literature

Aftereffect, Pt. 7

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Literature Text

"Shepard, do you have a moment? I have something I wish to show you."

It was Liara again, only this time she was carrying a small black box with her.

Shepard looked up from the datapad where she was reviewing mission briefs from the Normandy, still trying to spark any memories. "Sure, Liara. Come in." She motioned for the asari to have a seat.

Liara came into the room and set the box on the table before seating herself beside Shepard. "This was something I was working on before the destruction of the Reapers. It was meant to be a time capsule of sorts, holding all of the important information of this cycle, should the worst come to pass. After the Reapers were destroyed, I had forgotten about it until now. I had installed a VI named Glyph to help explain things to future generations. Unfortunately, he is inactive at the moment, but we can still access the data stored within." The asari paused and looked up at Shepard with big lavender eyes. "I had included an entry about you. I thought perhaps... it might help you with your memories."

Shepard stared at the box on the table, trying to sort through the emotions that suddenly rolled through her mind. Hesitantly, she reached out and traced a finger along the edge of the box, absently noting how sturdy it seemed; certainly durable enough to last into the next cycle.

"What do I have to do?" she asked quietly.

Liara scooted closer and leaned past Shepard to activate the box and a beam of light shot toward the ceiling before fanning out and dissolving into a glowing web of holographic stars. Shepard's breath caught in her throat and she sat back, staring at the beautiful display while the asari adjusted a few controls on the screen that popped up. A moment later, a tiny holo of Shepard appeared above the box, hovering stationary, almost expectant. The woman stared at the tiny replica of herself, almost afraid of what might come next. After a few moments, the holo began to speak on its own.

"My name is Commander Shepard. I commanded the Alliance vessel Normandy SR-2 and led the fight against the Reapers in our own cycle." Shepard stared mesmerized at the tiny image as it continued to speak about details of her own life as well as about the war against the Reapers.

Liara sat silently beside her, watching Shepard's face as the woman listened rapturously to the recording, eventually reaching over to give her hand a squeeze. When there was a brief pause in the recording, Liara whispered to Shepard, "I'll leave this with you so you can listen to everything recorded on here in privacy." Giving the Commander's hand another squeeze, she slipped unnoticed from the room, Shepard too intent on the image in front of her.

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"Garrus..."

The word filtered hazily through his dim consciousness, barely registering any familiarity.

"Garrus!"

There it was again, and more urgent this time. He tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but someone started shaking him, quite rudely.

"Garrus, wake up!"

Oh, bother... He supposed he should see what all the fuss was about.

The turian opened his eyes and immediately regretted the decision as everything suddenly hurt. He gave a low groan that abruptly changed into a pained cough and he turned his head, spitting out drops of dark blue blood.

"Garrus, can you walk? I know you're hurt but we have got to get out of here before Cerberus gets here." James was crouched beside the turian, cradling an assault rifle he had salvaged from the downed shuttle nearby.  The twisted wreck was barely recognizable as a shuttle anymore, smoke wafting from it in a most unfortunate signal flare of their exact location to all enemy troops in the area. Garrus realized he must have been ejected from the vehicle, which explained why everything hurt.

He understood the marine's urgency, but he still needed a few moments to collect himself and to do a quick mental survey of his body. Being such a military society, his people were taught from a young age to calmly assess the damage out of practicality. He had stopped spitting out blood which likely meant no serious internal damage. His left arm felt strangely heavy and responded slowly when he tried to move it. That was greater cause for concern.

"Won't be using my sniper rifle," he remarked absently as he started to test his legs. His left leg gave a faint twinge as he put weight on it but nothing seemed immediately serious. He must have landed hard on his left side.

James helped steady the turian as he watched in all directions. "Scars, I don't mean to rush you but we really need to get moving..."

"I know," Garrus said a bit testily. They could both hear sounds of approaching soldiers as well as the telltale mechanized thuds of heavy battlemech suits. He felt around quickly for his pistol and then finally allowed James to pull him away from the wreck. A scant second later, they heard another rocket being fired and the concussive force of the shuttle being annihilated threw them both off their feet again.

Garrus stifled a loud cry as his already abused body screamed in pain, but it was imperative not to alert the approaching Cerberus troops of their new location. Far better to let the enemy think he and James had been in the shuttle when they destroyed it. James tumbled out of sight behind a broken building, his gun flying from his hand. Garrus lay perfectly still as he listened to see if Cerberus had discovered their attempted flight from the crash site. He could hear some of the soldiers speaking to one another but he could barely make out their words.

As no sounds began to fan out in a search, he could only hope for the best. As silently as possible, he slowly pushed himself to his feet, crouching low as he gathered his pistol and hurried down to make sure James was all right. He found the big marine sprawled out, knocked out cold and sporting a long bleeding gash across his forehead. Cursing silently, he used his omni-tool to quickly apply some medi-gel, then helped the man sit up.

"Keep quiet. They're still up there," Garrus whispered, handing James his gun. "They're probably waiting for the flames to die down enough to check the wreckage, so we have to get out of here, now, before they realize we're not in there."

James nodded silently, wiping some of the blood off his face. "Let's get going, then. It's gonna be a long walk back to London as it is, and I don't want Cerberus doggin' our heels."
"Yea..." Garrus agreed unhappily. That much longer to find Shepard...
Zomg finally an update! @_@ Sorry for the wait, guys. It seems harder and harder to write this after the DLC extended endings, but I'm trying to stick with it as true as possible.


As usual, Garrus, James, Liara, etc are property of Bioware, Mass Effect.

This particular Shepard is mine.


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MorbidBastard's avatar
Keep up the good work :D there is a new Omega DLC coming this fall!