Spike Shadows

Spike Alexander Shadows
Staff Commander



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Profile

Alias: Commander, Shadows

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Birthday/Age: 19.02/ 35

Marital Status: Single

Family: Unknown/ Presumed Dead


Class: Biotic

Specialization Class: Destroyer

Allegiance: Alliance

Rank: Staff Commander

Occupation: Alliance Military



Eye Color: Brown

Skin Color: White

Facial Markings: Small scar going across left eye

General: 6'2", toned build, Spiked hair and facial hair which he keeps within Military standards. Only wears piercings when on shore leave.

Body modifications: Biotic implant, left eye implant (colour is brown).

Clothing: Military (officer) uniform which is always neatly pressed. His casual wear ranges from black suits to shirts and trousers.

Armour: Mars Armour

Weaponry: M-5 Phalanx

Abilities:
Biotic Charge
Nova
Lash
Fitness

Strengths: Quick thinker, A strong leader, Hides emotions well, Problem solver, Can make difficult decisions

Weaknesses: Pessimist, Quick tempered, Light sleeper, Xenophobic, Distrusting, lonely

Likes: Coffee, Chess, Reading, Fighting/ training, Discipline, Alcohol, One night stands


Dislikes: Aliens especially Batarians, Pitch black, Being locked up, Sleeping, Heat, Really really hates Batarians, Failure

Personality:
The Military is my life. I expect my crew to follow all orders and not judge the decisions I make. I believe it is always better for hundreds to die so a thousand more can live. My crew tend to disagree with my stance and I have to remind them who is in charge. During shore leave the final order is to arrange boxing matches. This allows my crew to de-stress and it also allows some crew members to attack me over a decision I have made.



A strong thought of mine is that we will win any war, any mission at any cost. We all signed up to the Military and know some day we will all die. I want to die in honour at the heat of the battle rather than from old age. Honour is a strong part of my life and those who show any dishonour to the Alliance or to humans will face my wrath. The one damn thing that annoys me is my nerves when I know I will lose someone on a mission. I do not show it affects me but when contacting families I feel that lump in my throat.



I find in my life there is no time for love. Love is far too complicated and leaves too many attachments. My family are my crew and I will never tell them that. I care for them but if I show I am being soft then I would end up losing respect which has been hard earned. I distrust everyone apart from a few chosen people who have earned my trust, those people I consider friends.



I guess my Xenophobia came from the Bartarians and having to protect humanity. From history it has told us about the contact war and other events. Aliens always treat humans second class and I guess that is exactly where I stand. I know how to keep that unpopular opinion to myself but don't expect me to sit there and listen to an alien talk.

History:

Well I guess I will begin from the very start. I was born on a planet called Joab. My parents were apparently killed a short time after I was born, or I was abandoned was the other explanation to why I found myself in an orphanage since my birth. The problem with being an orphan is when there is a 'bring your parent to work day' and I find myself sitting there being stared at as I am a loner, no parents. No one to tell me off apart from the hag which ran the orphanage. My earliest memories began when I was around four, I was an idiot back then. I never listened to anyhow and always thought I knew best. My stupidity left me in my teenage years, however I will continue my tails of the youth. I was a different kid to the rest, my parents were mercenaries and always on the run. I do not know which gang they ran in but apparently they were quite popular and often my parents found safety in the streets of Omega. I was a mistake I believe and that was why I was ditched on this planet. My mother introduced me to Eezo or element zero depending on what you want to call it. She did a raid or something I believe and thus I got exposed which does helped turn me into a biotic, however that was just a primary exposure.

Anyhow enough of my parents. I grew up with normal kids and happy families. I stayed on Joab until I was 12. I was a sick kid, developing all sorts of illnesses and infections. The reason I moved was due to developing tracheitis from a visitor to the planet, giving us a class on some boring topic. Due to the planets gravity it was highly recommended I was treated off-world. I was not complaining, the planet was a great temperature but I was fed up of all the name calling that went on. I moved to Mindoir and was bed ridden for a good month whilst I fought this infection off. It was decided I would join a family there who did not want their own child due to the woman having a genetic disease. So now I had a set of guardians to look after me. Mindoir is a farming world, completely different to Joab and it felt weird being in slightly less gravity. Life on Mindoir was a fresh start for me which I appreciated quite a lot. I went to school part time there and spent the rest of the day working on the farm. 

Life was simple, peaceful in fact. This all changed when I was 15. The Batarians invaded Mindoir and I witnessed death and destruction around me. I was trying my best to stay alive. At the time I was working on the farm, it was the late afternoon and my guardians were cooking dinner. The batarians gave us little noticed and they attacked in full force. Our town was hit hard and I remember trying to hide underneath rubble to protect myself from the attack. I was too young to get caught and I was frightened. I watched as those around me died, others caught. The Alliance could not not do anything when we screamed for help. I decided to try making a dash for it so I wouldn't be caught. As I began to sprint I felt one of those disgusting creatures grab hold of me, I started screaming and attempted to fight back. I was hit in the head and during a dazed state I ended up being thrown into a cage with other children. We were soon sedated to await our fate.

I do not know how long I was out for when we arrived on a strange planet, I am not even sure where we were. I felt my head pounding and I knew a cranial implant was placed within my head. My life was no longer my own and I was forced to mine for element zero. Those who tried to rebel were giving an electric shock by the implant and others died so we had to keep going. A lot of those around me died due to the element zero exposure however in my case it turned me into a biotic. During my times as a slave we worked 21 Earth hours and the other 3 were either for food or sleep. Food was just scraps what the Batarian fed us and we fought like animals to get hold of any food. We never got to see the outdoors as we were locked in the cave and occasionally we were whipped and punished by the Batarians, cuts marked into us and often emotionally abused. The electric shocks weren't enough enjoyment, we were being punished for something we didn't do, we were not part of this fight. We were innocent colonists. 

I still have nightmares to this day, all honesty I do not know to the full extent what had happened down there. I cannot remember, I remember what I was told, what I read and what others had described to me. There is a video log available about some of my punishments I received, apparently they knew I was a biotic and was seeing how much pain they could put me in before I would retaliate with my biotics which did nothing, I had no implant. The video logged showed me tied down to the ground, I was pinned. A Batarian grabbed his knife and sliced it down my left eye, I struggle to move and try shoving this guy off of me. I was left blind from this in one of my eyes.

I was 16 when I was put up for auction and sold elsewhere. Apparently some mercenaries wanted a biotic on their team and I have never used my abilities to attack someone. I was still controlled by the Batarians and I could not refuse any orders. I use to write notes and leave them in various areas when I was part of the mercenary gang, I wanted freedom. I wanted to get out and live my life. I was forced to kill others and other things which I will not mention. I was fitted with an L2 implant which caused me to have migraines and throw up. If it wasn't a migraine it would be headaches constantly. Even when I thought I was free from the Batarians I knew this was a lie, I was trapped under them with this implant in my head. 

At 17 I finally found my freedom. I was dragged back to mining due to the amount of deaths which had occurred on site. Whilst working we heard gunfire and shots. I have never been so happy to see the Alliance. We were all rescued at my nightmare was over. We were all taken to a medical facility and examined, having the implants removed. They noticed my L2 implant and knew I was a biotic by then. I told them some form of training I had. I did not know how ill I was mental health wise however. On my first month of freedom everything hit me, images flashing across my mind and apparently I was often seen on the floor screaming, crying and shaking. I often questioned what had happened to me, the scars displayed on my body from the constant attacks. It got worse when I wasn't doing anything, it got worse with the nightmares which entered my mind. I wanted to break free of what was happening and attempted to kill myself with a gun, which failed.

I had a year of treatment, it helped to talk to the others but I knew I could never return to Mindoir. I began to hate the Batarians and wanted vengeance on them. I was now officially an adult and decided to get my left eye repaired so I could see again. I had meetings with the medical team often which grew less and less. I was forgiven for any lives I had taken due to the events which had occurred. Some people I was with in Mindoir I do not think ever recovered from those events. I decided to join the Military and protect other colonies, side agenda was to kill a few Batarians as well. When we were doing the fitness test it was discovered I had tachycardia, remember I said I was a sick kid? Well great thing with today's medical science I am alright, just have to remember to take my medication once a month. Anyhow I passed my medical, my mental health was alright but it was agreed whoever I am assigned to I would have to register with the medical doctor.

I joined a small group, training my biotics and going onto (what I call now) easy missions. I had a few ground missions but mainly spent my time defending colonies from the Batarians who threatened to push the human borders. I took all aspects of military life seriously. I considered myself more disciplined than others my age. I guess some people I met within my crew were simply there to make their parents proud. I felt I had to push myself harder than them but I guess my previous experiences with being a mercenary (even though it was forced). Only those who needed to know knew my past, it was not something I shared around and I lied about my past to others. I made up a story and no one questioned it.

I was promoted like any other person within the Military who showed any skill level and using my own initiative at times. I think the mission which stuck with me the most was when the Batarians finally decided to attack human colonies. I had nightmares about this happening and it did. Often we arrived last, the clean up crew. We were all young and we were being held back from the main action. This wound me up quite a lot as I wanted to face the fight, end some Batarian life like they did to the human colonies. One mission we went on the Batarians were still on the ground and we were the only ship in the area. Our Captain decided we had to go down there, all other ships were too far away. We split off into groups, I went with the Captains small group. There were three of us, Captain Smith and LT Johnson and myself. I was 23 at the time and an Operations Chief, some my age went above my rank and moved to different parts of the Alliance. I remember hitting the ground and their was a smell of burnt flesh, burning and once what would have been a beautiful colony was destroyed. We were forced to fight the Batarians head on.

I remember feeling afraid, I was often kept back from combat but now was the time to show off what I could do. After all they knew I was a biotic. I could hear screams, crying and those praying to whatever god out there to save them. I hid the fact how scared I was and listened to my orders to attack when required, our aim was to save the slaves. We were outnumbered by far but our captain ordered us to carry on fighting. I was used as the first person to enter combat, throwing biotic punches and that killed the first Batarian. Our crew grouped up and we were having a head on fight with the Batarians, the only tactic we were given was not to get killed. It was a bloody battle but we kept the pressure on. No matter how many Batarians we killed the numbers were not dropping. We moved closer to the ship in which human were being enslaved and as we moved a bullet hit the Captain straight in the head, causing an instant death. There was no time to mourn and Johnson was frozen in his shoes. He was two years younger than me however having a somewhat respectable name he was promoted rather quickly. I took charge of the situation and I remember saying, "If we die here, we will die in honour. These humans will die as slaves and no one deserves that. Now let's do what we have been training for and shed some Batarian blood". (I am missing out the swear words from that speech).

We quickly reassembled and I took a young soldier with me, private Andrews. We found a gab between the fighting and ran onto the Batarian ship, killing anything which was in our way. Andrews was a tech expert and quickly unlocked the cages where the slaves were trapped whilst I fought off the enemy. The crew helped the slaves escape however some of our crew also died. Once the slaves were freed we held onto our position until other Alliance teams arrived. The Batarians fled empty handed and I began taking the dog chains off the dead. Once aboard our ship, Johnson had to explain what had happened and how the Captain had died. He explained this was most peoples first bit of action and he froze up when he had to take command. I was called over afterwards to explain what had happened.

I was taken off the ship and sent to an alliance base. I presumed due to breaking rules and not following protocol I was going to be court marshalled and stripped off my rank. Instead I was given a promotion and led to shadow another leader. I was now a 2nd Lieutenant with the possibility of N7 training if I could prove myself more. This time I saw a lot more action, giving advice on missions, this time I had more respect for it. I was described as ruthless by some other the other ship I was serving on but then again a nice guy wouldn't be able to make the decisions I had to. Every missions we went on there was a successful outcome, even when I led my own squad. It was decided that I should be offered a place on the N7 program. Without a thought I accepted the offer, I would never realise how tough the training would be. During that time I was given an upgrade on my implant and thank god the headaches went. I cannot say I missed it. After this mission I realised I had gotten over my trauma as a teenager and to me this was getting back at the Batarians, something the doctor worried about but didn't say it. I just saw it in her face.

I ended up going to Earth for the first time to begin my training. It was then the thought hit me, I was protecting humanity against everything, aliens and any threat which would harm us. I met other candidates on the program and I was learning from them and their experiences. I was slightly older than certain candidates, especially at 25. I was also only by then a Staff Lieutenant. The N1 training was difficult, I am not going to lie.



The N1 training consisted of over 20 hour without sleep whilst training, lack of food and supplies whilst going through hostile terrain and leading a small group. The only advantage I had was the fact I did this as a child living on the streets. Our goal was to collect a flag at the end. I knew known of us could get seriously hurt but the heat and lack of supplies and sleep drove a few people crazy, including someone in my group. We decided every time we camped someone would take shifts in guarding the area. 24 hours with no sleep is difficult, especially with no stimulants to keep anyone away. We carried on though, pushing through anything in our way. We finally reached the flag and one those in charge saw us. Apparently the first group to make it. We were all offered a place in the N2 program, the second group arrived and they were offered the same chance. The rest had failed. I still respect them though as the training was tough. 14 of us were going through the next stage and I found out I am going back off-world.



I pushed through the N2-N6 program, I had been physically sick at times and mentally unwell. As we went up the stages the training was far more difficult. N2-N5 had different aspect throughout it and some experiences I had never had such as zero-g combat. I thought I was going to fail my N4 when we did it due to throwing up, apparently I quite like gravity. I carried on though as nothing happened and wafcs offered to N5. By then there was only 5 of us. I had to put my xenophobic views behind me on my N5 training whilst we acted like medics for Aliens. A member of the group refused to help the Alien injured and thus failed the N5 training. I found it distressing seeing some injuries, arms missing, seeing those you knew who were going to die and there was nothing that could be done. I hid away those emotions though, always time to grieve later. 3 of us passed and was offered N6. I was 25 when I began the N7 training. I took part in combat, like I did on previous missions. They were tougher however due to being in a smaller group and often going on extreme environments and hostile planets. After a year I was given my N7 status.

The next big event that had happened in my life was when I turned 29. Apparently the Geth had returned and rumour about the Reapers from the first human Spectre Commander Shepard. I was not sure what to think but carried on with my orders. I remember having to defend the Citadel from a Reaper attack and I do not think I have ever been so scared in my life and this time I could not hide it. From rumours I thought Commander Shepard was just another solider who ended up on drugs. What I saw made me believe the Commander even more. The Citadel was saved and what a relief it was.



Not so long after that, a couple of years when I was 30 another species appeared. We heard rumours going around the Military bases about human colonies disappearing, whether this was true or not I don't know. We were use to this sort of news and I just guessed it was the Bartarians at their usual. Looking back this was not possible as they had been more quiet than normal. We just had the joys of defending human colonies, lacking any real combat. The only combat we faced were geth but once you have dealt with one group it just becomes routine. When we ended our tour that was when we heard about the species called the Collectors. I am quite glad I didn't have to deal with them.



Nothing really interesting happened, promotion to Staff Commander and 2nd in command on the ship I was serving on. I got to see a bit more action but it was just the same routines. I also spent some time at Alliance bases training up new recruits. I guess I was getting rather arrogant about my skills though. I liked to challenge myself to do better but always thought whatever any I faced I could defeat or there was no way I was going to die so easily. I was warned by my Captain about my arrogance and I guess I learnt the lesson the hard way.



We were on a information gathering mission. I was in charge of a small group and we were scouting out an area. It wasn't a hostile environment so I was with the young recruits who joined our crew. We were looking for some ezo reserves. I personally didn't think there would be any. I was not paying attention to where I was walking and ended up falling down a sink hole. Just because I thought this mission had little risk I did a rookie mistake and not paid attention to the environment around me. Luckily it wasn't too serious but it taught the recruits a lesson as well as myself.



The Reaper invasion still is the most scariest experience in my life and funny enough I ended up in the middle of it all. I was in London at the time, I decided after being away for so many years it was about time I saw my birthplace. I was part of a resistant group who fought from the ground, reporting back to my main ship everything what was happening. My N6 training really helped me out here as I hid and got out of London to smaller towns where there Reaper threat was left. I had never seen so much death and destruction in my life. Due to the threat being so bad around Earth I was stranded, away from my crew. This fight was the fight for survival and I was physically and mentally exhausted. I found myself with little food and sleep due to being a constant threat. I helped train civilians to fight. A lot of good men and women died defending the planet. I was finally given orders to return to London. They knew I was alive as I checked in as often as I could.



London was not the same, so much action and I had to keep it together somehow. I found my crew and I was relieved to see the the Captain was alive. I told him what had happened. I was filled in with the details I had missed. The final fight was the hardest and I kept fighting, watching those around me fall. I do not know what happened all the way through the fight as I charged and novaed anything around me. I took a shot to the back and fell onto the ground. My shield was down at the time and I remember calling myself an idiot for leaving myself unguarded. I tried standing and took another bullet which caught my hand. The only thing I can remember was blanking out, this was where I was going to die and the rest of humanity.



I woke up a few months later to find out the Reapers had gone, I do not know how but I had to continue helping Earth rebuild.

Recent Events:
Joined back with the crew, was made a Spectre due to heroic actions and is fully fit.

Possessions of Note:
Flat on the citadel

Miscellaneous Facts:
Never had a relationship, has never returned to Mindoir, still carries a strong hatred for Batarians.