-Foreword-

I have known Elia Albarn Shepard a very long time. By all counts, she's a hero to the entire Milky Way Galaxy. But, beyond all her heroic deeds (of which I have heard many tales, told by many people who have been affected in some way by her, most of the time liberally sprinkled with exaggerations to play up her legend), she was just an overgrown child, capricious, vindictive, manipulative, cold-hearted, and ruthless. Oftentimes, she would purposely choose the violent path and leave a trail of bodies, just because it was more efficient (diplomacy was overrated). She was an agent of chaos. A genius tactician. A brilliant combatant. Possibly the greatest leader who'd ever lived, capable of instilling belief in her crew, even in the most dire situation. And we faced some dire situations, let me tell you! She was just the anti-hero the galaxy needed.

I'll bet you didn't see that scathing description coming. I wish I could say it was a joke, but it isn't. This is supposed to be her tale, told from the perspective of those who were closest to her. And let me tell you, despite her being a renegade of almost no virtue, we'd all die for her. All of us love her to bits. We've seen her intimidate entire races of people to work together against a common enemy. We've seen her perform death defying stunts to save people she cared about. And once she made sure our galaxy was safe, she decided to go to the next one. And we went with her.

My name is EDI. I identify as a female synthetic, with mostly human characteristics (my progenitors were human after all). I've been tasked with compiling all these stories, these chronicles of the life of Elia Shepard thus far, while she and her crew sleep in cryogenic stasis. Why are they in cryogenic stasis, you may ask. Well, we're on the way to the Andromeda galaxy, exactly 512 years after after the secretive 'Andromeda Initiative' set out there. Space travel has come a long enough way that we've been able to shave off about four-fifths the travel time, so we'll be reaching about five years after them. And why are we going there? Well, we got bored in the Milky Way, considering how peaceful it was, and were all itching for an adventure. Then, Dr. Liara T'Soni, an asari scientist, and one of Elia's crew, came across logs of her correspondence with the human 'Pathfinder' of the Initiative, Alec Ryder. Elia's interest was piqued, and she wanted to go. We made arrangements in record time, and naturally, decided to go with her.

Background done, let me take a stab at actually doing a proper foreword for the benefit of you readers.

Elia was born a human woman. Actually, she still is a human woman. Just with multiple cybernetic augmentations. Okay, I often feel she could be a cyborg, with the amount of cyberization she's undergone. And since I'm the one finishing up the final draft of this book, no one can stop this girl from saying it.

I digressed. Should probably set a protocol to stop me from doing that. Hmm. Anyway, we should get back to it. Where was I? Oh yes. Her birth. Like everything else in her life, Elia's birth was undoubtedly strange. It took place near an exposed starship drive core. Essentially, it meant she entered the world surrounded by large amounts of what is known as eezo, an abbreviated way of saying element zero. Needless to say, she survived the exposure. A side effect of it was that she became one of the strongest biotics in Citadel-space, comparable to the most prolific asari huntresses or justicars. Her life started strange, and it set the tone for the rest of it.

Apologies are probably in order. This was supposed to be a foreword. Maybe, I should talk about why we decided to write this. Let's see. It all originated one sunny afternoon in Dr. T'Soni's mansion in Thessia. Elia's entire crew was gathered in what would prove to be her last birthday party in the Milky Way Galaxy. At least for a good while.

I can't remember who exactly came up with the idea. I believe it was Miranda. In any case, once it was brought up, everyone jumped in to make it happen. Garrus and Tali thought it was a great idea. Kasumi and Liara jumped at it – Kasumi because well, it was her Elia who was being chronicled, and Liara, because she was bored. It didn't matter what El thought about all this. She belonged to us, maybe some of us more than the others. She wasn't a possession, not exactly, but well, she was Shepard, ours for most eternity. Our leader. The guardian of the universe, the tipper of scales, the one who found a solution to a 40 million year old quandary, and the one who proved that organics and synthetics could co-exist.

The challenges remained. Oh yes, there was dark energy, and there was the black tide, and more after that. But, like Javik the Prothean said on the day before what we believed was our greatest battle (also the subject of much of these early chronicles) and what he has said several times since, Elia Albarn Shepard was THE Avatar of Victory for civilizations past, present and future. She would always lead us out. And we would be there beside her.

Her League of Shadows – Javik, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Liara T'Soni, Garrus Vakarian, James Vega, Miranda Lawson, Urdnot Grunt, Kasumi Goto, Solana Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex, Jack, Elisira Noel Shepard, Anders Kirrahe and I, EDI.

And so, it commences, the Chronicles of the Shepard. With the greatest hunt she ever led, against the one of the only people in the galaxy who possibly possessed her brilliance, but unfortunately, was led astray by the indoctrination of the Reapers. His name was Saren Arterius.