Mass Effect: The End

Prologue

The quiet hum of the Normandy resonated around him. He was asleep, but only barely. A casual peek from the doorway of the commander's quarters may reveal a soldier, engaging in some much needed rest from over-exertion and over-stimulation. However, those more cynical may be more apt to guess the exact opposite – the commander was not really at rest, they say. No vessel of solitude or any reduction in consciousness could ever truly erase nightmares, and for Commander Shepard, hero of the Galaxy, avowed nemesis of the Reapers – is clearly an example of such a sentiment.

Command Shepard rolled over, grunting in his state of half-sleep. It was difficult to sleep. Too many problems, too many worries – all of these crowded his mind like angry wasps in a hive.

The Collectors may have been defeated, but a far greater threat still lingered. The Reapers were still out there, prowling the depths of intergalactic space, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Of the trillions who inhabit the galaxy, only a select few recognize their existence and the threat that they pose. Even fewer dwell upon their origins or purpose.

Like angry wasps with their stingers at the ready, these thoughts drilled through Shepard's mind, mostly in the form of images. Over and over, his mind replayed the last moments of the assault on the Collector base. Of course, some of these images were scenes of triumph, while others were scenes of grief and despair.

The door opened, revealing the shadow of a female figure. That shadow belonged to none other than Tali'Zorah vas Neema, a young female quarian who had joined Shepard in his travels two years ago. She and the commander had forged a very close relationship over these years – and depending on one's perspective, they have developed a far closer bond than most officers and their soldiers ever will.

So close, that it would be grossly inadequate to suggest that their relationship was forged as part of the usual discourse between an officer and his subordinate. Their affinity and affection for one another easily transcends such banal characterizations.

Tali approached the Commander's bed very quietly, determined not to make any noise which may disturb the fatigued Commander. Approaching the bed from the front, she climbed upon it. With great finesse and little noise, she slipped herself in the space between Shepard's right arm and his body, laying her own arms upon his chest.

Everything will be fine, she thought, with an air of faint optimism. Everything.

Shepard's body immediately relaxed, as if her thoughts resonated upon him like spoken words.

With that, she drifted with Shepard.

Chapter One – Intermediate Aftermath

The next day, Shepard assembled his crew in the cargo hold. Behind him, lay two caskets.

Shepard disliked making speeches – to him, speeches were the tools of politicians, the weapons of demigods and other devious men. Speeches may inspire, but without action, they are pointless all the same. But, despite his overt hostility against the art of public speaking, Shepard nonetheless felt compelled to honor his fallen comrades – and what was a better way to honor them than to make a speech?

The crew appeared both anxious and solemn. Mordin Solus was rubbing his chin in apprehension. Dr. Chakwas starred upon the ground. Kelly Chambers bit upon one of her fingernails.

Shepard cleared his throat. "Crew, despite our success in wiping out the Collector base, we still lost, in a way."

"Two in our number lost their lives a few days ago. Some other commanders may be delighted at the surprisingly low loss. But to me, two losses remains two losses too many. We have lost far more than mere manpower – we have lost two friends, two allies, and two people who fully appreciated the threat that the entire galaxy faces."

"Samara," continued Shepard, motioning to one of the caskets, "lost her life while holding the line against the Collectors. At great personal peril, she insisted that she stay behind to draw off the Collectors' fire while the rest of the team retreated back to the Normandy. As soon as everyone else was out of the Collectors' range, she retreated as well, but was shot several times in the back. Fortunately, Grunt was able to retrieve her body."

Grunt grunted in appreciation of Shepard's mention of his name.

Motioning to the other casket, Shepard continued his speech. "Jack was with me in the confrontation against the Human-Reaper. When twenty Collectors tried to swarm us, Jack kept them from overrunning our position with her biotics. Unfortunately, in the chaos of the collapsing base, she was struck by a column and was mortally injured as a result. While we may not have been able to retrieve her body, her restless and determined spirit lives on..."

Shepard grimaced slightly. He was running out of things to say. Oh well, Shepard thought. Might as well end with a cliché.

"Samara and Jack died so that the rest of us may live. Remember that. Remember that when you are forced to choose between your own life and the greater good. Remember that when we face the Reapers together. Remember, always."

As hackneyed these words were, they still drew applause from the crew. Shepard forced a smile upon his lips. He then turned his eyes on Tali, who was clapping enthusiastically and looking in his direction. He caught her eye for a brief moment and knew that he had done well. Making speeches isn't so bad. I should make them more often.

"Mind making some room, Shepard?" Shepard looked up. It was Garrus Vakarian. In his hands lay a bowl of turian food paste.

"Of course, Garrus. Of course." Shepard pushed his dinner tray to the left to make room for the turian.

It was dinnertime upon the Normandy. Dinners upon the Normandy were usually solitary, anti-social affairs, in which both crew members and officers would quickly pick up prepared food from Mess Sergeant Gardner and disappear back to their posts to consume it. There was little time for dinner parties, and even less time for conversation in the mess hall.

However, this night differed from the norm. Shepard was not the only occupant of the Normandy's small mess hall this evening. Tali was seated across the table from him, arms folded upon the table. The chair left of Shepard's own was occupied by Miranda Lawson, the Cerberus operative and the Normandy's executive officer. She was enjoying a garden salad. Mordin Solus, the Normandy's chief technology officer, was seated to Tali's right, struggling with a Rubik's Cube.

"Evening, Garrus," quipped Miranda. She had just finished her salad. Turning her head around to face the Normandy's open kitchen, she yelled, "Hey, Gardner, do you still have some of that California chardonnay in the liquor cabinet? I could use some."

"Hold your thirst, Ms. Lawson. I'm trying to get these dirty plates cleaned up first." Mess Sergeant Gardner shoved a pile of plates roughly into the dishwashing machine and set the timer. Gardner was the Normandy's do-it-all handyman. While his title may suggest that he is a cook and nothing else, Gardner performs a multitude of duties completely unrelated to his title. This includes not only procuring food and preparing it, but also cleaning up after his fellow crewmen in both the mess hall – and in the bathroom, when he performs his part-time plumbing job on the ship. While his job lacks of the glamor of a soldier's role in battle, Gardner remains proud of what he does for the crew – and for Cerberus.

"Ah! Stupid human puzzle! Too confusing!" Mordin twisted and churned the Rubik's Cube, cursing beneath his breath as he did so. After a few more moments of futile struggle, the salarian tossed the cube upon the table. "Giving up," he said solemnly.

"Oh, Mordin," sighed Shepard. "Rubik's Cubes aren't the most difficult puzzles that humanity has to offer."

"Perhaps, Shepard. Perhaps." Mordin relaxed his arms and eyed Shepard. "But has humanity completely decoded the genome of another species? Or even of itself? I think not! My failure to solve a silly little pathetic puzzle like this does not represent my ability to do science!"

Realizing that he may have offended the salarian, Shepard adopted a conciliatory tone as he apologized to Mordin. "I'm terribly sorry, Mordin. I did not mean to offend you…"

But the salarian interrupted him. "No offense taken. Nature of salarians to overreact to jokes, passing insults. No apology on your part necessary."

"Give that to me!" Tali reached for the Rubik's Cube. "Mordin, this puzzle isn't very difficult to solve at all – look." She gave the Cube a few twists, and as if it were magic, the cube was restored to its original state.

Mordin started at the solved Cube, wide-eyed. "Hmm. How did you…? What the…?" He descended immediately into a muted silence in face of Tali's apparent puzzle-solving genius. Hmm, he thought. Perhaps even great salarian biologists are no match for the hidden complexity of a human Rubik's Cube…

Shepard gave an amused smile. He had always appreciated Tali's speedy intellect.

Miranda, observing the commotion from a distance, developed a sudden interest in playing with the Rubik's Cube in her boredom. "Tali, mind giving me that puzzle? Might be a good time to toy with such a thing while I wait for my wine."

"Here you go." Tali complied, sliding the cube across the table in Miranda's direction. Miranda gave off a bemused grin. "Bet I can solve this before my wine arrives."

Garrus spooned some turian food paste into his mouth and chuckled. "Ah. So that's why Tali's our main engineer on this ship. If she can solve one of these puzzles so quickly, then she must be able to fix a broken engine in even less time. It all makes sense now."

Tali blushed beneath her helmet. "Oh, Garrus, you must realize that solving one of these human puzzles can hardly be compared to fixing a space-faring vessel's engine. They require… err… different kinds of mental processing."

Shepard spooned into his potato soup. He was too exhausted for conversation, and despite his omnipresent anxiety, the banter between his crew relaxed him greatly.

Garrus stared at the quarian's fingers. "Then they must both require some quick fingers on your part, Tali. Engine consoles have hundreds of buttons on them; press the wrong combination of them, and poof! Everyone dies." The turian clasped his hands together and pulled each of them away from the other very quickly, as if to create an image of an explosion of some kind.

"Ah hah! Solved it!" Miranda exclaimed, visibly pleased by the result of the solved cube. "Dr. Solus, these puzzles are not that difficult to solve once you realize how they come together. Here, let me show you."

Mordin observed Miranda's technique, charting the movements of her both her hands and the cube. His breathing became quicker in his newfound excitement. "Ah, I see. Puzzle is simpler than I had originally thought. Brute force not necessary. Interesting… May I?"

Miranda handed the cube to Mordin. "Of course. The pleasure is your's, Dr. Solus."

"Many thanks, Ms. Lawson." Mordin took the cube and set off immediately upon solving it once and for all.

Heavy footsteps approached the table. These footsteps belonged to Zaeed Massani, the mercenary whom the Illusive Man had hired out for Shepard's mission several months before. His scarred, battle-worn face mirrored that of Shepard's fatigued and baggy eyes. Initially, Shepard had an intense dislike for Zaeed and his ways. Perhaps it comes with fighting drugged-up mercenaries all the time. But in the past few weeks, Zaeed had proven his fighting mettle, especially during the battle on the Collector base. The guy may be a merc, thought Shepard. But he is one hell of a fighter.

Zaeed groaned, and seated himself besides Tali. "Evening, everyone," he said bluntly, setting his tray on the table. He ripped open a tea packet with gusto, carelessly tossing it into his waterglass. "Hell of a funeral speech you gave today, Shepard. You know, I am going to miss that little bitch – Jack, Subject Zero, whatever the hell her name was. Damned good biotic she was. Pity we had to lose her."

Shepard nodded solemnly. "Indeed, Zaeed. But, soldiers die, and well, Jack wasn't any different. She just did her job, and out of misfortune, a pillar collapsed on her. Regrettable, but unavoidable."

"I suppose, Shepard. But at least we still have that krogan with us. Useful little bastard he is. Saw him tear through dozens of those insect things with his rifle during the last battle."

Miranda nodded curtly in Zaeed's direction. "Evening, Mr. Massani. Has the Illusive Man decided to extend your contract with us?"

Zaeed took a draught from his tea. "Yeah, he sent me a message with the new terms of my contract. Deposited money from my previous contract into the bank as well. I just signed it about ten minutes ago. Looks like I will be hanging here until those… those..." He struggled for the words.

"Reapers, you mean?" Garrus looked up from his empty bowl.

"Err, yeah. Right. Reapers. I will be here until they finally bite the dust. Illusive Man has promised me a big payday if we do it." Zaeed forked into his potato soup, picking up a potato. He began chewing upon it. He then looked at Mordin, who had his complete focus upon solving the Rubik's Cube. "What are you doing there, salarian?"

"Trying to solve puzzle according to method Ms. Lawson described. Can't talk now! Very serious business here," replied Mordin without looking up from the cube.

Zaeed huffed. "Ah, I see. Those damned puzzles. Could never solve them. Never had the patience of solving them. I prefer to shoot up gas valves instead of dealing with them, for instance."

"Which is why you nearly killed us during your mission on Zorya," chuckled Garrus darkly. "You know, your tendency to shoot at things without considering the consequences causes great trouble for us at times." In Garrus' mind, Zaeed may be a good fighter, but he required supervision – at times.

"So what, turian? At least we got that bastard Vido before he left. I know, hundreds died, but Vido was a menace. At least ten thousand more would have died had we not stopped him there and then. Listen, have you ever wanted to see a man dead before, turian? If not, I understand. Sometimes, risks need to be taken to take them down. It comes with being a soldier or a mercenary, I guess."

Garrus heaved, thinking of Sidonis. "I suppose, Massani. Can't argue that Vido was exactly a man worth saving."

"Exactly. I am glad you see my view, turian." Zaeed took another bite from the potato.

Tali peered at Massani, who was almost finished with his potato. "Can you mind not chewing with your mouth open? It's disgusting."

"Sorry, quarian. Didn't mean to disturb you." He immediately closed his mouth and took another long draught of tea. He belched. Tali rolled her eyes, mildly annoyed but not overly so.

Gardner finally appeared, with a bottle of California chardonnay. Popping open the cork, he poured some of the clear, slightly yellowish fluid into Miranda's sifter. "Here you go, Ms. Lawson. Call me if you want some more."

Miranda nodded. "Thank you, Gardner." She took a draught of wine from the sifter. "So, what exactly are our plans, Commander? We have been drifting for nearly two days. I suppose that we should head back to the Citadel for supplies and to contact either the Council or the Alliance."

Shepard turned to face Miranda. "Well, I can't think of anything else that we can do. You're right, we should head back to the Citadel for supplies, and perhaps, with these new Reaper blueprints, we may be able to finally convince the Council that the Reapers exist and that they must take proper action to unite the galaxy in event that they return."

"Well, Shepard," Tali began nervously, "what if they don't believe us, like last time?"

"Then we will stop them on our own. Seeing how the Council fleet was decimated two years ago, we will not be defeating the Reapers on conventional means alone, even if the Council decides to help us. We have the will; we just need to find a way." Shepard pounded his fist on the table for emphasis.

It was moments like these when Tali feels the warmth of her admiration for Shepard upon her chest. In scenes of doubt, Shepard always has an answer. If something seemed impossible, Shepard makes it possible. Moments like these remind her precisely why she chose Shepard.

Her thoughts were immediately interrupted when Mordin suddenly rose from his chair besides her, with a solved Rubik's Cube upon his palm for all to see. "Ah! Finally! Success! No human puzzle in the galaxy is a match for the Dr. Mordin Solus!"

In that brief moment of Mordin's personal triumph, a great BOOM suddenly shook the Normandy.

The lights went out. Miranda was knocked off her chair, her sifter of wine smashing upon the floor into many tiny glass bits. Zaeed's dinner tray slid off the table. Mordin toppled over upon Tali, who caught him before he fell upon the floor. Garrus' chair slid sideways, sending the turian onto the floor. Shepard grasped his hands upon the table, trying to steady himself. His instinct told him only one thing: the Normandy was under attack.