Author's Notes

Disclaimer - I do not own Mas Effect or any of its characters. All of it belongs to Bioware :(

Chapter 1

Shepard was bored. The captain's cabin was comfortable and everything but it was also lonely. The only companion he had was Larry, the space hamster, and Larry always hid in his little house whenever Shepard was around. Shepard really didn't understand why he did that. Despite being his owner, Liara seemed much closer to Larry than he was. Even Specialist Traynor was able to play with the rodent.

Shepard sighed and stretched his hands. It seemed so strange to have some peace and quiet when the rest of the galaxy was busy at war with the Reapers. In fact this few days of R&R had come only after Shepard had forged an alliance between the turians and krogans and also stopped an assassination attempt on the council by Cerberus.

Cerberus.

Even though the Reapers were the real enemy, Shepard couldn't help but feel that Cerberus was more of a danger to the Alliance's plan. Twice they had come close to destroying everything the Alliance had worked for.

Twice they had nearly defeated him.

But even Shepard couldn't fathom what the Illusive Man was planning. Once, he might have been able to guess his intention, but now the man was a former shadow of himself. He had been unable to distinguish the lines between his ambition for humanity and his concern for the species. In the end he was destroyed by it. Now all that was left was a monster that had taken the Illusive Man's place.

But the worst part of the entire coup attempt was that he had to come face to face with Kaidan.

Gun to gun.

It was close, too close. Thankfully, Kaidan believed him in the end and shot Udina, the real traitor. Shepard had never turned a gun on a fellow Alliance officer before, and certainly not on a friend. The question Kaidan asked him still haunted him;

"Shepard, if I hadn't backed down there, would you have shot me?"

Shepard had put on a fake smile and told Kaidan that he would never do that. But truthfully, he didn't know. He wasn't even sure what he would have done. And it haunted him. In the past he would have been able to distinguish right and wrong easily, but ever since the Reapers arrived everything had become so...grey.

Beep. Beep.

Shepard walked up to his intercom console and pressed the answer button. He hoped something interesting came up, not another fight with the Reapers or Cerberus, so he could get his mind off thing for a few hours.

"Hello" Shepard answered lazily.

"Commander, I have an incoming call from Admiral Hackett" replied EDI, the smooth-talking AI of the Normandy "I've patched him to the comm room"

Shepard sighed inwardly. There went his relaxing day. Admiral Hackett only contacted him if he had a mission.

"Thanks EDI" Shepard answered her "I'm on my way"

He shut off the intercom and went to change into his standard Alliance uniform. It wasn't appropriate to talk to the Admiral in a hoodie, even if it had the N7 insignia on it.

Well at least I won't be bored anymore he thought to himself as he headed for the elevator.

"Commander" Hackett said by way of greeting as he appeared as a blue hologram.

Shepard saluted him "Sir"

Hackett returned the salute and after moment both relaxed.

"What can I do for you, sir?" Shepard was curious as to why Hackett had contacted him. Perhaps the asari were in need of assistance. Or they had finally heard word of the quarians.

"Shepard, one of our survey stations in the Attican Traverse went silent a couple of days ago" Hackett began "They were scanning teams, alert for any presence of Reapers in the system"

"What system were they in?" Shepard asked.

"The Pangaea Expanse" Hackett let the information sink in.

"Ilos" Shepard whispered, before looking at Hackett "why have a survey system in the Pangaea Expanse? We have no colonies there"

"After the first Normandy managed to make it to Ilos, the Council decided to try and reclaim the system" Hackett explained "A group of highly paid explorers managed to imitate the feat and the Council decided to give the system to the Alliance as a gift for saving their asses three years ago"

"We had several researchers there trying to explore the ruins to give us more clues to the prothean's history and find proof of your claims about the Reapers" Hackett continued "but now they and the survey team have dropped out of contact"

"The Reapers?" asked Shepard, though he knew the answer to the question.

"Yes, we believe so, Commander" Hackett paused for a moment before continuing "Our lead researcher there, Doctor Salyam, said they had made an interesting discovery on the planet"

"What was it?" asked Shepard, curious.

"The details are vague but he mentioned something about a Reaper not being a Reaper and changing the war" Hackett answered "I know Salyam, Commander, he isn't the type to boast or exaggerate"

"You want me to rescue him?"

"And find out what he discovered" Hackett added "Shepard if this can help the Crucible, help the war, we have to find out"

"I'll get it done, sir" Shepard assured him

"One more thing, Commander" Hackett sighed before looking back at him "The researchers managed to uncover something else"

"What is it, Admiral?"

"A ship, Alliance, and one we believed was missing for nearly thirty years" Hackett replied "During the First Contact War, we sent out a dozen ships to do space reconnaissance in unknown systems. Many of these ships never made it back. The SSV Ergo, the ship on Ilos, was one of them"

"I see, sir"

"No you don't, Shepard" Hackett looked at Shepard directly in the eye "The SSV Ergo, it's captain...was your father"

And just when I thought I had seen it all.