The Death of Alenko.
Six years later. Over the Sahara Desert.
Kaiden had to hold back a loud sigh. He currently sat in the holding area of a military transport shuttle. Looking at the picture they all took in the apartment. Back when Shepard was still alive. They must’ve taken it, a few weeks before the final battle. One of the few happy memories Kaiden could remember from six years ago.
He just remembered it being hell and only hell. Friends lost and tragedy always struck when it didn’t need to. That war was sucker punch after sucker punch, but they won. Thanks to hundreds of sacrifices, no thousands of sacrifices in that final battle. Kaiden still had the scars from that last battle, his chest a mess of scars from a nasty piece of shrapnel. He looked up as he put away the picture, back into his travel bag. There were three other soldiers in the transport with him alongside the two pilots, two women and a man. All young and newly enlisted. They were travelling back from a training camp James Vega was running, everything having been a success. Kaiden was ready to go back to New York and relax. But that was when the explosion cut through their transport. Knocking him out.
He awoke with massive pain flowing through his body, pain unlike anything he had felt. Something had stabbed right through him, and cut off his right arm. The man looked dead, same with one of the women. But the other woman began crawling to her feet, her helmet completely shattered and clearly missing an eye. She began crawling towards Kaiden, “Colonel...sir-“ She would find herself cut off by the sound of a ballistic round entering her skull. As what appeared to be a man to the bleeding colonel appeared, but wait. He was wearing black bulky armour, with blue markings across it. A blue stripe across the arm and the Death helmet that Shepard loved so much. And it looked as if it had been heavily repaired, almost making it a new armour. A new accessory however, was the long flowing deep dark purple cloak around the armour. Flowing in the wind from the opened entry hatch.
“Colonel Kaiden Alenko. One of his first companions, you are an insult to his name. Truly a sinner in the eyes of the Saviour Angel. As his holy prophet, I simply cannot allow you to live any longer. I hope he will bless you with eternal rest, but I cannot guarantee it for one who has failed him such as you.”
“Fuck off. Go straight to hell for all I care, you’re not even the real Shepard, some stupid imposter-“ a ballistic round raced through his leg. Sending him to even more pain.
“Do not use his name in vain sinner! I will not allow you to desecrate his corpse any longer! Absolution has come for you, the dishonourable survivor.”
Kaiden braced for the eventual rush of pain that would accompany his death from the pistol shot, “I’m coming, Ash-“ and then there was nothing. As Kaiden Alenko lay dead, the first of many.