This is my first attempt at fanfiction. To my mind Mass effect 3 was a great game because the game follows Shepard you don't really see how the fight on earth went. This is my first installation on the fight went on.

Invasion

I watched in disbelief as the building exploded. It was a new building, recently made to house the HQ of the Alliance military. It was built to withstand anything that humanity could possibly face. Giving more than enough time for the important personnel time to run to ground, in dozens of stategically placed bunkers where they could still direct operations.

Within seconds of the arrival it was gone. Five minutes before I had seen an Admiral and Shepard, the first human spectre, enter the Chambers of the alliance council. Now I was staring at the flaming ruins of that same room. I felt a surge of anger. I'd heard the stories, everyone had, about how Shepard had saved the galaxy from the rogue spectre Saren. How he had been killed and brought back to life and how he had stopped the collectors. Now he was dead. It wasn't confirmed but no one could have survived that explosion. Then I heard a voice bark over comms

"God dammit Corporal, there is nothing we can do for them. Let us focus on those we can help." My sergeants voice was calm but tinged with an undercurrent of fury. I tore my eyes away from the HQ and swore violently. Then prepared the doors of the Kodiak dropship to open. We had been heading to a fitting station to refit the weapons in anticipation of an invasion. I guessed it had started. We were now heading to areas of high civilian population to try and evacuate as many as possible. In our was 5 soldiers from the 1st Assault Brigade. Me and my sergeant with 3 grunts. We were flying with a second Kodiak with another 5 marines from our unit.

"We have a visual on civilians by the docks." Came the comm chatter from the pilots seat. I saw where the hull camera was pointing and said, "Negative Sergeant, that area is too hot. Enemy capital ship is too close."

"I don't care, we are not leaving those people to die!" The Sergeant shot back, venom in his voice. I shook my head but motioned to Fieldhead to prepare to open the door.

"Roger, we are ready to deploy." The Kodiak began to descend and the co-pilot bustled his way back and smiled ruefully. "You know the drill?" I nodded, we had been over civilian extraction numerous times.

"We get out and secure the drop site. Load the civvies. If there is room left we get on, if not we hightail it back to the nearest rendezvous, hook up with any others and get the hell out of there." The guy nodded.

Then we touched down. " Go! Go! Go!" I yelled. Fieldhead jumped to the ground and was killed by a projectile, blood sprayed and heard " Man down! Man Down!" Over the radio. Downes yelled a curse and threw a grenade in the direction of the shots. An explosion some devilish screams of pain and then the shooting stopped. I dropped out the door and moved into a covering position. Downes ran for the wall which the civilians crouched behind.

I saw movement and fired a burst into the smoke. I saw blood spill across the pavement and then more and more forms swarmed forwards. I fought back bile in my throat. The creatures came in two types one was a heavily mutated creature, with some sort of sack on its back. they had wide open mouths and four eyes. They looked oddly familiar, which made me feel uneasy. It wasn't until I saw the second kind that I realised what was happening. The second type was... well... human. They were a deathly grey colour, with electric blue eyes, chests and stomachs. They almost looked like the husks that had been made by the Geth on Eden Prime, but these looked more... professional? Like the old husks had been upgraded.

"Downes, get the civvies loaded now. This shit is bad." I managed to choke out. I had seen a lot of nasty stuff, slave traders, battles against mercenaries using varren or other local wildlife as weapons. But this made me feel sick. I couldn't imagine the terror of the human and batarian prisoners who had become these monsters.

"Yeah, last few are boarding now. No room for us we'll have to push a path to the RV."

"Roger." I said back. The sergeant piloting our Kodiak screamed a warning down the com and a new wave of hostiles charged. Rockets came out of nowhere and blew the wave apart. I looked over to where the missiles originated and saw a frigate rising from the dock 100m away. Stood on the cargo bay were three humans.

One was a standard marine. One had custom blue armour, minus her helmet with flowing black hair. Lieutenant-Commander Williams. And a male. Tall, with short black hair in dress blues. I recognised the markings on his shoulder. Commander. I felt a vibration and a shadow passed over me I tore my eyes off the frigate and turned to the dropships.

"Sarge you have to take off. Now!" I shouted over the static. I heard nothing back, but the sound of the engines flaring indicated that he'd got the message, or had figured it out for himself. Just before take off a young child, no more than 6 years old came running from a container. I held the door until he climbed on board. He looked terrified and I felt a surge of protective anger for the boy against these monsters.

The door slid closed and I banged on the door shouting at Sarge to get the hell out of there. The ships raised and then gained speed. I began to relax and then I heard a sound that chilled my blood. It was a high pitched sound like nothing I had ever heard before. Then I saw the same weapon that had reduced the Alliance HQ building to rubble. I stared in disbelief as the laser cut one of the Kodiak's in half. The beam stopped and I thought the boy would get away. Then the beam shot out again and the second Kodiak exploded.

An icy fist clenched my heart. I turned and saw Downes standing motionless, for once his prodigious strength had been useless against an overwhelming enemy. " We need to go." I said, my voice settling into a tone of icy calm.

I looked towards where the frigate had been and saw the fading name across the sky. Normandy. I put that together with the scene I had seen earlier.

Shepard was alive.