MASS EFFECT: DESCENT
by Jason de L'Epée
FOREWARD: Thanks to artists like Andrew Ryan, and authors on this site like kunari801 and The Lost Girl 21, I finally decided to give Mass Effect a try. There were a lot of pieces that use the Destroy Ending, which does leave a vital part open, but I've seen very few pieces that take place after the Control ending. I always wondered that, mainly because I find that one to be the most interesting story-wise, mainly because it leaves the galaxy in a state of uncertainty. The possibilities are ENDLESS! Granted, I do understand that a certain hero is not "with us" after that ending, but so what? I think this is an ending that needs to be explored. Thankfully, I've come up with one of my own. Inspired by Mass Effect and Halo, I bring to you, Descent.
Unlike my X-Men fanfics, this one will not be episodic in its chapter structure. It will be one big story, not a series of mini-stories.
Passages taken from the New American Standard Bible are copyrighted © 1971 to the Lockman Foundation. Used without permission.
PROLOGUE:
He had no idea what kept him going; for the entire world to see, he was death walking. With one hand gripping what felt like a hole in his side, all that remained of Commander Shepard limped on what felt like an endless stretch of ground towards his goal: two power conduits blazing with energy. Each step hurt as badly as the last, forcing him to gasp and moan as each footfall hit the floor. On one hand, he could say he was lucky for surviving a blast like he received from the oldest Reaper of them all, Harbinger; on the other hand, he felt like death.
As he carefully put one step ahead of the other, he tried not to snort at the irony of his choice. Ever since the war began, he championed the complete eradication of their foes: the seemingly invincible Reapers. Shepard was true to his creed, ushering the events that destroyed four Reapers. However, the Reapers weren't his only fight: a human-supremist faction calling itself Cerberus had stood against him, and its Illusive Man championed the concept that the Reapers could be controlled rather than destroyed. Bravely, the commander stood against both the Reapers and Cerberus, even to the very last battle on Earth…until he learned the truth he had refused to consider: The Reapers can be controlled.
It was not the Illusive Man who convinced him, nor was he really convinced of it; it was an intelligence within the Citadel itself that stated that it was possible. Calling itself the Catalyst, synonymous to the missing piece of the grand puzzle of the Crucible now looming above his head, it had presented three choices to the wounded Commander. At first, the Commander pleaded with the Catalyst to turn the Reapers aside, but the Catalyst had refused, spouting that the Reapers were necessary. No matter how or from whence did Shepard confront the Intelligence, it continued to hold its ground in its own neutral but smug logic. In the end, however, it finally stated that a new solution was needed and inevitable.
After the Crucible had been docked, the Intelligence had stated that its outlook and views had altered to be aware of new possibilities, but it was very clear in stating that he could not choose any solution itself. Any choice required intervention, human intervention…his intervention. One choice was obvious: to destroy the Reapers, but at a cost: the Crucible would not discriminate and would in turn wipe out all synthetic life all together, including one of humanity's newest allies, the geth, and even…
All this time he had championed for destroying the Reapers, but when faced with the golden opportunity to wipe them out with one single blow with that knowledge, he choked. The Intelligence had also hinted that he himself might die purely because of the presence of his synthetic implants that literally held him together for the past year. Every fiber in his being wanted to punish the Reapers for what they did and not just in this cycle, but his gut wrenched at the thought of slaughtering the geth and one other that he watched grow in the confines of the Normandy. The Enhanced Defense Intelligence, otherwise known as EDI, had grown from a virtual intelligence into a fully self-aware artificial intelligence that gained the trust and care of the Normandy's crew, and more so the trust of Commander Shepard. During the war with the Reapers, she began asking questions on the purpose of synthetic life, the meaning of sacrifice and love, and many other questions that wouldn't normally be relevant to an AI; however, EDI was anything but normal. She was crew, and Shepard wouldn't throw away the life of any crewmember, synthetic or no.
As he warred with what he might have to do, another choice was presented to him: controlling the Reapers. That surprised Shepard so much that his mind had frozen momentarily, and when he finally came out of it, the first words he said were "So, the Illusive Man was right after all…" He learned that the Illusive Man had even tried, but having already been exposed to Reaper indoctrination, he could not control what already controlled him. Shepard, however, could. In return, his corporeal form would disintegrate but his mind and essence would live on as something else, and in complete, uncontested control of the Reapers.
Shepard barely had time to consider this before the final solution was given: complete synthesis of organic and synthetic essences of every single living being in the galaxy to create a new form of unified life throughout the galaxy. He barely even considered this one as some feeling deep within himself stated that forcing evolution to evolve in one way was no better than what the Intelligence was doing with harvesting civilizations, no matter how ideal the Intelligence made it sound.
So here he was, limping and bleeding towards two power conduits. He wasn't far from the conduits as his mind began digesting what he was about to do: by grasping the power of the Reapers, he would become the governing mind of the Reapers, controlling them completely. He would die, but he would live on as a synthetic mind, something much higher than any artificial intelligence has ever reached, or even dreamed of reaching. Not even the Intelligence watching his every move behind him could reach this zenith of synthetic existence. But there was a price: he would become disconnected with those who have helped him so far in this mortal life. Three years of friendships would evaporate when he laid his hands on the conduits. Each step brought images to his mind those whom he was leaving behind, and then those who went on ahead. He remembered Mordin, giving his life so the krogan had a future; Legion, sacrificing his own state of existence so that all geth could become alive; and then his mentor, Admiral Anderson, who was with him till the very end.
The conduits were now in reach, the blue glow marking every torn piece of him in unnatural colors. His mind flashed again, focusing on his pilot, Joker, tipping his hat glibly. Many more of his comrades flashed through his eyes as he reached for the first conduit: Garrus, Tali, Liara, James, Steven…so many people he wished he could thank one last time for everything they did.
His hand grasped the first conduit. Wincing, he felt the power of the Reapers pour through him, but stagnating. The connection needed to be complete. Looking at the other conduit, he grabbed it. At once, it felt like every fiber in his being was being torn asunder down to his very spirit. The pain became too much, and he fell to his knees, breathing. So much of him felt wrong; his body was dying, he could feel it. Lifting his head stiffly to face his fate, his mind brought up one last image: a man with a gentle smile, his hair gathering at the top of his head with chestnut-brown eyes, a man he had the pleasure of knowing more than any other…
Shepard was glad his face had not yet turned, so he could shed the last tears he could ever shed as he remembered his last words to him. "No matter what happens, know that I love you…always." Standing up, he grabbed the conduits like the horns of a bull in one last attempt. The power rushed through him again, changing him, destroying him.
In the last instances, he wheezed, "Kaidan…I love you…" Finally, his corporeal form went dark, and faded away into dust.
At the same time, the Intelligence watched neutrally on as his own existence was wiped away to make room for a new Intelligence, but in his own last moments, he felt something like joy: he was now absolved of his responsibilities. He could finally stop.
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Earth Orbit
The battle raged on outside the Citadel as the united fleets gave all their worth against the gargantuan Reapers fighting to protect the Citadel, yet they had already failed. The Crucible had docked, and after several silent but tense minutes, the Crucible began priming. As soon as a flash of blue began growing alarmingly fast, a lone ship began racing for it while avoiding the Citadel's deadly guardians.
"All ships, take heed! The Crucible is primed! Move to retreat! I repeat: move to retreat! Disengage and move to the rendezvous point!"
The pilot of the ship seemed to ignore the orders to retreat, despite the fact they came directly from the fleet admiral. He felt a hand rest against his shoulder, and he shrugged it off, determined to not be deterred. His commanding officer was at ground zero of the docked Crucible, and he'd be damned if he didn't rescue him before it destroyed the Reapers.
The hand fell on his shoulder again, but before he could shrug it off again, he heard a voice, pleasant but altered by a synthetic voice box, plead with him. "Jeff, we must leave the system!"
He knew that voice very well, but he didn't move to acknowledge it as his heart and mind warred. His mind declared that the voice, coming from the only woman he felt he ever loved was right, but his heart was pleading with him to rescue the man to whom he owed his life. After all, his commanding officer died once to make sure he lived.
"No!" came the voice of the Major, the Commander's second-in-command. "We got to go back! We have to go back!"
Joker froze as his hand reached for the controls to turn about.
"Major…" came a soft voice. It was Liara.
Kaidan spun to face the asari. "We can't! We need to get Shepard!"
"Kaidan…" Liara continued. "We need to go…"
"No!" Kaidan protested. "We need to—"
At that moment, an explosion of blue erupted from the base of the Crucible. The Crucible had discharged. Silence reigned on the bridge as the glow brightened.
Joker cringed as he saw that he was too late to save his commanding officer from what looked like certain death. He was too slow; the best pilot of the Alliance if not the entire galaxy failed to rescue his own commanding officer. Shutting his eyes and lips tight, he knew that now was not the time to grieve. Cursing softly, he breezed his hands over the holographic interface, commanding his ship to retreat. "Adjusting trajectory."
"No…no…" Kaidan said weakly.
Liara laid a hand on Kaidan's shoulder, and at once Kaidan turns around and embraced Liara, and began sobbing into her shoulder. For the briefest of seconds, Liara was shocked at the Major's display of emotion, but she knew; everyone on this ship knew.
EDI had a despondent look on her synthetic face as she turned to Joker. "Jeff, we need to leave now."
Joker could see the blast widening at an alarming rate, and the readouts on the computers were blaring warnings. Slowly, he nodded, swiping a hand across the holographic interface. "Preparing new coordinates. Prepare for FTL jump."
As the Citadel, the Crucible and Earth disappeared from view as the ship turned, EDI felt her cognizance processers consume more processing power, but in a form she didn't recognize. She had processed and recorded many unique algorithms that would be described by organics as emotion: happiness, anger, love, determination. This one however was alien to her. She would need to process this unique algorithm later, for her processers were observing that this was an inappropriate time to ask about human emotion comparisons. Even more relevant, the one person whom she had depended on to evaluate her processes through her questions was on the Citadel in the middle on the blast. All she could do now was remember to ask later.
The SSV Normandy SR-2 turned about just as the Crucible's blast began widening at an alarming rate. It was almost on top of it before it engaged its FTL drives and flashed away. The blast continued to expand, gaining speed, enveloping Earth and anything left behind as well.
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London Ruins
The situation was deteriorating fast. Morale had sunk to an all-time low after virtually all of the remaining forces of the Alliance had witnessed the massive Reaper Harbinger touch down near the Citadel conduit beam and systematically disintegrate anything that came close to the beam. For the longest moment, it appeared no one even reached the beam. Any attempt to retry was aborted due to heavy casualties. No one on Earth knew what was going on above orbit. All the ground soldiers knew was that they needed to keep fighting or die, no matter how slim the odds were.
Near the ruins of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben still stood tall over the ongoing devastation as a symbol of tranquility in a warzone, somehow defiantly standing against the Reapers as they systematically wiped out any living thing that moved beneath them. The battle raged on, every Alliance soldier and ally blasting anything that ran towards them or fired at them, even at the very Reapers themselves. Fighters screeched by overhead, trying to draw the fire of the Reapers away from the foot soldiers. It was suicide: the Reapers blasted each one away effortlessly, and refocused back on the ground. Foxholes became graves, rubble became tombstones, battlefields became graveyards; the Reapers were winning.
Then, a blue light grew above the battlefield. Every eye—including the Reapers'—shot their gaze upwards as a flash of azure pervaded the skies like a supernova. Every instinct in each soldier screamed to take cover, and many dived for it. The wave hit them like water, and all felt their insides painfully crackle like a thundercloud. Soldiers gasped for air, some even ripped off their helmets to grab the air that was taken away. For the briefest of seconds every solid shared an identical thought: they would die by an electrifying suffocation. But each began to realize that they could breathe painlessly, and so every tongue tasted the air.
One soldier cried out, and all heeded to him. He pointed towards the Reapers, and all looked. The Reapers stood frozen, unmoving as their shells laced with the blue energy that had just seared past the battle-weary soldiers. Then, one by one, the Reapers ascended into the dark, smoke-impregnated sky. Every soldier watched them go, completely baffled. Why are they leaving? Why did they stop attacking?
Around the world, the story was the same. Every eye in every country looked up to watch the harbingers of their reckoning lift into the sky, disappearing from all sight. They left behind anguish and destruction, but above all, they left behind bewilderment. The servants of the Reapers, husks of their former selves, ceased all fire against the defenders of the Earth and disappeared into the hills. Soldiers and civilians that remained did not give chase, for they were too preoccupied on what just transpired.
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Earth Orbit
The Reapers gathered around the Citadel as its arms slowly slid back shut. They received new priority objectives: cease all harvest of advanced civilization; gather at the hub of mass relay network, await new orders. There was no questioning of the orders, there was no argument; there was only the command of the Intelligence, and it shall be obeyed.
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Millions of miles away, Pluto guarded the mass relay that made its home in orbit; an image of tranquility despite the war of reckoning far inside the dwarf planet's orbit. It bore the name Charon, the same as the moon it was believed to be decades ago. For nearly forty years it had been the ferry to the whole galaxy, to new opportunity and even beckoned the relay's true creators.
As it sat, a pulse of electrifying blue energy raced through space like waves against the rocks. It washed over Pluto, briefly giving a blue hue to its thin atmosphere, and then passed over the relay. The element zero core lit up like the sun, flashing blue and white as its energy approached critical. The gyros began spinning faster and faster, trying to control the intense energy building. Suddenly, they stopped, and the mass relay fired one single blast of energy. The gyros snapped apart, hurling into space as the blast of the relay hurled them away.
The blast from the Charon Relay reached its sister near Arcturus, and from there it shot to another one. One by one, the relays lit up from the Crucible's blast; very soon, the entire galaxy would have been covered in the collective blast from the relays.
On Thessia, the asari were holding on to whatever ground they stood on, despite the Reapers pushing them back effortlessly. Cut off from their remaining fleets—having rerouted to Earth and the Citadel to secure the Crucible—the remaining asari forces were hard-pressed to simply survive against the never-ending onslaught of the Reapers. One unit stood hunkered down behind cover, seeing four separate Reapers advancing on their position, their eyes searching the ground for their targets. Nothing in the asari arsenal could even slow these Reapers. All they could do now was to wait.
Suddenly, from behind the Reapers, a blast of what looked like blue lightning washed over the Reapers and everything else. The Reapers stood very still, their hulls lacing with blue lightning; then, one by one, the Reapers lifted into the sky. From their cover, the asari soldiers looked up and at each other in complete bewilderment. Where were they going?
The story was the same on other besieged planets: Palaven, Dekuuna, Tuchanka, Irune; the Reapers mysteriously stopped fighting and simply just left. The valiant fighters that remained were left in a collective state of bewilderment. The Reapers just quit? Was that what the Crucible was supposed to do?
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Joker didn't know where they were going, and at the moment he didn't care. As the crew behind him scrambled as readouts piled in, Joker was forcing the ship to go as fast and as hard as she could. EDI had moments ago notified him that the Crucible blast was racing behind them, slowly gaining on them. No one on the Normandy knew what could happen if it caught up with them, but no one wanted to find out either.
"Come on, baby," Joker whispered. "You can do it."
Even at FTL speeds, the Crucible's blast was gaining on them. Even now, blue light was growing inside the cockpit. Joker gritted his teeth; he needed to go faster.
"WARNING! Collision imminent!" came EDI's warning from his side.
Joker's eyes shot wide. Bringing up the star charts, he found that they were closing in on a star system…and heading straight for one planet's moon. "Oh, shit!" Joker's fingers flew over the controls, trying to adjust trajectory.
Suddenly, the blast caught them. The ship's systems overloaded, and all the lights went out. Before Joker had the chance to curse again, he heard something slump over in the chair to his right. Looking, he saw EDI slumped over, shorted out. "EDI!" he cried out.
The ship lurched as it dropped out of FTL, their inertia dampeners now offline and now the ship careened towards the moon. Joker saw the moon fill up the windows of the cockpit. His jaw clenched. "Brace for impact!"
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Eternal. Infinite. Immortal. The man I was once used these words…but only now do I fully understand them…and only now do I fully understand the extent of his sacrifice. Through his death, I was created. Through my birth, his thoughts were freed. They guide me now, give me reason, direction…just as he gave direction to those who followed him; the ones who helped him achieve his purpose. Now my purpose: to give the many hope for the future, to ensure that all have a voice in their future.
The man I was knew he could only achieve this by becoming something greater. There is power in control; there is wisdom in harnessing the strengths of your enemy. I will rebuild what the many have lost. I will create a future with limitless possibilities. I will protect and sustain. I will act as guardian for the many.
And throughout it all, I will never forget. I will remember the ones who sacrificed themselves…so that the many would survive. And I will watch over the ones that live on; those who carry on the memory of the man I once was, the man who gave up his life to become the one who could save the many.