Disclaimer... I do not own mass effect, or any of its products.

Author Note: I wanted to write a mass effect fiction for some time, but just haven't got around to it...this will be a muti-ship story. I also think Mass effect 3 was a disappointment after M2 was so amazing, at least the downloadable content is ok... and want to write my own ending to this amazing story.

Rated: M

The Shadow Empire: The Approaching Storm

Chapter 1

Posted: 10th March 2013

"We need to move quickly Liara and retrieve as much as possible from the Collector base, before Cerberus can," he stated factually, as he continued to pace around the table, as his mind kept jumping back to the fight against the human form reaper he had faced days earlier. "Last thing we want is Illusive Man getting hold of that technology," he said passionately. "It will give Cerberus to great of a technology advantage, we can't allow that."

"Don't worry my friend, I already have plans in motion encased such events occurred," as her small hand rest on his shoulder comforting him. "I already have several agents amongst the assigned recovery teams, and strike team ready to go."

At her answer all his tension disappeared, like a great cloud of doubt had been lift from his shoulders, "Good," as he quickly pulled her into embrace, his arms wrapping around her smaller form, "I trust you far more with that technology than Illusive Man any day, I would trust you with my life," knowing the words were true.

"I know," she answered softly, as her arms wrapped around his neck, her eyes locking with his. "I've missed you."

"I know," kissing her on her lips, as familiar charge of energy flowed through him.

The kissed lasted several minutes before Liara pulled away, her eyes still holding his own, "What about Miranda?" asking about the ex-Cerberus CO.

Stroking her lovely face, "Combat fuck," he answered truthfully, as one of her beautiful eyebrow rise questionably, demanding an further explanation, "We were going into one way mission, both stressed, both worried, and that need to be relieved," holding her firmly, "It was a simple way to coop with the stress."

"Was I a combat fuck?" she asked quietly, pulling away from his hand, looking over at the storm clouds dancing between night and day, as the ship followed the storm around the planet.

"Yes, you were," he answered back truthfully, as she tried to pull away, tears rapidly forming, "I won't lie to you about that, but you became more..." gently pulling her to face him. "It's one of my flaws, I'm not proud of it," holding her firmly in his arms, "She was a simple pleasure, you were far more, you were a lover."

"Where do we stand Sheppard?" she whispered, as a small tear danced its way down her cheek.

"Where do you want us to stand?" he asked softly, whilst his hand cupped her cheek, wiping the tear away softly with his thumb.

"I don't know," the information broker answered timidly, almost school girl like.

Pulling her onto the nearby couch, and gently guiding her light famine frame on to his lap, as her eyes continue to hold his own, "Liara," he said softly, his thumb rubbing her cheek with genuine affection, "We both know what's out there, we know a fight is coming for our very survival, and we both know the odds don't favour us," as he put his thumb on her soft lips, stopping the response on her lips.

"We could both be dead within next couple of years, we both are high ranking targets by both governments, and the Reapers, myself due to my success against them and the actions I've taken. And you due to your status as the Shadow Broker, the biggest information dealer out there," as Liara just nodded in agreement, accepting the point.

"Let's just live in the moment," he suggested, pulling her into another kiss, as Liara shift on his lap, returning his kiss with passion, as his hand rejoin his other resting on her firm ass. "Let's not regret our time together, we don't have time to doubt ourselves, let's just enjoy the pleasure we can gain from each other company."

"Your right," she admitted with a soft smile of her own, even as looking down into his eyes with real affection, "I've been acting like a silly spoiled child," before kissing him again on his lips.

"You know," he started, whilst his hands massage her lower back through her full red dress, "There is a term for this, amongst humans."

"What is it?" she enquired with interest, the scholar in her shinning through.

"Friends with benefits," he answered back easily, before kissing her forcefully again, as his right hand moved to top of her dress, easily finding the zip to her outfit. "Were friends, we been through combat together, we both find each other attractive, both physically and mentally. But we both have demanding positions requiring our time, and if knowledge leaked of our relationship, our enemies would come either of us, just to hurt the other, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes," she answered with a firm nod of her head.

"So let's work with this," as he rubbed her sides, before kissing her again, as she took her arms out of her red flowing dress, revealing a white bra vest, much like alliance military ones.

"Shadow Broker, Agent Fox's report has just arrived," the annoying VI reported, as he mentally groaned as Liara broke their kiss to answer the VI.

"Process it, I'll view it later," she instructed firmly in her Shadow Broker persona, her own annoyance coming through at the interruption, as she got off his lap. "I don't want to be disturbed for next hour, unless its Alpha level transmission, or above," whilst her full body dress fell to the floor, revealing a matching set of underwear, firmly hugging her prefect ass, as she discarded her equally simple heels with quick flick, before turning back to face him. "Sorry about that," clearly embarrasses about the interruption as she stood there for his inspection, waiting for him to act.

His experience eyes ran over her enchanting sapphire blue body, examining her well-toned legs, nice rounded hips, flowing into a perfect round butt, with a equally killer waistline, and perfect set of breasts, before finally looking into her enchanting eyes.

He suddenly realized he was properly her first love, her first embrace, only embraced, despite her age; he would always be special to her. He was her white knight from the moment he had rescued her from the ruins, even if he considered him more like a black knight. He had been her rock when her mother died, he had held her, comforted her, reinsured her and he had supported her, she had grown under his guardianship, under his leadership into the young women she was today.

"Your beautiful you know that," he stated with simple sincerity as he throw his own top to one side, before pulling her back into embrace and planting a forceful kiss on her lips, as his tongue explored her mouth again, with new energy and purpose.

Breaking their kiss, sexual desire pumping through his body, as one of her hands rested on his chest. "You know, you are going to be encage for the rest of evening, right?" he stated simply, already planning to make this night as pleasurable as possible for the inexperience Asari, she was owned that much.

"Am I?" she enquired, primal energy and excitement clearly visible to his experience eye.

"Yes," he stated with no hint of doubt, as his started to lay kisses on her sensitive neck, "Because I plan to fuck you for the rest of evening," as he pick her up, her legs quickly and eagerly wrapping around his waist, as he carried her to her private quarters away from her consoles.

Normandy

"Edi, put me on the ship wide speaker..." he instructed the free AI.

"Yes Sheppard," the ship AI responded, "You are on ship wide speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you know I have broken away with Cerberus, and those of you who remain have chosen to stay with me rather than return to their employment. I have spoken with the Shadow Broker, who has generously agreed to provide everyone with new identities as personal favour to myself, if you wish to make a new start, but don't wish to follow my command," he explained, as remaining command desk grew listen.

"This ship will be in combat, we will face dangers from all sides of law, so I give you next 48 hours to decide where you stand," as he looked at the grew around the CIC, examining their faces.

"I won't lie to you, I plan to be working with the Shadow Broker foreseeable future, and this may result in us coming into conflict with Cerberus, or working with non human parties. My working with Cerberus as alienates many parties, many governments, but I don't regret this, it was necessary to save lives and destroy a threat to our very survival when government failed to act. We are at war, whether we like it or not. You all know this, you all have seen the horrors of the Collector based," as he yet the mental image settle, as his eyes rested on Kelly.

Kelly had already admitted to her own nightmares to him in private soon after returning to Normandy, and that the crew were having similar nightmares that she was trying to help them handle, as her role as unofficial counsellor to the ship.

"I don't know what the future beholds. If you want to leave, talk to me directly or tell Edi, I won't judge you if you want to get out now I won't ask anymore of you. It's only fair you will want to see your families, love ones. If you stay with me, you may lose that chance. I won't judge you if you wish to call it a day, that is all," as he nodded to the AI interface to close the ship com.

"I'm with you Commander," Joker stated firmly, "I want to see this through to end, for Kaidan, for Jerkins, for the Fallen."

"Thanks Joker, I wouldn't want any other pilot," giving him a reinsuring light pat on the shoulder, already knowing Joker would come through for him just like he had done many times before.

"Don't get all sentimental on me Cap, I think I might cry," the helmsmen joked, wiping a fake tear away, causing him to roll his eyes at the man's behaviour.

Walking through the crowd in the CIC, as he headed to the evaluator, nodding to the remaining crew, "I'm with you Commander," Kelly stated with almost religious conviction, catching him off balance as she gave him a hug. "You came for us, Cerberus would never have done that, they would have just wrote us off as expandable casualties, as numbers, but you didn't. Even now you are looking out for us," she explained with certainly. "I'll be there with you until the end, whatever you need me to do, I'm yours, just say it," passion and conviction radiating off her.

Pulling out of the hug, "Thanks Kelly, it's good to have you back," he answer truthfully, since he had genuinely missed her, but deciding not mention it had been the perfect time to strike, catching their enemy off guard with their own sudden counter attack, after having survived the Collectors own devastating assault on the Normandy. And that he had effectively written them off as dead, and it was only by pure chance they had been saved, and spare such a gruesome end to fight another day.

Feeling his sprits rise as more and more of the crew express a similar desire and belief in him to guide them to victory in the days ahead, as he made his way to main gun battery, looking for Garrus, as he thought more about the grew.

They saw him as a white knight, a hero, a guardian, not a ruthless calculating leader who was solely focus on victory.

In many ways he was much like Illusive Man, they were both ruthless, calculating leader, that understood too well the need to make sacrifices to win wars, but unfortunately they both had different objectives.

He wanted to united the galaxy; under a single banner, harden them for the upcoming conflict, whilst the Illusive Man was solely interested in humanity, and didn't care if he alienated other races whilst doing so. This unfortunately conflicted with his own objective of uniting the galaxy to face the Reapers. In many ways, Illusive Man had easier task of the two, only having to worry about their own species, but he still felt that their best chance for long term survival was to work together, rather than as individual species.

It was also why he made the cold calculated choice to leave the Collector base intact, for most part, even with the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of individuals had died there, and had been harvested to make a human form Reaper. The technology they could gain from the intact base could be critical factor in ensuring the future survival of not only humanity, but all the races. And frankly it seemed like a bloody waste of lives to just blow it up, after so many had died, and at least this way their deaths had some purpose, as the words of his first commanding officer came back. 'There are lives spent, and lives wasted, it's our duty to see that our soldiers' lives are spent and not wasted.'

The only problem with that was only Cerberus could access it at this time, at this moment, and He just didn't think one race, one organisation hording it would be best use for it. Hence his upcoming operation he was planning with Liara to retrieve the technology for themselves, rather leave it the hands of Cerberus and Illusive man. And with her vast network of contacts spread across the galaxy, they could rapidly spread the technology to each sociality, he concluded as the bulkhead doors open to main battery.

"Garrus," he said in greeting to former C sec Officer.

"Sheppard."

"I trust you going to be staying around?" he asked the Turian.

"Of course, someone needs to watch your back, and how could I go back to boring desk job after this?"

"Good."

"How was Liara?" the Turian grinned, clearly knowing what he had been up to the previous evening.

"She doing well, far more relax now," he answered with his own boyish grin that any male could decode, no matter their species, "And I doubt she be sending Asari Commandos after some poor guy anytime soon."

"Is there anything you wanted? I doubt you are here for a boys chat."

Getting straight down to business, the ship needed a Xo, and Garrus was best suited for the position, "With Miranda gone, you are now my second in command, that's if you want the job."

"Sheppard, I don't think I'm the best choice," he began to protest.

"Garrus, you're the best choice I have, do you think Grunt is suitable? Yes he is a juggernaut in battle, but he's untested in leadership, his discussions are controlled too much by raw emotions, rather than cold logic need of a commander. Zaeed? We don't even know if he's even staying with us still," stalling any arguments. "I need you to help me lead, to help provided some stability for the crew," pressing his point.

"I understand," his Turian training and discipline kicking in an instant. "You could always use Edi..." he suggested with a grin.

"Yes, Edi is more than capable, but leadership needs a personal touch, and the crew would be more responsive to you, rather than her, I'm sure you understand Edi," since he knew the AI was listening.

"I understand, but thank you for considering me," the AI answered back, confirming she was listening, as her blue orb interface disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

Turning his attention back to Garrus, "I expect I'll need you in days ahead of us," feeling more reinsured that he had a second in commanded now he could count upon, "You have been part of this from the start, you have been key part in our success. I expect you will play key part in our future success as well."

"But only due to your leadership, you gave me a chance to grow, to step up to plate, as you humans would say," The Turian officer stated, "Rather than leaving me on the citadel..."

"And here is another chance to step up," he answered, "Normandy alone will not win the upcoming war. Someday, you will have to move out of my command fully, out of my shadow, you will have your own ship and grew again... You held it together at the Collector base; you held the line, as I pushed forward. You can do this."

"If you say so Sheppard," the Turian stated, clearly uncertain of his own abilities to lead men and women into combat.

"I have faith in you Garrus, I wouldn't have chosen you as my second if I didn't," as he moved to leave the battery... "The Broker is making arrangements for the Normandy to be taken to a space dock for necessary repairs, and any hardware upgrades, plus to do a final swipe for any bugs we may have missed. I plan to leave you in charge with the remaining grew to help supervise the refit. I'll be heading off on a little mission."

"Alright Sheppard, its shame Mordin not here, he would have love the chance to dabble with some new toys," bring back fond memories of their former crew mate.

"Yea, with him, Tali and Legion gone, we're awfully low on tech abilities," he admitted, somewhat annoyed at losing such skilled tech operatives, "But he was right, he can use his influence and connections to spread the word behind the scenes and bypass all this political crap. If he can get the Salarians to open there eyes to the danger, it will be worth it. And maybe that will get the rest of council races to play ball, and start acting."

"We will see him again," Garrus stated with certainly. "He knows the danger, and he's a man of actions."

1 week later.

Stepping out of the unmarked shuttle onto the deck of the former Asari destroyer currently named the Dancer, now in the employment of Liara, as his eyes quickly scanned the Asari cargo bay, and finding it just as pleasing to the eye as everything else of Asari design, how the wall flowed like running water. It was simply elegant, just like the Asari themselves; it was one of many reasons why he loved their culture.

Out of the corridor of his eye, he caught movement, as two figures moved to meet him, both carrying assault weapons, but it was clear they were on safely, the first one was clearly Asari even with her combat equipment on masking her features, her species natural grace shining through, the other was Turian.

"Operative Nex," the lead figure greeted, "We have been told to expect your arrival and to take you to the captain upon your arrival. However there is matter of clearance."

"Of course," he answered, "Here is my security clearance," activating the highly customize Omi-Tool, allowing the guard's own tool to examine it.

The Omi-Tool itself was only use by high ranking operatives in services of the Shadow Broker, the simple fact he had one meant he answer to broker directly, rather than another operative in the chain of command. In reality, he was effectively second in command, maybe even in command, since Liara naturally still deferred to him. The Omi-Tool was design with high security in mind, link to both DNA records, and updating security codes, and biological scans... Any attempts to hack the tool itself, or be used by another individual would result in the tool activating its internal safe guards, triggering instant data wipe, as well electrical charge frying its internal circuits.

Both tools flashed green, confirming the security codes were correct and his clearance level. "This way sir," the Asari stated, taking point, as he followed her led.

It odd working with a code name, but it was necessary, to help keep a low profile, and to ensure any actions he took could not be tracked back to the Normandy. He was duty bound to protect his crew as their captain, and he did not want to test their loyalties just yet by pitting them against their former employers. The same went for the armour he normally used; it was far to specialized, and could be easily traced back to him. Hence he had to work with a more common mass market brand...

However if it had been extensively customised by the Shadow Broker engineers, increasing the armour performance to point it match his normal upgraded N7 gear.

Following the pair through the passage ways, whilst admiring the design, before he finally arrived on the bridge, which was equally grew by several species, but none of them were human, not that he was surprised given the nature of the operation. Both he and Liara knew that the Illusive Man had operatives in her operations, just as she had operatives and informers in Cerberus, willing to pass information to her in their game of shadows.

He also knew, this operation would compromise several of her operatives, who would need to be relocated, but it was necessary price to pay in grand scheme of things... Cerberus just couldn't have exclusive access to the technology found at the Base.

"Operative Nex," the commander greeted, his armour giving away that he was Turian, as he moved to shake his hand, "The Shadow Broker has spoken very highly of your abilities."

"Thank you Operative Red," grasping the man in Turian handshake, commonly shared amongst soldiers, "Have you been fully informed of our mission?"

"In part," he admitted, "The Broker instructed me to follow your orders, and you would inform me of the mission details"

"Indeed," as he activating his tool, as the other operative did the same, sending the second set of clearance codes to the captain own, taking the guards by surprise at the second set of clearance codes. "This information is highly sensitive, and only should be shared on a need to know basis," he offered in explanation, as his tool did another set of security checks, before both tools flash green.

"Then we should discuses this in private," Operative Red suggested, now security protocols had been taken care of.

"Naturally" he agreed, following the commander into the small conference room, clearly design to support to small scale discussions.

Soon as the door were shut and sealed, he placed a small disk like device on the desk, which flashed blue several times, checking the room for activate listing devises before it flashed green. "My orders are to defer to your command, and you would inform me of our mission objective," Operative Red stated, but clearly unhappy about it.

"I am sorry about that, I know cloak and draggers can be tiresome, especially when it's your crew on the line," he offered, whilst the Turian officer just nodded.

"I'll get straight down to the point, Commander Sheppard recently lead a strike mission against a Collector based belong Omega-Four Relay," he began, finding it rather amusing he was talking about himself in third person.

"The Commander and his squad were successful in their mission, and destroyed the Collector Base, and their vessel. From what we have been able to intercept from our operatives, the strike team was able to retrieve data from their systems, and it suggests the Collectors were descendents of the Protheans," throwing Operative Red for the loop at such a massive discovery, whilst remembering Liara own excitement when he had told her of their discovery.

"Naturally, the Broker wants this information confirmed, and if possible expanded upon," playing the information angle, like Liara suggested, after all he had a role to play.

"Naturally," Red agreed, nodding his armoured head in agreement.

"Now I'm sure you understand why we're keeping this quiet," getting another nod in agreement from the Turian operative.

"Besides the social and cultural affect this can have on sociality, their also the technology benefits. With the destruction of their base, there is a chance to savage their advance technology for ourselves. The Broker is currently working on getting the codes to allow us to safely use the Omega-Four Relay for ourselves," he explained, using a half truth.

"However the pro-human organisation known as Cerberus, which Sheppard was working with at the time, already as the codes, and is already undertaking savage operations trying to recover their technology for themselves. Naturally the last thing we want is an organisation such as Cerberus gaining technology advantage and possibly using it against us, and the great inter-galactic community in the future. Nor do we want the System Alliance gaining sore procession, though their links with Cerberus, which could easily destabilize current balance of power, possibly triggering a war in future."

"Of course," the Turian agreed, "The Citadel Fleets are still recovering from the Geth attack on the Citadel, and the lost of the Destiny Ascension in the attack. I still don't know why System alliance didn't intervene, to save them."

Ignoring the comment, since it had been his own cold calculating order what had sent the previous council to their deaths. "Our orders are to intercept one of these shipments from Cerberus..." he stated.

"The Broker knows Cerberus as it own agents in our organisation, and we don't want this knowledge leaking, so far only 3 people know of this mission, and two of them are currently in this room," making sure the Turian operative understood the danger, and need to keep his mouth shut, otherwise Liara may just be sending a team of Asari commando after the guy. "War is bad for business... the Broker wants stability for the time being. Not to mention this technology could be extremely profitable if handle by the right party."

"I understand, but how can I trust you, your human, surly you would want your own species to advance?" the Turian asked, his bias shining through.

Playing it cool, rather than listing half a dozen reason why, he went for the most simple, and most powerful reason, "The Shadow Broker does, and I wouldn't be handing it otherwise," he answered back, making sure Turian understood.

"Of course."

"Now, can you show me to my quarters, I've been stuck on a shuttle for last 48 hours, and I like to freshen up," he instructed, wanting to get out of his armour, and have a proper shower.

End of Chapter

Author Note: This is my first Mass Effect fan fiction, I don't know how much I plan to develop it, I just wanted to write something sci-fi for chance, and so I can develop my own writing skills... Yes I know I have grammar issues, so if anyone wants to be a beta please message me...

However if it get good amount of feedback, and it looks like there is an active audience I'll properly continue it.