Mass Effect: Purification
Author's Note: The title does mean something and this is just a prologue to the actual story and retells the events of Mass Effect 2, or at least the opening. Spoilers for whoever hasn't played Mass Effect 2 yet. The story focuses on Garrus by the way.
Prologue: Tragedy Strikes
The vast wasteland of space erupted as the Normandy ripped through though the very fabric of time and space. The Normandy's FTL drive slowly died down, causing the ship to go into silent running mode. The ship gradually drifted into space as the silent abyss surrounded the ship. Inside the ship Garrus sat in the engineering bay tending to the Mako. Joker was relying commands through the comms, but Garrus was inattentive. He was lost in thought. Garrus' mind wandered to all of the crazy adventures him and Commander Shepard had gone through. They had fought of Saren, taken down a large population of Geth, and destroyed a Reaper, and now they were once again flying through space in pursuit of another adventure.
Garrus could hear Joker calling out some more things now, but still he didn't really care. He walked over to Ashley and began to look at some of the weapons she had been fixing up. He could immediately pick out two of the weapons, one a Lancer class III Assault Rifle, probably one she had just recently used, and the other, a Striker V class Sniper Rifle, his own. He had grown used to using that rifle. He was surprised to see Ashley working on it.
"Ashley," Garrus called out to her, "it's nice to see you working on my Striker." Ashley gave him a head nod that indicated it wasn't a problem. Ashley always had a standoff attitude. It seemed the only person she really got along with was Commander Shepard. Garrus began to think Ashley just didn't like aliens. She seemed to be like a majority of humans and wrote off aliens before even giving them a chance. Garrus knew what it was like. He had plenty opportunity with those kind of people on the Citadel.
He was glad his Striker was getting attended to. That Sniper Rifle was special to him. He had named the gun Nightmare. He had gotten it back when he was in C-Sec. His commanding officer had come by his station one day and given him the gun.
He said, "Vakarian this is one hell of a Sniper Rifle, it's a nightmare to your enemies."
"Thank you sir," Garrus told him, but in his mind he was thinking, "Nightmare, huh?"
When he arrived at his apartment that afternoon he etched into the side of the gun the word Nightmare. It was now his and he would use it forever. The gun had improved scope, more firepower, and less recoil, but the overload rate was quick and rate of fire was slow. If he did his job though he would never have to worry about that though. Not only was the gun improved in power, but also in aesthetics as well. The gun had a nice metallic blue finish, one that matched Garrus' armor. The gun looked very sleek and was incredibly light. He added some more customization later, but the gun was still almost the same gun he had gotten from C-sec all those years ago.
"Prepare for evasive maneuvers," rand throughout the comm. system. Garrus had no ide what was going on, until he felt the Normandy swerve to the right. He was flung to the right as well, catching himself on the nearby pillar. He watched as Ashley was caught off guard and flung to the floor. He dashed to help her, but then was flung forward when Joker cut hard to the right. He had no idea what they were avoiding, but it must've been dangerous.
Joker said some more things over the comm. system, but Garrus couldn't make out what he said anyway. He got back to hit, just to be flung to the ground again as he felt the ship rock when something crashed into it. The engineering deck was then suddenly ripped apart as a huge particle beam ripped into it. Garrus backed away from the huge hole that was now in the roof. He now saw what the big problem was. A huge ship, one which he couldn't identify loomed over the Normandy. Garrus saw Liara run down to the engineering deck, and following behind her was most of the rest of the crew.
"Into escape shuttles, Now!" she screamed out to everyone on the bottom deck. They hurried into the escape pods, three of them total. Garrus, Liara, Wrex, Tali, and Ashley helped the rest of the crew into the first two pods.
"Where's Shepard?" Tali asked what was on all their minds.
"She's going to help Joker, but we have to get out of here," she responded.
"We have to wait for the Commander!" Garrus shouted.
"No time!" Liara responded as she pushed the rest of the crew into the last escape pod and shut the door. She hit a series of buttons and the shuttle became dislodged from the ship and shot off into the vast emptiness of space.
Garrus looked out of the window of the pod and watched as the Normandy got hit by another beam, and he could now clearly see the ship it was firing from. It was a massive ship, bigger than any he had ever seen. The ship was at least twenty times the size of the Normandy. It almost looked like a massive rock with small antenna like things jutting out of it. He had no idea who or what would be piloting such a thing. Garrus watched as the Normandy got torn apart from the blast. Everyone else was talking amongst themselves and trying to figure out what was going on, but Garrus was focused on the Normandy.
Just as it looked like all hope was lost, he saw another pod eject from the ship and fly towards their location. Simultaneously he saw a helmeted figure drifting into space and immediately knew that Shepard hadn't made it out alive. He decided not to say anything, but he knew that wherever the landed the meeting between them all was not going to be a happy one.