Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

Kiss the Cheerleader

"Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate."

Sigmund Freud

May 4th, 2187

Subject Zero

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"Fucking hell, don't slow down now, Rodrigez, pick up the pace!" barked Jack.

"Yes, Ma'am," said the girl as she quickened her step.

Her kids were exhausted and battered, but most importantly they were still alive. She needed to keep driving them to keep it that way. It had taken them all night and most of the day to pick their way through the collapsed buildings and rubble. Only two, Prangley and Bellarmine, were still missing.

Jack was hopeful. If there was one thing she had learned from Shepard it was hope. The Reapers were dead, her kids were alive, and beyond that she didn't immediately give a shit. Well, that was a lie. She hoped Shepard was alive as well as the rest of her friends. Holy Fuck! Did she really just think that—friends? Yea, she had friends now as well as obligations and all sorts of shit she never expected.

"Chief Warrant Officer Nought?" asked a man.

Jack was staring off at some wreckage in the distance, wondering if there was really a chance that Prangley and Bellarmine had made it out of there.

"Chief Warrant Officer Nought," the man repeated.

"Oh, yea," she said.

Jack turned to see who was talking to her. She wasn't used to the title. She didn't salute.

The soldier saluted in any case. "I just wanted to thank you. Without the support of your students, no one in my unit would have lived through that."

'Most of your unit died,' thought Jack, but it didn't come out of her mouth; progress.

"That squadron of fighters that came in at the last minute helped," interjected Cruz.

The kid was right about that. Their position had been overrun—brutes and banshees were tearing the 103rd to pieces when they lost track of Prangley and Bellarmine. Everything was going sideways, then out of nowhere a squadron of fighters swooped down and bought the soldiers of the 103rd time to recover. There were no alliance markings on the planes so they were probably mercenaries Shepard had rounded up in one of her deals. Whoever they were, Jack owed them. Maybe later she could track the survivors down and thank their squadron leader up close and personal, if she saw something she liked.

"Yea, we owe those guys," said the soldier. "They bought our lives dearly. The Reapers burned them right out of the sky."

Ensign Bellarmine moved closer to the soldier and interrupted. "Have you seen any other biotics?" he asked. "Corporal Prangley and my sister, Seanne, are still missing."

"Yea," said the soldier. "I almost forgot. One of the pilots who went down, the squadron leader I believe, made her way out of there with two biotic students. She brought them to triage station up there," he said, waving up the hill near a half ruined building. "They're a bit roughed up but otherwise fine."

Reilly looked almost as relieved as Jack felt. "Thanks Lieutenant," said Jack, this time checking his rank and saluting him.

"Henry," said the man. "Lieutenant Henry, and thank you, all of you. Without those barriers there would be no 103rd."