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The raid, or rather the attempted raid, upon Mindoir was the unofficial beginning of Alexander Shepard's military career. Compared to the battles of his later life this was only a minor Skirmish but for the people of his home colony it was the defining moment of their world. It is no surprise that every year since the end of the Reaper War Mindoir has celebrated the anniversary as a planetary holiday. This is despite the lack of a universally accepted name. 'Shepard Day' as it is colloquially known was repeatedly and loudly vetoed by Shepard himself for marginalising the others who fought for their home. Out of respect of these wishes 'Shepard Day' is not officially used but no alternative title has yet caught on.

The history of that famous day is well known but for the sake of clarity we will repeat it once more. On June 15th 2070 (standard Earth time) a loose coalition of pirates and slavers, bankrolled, armed and given tacit approval by the Batarian Hegemony's Government launched an assault upon Mindoir. This was not unprecedented; Humanity's expansion into the Skyllian Verge, with political support from the Citadel Council, was met with a furious response from the Batarians. Already a Rouge State the Hegemony resorted to raids upon Human Colonies in an effort to drive out Human colonists and secure territory which they believed was theirs. The Mindoir raid was therefore simply the latest in a spate of attacks.

With one, slight exception.

While the true source of this request would remain unknown for many years it appears that Pirate force were well aware of Alexander Shepard and had been ordered to capture him, alive if possible. To that end a squad was sent in advance of the attack to quietly seize him from his home. This turned out to be a mistake.

"I was only a raw recruit at the time you understand. It was my first colony raid. My orders were clear; keep all four of my eyes open in case anyone interfered while the Krogan, Crarg I think his name was, seized this human. That bastard was one of the largest of his kind I'd ever seen, before or since, and twice as bad tempered. Most of us were in this for profit or adventure, he just liked the violence. According to our Intel this Juvenile target spent most of his time in a small out building away from the main house. We approached under cover and saw the lights inside. At that Crarg marched straight up, kicked the door down and charged inside. A few seconds later he returned, carried by this... person. I couldn't see the face of this... human I supposed, it was obscured by a tangled mass of brown hair, but I could see Crarg's face. His helmet had been torn off and it was covered in blood. The Human then raised that groaning Krogan above his head and slammed our best fighter down onto his knee. I could hear the spine break from thirty feet away. Then that broken body was hurled at our squad leader. None of us, I think, noticed that the pins had been removed from the Krogan's grenades. After the explosion I decided to run. Smartest decision I ever made."

Interview Extract from 'The 1st Battle of Mindoir' by Trevor Hugh-Roper. Interviewee Ralla Creb'nalor, Minister of Trade for the Batarian Freehold.

After this initial attack failed the general alarm was immediately raised by Shepard's Parents. By this point every human colony had been drilled to deal with Pirate Raids. The strategy was simple enough; bunker down into a specially built Safe House in the colony's centre and wait for a Systems Alliance Fleet to arrive. Unfortunately by this point Bartarian Raiders also knew these procedures and adopted far more stealthy tactics when launching such attacks. But the botched kidnapping of Shepard had robbed them of the element of surprise. By the time their main assault began most of the Colonists were already in the Safe House and manning the defences.

Alexander was not amongst them. He was nowhere to be seen.

Many who know only the basic stories of Shepard make the mistake of believing him to be invincible. That he could charge into battle and crush all in his path without arms or armour, always emerging victorious without a scratch. But for all his strength and endurance what made Shepard such a dangerous enemy was his mind. On Mindoir he wore no armour, nor did he carry a biotic shield. His only weapon was a shotgun (currently exhibiting in the Imperial War Museum, London) taken from the Krogan Mercenary who had so rashly tried to capture him. Knowing the weakness of this situation the sixteen year old showed his tactical acumen by using speed and his own knowledge of the colony's layout to ambush and eradicate the pirates squad by squad as they converged on all sides toward the Safe House.

Although the exact details were a mystery, even to Shepard (who admitted that he was mostly running on adrenaline and could only remember flashes) many details have been pieced together since. Shepard's strikes were unpredictable; some groups avoided attack (for a time) while others got picked off one by one or wiped out completely. Weaponry was improvised; the Shotgun and its' limited ammunition were augmented with construction tools, improvised explosives and his own bare fists. Demolition and Heavy Weapon Specialists were the first to be eliminated. Those that tried to hold defensive positions were flushed out into the open. Shepard even seemed to deliberately allow enemies to see his attacks, allowing panic to spread and lure the undisciplined pirates into clustering in large groups, often within the firing arcs of the Colony Safe House.

If Shepard's tactical knowledge was impressive his determination to save the colony was nothing short of remarkable. While many Colonists had been given enough warning many others found themselves stranded behind enemy lines. Witness after witness that day reported being trapped and, in some cases, dragged screaming towards the ships only to find their would-be captors suddenly slaughtered around them. It was only after the battle that most of these rescued people realised who was responsible. Only two people had any interaction at all with Shepard during their rescue. The first was an elderly woman who remembered muttering 'thank god' after the Bartarian carrying her was killed only to hear someone yell back,

'I'm not a god and they don't exist anyway!'

The second witness gave a full interview to The Star Chronicle two days later.

"I 'member... running, running a lot, I can run real fast," Says Talitha, age six, "Then the bad pirate grabbed me, picked me up. I tried to kick him but it didn't do anything. The Pirate carried me towards their big ship, then he fell over, I didn't see what happened to him but I had lots of mud and red and purple stuff on me after. I got up ran... then I ran into the giant. He used to go to my school. Some kids said he was a monster who lived in a cave in his garden but just I thought he was really, really big. I told him;

"I remember you"

He looked at me and asked if I was hurt. I said no. He looked confused and kept looking round until he saw a big box, then patted me on the head and said 'Hide there, stay quiet and wait'. I waited for a long, long time until the big soldiers arrived. They found mommy and daddy for me.

The mother of the squirming girl lets her daughter off her lap and adds,

"My husband and I had been captured before Talitha ran off, both of us were unconscious. I think the Pirate that caught us must have been the same one that grabbed her. If he hadn't come along...well I don't want to think about it.

"What do want to say to Alexander Shepard?"

Before she can answer Talitha runs back.

"I want give to him my picture," says the girl "It's of him and me. I hope he remembers me."

The battle lasted for three standard hours and ended with the arrival of the Systems Alliance relief fleet. The Pirates, by this point in full retreat, found themselves cornered. Some attempted to flee, only to end up being bombarded by the Fleet. Most of the remaining forces surrendered. The Alliance ground forces, surprised by the swift victory but still wary of a trap slowly advanced into the colony.

As for the colonists they were completely unaware of what was happening. Outside communication had been jammed by the attackers. All they knew was what they could see from their firing positions. The attack had been swift, but it was disorganised, then it seemed to falter, then only an eerie silence. Multiple survivors recorded that for nearly an hour after the last shot was fired no seemed to speak, the only sounds came from breathing as they waited and listened. A lookout then saw a towering shadow emerge from the smoke. Alexander Shepard, clutching the empty, heavily dented shotgun and with a dozen bullet wounds slowly moved forward. He knocked on the Safe House door, announced the battle was over and, in true testimony to his Anglo-Indian upbringing, asked if there was any Tea.

Before anyone could stop her Indira Shepard who, as her husband noted later had been coping with their son being missing by targeting every pirate she saw with an assault rifle, leapt out of the door. She took one look at her son and embraced him in a bear hug (despite only being tall enough to reach his stomach) and berated him for causing her so much worry. As the wounded boy was sat down, given a large mug of Tea and Dr Lang began treating his wounds he found himself surrounded by curious colonists demanding to know what happened. Shepard later said that the battle was easier than trying to answer everyone at once. By the time he had finished Alliance ground forces arrived on the scene.

The first soldier to reach the Safe House was one Lt. Zabaleta. In his post-action report he explained:

None of us knew what to think as we passed through the colony. We all expected the worst; the kind of things that haunt your dreams for years. Instead we found dead Pirates littering the ground and colonists hiding everywhere, all saying to same thing. That someone had had rescued them in the nick of time and stopped the raid. By the time we reached the Safe House we were completely baffled, once we got inside and asked what the hell happened all eyes turned to this giant in the corner, who looked at us and sighed. I reckon he'd just finished his story and realised he'd have to start again.

That the colony survived was remarkable enough but in the aftermath it was discovered that not a single colonist had died or been permanently captured. Alexander Shepard had, not for the first or indeed last time, achieved the impossible.

Entire books have been written on this incident alone with historians and biographers arguing back and forth over its' significance. The popular interpretation of Shepard's action however can be summed up by a quote from one of the surviving colonists some years later and would end up engraved on the monument in Mindoir's Victory Square. It is poetically but succulently described as: 'The stone that started an avalanche.'

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In the aftermath of the raid Alexander Sheperd was invited to Earth by all sorts of groups, eager to meet him for all sorts of reasons. After some weeks of negotiation (which included his mother insisting that he got a haircut, so he 'looked less like some kind of feral wolf') Shepard agreed to go. Whatever plans he, or anyone else had went almost immediately awry when the Saviour of Mindoir, as many called him at the time, had his rucksack snatched outside the spaceport. Recordings of the incident show Shepard looking stunned for a full thirty seconds before pursuing the thief. However the thief, like so many others gravely underestimated his speed. Alexander cornered the thief and picked her up by the throat. He asked her in a calm, level voice who she was.

The scrawny red headed girl replied without a trace of fear,

"I'm Shepard."

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