paragonsoldier

Shepard feels the rumble when the massive Collector ship engages its engines: a few seconds later it lifts off the ground, still being peppered by the colony's GARDIAN lasers. Shepard had hoped to get aboard somehow and rescue the colonists the Collectors had already abducted, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now.

Kaidan was here, the Illusive Man told her, and now he may be there, on that ship, inside one of those pods. Shepard feels her insides twist into knots as the Collector ship ascends, picking up speed.

She wishes she could do something, anything. But she's helpless to stop it.

When the ship is barely visible, blurred by distance, she hears something moving quickly through the stacked crates in the spaceport's cargo yard. She and her squad just fought their way through dozens of Collectors and they're all a little on edge, so they all raise their weapons. Shepard nearly pulls the trigger before realizing that it's one of the colonists - Delan, a guy she ran into not long ago, who was hiding in one of Horizon's warehouses.

"No! Don’t let them get away!" he shouts, watching the departing ship with a heartbroken expression.

"They’re gone," Shepard says numbly. "There’s nothing we can do."

"Half the colony’s in there!" Delan protests to Shepard, pointing at the ship. "They took Egan and Sam…and Lilith! Do something!"

"I didn’t want it to end this way." Shepard's voice is hard-edged, because she's trying not to burst into tears. "I did what I could."

They decided, on somewhat short notice, to take part of their leave on Fyarlaren.

Fyarlaren, like most hanar colonies, is almost completely covered by water. But there is a long chain of islands near the planet's equator, and a few centuries ago an enterprising hanar businessman decided it would be a good idea to develop some of the islands into a tourist destination for more terrestrially oriented life-forms. The Fyarlaren archipelago has been a popular tourist destination for asari, salarians and - more recently - humans ever since.

Shepard could never have afforded to vacation here on her Alliance salary, but Spectres get a substantially bigger paycheck. Substantial enough that, during those rare times when they can actually take a vacation, they can reserve a private beach bungalow for a few weeks. Shepard and Kaidan are a short auto-boat ride from the nearest civilization, that being a nearby resort town, but they've spent most of their time on this little island. Which suits Shepard just fine.

Eventually, though, they will have other obligations to fulfill - and that's even before they go back on duty. When they're sitting on the porch late one afternoon, Shepard decides it's about time to bring up the subject.

"I'm going to visit my parents on Shanxi for Christmas and New Year's," she says. "What about you? Got any plans?"