Memoirs of a Soldier

I've been called a lot of things lately by a lot of people. Some of them border on almost correct, thought most hit the wrong mark. If you've heard anything about me I'm sure a few similar words have crossed you. Hero. Legend. Saviour. But I am none of those things. I am a soldier, first and foremost, and secondly, a friend.

Tales of the Normandy's crew seemed to spread like wildfire by the time I'd destroyed the Collector base, though they hadn't exactly been moving slowly before that either. When I'd first come into possession of the SR-1, it was tasked with a valuable crew, and a few more additions made it a family to me. My original crew consisted of a few names that seemed to have reached the history books; Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams, Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya, Urdnot Wrex, Liara T'soni and half a dozen more. For those of you who know my track record, you know that I was raised on Mindoir until I was sixteen, when slavers slaughtered my family and friends. I was lucky enough to be picked up that day by the Alliance, which led to my enlistment and the fateful day on Akuze, where my entire unit was killed in a thresher maw attack, leaving me alone to tell the Alliance. It's safe to say those were simpler times, mere foreshadowing to the upcoming loss that's made my name a part of civilian gossip and small-talk.

I'd gotten command of the ship from David Anderson, a good man, a good soldier, and definitely a good friend. I've always known Anderson to fight for the people, not the war, and not for himself. He also knew when to step down so it seemed, as capable as he was, he'd told me once that he knew I was the one meant for taking down the Reapers. But that, well, that came later. What had really started it all was a simple mission; collecting a Prothean beacon from a digsite on Eden Prime. It was a bit more than that, and everyone knew it because of one reason: Nihlus Kryik, a turian spectre. Spectres weren't sent out on simple missions unless there was something more, but I shortly learned the truth. Nihlus was there to evaluate me, I was a candidate in line of becoming a spectre. To say I was reluctant to the idea is a mild understatement, I'd had no previous interest in working for the council, and the Alliance was my home. Though shortly after hearing the truth, the Normandy recieved a distress call from a unit on Eden Prime, more specifically from Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. My spectre candidacy wasn't up for debate at the time, so it was pushed under the rug before myself, Lt. Alenko and marine Richard L. Jenkins touched ground on Eden Prime. The mission there had changed, but we still had our primary: get the beacon. We lost Jenkins to a couple of Geth drones just a few moments after we'd begun moving, Nihlus scouting ahead of us. Kaidan was taken aback by the sudden death, and I did all I could in the short time we had to stand him backup. Luckily, he was strong and didn't need more than a reminder that death happens to marines, and the rest only have to carry on. This led us to meety the Chief, Ashley Williams. She informed us that her unit had been killed, that she was the only one left, and that the dig site was nearby. I ordered her to take us to it, and we soon saw something horrifying for the first time: husks.

Husks were, well, revolting. I saw myself in them for the first few seconds, and I think that's what horrified me so. They were colonists, before the geth did whatever it was to them, and I remembered home. They weren't exactly difficult combat, merely a shock to myself and my current squad. Once we'd taken them down, we reached the dig site, and found that the Prothean artifact was no longer there. Nihlus radiod us around this time, stating that he was now investigating a small spaceport, and would meet us there. We still had to find the beacon, and with no leads, we took to searching the area. This led us to a locked door, and with some mild decryption on my part, it was opened and we were met with Dr. Warren and her assistant Manuel. The assistant was rather unhinged, and when I asked Warren if she'd seen Nihlus, he blurted something about seeing 'The Prophet leading the enemy,' and the doctor informed us that she was waiting on his medication setting in. I passef off Manuel's raving and questioned where the artifact was, and the doctor informed us that it had been moved to the starport where we were to meet Nihlus. Before I left however, I took it upon myself to knock the assistant out, logically speaking to give time for his medicine kick in.

When we headed toward the port we heard a single shot ripple through the air, though that was nothing compared to what we saw next. A massive ship, nothing any of us had seen before, rose from the ground and took off. As big as the sight was, we had to move on, and we soon came upon Nihlus, dead on the ground. Williams noticed some shuffling behind crates, and we set to investigate, revealing a rattled dockworker by the name of Powell. He explained what he saw, another turian by the name of Saren had murdered Nihlus. He also further explained that the beacon had been moved across the tramway, and without further questioning, we headed that way. The Geth waited for us on the otherside, as well as a decent amount of charges- bombs- that we quickly took care of. That's when we found the beacon. I patched myself through to Anderson to tellhim we'd found it, and during that time Kaidan stepped toward the artifact. I didn't blame him for being curious, the damned thing was tall, mesmorizing, beautiful. His proximity seemed to activate something in the beacon, and at the last second I pushed him out of the way.

Whatever the beacon was about to do to Kaidan transferred to me instead, and it hit hard. I saw... many things. It all blurred by quickly, visions of red and death, organics and synthetics. It didn't take long for it to wear me out, and I was struck cold to the ground.