AN: Just some stupid stuff I wrote some time ago. T for the usual BioWare violence-and-swearing package. Aria's totally OOC (she's impossible to write IC when she's supposed to be helpful), but the rest turned out almost nicely. Background FemShep/Liara, as usual. And if I owned Mass Effect, we would have an ending titled simply "Unplug".
"Choose," said the Crucible in its strange, child-like voice.
Choose, thought Jeanne Shepard. Choose between blowing the Reapers up and frying my implants, taking control over the Reapers and becoming a part of that annoying twat, or changing every sentient being in the galaxy and blowing myself to pieces. Great.
Or rather, she would have thought that if she had the energy for it. Battered, bruised, and bloodied as she was it was already hard enough to think, walk, and keep her gut wound from bleeding all over the smooth floor.
Jeanne gritted her teeth against the pain and slowly limped forward, step by agonizing step. Each seemed to take an eternity, and she could only keep herself going by looking out the glass walls at the ships flying by, burning and broken from the Reapers' attacks. "How?" she asked.
"Touch the device," answered the Crucible.
She put her empty hands – when had she let the gun drop? – on a random spot in the tangled array of tubes or whatever it was.
"Do you want this?"
No.
"Let's get this over with." Before I lose consciousness.
There was a flash of blue light, a moment of immeasurable pain, and Commander Shepard ceased to exist.
Jack's bullet hit a marauder's head. It exploded in a cloud of foul-smelling tissue that painted its surroundings a lovely beige-brown; not that it made much of a difference. The air was already filled with the creatures' stench and the ground was covered in a layer of dissolving meat.
The biotic shot another marauder, then another, until she had to vault to cover when a squad of the creatures fired their weapons. Biting back a curse she waited for the sound of gunfire to cease until she dared raise her head again.
When she did, she was staring right in a shotgun's barrel.
Oh fuck would have been her last thoughts but the marauder didn't fire. Jack quickly shot it and glanced at the other enemies. The disfigured turians, batarians, and humans were similarly frozen in place, and Earth's defenders took advantage of their confusion.
After a long moment, the enemies' line broke.
As one they turned and ran as quickly as their misshapen legs allowed. Around them, Jack spotted ships – Reapers – taking off.
"Come on, you babies! Go get the fuckers!"
"EDI? How long?"
"Fifty-two hours and thirteen minutes have passed since the last Reaper sighting, Jeff. And twenty-four minutes since your last inquiry. You can stop worrying."
Joker sighed and gently steered the Normandy around a burnt-out wreck. The ship had taken quite a beating during the last battle, and the strange energy blast had upset most system. He had lost his lady once; he wouldn't fail a second time.
"Jeff?"
Joker realized he'd spoken the last part out loud. "I mean, I'll make a better landing than the last."
"Hopefully. Earth's atmosphere is much denser than Mars', and with our battered hull it seems unlikely we would survive another crash."
Joker grinned at his synthetic co-pilot before activating his comm. "Everyone, we're half an hour from London, so suit up, stop smooching turians, and try not to shoot any of the other – what the s-!"
The rest of his words were inaudible as the Normandy's deafening siren started screeching.
A Reaper had fallen out of FTL-travel not a mile away. A single Reaper, tentacles spread wide as if it was about to devour Earth.
"Shields up! Garrus, is the Thannix cannon ready?" he asked over comm.
"Joker, what-"
"Is it?"
"No! I thought it was over."
"Shit! Shit!" Joker's fingers danced over the controls. "All spare energy on the shields!"
"Jeff…"
"Everyone aboard, we've got a Reaper in our face. Get into your suits and grab whatever weapon you can find, I'm bringing us down!"
"Jeff."
"Is the core stable?"
"Jeff. It's not attacking."
"What?" Indeed. The giant, squid-like ship was just floating in space, motionless, waiting. "Why?"
"Chances for a peaceful purpose of its appearance are at eighty-nine percent and rising with the second. It will probably not attack. Scans are blocked."
"No way. This is some kind of trick, some…trap. Shit!"
"Jeff, it's alone and it is presenting its most vulnerable spot to every ship in the orbit."
"Shit…signal coming in! A visual message."
"Displaying it on every console aboard."
TO EVERY SHIP:
NEGOTIATION FOR CEASEFIRE IF DESIRED BY ORGANICS AT 0900 LOCAL TIME (51.54329248/-0.01244545)
Joker ran the coordinates through the nav module. "Stratford? Olympia Park? What's wrong with that Reaper?"
"Another message coming in."
THE PRESENCE OF ADMIRAL TALI'ZORAH VAS RANNOCH, GARRUS VAKARIAN, DR. LIARA T'SONI, SPECTRE ASHLEY WILLIAMS AND THE AI KNOWN AS EDI WOULD BENEFIT THE NEGOTIATIONS
"What the shit?"
About three hours later Tali, Garrus, Ashley, Liara, and EDI were on their way through the deserted park. Few of the plants that had once covered the meadows were still alive. The ruins of a nearby stadium loomed hollow against the dawn-sky.
"We're almost there," said Liara after a quick glance on her omni-tool.
"Good. My feet are killing me," grumbled Tali.
Ashley grinned at the head of their little group. "Hey, you're living on a planet now. You should get used to the walking."
"Yes, but Rannoch isn't littered with rubble," shot Tali back.
"It's better than Tuchanka," said Garrus.
"Everything's better than Tuckanka," murmured Liara. She was still staring at her omni-tool. "None of the readings indicate a trap. It's all just concrete and earth. The only metal the scans have detected are old train lines and infrastructure and some tower that once stood here."
"That one?" Ashley asked, pointing at a heap of twisted metal on the other side of the river.
"Probably. Alright, we're supposed to meet the Reaper by the bridge next to the stadium."
Suddenly Ashley drew her weapon. "My suit's detecting someone," she hissed.
"Mine too. Over there?" asked Garrus, pointing at a ruined house at the riverside while he readied his gun.
"Yes. You go left, I take the right. EDI, Tali, Liara, stay back and ready."
On the field of shattered concrete that surrounded the burnt-out building sneaking was almost impossible. Even so Ashley tried to walk quietly. She went around a corner and spotter a hole in the wall. Slowly she approached, tried to glance inside-
"Don't move," said the batarian. He was wearing the uniform of the Blue Suns and had a shotgun pointed at Ashley.
"Guns down!" commanded a sharp voice and the merc obeyed immediately.
Ashley holstered her weapon. "All clear," she signalled her companions over the comm. "It's Aria T'Loak."
The dethroned ruler of Omega was seated on a collapsed pillar, surrounded by a score of mercenaries of the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack. In addition to her usual attire she wore a terrifying scowl and carried a sub-machine gun that suspiciously looked like it was geth-fabricated.
"The Spectre and Archangel." Aria nodded. "And the quarian, the AI, and T'Soni. Interesting."
"Not as interesting as your presence," said Garrus.
Aria shrugged. "The Councillors should arrive any minute, probably with Hackett."
"Who else has been invited?" asked Liara.
"Neither the Dalatrass nor the Primarch would have made it here in time, though I doubt the SU-head would have come even if she could. Urdnot Wrex and Miss Lawson are already at the meeting ground."
"Why is Miranda here?" asked Tali surprised.
"Miss Lawson is a former Cerberus operative. She and Mr Taylor have become spokespersons for ex-Cerberus agents," said EDI. "Altogether this is a gathering of several highly influential individuals. Chances that this simply a trap are thirty-eight percent."
The AI's cool analysis shocked her companions. Aria seemed not surprised by this.
"Also," EDI added, "the chances for success of such a trap are one-hundred percent."
"That's why I've ordered two scores of heavies and snipers to hide in the stadium. Another three dozen are hiding on the grounds; you may wish to inform your back-up team of this before anything unpleasant happens," said Aria dryly.
Garrus seemed taken aback by that but Ash just sighed. "You got that, Vega?"
"Yeah," said the soldier over the comm. "And I'm quite happy about that. None of the guys here is any good with a sniper rifle."
"This barely improves our chances," informed EDI.
Aria laughed without mirth. "The mercs are to clear me an escape path, nothing more. There's some suitable bunkers in the Underground station and the destroyed mall a few hundred metres in that direction." She pointed.
"Incoming," called a lookout.
A sleek shuttle flew low above them, white and blue against the smoke-stained sky. It was heading for the meeting ground. Aria rose with a grimace. "And they call me dramatic." She nodded at her mercs. "Be ready."
The asari and the team from the Normandy. Behind it, the ground fell in a gentle slope to the riverside. What had probably once been a peaceful green oasis in the middle of London was now a stretch of scorched, battered earth. The shuttle was taking off again, leaving an asari, a turian, a salarian, and a human. Miranda and Wrex were just heading out from cover.
At 0830 all greetings were exchanged, all names known, and all that was left to do for the small group was to wait and worry.
Above them, the Reaper hung between the clouds like a scar in the sky.