So here I am trying to figure out why everyone hates the ending of the game so much after I finished the game myself, cuz personally I loved it, when some of the things the Catalyst said got me thinking. There are three main reasons for what it did. One - To stop conflict between Organics and Sentients, which if you think about it makes sense to an A.I who doesn't have the same morals as us. As it said, fire destroys, but its just doing what it's meant to do. Two - To preserve all life, both Organic and Sentient, in the form of the Reapers before it was lost forever, which again makes sense to an A.I, considering the A.I is basically a computer. Three - to make way for new life, this makes sense to me in a way, if you think of the new life like a tree and the old life like a roof, the roof stops the tree from growing, to ensure the tree grows to its potential height, the roof must come down. This last point led me to thinking, what if the Reapers, the Catalyst and the Cycle never existed? Would a different cycle emerge? Would the Protheans try to enslave us as they did to the weaker races fifty thousand years ago? I'm well aware that this is all made up, but this story is about what if?

I do not own Mass effect.

Rebellion

"Well, what about Shepard?" Udina asked as he picked up her file and flipped through it. A lot of it had been blacked out, but what he could read said one thing; Success. "She grew up in the colonies, joined the alliance at eighteen and is an N7."

"Military runs in the family. Her mother is an old friend of mine, her father died back during first contact, right before we joined the rebellion," Anderson leaned forward and clasped his hands together before he continued, "She was raised by her retired grandparents on Mindoir, at least until the Batarians came looking to enslave the colony to their masters. They killed her grandparents along with any others that fought back and took over half the colony with them when they left, including her girlfriend. She was lucky enough to be away from the colony that day."

"Elysium would be a ghost town if it wasn't for her," Hackett mused, plucking the file out of Udina's hands.

"She repelled an army of Batarians with only a handful of guards, didn't lose a single person," Anderson said.

"But she lost most of her squad on Torfan," Hackett looked across at Anderson and raised an eyebrow.

"She gets the job done, no matter the cost," when Hackett stayed quiet Anderson sighed, "okay, so maybe the need for revenge clouded her judgement, but in this war, maybe that's exactly what we need."

"She could have some serious emotional scars," Hackett said looking concerned.

"Every soldier has scars. Shepard's a survivor," Hackett nodded in agreement.

Udina was frowning. They had to pick their best chance, but even she was a gamble.

"Is that the kind of person we want protecting the Rebellion?" he asked.

"That's the only kind of person who can protect the Rebellion," Anderson answered.

"I'll make the call," Udina said, getting up to go back to his own office.

In the year 2148 explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient space faring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.

They called it the greatest discovery in human history.

The civilizations of the Galaxy call it …

MASS EFFECT

Upon reaching the stars they found themselves in the midst of a war; a war where the younger races were fighting against an older one, a much older one. They fought against a dying empire of aliens that were trying to enslave them all, an imperial race that believed that they should rule over all simply because they could, because at some point in the past they had been the strongest. Some of the younger races, like the Batarians, had sworn themselves to this race, while others, like the Asari, Turians, Salarians and now the humans, stood against them. This was a war against the Protheans.

So what do you think?