Chapter One: Relay 202

Drifting near the outpost guarding relay 202, Scott Ryder stared out the side of an Alliance shuttle. Vibrant blue waves washed off from the relay as a recent arrival entered the system.

"Bringing her up and matching velocity." The pilot announced as she lined up their shuttle. "You're up, Ryder."

The squad caught up with the automated delivery shuttle, matching its speed. Ryder pressed for the side door to open. "Roger that." He answered over the comm.

The recon specialist readied his suit to magnify once he touched the opposite vehicle. A quick burst of his thrusters launched him from hid position. The gap between the shuttles was short but a thrust miscalculation could end bad for him either way.

Ryder came up short of the shuttle and was forced to fire another boost just to catch its tail. His gauntlets latched onto the end of the shuttle's roof with his boots dangerously close to the engines.

The pilot reared their shuttle back, keeping Ryder in her sights in case the worst happened. "You good there, fly boy?"

Scott situated himself atop the shuttle with all four limbs magnified to his speeding metal ride. "Just keeping you on your toes."

"Alright, quit messing around then." Even hurdling through space, he could feel her smirk from behind the front windshield. "Command says they want this cargo identified before it hits Arcturus."

"All this because an automated delivery got here an hour behind schedule?" Ryder moved over to the scorched side door, scrolling through his omni-tool tool for the entry codes. "Back on the Citadel, that usually means the pizza's free."

"Better safe than sorry." She prompted him to continue.

Scott activated the door release, swinging into the safety of the shuttle compartment. He felt the cramped compartment as he bumped into a pile of steel crates. "Alright, I'm in. Scanning the cargo."

"Make sure you cross check the manifest. We don't want any surprises." The pilot reminded him.

Ryder waved his omni-tool over each crate. "Rations, water, rations and... big surprise; more water."

"That doesn't explain the scorch marks on the hull." She chirped. "Weapon damage looks high end."

"You're not wrong. If Geth needed to eat and drink, I'd say they were the ones who hit up this transport." Ryder paused when his scans showed a third of the crates were empty. "We're turning up short here."

"A couple extra-net searches after Eden Prime and suddenly you're an expert." The pilot sped up to stay parallel with the automated shuttle. "Redirect that bird to the outpost. Navy Intelligence will want to check it out."

"Hard copy." Scott leaned over one of the empty crates to reach the navigation console. The holographic display lit up. "Hold on... It's already headed to the outpost."

"... Ryder, I'm looking at the shuttle designation. It says right here: bound for Arcturus."

"And I'm telling you, it's headed for our outpost." Scott brought up the shuttle's flight path. "The console is locked to these coordinates, I can't redirect it."

"This don't sit right with me. I'm calling this in. Ryder, get back on board..." The pilot spoke through their feed back to the outpost. "Outpost two zero two, this is echo four nineteen, be advised: automated shuttle shows signs of damage and was preset to arrive at outpost. How copy?"

The outpost communications operator answered back on the squad frequency. "Echo four nineteen, this is outpost two zero two, good copy. Have contents of the shuttle been identified?"

"Roger that, outpost. Contents look normal apart from a few empty crates."

Ryder squeezed back through the cramped compartment towards the opening. He went about rethinking the amount of thrust needed for the gap when he noticed one of empty crates had been unsealed. Scott craned his head to see inside and found it still vacant. He nearly released his breath when a mechanical noise whirred behind him. As he turned his head to the noise he saw a Geth had stuck itself into the top right corner of the shuttle. It blinked its headlight twice at him just before a red sight line focused in on his chest.

Ryder rolled to the side, avoiding the blast. The tumble sent him crashing into more crates, tightly packed Geth spilling out and hopping across the shuttle.

The recon specialist grabbed crate lid to use as a shield, soaking up the incoming fire as he backed into a corner. "This is Ryder, I'm aboard the automated shuttle heading to outpost two zero two and being fired upon by Geth forces!"

Ryder pulled out his pistol and returned fire at his assailants. He could do enough damage to their shields but their rapid movement made finishing them difficult.

"Ryder!" His pilot called over their team frequency. "The outpost is scrambling fighters to intercept! Get back here now!"

A Geth hopper latched onto his makeshift cover, trying to pull him into the open. "I'm a little busy!" Scott rammed the Geth into the side wall, finishing it with three shots to its headlight.

One of the hoppers landed between him and the exit. His front was exposed for the Geth take aim. Scott wasn't sure his shields and armor could withstand their weaponry from just four feet away. Thankfully, his pilot collided into the Geth in time. Her rifle peppered the Geth's shell as her thrusters cooled down.

"Your schedule just got cleared." His pilot remarked as she fired her thrusters in reverse, laying covering fire. "Let's move."

Ryder followed suit, using the opening to dive back into their shuttle. He collapsed onto the floor as the door shut behind him.

"I owe you one, Andy." Scott breathed out as he regained his bearings.

Andy sat back into her pilot's seat, breaking away from the automated shuttle. "Your sister would kill me if l left you on that bird... outpost two zero two, you are clear to engage hostile."

"Acknowledged, echo four nineteen. Enjoy the show."

Within seconds both soldiers spotted Alliance fighters blasting the enemy shuttle from behind until nothing was left but dust. Ryder joined Andy in the co-pilot's chair.

"What the hell are Geth doing this close to Arcturus?" Andy commented, trying distance herself from their close call. "One shuttle into our airspace is a suicide mission."

"They were headed to the outpost, not Arcturus." Ryder noted. "If they took it down, another attack like that would hit Arcturus no problem."

"I guess it's a good thing they didn't bring some real firepower." Andy tapped away at her console.

The general outpost frequency cracked to life. "Outpost two zero two to all fliers within range; be advised that we're picking up another unidentified arrival coming through the relay. Standby for orders."

The relay came to life as predicted. From within their shuttle, Andy and Scott stared at their new arrival. Two sleek, Geth drop ships entered their space and barreled towards the outpost. As the fighters engaged, nearly half their number was blown to pieces before they could even report in over the airwaves.

"We're going to need bigger guns..." Andy said and they stared at what could spell the end of their outpost.

Suddenly, a frigate dropped out of faster-than-light-travel. As it began its pursuit of one of the drop ships, it called out its presence over a general frequency.

"This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. We're moving in to assist."

Author's notes:

For the purposes of the story, Ryder's aged is bumped a bit (born 2158 rather than 2163 via the official timeline). I would eventually like to take this story concept into Mass Effect 2 & 3 as a continuation of this, "what if Ryder never left the Milky way?" idea but we'll see. I debated for a while whether to start the story with Ryder's "recruitment mission" or just having him already on the Normandy. I went with the recruitment mission so I could flesh him out a bit more before the story really kicks off.

So if anybody prefers my dialogue-heavy structure with familiar character interactions, that'll start at about... chapter four, I wanna say.

Thanks for reading!