Mass Effect: Downfall

A Novelization of a Mass Effect Online RP

(Author's Note: Chapter Updates will be released roughly every week unless a pressing matter comes up)

Preface

Some say that the best stories written are the ones with a perfectly thought out story arc, the ones with a proper introduction, rising action, shocking climax, then a slow descent into the eventual end. Others allege that the true story lies in the characters of the story, the actors of the play, who the reader becomes emotionally attached to as the plot weaves its path through the words and pages, contributing to the story far more than a main quest ever could. For the fans of the Mass Effect franchise, like myself, who've all come to fall in love with the brilliant series we all started with back on Eden Prime for the first time, it was different things for everyone. However, what was indisputable across the minds of each and every Shep and FemShep was that all of these things; the setup of the story, the characters involved, and anything else one would want to claim as true, led to what was an experience to remember. With the Mass Effect: Downfall RP here on Fanfiction, all of the players came together and helped craft another experience, one that I had the honor and privilege of being a part of, that truly brought out the awesome fun and satisfaction that can come out of a simple plan to dive into the canon and have a hell of a good time with others who share your love for the series. With that, I give you the experience that more than 20 different players helped shape into another experience that many of us will remember for a good long while.

TSGN7 (The Shadow Guardian N7)

Prologue:
The Helmet

"What the hell do you mean he came back by himself? We sent in a whole military strength recon team to check the status of a deserted colony world! Can someone tell me how ghosts manage to destroy an entire team of special ops marines?"

Commandant Rigo, on the report of the casualties of Sigma Squad

The helmet found inside of a small, burnt out cafeteria wasn't overly impressive or interesting to the casual observer-these kinds of people saw a small husk of what could've been a rock, a Rachni fossil, even possibly an old egg. But, the moment military forensics took their first observations of the cracked and charred Alliance Mark III Rebreather Helmet, they almost immediately were subdued by the sheer damage it had taken. The shatterproof visor was gone; only broken shards remained embedded in the border of where it used to reside. Peripheral sensors in the back of the outer shell were frozen on "9999"; easily enough to cave in a normal human skull with ease. Even the helmet seals were broken into two pieces; all of the evidence pointed to someone who'd crossed a very, very destructive Krogan on a blood rage. The only flaw in this conclusion?

Freedom's Progress was a ghost town.

It had been three months following the apparent death of galactic hero and Alliance figurehead Commander Shepard from an unidentified enemy assault; the original crew of the Normandy broken up, official records sealed and shoved into back room databases, and only a legend remaining. As time passed, Alliance leadership began a series of efforts to begin renewed colonization efforts in areas left alone to time and time alone. One such potential colony was Freedom's Progress, a small, fairly insignificant rock of a world with open expanses and several mountain ranges, loaded with all the vital pieces for a human to exist on; water, air, moderate temperature, and simple areas to develop into homes. As it was unclaimed officially, the green light was given and less than two months later, a small settlement was established.

Now, this is the part where details are a bit scattered and lost; after a great deal of digging, I found some records of an "incident" with the colony's security subsystems, but any specific details are either corrupted or simply don't exist. But whatever the incident, it caused a certain Commandant Rigo, responsible for this sector of space where Freedom's Progress lied, to send a fully armed navy squad, led by a psychopath I know, to check that the lights were still on. One psychopath came back without his left arm.

The only witness was the barely recoverable helmet feed; and even then the answers are hidden behind static and screen blackouts; it's last recording log is hardly impressive enough unless you have the background to go with it:

/ALDRIN LABS HELMET RECORDER XS-7590-b/
/PLAY LAST FEED RECORDED/
/FEED BEGINS-VIEW OF REGIS, J/

The playback then starts back up; it's static for the first 5 minutes, with the opening audio broken up into unintelligible sounds. After this interval of technical issues, the playback finally becomes clear enough to distinguish the shapes of the Alliance soldiers moving in an almost casual sweep of this colony gone dark; some chatter is heard, and after what seems like a century of a lack of action, a white light envelops the screen suddenly, with a loud high pitched sound ripping through the speakers. The screen fades to a darker tone; now one can't even distinguish from bipedal species-the last recoverable minute shows four outlines writhing on the ground, as if gravely injured; a new outline, perfectly straight, comes up and systematically points an object conspicuously shaped as a handheld firearm at the heads of the outlines for a few moments, then moves on. The image then cuts out abruptly, ending the only eyewitness testimony of the "ambush". Following the formal investigation into allegations of treachery and murder from the sole survivor of the attack, a military tribunal (with full news coverage, I might add) not only refuted these allegations, but also stripped the survivor of rank, title, and any benefits he may have had. Since then, the general truth accepted is that this survivor left his comrades in cowardice, and tried to pin his failure on another respected military man.

But every official detail is a lie; this is the real story, the real details, not the court case, and sure as hell not the one in the headlines:

This is a story of one man, driven almost to the point of insanity by a rage that demanded revenge, and how he got the oddest group of mercenaries and fighters around, including me.

And it all started with a call, a ship crash, and a rock of an ice planet; could things get any worse? Maybe; They called the trial the "Downfall of a Marine Hero"

For us and the fallen hero? We just called it the Downfall