And we return after a few weeks of silence. We return with another installement of Forever Family. (Note to those who have not read the first installment is that is something that I recommend.) I did take a lot more artistic integrity when it came to Mass Effect three, adding a whole bunch of OCs, some of which replace characters I despised. Expect rewrites on missions and yeah, we're good to go. Read, Enjoy, Review.
When John was alone, his mind would always drift back to Mindoir, his mind wondering what would have happened if things had gone different. Would he have joined the Alliance? Or would he have stayed on Mindoir? Would he have become a farmer like his father or mother, or would he have ventured off like his brother to see the great depths of space? Would he be a father by now? Would he watch over his own child as they ran about and played with their toys in the yard as he had once done? Those were thoughts that went through his mind as he watched the child play about in the small garden from his room. He sighed as he leaned against the window. He wished he was on Earth for the first time in ten years underneath much better circumstances. And maybe with a certain someone else.
The past six months had been reduced to this, him sitting in his room as he waited for something to do,\ between the several trials that he was going through, leaving him to watch the world outside and think. This was a common thought in his head. At lot of what ifs bounced around. What if he had never been born on Mindoir and he was born on Earth? What if he'd never been sent to Eden Prime? What if the Reapers didn't exist? Where would he be now? How would his life be different? He sighed as each time he had to remind himself that what he had now wasn't so bad. His sister had been talking to him as much as she could through the secure Alliance channels, telling him about her efforts to raise an army and how she had lost contact with Garrus a while ago. His sister and his friend had been going steady for a little, only separating because of the coming war. And Tali…..He hadn't heard from Tali in over three months, since his sister fell out of contact as well. Tali was back with her fleet, helping her people and preparing them for war with the Reapers instead of the geth. Her last message said that the Quarians were cutting all contact with Council space to prepare for war. The Collectors had put things into perspective for everyone.
He pushed away from the window as the child was called inside by his mother, the excited young man dropping his toy and sprinting inside. As he did so, the door behind him opened, letting in two Alliance soldiers. The first was a Lieutenant James Vega, a man who still held him in high esteem despite being placed as his guard for the charges that had been put against him. He was wearing his casual outfit, a white Alliance shirt with practical pants and a head of black hair that had been shaved into a Mohawk. He walked in, saluting the man before them. "Commander." Vega greeted.
"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James." John told the man, shaking his head as he ignored the other person. Probably just another guard, sent to make sure he didn't run away. It was a female form, in the typical Alliance outfit. Her helmet was on, so her face was masked, but something about her form seemed awfully familiar.
"Not supposed to salute you either." James told him with a shrug. "Come on, we got to go. Defense committee wants to see you." James turned, and he and the guard turned to lead John out of the room.
"Sounds important." John commented, tossing a datapad that he had picked up onto the bed. He quickly caught up, following the Soldier as he left the room. "What's with the armed guard?"
"She's not a guard. She's a Lieutenant Commander in the Fifth Fleet. Defense committee wants her there to. Don't bother talking to her, she doesn't talk." Vega told him as they walked, shoving past people who was rushing past them. John looked around with curiosity. He'd never seen this place so busy before, people were rushing about almost as if in a panic.
"What's going on?" John asked as he let a woman past him before rushing back up to where James was.
"Couldn't say, they just told me they needed you. Now." James told him, pushing through other people. John nodded and looked towards the approaching crowd. He smiled as he saw a familiar face pushing his way through the crowd towards him, a smile on his face as well.
"Anderson." John greeted, stepping forward and shaking hands with the man vigorously. Anderson smiled and quickly led them away, with James falling behind the three people with a higher rank than himself. John took a moment to look Anderson over. It hadn't been too long since Anderson quit the position of the Councilor to Udina and went back to being an Admiral. The politician's life never suited him but John thought it was a loss. He didn't think having someone like Udina was a such a good idea for Councilor.
"You look good Shepard. Maybe a little soft around the edges." Anderson gave a small joke as they walked, patting John's stomach. Her turned to their other walked, looking at her for a moment before saying: "You're the new Lieutenant Commander, right?" The woman nodded and took the hand that Anderson had told her, without any of them having to stop. Noting the woman's lack of talking, he turned back to John and asked: "How have you been since being relieved of duty?"
"It's not so bad once you get used to the hot food and soft beds." John joked with him as they were forced to shove their way through another massive crowd once they turned a corner. Anderson promised to have it sorted out, finally getting to the question that John wanted to ask: "What's going on? Why's everyone in such a hurry?" Anderson paused for a moment, as if dreading the question before answering.
"Admiral Hackett's mobilizing the fleets. I'm guessing word's made it to Alliance Command…..something big is headed our way." Anderson told him as they walked. John stopped as a since of dread hit him. He knew what this was. The day that they all had been dreading. Ever since he had been forced to…..He knew it was only a matter of time before they got here.
"The Reapers?" John asked, looking at his old friend with small hope. Every fiber of his being wished for Anderson to look him in the eye and, with more certainty than he had ever said anything else, that John was wrong and the Reapers weren't here yet. Six month's behind bureaucratic bullshit had left little time to gather the forces needed to even slow the Reapers advance. Anderson stopped halfway up the stairs and turned to look at John.
"We don't know. Not for certain." Was his response. To John, that was as good as the man telling him the Reaper was in plain sight. John clenched his fists and let loose a storm of curses and foul names at those who had grounded him. He spent six months doing absolutely nothing while they fought over political bullshit that hadn't matter, six months he could have used gathering an army.
"What else could it be?" John reminded.
"If I knew that…." Anderson stopped before he finished, leaving the rest up to John's imagination. He was aware that the Lieutenant Commander had stopped with them, and was watching their argument with a silent observation. Somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was smiling beneath her helm, silently mocking both of them.
"You know we're not ready for them, not by a long shot." John told him, staring at his friend. Anderson shook his head and continued forward, Shepard and the Lieutenant Commander following him as they walked.
"Tell that to the defense committee." Anderson told him as they continued on.
"Unless we're planning on talking the Reapers to death, the committee is a waste of time." John bitterly reminded. It had taken them six months to decide what they were going to with John after the events of the Alpha relay. They needed to appease the Batarians in order to risk another war, but by convicting them, they risked showing the galaxy that its biggest war hero was now a war criminal,
"They're just scared, none of them have seen what you've seen." Anderson defended the committee. Maybe they needed to, to understand the scale of the enemy that they were currently dealing. "You've faced down a Reaper. Hell, you spoke to one, then blew the damn thing up! You've seen how they harvest us, what they plan to do to us. You know more about this enemy than anyone."
"Is that why they grounded me? Took away my ship?" Was John's immediate reply. He was still upset the day he had landed on Earth, only to have a squad of Marines threaten to gun him down unless he surrendered, which he had already down. Those that had remained on his crew had immediately been sent off, back to their homeworlds or fleets. Anderson stopped and rounded on him, pointing a finger at him.
"You know that's not true. When you blew up the batarian relay, hundreds of thousands batarians were killed." Anderson almost yelled at him.
"It was that or let the Reapers walk through our back door." John defended him.
"I know that Shepard, and the committee does too. If it wasn't for that, you would have been immediately court martialed and left to rot in the brig." Anderson told him.
"That and your good word?" John accused, knowing that one of the main reasons he received leniency was because of Anderson.
"Yeah, I trust you Shepard. And so does the committee." Anderson answered, as if it was nothing to be surprised about. John sighed as he realized he was being too hard on his friend. The stress of spending six months doing absolutely nothing coupled with the arrival of the Reapers was getting to him.
"I'm just a soldier Anderson. I'm no politician." John told him.
"I don't need you to be either! I just need you to do whatever the hell you can to stop the Reapers." Anderson told him and the four began their walk again. John still couldn't shake the feeling that this female Lieutenant Commander was eerily familiar without even hearing her voice or seeing her face. He shook it from his head and continued following Anderson. They entered the secretary's office to the committee, the two uniforms at the desk standing at Anderson's presence. He paid them little mind and proceeded right into security, followed closely by the three Alliance soldiers.
"Good luck in there Shepard." James said as they reached the point where he could no longer follow. Only certain people were allowed past this point, the Lieutenant Commander and John being the only exception because of the summons. John shook James' hand, glad to have met the man at least before the coming war. He was aware that the Lieutenant Commander had remained behind with him instead of following Anderson.
"Shepard?" He heard a familiar voice say behind him. John turned and watched as an old friend stared at him in surprise. He quickly cleared the room towards Kaiden with a surprised look on his face. Kaiden, with the rank he was at when John last met him, shouldn't have been able to get this far back without special clearance.
"Kaiden?" He said as he neared. He felt the Lieutenant Commander tense up near him, but she didn't offer an explanation.
"Major, how'd it go in there?" Anderson asked, trying to get Kaiden's mind back on the task before him.
"Okay. I think. Hard to know. I'm just waiting for orders now." Kaiden told him with a shrug. John realized it made sense now, Kaiden had been with him during his hunt for Saren. It would only make sense that he would be called in as well, when it came to the Reapers.
"Major?" John wondered, torn between being glad that she had gotten the promotion to upset that he had not been told about it. Anderson seemed surprised about his lack of knowledge, giving him a sideways glance as he said:
"You hadn't heard?" John tightened his jaw but said nothing.
"No, I'm a bit of the loop these days." John replied, losing the humor in his eyes as he looked at Kaiden. Kaiden recognized the look and shrugged.
"Sorry sir, didn't mean to keep you out of the loop." Kaiden apologized, though John could sense that he didn't feel particularly bad about it. But John didn't need to fight this fight right now, not while the Reapers were so close.
"I'm sure you had your reasons." John excused Kaiden.
"Yeah. I suppose I did." Kaiden agreed, looking away as he said this. But he shook his head a second later and looked at John. "Still, its good to see you." Before they could talk anymore, they were interrupted by one of the secretaries who called Anderson's name. Anderson waved and strode into the next room with determination. John looked at Kaiden as he walked past, the major attempting to give him a smile but it slowly fading as John continued to walk. Kaiden still didn't trust him, even after he cut ties with Cerberus and destroyed the Collector base. The Lieutenant Commander next to him huffed and walked faster than John, following Anderson into the room.
When John entered the room, he was met with the sight of five Alliance Admiral turning towards him expectantly. People were rushing about even this room, though many were stopping as the three entered the room. "Admiral Anderson. Shepard. Lieutenant Commander." The head of the committee greeted as they entered the room.
"What's the situation?" John wondered, looking around at the bustling room.
"We were hoping that you would tell us." The head said, looking at John uncomfortably. A man came from his side, handing John a datapad with everything they knew about it. It was pitifully short, amounting to that something very large and numerous had used the Sol Relay and was now headed their way. Some scattered reports from corrupted transmissions mentioned something about the batarians already being hit and the hegemony destroyed. Then, it was a mountain of reports that said almost the same thing. Something very large and very angry was heading their way with an obvious intent.
"The reports are like anything we've seen. Whole colonies have gone dark. We've lost all contact with everything outside of the Sol Relay." Another one of the members spoke up, her face lit with obvious fear.
"Whatever this is, it is incomprehendably powerful." The head spoke again. The Lieutenant Commander leaned back on one leg as she heard this, a scolding chuckle coming from underneath her helm.
"In short, the Reapers have come knocking and they're too afraid to look out the window to see who it is." The Lieutenant Commander commented at the committee, speaking for the first time since she was around John. John paused for a moment as he considered this Lieutenant. Her voice was garbled and deeper than he would have suspected, giving the tell-tale sign of a voice scrambler, but he felt as though as shock of familiarity surged through him as she talked. He knew whoever was beneath this helm but he didn't know for certain who. The room went silent as she said this, as if the fears of everyone in the room had just been confirmed despite the evidence being plain to see.
"Then….how do we stop them?" The female councilor asked, her voice literally shaking with the realization. John looked at Anderson before shaking his head and looking at the committee.
"Stop them? This is about strategy or tactics. This is about survival." John told them, stepping forward. "The Reapers are more advanced than we are. More powerful. More intelligent. They don't fear us and they'll never take pity on us."
"But…there must be some way." Pleaded the female councilor.
"If we're going to have any chance at surviving this, we have to stand together." John told them. People were going to have to get over old prejudices and hate to let them have any chance at winning this war.
"What? That's our plan?" The head complained.
"You got a better one?" The Lieutenant Commander challenged, stepping up in defense of John. Who was this woman?
"Admiral!" Called a nearby communications officer. "We've just lost contact with Luna base!"
"How'd they get past our defenses?" The female on the committee said, her voice full of disbelief. Before they could answer the communications officer informed them that their UK headquarters had a visual, pulling up a video on a screen. The entire room stopped to watch it, waiting for the video to decrypt. When it did, it showed an Alliance officer shouting desperately at the Camera, but the audio was so garbled that no one could make out what the man was saying. The man continued the angry shouting for a few moments before an explosion happened just off screen, causing the video to go black. Then, the committee and John watched in horror as image after image of Reaper Capital ship in all the major cities. Beijing, London, New York. They were already on Earth, already beginning their invasion. The video paused on the perfect shot of a Reaper capital ship in some desert area, sand obstructing only a partial view of it. John barely heard Anderson wonder why Admiral Hackett hadn't contacted them as he looked at the screen in anger.
"What do we do?" The head of the committee asked, his voice less angry than it had been before. The Lieutenant Commander responded to this, stepping away from the screen and striding towards them.
"The only thing we can do! We fight or we die!" She told them. John slowly began to realize something. The reason the woman was so familiar, why he seemed to know what she was thinking without even seeing her expression.
"We should get to the Normandy." Anderson told John, stepping up next to him. John opened his mouth to answer only to be stopped by a thundering noise that shook the building. John spotted it first, his eyes widening as he did. The committee turned to see what he was seeing, each one of them standing from their chair and looking out the window as they realized what gave Commander Shepard pause. They all watched, helpless, as a massive Reaper descended from the clouds, a laser ripping through the city, destroying a skyscraper with ease. John and the Lieutenant Commander reached the same conclusion at the same time.
"Move!" John yelled as they turned as ran away from the window. No sooner had he said that, did a laser hit the window and send an explosion barreling at them. The explosion instantly killed the committee, frying those closest to the window while throwing the rest across the room with the table they had sat at. Anyone who didn't get caught in the explosion was hit by the desk, crushed under its extreme weight, the only exceptions being the three who had been summoned by the committee. John barely recovered when another explosion hit the building, tossing him into the air along with the Lieutenant Commander.
His back slammed into a set of chairs across the room, sending pain shooting throughout his body he slid off. His ears were ringing from the explosion and everything was out of focus. So many sounds at once, so many noises that it was deafening. Did he hear laughter? Why was someone laughing? He thought he heard his name about the ringing and the sounds but he wasn't sure. Then, someone came into view. It was the Lieutenant Commander, her armor singed and torn apart from the explosion but she was otherwise unharmed as she forced John to his feet. "Get your ass up. Now is not the time for a nap!" She was yelling at him, as everything was coming into focus. Her helmet was gone, revealing that what John had concluded early was the truth. His sister was the Lieutenant Commander.
In this installment, the narrative is going to focus on John a lot more than it is Johanna, since ME3 emphasis on the grit of war adds to the story. Also, I figured I'd outline the Earth prologue because it sets the setting for the rest of the story. I skipped Mars though. Uh, yeah that's about it.