Mass Effect: First Strike

By Devin

Prologue

Overwhelmed

The vid screen was on but Shepard wasn't really paying it any attention. The Asari on the screen was talking about him actually, about his incarceration on the human race's homeworld; Earth.

Yes, the great planet Earth, the homeworld for all of humanity Commander Shepard thought to himself. I was born and raised in space; I guess that's why I never felt a real connection to this place. Walking over to the window he paused as a news report came on.

"In recent news, the massive influx of Batarian refugees to both the Attican traverse and Council Space has led many to believe a regime change or civil war has allowed for all of these people to flee from Hegemony space. Although the Council has declined to comment on the situation, many of the Batarian refugees are speaking of untold horrors that massacred their people, though these claims are being dismissed by several authorities as mass hysteria or hallucinations. And now we go to Enaliadasorni for the latest in cinematic…."

Flipping the screen view off, he growled to himself. This was so like the average Council citizen, they were so wrapped up in their own wants and needs that they didn't even notice what was right in front of them.

Batarians? Leaving the Hegemony? Shepardthought. It was very unlikely. The Hegemony had closed off ties to the rest of the galaxy after the council chose to support humanity over the Batarian's own interests.

Revolution? No, despite their presence as mercenaries in different bands across the Terminus, Batarians were far less a militaristic species than their human rivals, hence their unwillingness to use anything past terror plots to combat the Alliance.

There was another possibility…

The Reapers couldn't have possibly made it to the galaxy proper that fast. Shepard realized that it was desperate thinking, but that desperation had been one of the few things keeping him sane during his incarceration. That despite his being out of the action, there were still plenty of people out there with time enough to make preparations for the invasion.

From what little information he had managed to gather however; the Council was still just trying to wish it away, and the Alliance was still shaking off the losses sustained at the battle of the Citadel over three years ago.

Shaking his head he looked out the window at the great city that stretched out in all directions. Vancouver was in the United States of North America, and it had become one of its major economic and militaristic centers in the past thirty years.

The city had been quick to expand, and it now housed a population of over twenty three million humans, with a small population of aliens, mostly Asari, living there as well. Looking around he could just faintly make out a small boy playing with some sort of a model or toy in one of the small parks that people seemed to favor here.

Squinting his eyes he finally managed to discern that the toy that the boy was playing with was a small Alliance fighter model. As the boy played a pair of real fighters streakedoverhead. The boy raced after them, holding his toy up high as if it were one of those fighters flying high up in the sky.

A knock at the door made Shepard turn around, and it opened to reveal the large figure of James Vega. Shooting a crisp salute Vega said "Commander Shepard, Admiral Anderson sent me to get you"

Shaking his head at the younger man "You're not supposed to call me that anymore James" Shepard answered.

"Yeah and I'm not supposed to salute either, but that doesn't stop me" Vega replied. Already moving towards the door Shepard nodded, and the two men began to walk to the assembly chambers. All around them military personnel were rushing about in a sense of urgency. Techs, officers, and even the occasional armored trooper were hurrying to their destinations, and more than one wore a look of worry.

When he asked Vega about it, the younger man seemed as concerned as he did. "I don't know, the top brass have been giving everyone strange orders today, I guess all of that business in the Hegemony has people scared" Vega replied. Shepard was about to question him further when he heard someone call his name. Looking up the stairs he saw the familiar figure of David Anderson walking briskly towards the.

"Damn good to see you son" Anderson said, grasping his hand and giving it a good shake. Motioning for them to follow he said "You look good, might be a bit thick around the middle, but that's all. Continuing he asked "How's off duty life treating you?"

"It's not so bad once you get used to soft beds and hot food." In truth Shepard wasn't used to a non-military life anymore. It didn't seem right to sit in a room and do nothing while his friends were out there preparing for the worst. Thanks to the Alliance, he hadn't been able to contact them since he had turned himself in.

They had taken him and the Normandy and he had been whisked away to this place, unable to talk to any of his companions since then. The last thing he had told them was to prepare for the war, and for them to take care of themselves. To be honest, he really hadn't expected any different treatment but he still would have liked the opportunity to talk to his squad.

"Been keeping yourself busy I'd imagine" Anderson said as they walked, Shepard noticed that something seemed off about the man, he walked as if he carried a heavy burden on his shoulders.

"Yeah, not much to do except watch the vids and that got old quickly, the only thing they reported was celebrity relationships and my falling out with the Alliance. No mention of the Reapers or even the collectors except on those theoretical shows." Shepard replied.

Anderson nodded and only said "I can imagine." Without pausing he lowered his voice and spoke quickly. "Shepard there's something big coming, we've detected something heading this way, and Hackett has ordered all resources mobilized."

Shepard stopped and simply said "The reapers" several people paused and stared at him and he realized that he had spoken loudly. "

Shepard we don't know what it could be, that's one of the reasons why we're taking you to this committee-" he began.

"What else could it be Anderson?" he said angrily. "What use is there in talking to a committee?" Shepard met the older man's eyes and saw desperation in them, as well as more than a shred of fear.

Anderson looked down at him and said "Shepard the vids were right about one thing, you have fallen out of grace with, well everyone. The point is this committee is to determine if the threat you proposed is actually a credible one-"

"A credible threat?" Shepard said incredulously.

"Yes Shepard, they believe that since your involvement with Cerberus that you are not a trustworthy source anymore" Anderson said to him.

"I have done nothing except protect these people and this galaxy since I was appointed!" Shepard shot back. "I even destroyed a Mass Relay to deny those monstrosities a chance to get the jump on us!

Their argument was drawing more than a few stares and Vega looked quite uncomfortable with two of his superiors having a verbal sparring match in front of everyone, though neither man noticed it.

"Yes and because of that hundreds of thousands of Batarians died." Anderson said to him, his voice with a hint of anger.

"It was either us or them Dammit!" Shepard continued, but the fire had left his voice. "I tried to warn the colony, I really did, but the Reapers had indoctrinated the team and they stopped me, I failed."

His mind raced back to that event, being knocked out by Kenneson, having no chance to warn the Batarians and being forced to fight the remaining indoctrinated commandos, before finally activating the engines on the asteroid and even talking to Harbinger personally. He remembered the Reapers cold voice, so vast, so distant, yet tainted with disdain. So far both of the Reapers he had spoken to, Harbinger and Sovereign, talked as if he were vermin, and they were the exterminators.

Anderson placed a hand on his shoulder and Shepard met his eyes again, the anger had left his eyes and was replaced with understanding. "I believe you Shepard, about the Collectors, the Alpha relay, everything."

They began walking again. Shepard had to ask "Even the Reapers?"

"Of course I do, hell you talked to one, then blew the damn thing up" Anderson replied with certainty. "You're a hero in my book son; I just hope you can convince the rest of the galaxy like you convinced me." The three men were almost there, Shepard could see the doors to the chamber. Bumping into someone he was about to murmur an apology until he saw who it was.

"Shepard, is that you?" Ashley Williams asked.

"Ash?" Shepard said uncertainly. "You look, different." She really did, she had grown her hair out past shoulder level, abandoning the bun that she had used for so long. She had on a blue uniform and a single earring in her left ear.

"Yeah well things change when you're gone for two years. How's Cerberus treating you? Her voice could have frozen the sun.

"Ashley I'm not with Cerberus, I never was. I just worked with them to fight the Reapers." Shepard said in a careful tone.

Before she could reply Anderson grabbed his arm and motioned for Vega to remain behind with Ashley. Before they were out of earshot Shepard heard Vega ask her if she knew him. Ashley replied by saying "I used to."

(**)

Shepard walked into Committee chamber, on the far side he saw three people who he did not recognize, they all wore Admiral's regalia and all three had a look of worry on their faces. One was an older bald headed white man. The second was a woman with flecks of Caucasian and Middle Eastern heritage in her looks, and she had her not quite fully gray hair wrapped up in a bun on her head.

She was the only one Shepard knew, Admiral Jasmine Townsend, she had asked him about the Geth during the Eden Prime War a few years back. At the time she had seemed a strong woman, now she was obviously drained; her eyes were dark and her face drawn.

And unless Shepard was mistaken, there was a faint sheen on her teeth, a trait commonly associated with someone who was addicted to Red Sand. An admiral this high up in the ranks, a duster? Shepard thought to himself things must really be falling apart. The last was a darker skinned man with hair cut short but not fully to the average military standard.

"Shepard, I suppose you're wondering why we called you here today." The bald headed man began.

The Admirals exchanged glances.

Townsend took over. "We've lost contact with our outer outposts, and our scanners are picking something massive on the long range scanners."

"It has to be the Reapers Admiral, and you know as well as I do that we aren't ready to for them."

"Shepard, please. Is there any way that we can defeat them?" The man sounded desperate.

"There must be something that we can do" Townsend pleaded. Shepard thought carefully about his answer. Shepard ignored them and took a deep breath.

In truth he had no prepared response to this, nor did he have some end all strategy that they evidently expected him to bring to the table. So he did what he was best at, he said the honest truth to them.

"We do the only thing we can do; we fight or we die." Shepard said grimly.

The entire room had gone quiet. Even Anderson had a stricken look on his face.

"That's it?" the bald man said incredulously. "That's all you can say?"

Before Shepard could respond one of the techs nearby suddenly spoke up, alarm in his voice. "Admirals, we've just lost contact with Arcturus Station!" other techs spoke up, reporting lost contact with other colonies and bases before someone yelled that all contacts beyond the solar system had been lost. Shepard felt a cold feeling in his gut as he realized what was happening.

"We just lost contact with Luna base!" a panicky tech blurted, her voice high.

"How could they have gotten through our defenses so quickly?" Townsend said disbelief in her voice.

The cold feeling in his gut had now turned to ice, as he realized how close they actually were. Suddenly one of the techs said that they were receiving a message from London, he put it up on the monitor for everyone to see.

The vid was hazy and the audio was damaged so it was all static coming through. A soldier was yelling something at the camera, there was an ear-splitting noise and a burst of flame from behind him. His words couldn't be understood and the video cut out as soon as it had begun.

The video cut out abruptly and the tech that put it up said in a shaky voice "nothing else is coming through" The building began to shake, looking out the window Shepard could see it land in the middle of the city.

"Oh my god" Townsend gasped. Shepard had just enough time to shout a warning and take a step before the Reaper opened up with its laser, tearing into the front of the building and sending debris and bodies towards him. He felt something hit him like a truck, and he smacked back against the wall, he fell onto the floor and was vaguely aware of Anderson running towards him yelling something.

(**)

"Shepard! Shepard can you hear me?" Anderson yelled into the younger man's ear. He looked dazed and he didn't seem to be responding to verbal stimuli. Jerking his head up he looked around the destroyed room trying to find a medical kit. Spotting one somehow still latched on to the wall he rushed over to it, attempting to ignore the shattered bodies he had to tread upon to get there.

Upon reaching the unit he attempted to open it, it had taken a hit from debris in the explosion and had been bent quite out of shape, so it took a moment to pry the lid open. Taking the two medi-gel canisters he rushed back to his fallen friend, loading one of the canisters into his Omni-tool as he ran.

Once he had reached Shepard he activated the dispersal unit on the Omni-tool and it automatically administered the Medi-gel while also giving readouts of the damage he had sustained. Shepard had taken a minor concussion from the blast, but the Medi-gel would be able to heal it up just fine. Groaning Shepard shivered as the substance traveled through his bloodstream, shaking his head he accepted the arm Anderson proffered before mouthing a thanks.

"Anytime Shepard" Anderson replied. "We have to get to the Normandy and get out of here" nodding Shepard walked over to a dead soldier and took a moment to close the man's eyes, which were still wide with apparent disbelief, before taking the man's sidearm and tossing it to Anderson, as well as a pair of thermal clips.

Attempting to radio the Normandy, Anderson ran out of the room, something must have happened to his comm. device during the fight, it wasn't working correctly. Walking out of the door they caught a glimpse of a massive Reaper unleashing its weapon, the laser cut right through the buildings as if they were butter.

Already most of the city was in flames, a squadron of fighters flew towards the massive ship, only to be blown out of the sky when it aimed its laser at them, cutting them down with surgical precision. The two men watched the spectacle with grim looks on their faces, nodding at each other they walked into the fray.

They were hard pressed to get anywhere close to a clear area; the Reapers had achieved utter surprise and were breaking through defenses as if they were cardboard. Clearing through some rubble he noticed suddenly that Shepard wasn't with him. Looking over his shoulder he saw that he was looking through some sort of a vent.

"Shepard" he called out. Shepard jumped and glanced back into the vent. "There was a boy… never mind." standing up he shouldered the assault rifle he had found. "Let's go."

(**)

Lieutenant James Vega was screwed; he knew that when he had woken up this morning and had his breakfast been interrupted by a woman giving him orders to bring Shepard to the Committee room. His day had gone down further when he talked to Shepard, brought him to Anderson as ordered, and accidently bumped into Lieutenant Commander Williams. Then he had been surrounded by superior officers all arguing with each other, attempting to ease the moment after Anderson and Shepard had left he had asked Williams if she had known him, and she had gone from frosty to absolute zero.

Telling him to follow her to the Normandy they had gone off together, he had considered asking her another question but she had looked murderous, so, wanting to keep his bread and butter intact, had said nothing. Things had been going relatively fine before that giant ass Reaper showed up and started blowing shit up left and right.

Williams had recognized it immediately and whipped out her assault rifle in the time that it took Vega to mouth a curse... Shouting that they needed to get to the Normandy she started running full clip towards the docks, swearing he followed her.

Again things had been going well until something unforeseen decided to pop in and rear its ugly face. This time in the form of some kind of zombie, machine, Batarian thing. Roaring a squad of the things had rushed him and Williams, and now here they were, pinned down behind a crashed shuttle being ceaselessly fired upon. All things considered, probably not one of his better mornings.

Sighting up he fired a burst, taking the heads off of a pair of the human looking Reaper-drones, Williams kept calling them husks, and they certainly seemed like the textbook definition of a husk. All of the Reaper-drones looked like they had taken their original forms, bloated or shrunken them down, and replaced all of the muscle and tissue with tech, so they had the appearance of robotic zombies.

"It's been a while since I fought these things; I've forgotten how much they annoy me." Williams shouted at him. Priming a grenade he located his target and hurled it at a small group of the Batarian things he decided to call cannibals. The blast blew them apart, wasting no time the two humans bolted across the bridge that the enemy had been positioned on. "

Annoy you?" he asked her as they moved forward. Glancing back over his shoulder he looked at the fired corpses that had once been the husks. "I'd hate to be on your bad side if that's what you do to people who irritate you."

She chuckled and put her hand to her ear. "Looks like things are going pretty badly, Hackett's ordered the fleet to evacuate Sol, and most of the comm. buoys have been knocked out."

Hearing a metallic roar Vega turned around and saw another one of the towering behemoths walking around the city, ignoring the fire that was hitting it. He forced himself to watch as it tore into a unit's position, not even breaking stride as it fired its laser at a group of shuttles that had been attempting to evacuate the civilians. Turning away from the carnage he and Williams jogged the last hundred meters to the docks.

A burst of chatter came over his radio suddenly; he recognized the voice speaking as that of Joker, the Normandy's pilot. "Hey Ashley if you want to you know, get on the ship before the Reapers blow it up again that would be great."

A calmer feminine voice chimed in after he finished speaking. "Technically Jeff, the Collectors were the ones who destroyed the first Normandy, if the Reapers were to destroy this vessel, it would be their first time doing so." Vega could see the Normandy now, it looked as if the Reaper forces hadn't penetrated this area yet, compared to the rest of the city, and this place was fine.

"Well the Collectors were just indoctrinated and genetically enhanced Reaper slaves, so you could say that they blew up the ship by proxy you know?" Joker argued. Vega and Williams finally reached the ship and its docking bay door opened up, allowing them to get inside.

"Only you could argue with a computer about whether or not we could tally the loss of this ship as a Reaper or Collector kill while the planet is being invaded Joker" she said into the comm. as the door sealed behind them.

"Glad you missed me Lt." Joker replied smugly.

Feeling the ship lift off the ground Vega and Ashley walked towards the pilot's seat where Vega could just make out the top of Joker's cap. "Is it me or does this place just keeps getting weirder and weirder?" he asked of no one in particular.

"Oh just wait until you hear about Garrus's calibrations, or that awesome picture that I took of Shepard when I caught him half smiling half grimacing." Joker answered enthusiastically.

A burst of chatter came over the comm.; "Normandy this is Anderson, I've got the commander and we need immediate evac"

Joker was already directing the ship towards the location of the transmission. The man's grin had been replaced by one of concentration. "Roger that Admiral, on our way."

Vega walked over to Williams, who nodded towards the window, looking out he could just make out a small but violent firefight far below.

"Calvary has arrived gentlemen!" Joker announced as they flew closer. Joker took the opportunity to annihilate some Reaper troops near as they flew over-top of them.

"Come on Vega lets go meet our guests of honor." She told him.

"Right behind you Lt." moving quickly they reached the docking bay just in time to see Shepard and Anderson mop up the last of a group of Cannibals. Flagging them over Vega watched as a pair of shuttles landed near the fighting troops.

(**)

Shepard ran towards the ship and had one foot inside before he noticed that Anderson hadn't followed him. Turning around Shepard looked down at the older man, "Anderson?" A shuttle landed nearby, Anderson took a step backwards towards it.

"I'm not going Shepard, I've got to stay behind, I can help from here while you help out there." Anderson called out to him.

Shepard shook his head; "if you're staying then I will too, I'm not going to leave you here behind."

Anderson met his gaze and said in a firm voice; "Shepard you need to go to the Citadel! You need to convince the Council. We'll need them and all of their fleets to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers." Looking the younger man in the eyes he could see the protest in them.

"Now go! That's an order dammit!"

" I don't take orders from you remember?" Shepard shot back.

Anderson reached into his pocket and tossed a pair of dog tags at Shepard. "Consider yourself reinstated Commander."

Shepard felt sadness grip at him, "I'll be back Anderson. I promise you that.

Stepping up into the shuttle Anderson said one final thing to him "Good luck son, I'll see you soon." The marines jumped aboard and the shuttle lifted off. He watched as the last of refugees jumped on the evac shuttles desperately trying to escape as the overwhelmed Alliance troops attempted to fight off the Reaper ground troops.

His eyes widened as he saw the same child from the park, the one he had talked to in the vent. The child held a hand up to his face then scrambled up into one of the shuttles, the door closed and they started to lift up. Before they could get very far, a Reaper came around from behind a building, it shot its laser and both of the shuttles were utterly annihilated.

Horrified Shepard looked away; walking towards Vega and Ashley he said "Anderson was right about one thing, we need allies. We need to go to the Citadel."

Vega suddenly spoke up "Commander are we really leaving? Are we really going to abandon everyone?" His voice was filled with anger and his face showed his anxiety.

"We're not abandoning anyone James, but we can't expect to win this war by ourselves, it will take everyone, every species to even have a chance at victory." Vega shook his head and walked away muttering something about duty.

Suddenly EDI's voice came over the comm.; "Shepard we are receiving an incoming transmission from Admiral Hackett.

"Thanks EDI, I'm on my way." The ship had been remodeled again, and although the basic framework was the same, there were enough significant changes to disorient him for a moment.

Eventually he managed to find his way to the comm. terminal. Accessing it, an image popped up, it was garbled and filled with static, but a barely recognizable figure was present, it was definitely Hackett but he couldn't understand just what he was saying. "EDI, can you clear this up at all?" he asked.

"The Reaper jamming signals are difficult to penetrate Shepard, but I believe that I can do as you asked." Suddenly the transmission came through clearly.

"Shepard it's good to see you alive, where is Admiral Anderson?" Hackett said.

"He stayed behind sir, he wanted to help the people on Earth, he told me to go to the Citadel and gather allies." Shepard told his superior.

Hackett nodded as if unsurprised by this news. "Earth will need someone like him; we lost a lot of people, good people, in the attack."

Hackett paused for a moment. "I haven't been able to contact Captain Hannah, Shepard, but she was stationed away from Earth, so odds are she was able to avoid the initial invasion."

Shepard let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding "Thank you sir, I appreciate your looking into it".

Hackett nodded "Anderson was right about one thing; we need allies. But before you go to the Citadel, I need you to check out something closer to home."

Continuing Hackett said "you remember the Prothean bunker on Mars? I asked Dr. T'Soni to investigate them and see if she could find data on the Reapers, that was several weeks ago. We lost contact with every outpost in the Sol system when Earth was attacked, we don't think Mars has been hit yet, but I don't want to wait until they do.

Shepard felt the tight feeling in his gut again. Dammit I hope she's safe.

"I need you to get to Mars before that happens Shepard, find Dr. T'Soni and get any data that she might have." Hackett told him.

Nodding Shepard said "I won't let you down sir."

"I know you won't Shepard, Hackett out."

The transmission ended and he tapped into the ship's intercom, "Joker set a course for Mars, we're picking up an old friend"