The alignment and sizes of the planets were similar to the Sol System. The only planet that seemed to harbor life was slightly larger than earth.

There were no hostile signs of life around, nor was there a shipwreck. It wasn't until the Normandy went further into the system when it happened.

What no one could could identify blasted the elevators. Nothing was around, no ships, no asteroids, nothing…  The elevators just gave. The sudden jerk away from its trajectory unsteadied everyone who wasn't sitting down.

It was the attack on the original Normandy all over again. Red lights were flashing, but EDI was here. And she was inadvertently making things worse.

" Joker, What happened?!" Shepard cried.

" Dunno, commander. Nothing from the outside could've done this, it's all internal damage." Joker shielded himself from a blast of shrapnel.

" Elevators down, Shields down, Life functions giving. Evac dead. E-everything down!" Joker's hands scrabbled across the dashboard, in a fruitless effort to keep the Normandy afloat. " We're going down! Everyone, to a seat!"

People screamed and ran to sit, with nothing but a clinging hope they'd live to keep them from breaking down.

Jane still stood, her muscles tensed as a familiar turian crossed the scene. " Vakarian!" she called. Garrus ran to her.

Another blast within the ship rocketed the two across the floor. Garrus got Shepard to her feet, but she couldn't complete her words. Soon as she tried making verbal sounds, she clutched her chest and crumpled. He got her back up. She coughed, splattering blood on Garrus's armor. She had obviously sustained internal damage. Garrus feared her lung had been punctured, or worse.

He dragged her to a seat, and immediately sat next to her. Allowing her semi-conscious body to lean against him.

" This is the Normandy, requesting rescue! I said Reques-" Static followed Joker's radio. He cussed incessantly as he gripped the steering wheel roughly. He pulled upward as the Normandy broke the atmosphere of the planet.

Shepard glanced to Garrus. " N--no," she swallowed thickly. "No Sh-Shepard. with-without Vakar-Vakarian." she muttered.

He frowned, at least, she thought he did. Vision was blurring. He gripped her hand. " No Vakarian without Shepard." He threw himself over her.

Shepard's vision blacked out.

She heard an explosion, then nothing.

It was long before Shepard regained consciousness. When she did, she could feel life fading from her body. She could hear little, save an intense ringing in her head. Her vision was intensely blurred, still, she could make out the blaze and mangled wreckage of the normandy. She was beyond the point of pain.

Shepard knew she was going to die. Again.

Then, a small window of chance left her a spark of hope.

Six, colorful beings…no seven. A smaller blur joined them. She couldn't make out their shapes, but they were pulling bodies out of the wreckage. Their words were extremely muffled in her perception, but a purple blur seemed to be in charge.

Shepard began a pitiful attempt to drag herself away. She was making slow progress, and life was seeping out more the further she went.

She collapsed. In one last ditch effort, she tried calling for help. Unfortunately, she underestimated the amount of blood in her mouth. Her cry sounded in a thick, guttural noise.

But it was still heard.

A yellow-and pink mass gathered to her position, and began tugging her away from the wreck. As she blacked out again, she regained hearing for a few seconds. Giving her enough time for her to here the mass speak.

" It's gonna be okay."