Disconnect and self destruct one bullet at a time
What's your rush now, everyone will have his day to die
"The Outsider" by A Perfect Circle
Lips connect with each other passionately as the two lovers embrace. Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko finally had down time after everything that happened as of late. After the death of Saren and destruction of Sovereign, the Council had sent Shepard after the remaining Geth in the Terminus system. "A waste of time", Shepard had told the Council. But this was all they could do as there were no other beings that had information on the Reapers.
Commander Shepard, the savior of the Citadel and the first human Spectre. A true paragon. Her efforts in stopping Saren and protecting the Council earned humanity a seat on the Council. A very high honor. And the Council has finally stopped treating humanity like second rate citizens. She couldn't help but feel like this was a waste of time. Almost like they were trying to divert the attention from Sovereign and to the Geth.
Executive Officer Pressly read a datapad as he paced around the cockpit. He was rather annoyed as he walked behind the pilot of the Normandy.
"We're wasting our time." Pressly declared. "Four days searching up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of Geth activity."
Joker looked to Pressly then back to his ship interface. "Three ships went missing here in the last month. Something happened to them."
"My money's on slavers. The Terminus System is crawling with them."
The Ensign began picking up readings. "Picking up something on the long-range scanner. Unidentified vessel. Looks like a cruiser."
Joker took a look at the readings and grew suspicious. "Doesn't match any known signatures."
The Ensign began picking up more readings and began to worry. "Cruiser is changing course. Now on intercept trajectory."
Pressly brought up an interface and looked at the cruiser's readings, he just couldn't make sense of it. "Can't be. Stealth systems are engaged. There's no way a geth ship could-"
"It's not the geth." Joker said as his face lit up with realization. "Brace for evasive maneuvers!" He shouted as he quickly moved the ship and just barely dodged incoming fire from the enemy cruiser. Another blast came from the cruiser and hit the cockpit, causing the console Pressly was using to explode, killing him in the blast.
"Pressly!" The Ensign shouted as she attempted to exit her seat only to have her console explode and kill her as a result.
"Kinetic barriers down!" Joker shouted as he tried his best to ignore the casualties behind him. "Multiple hull breaches! Weapons offline! Somebody get that fire at out!"
The unknown cruiser continued its onslaught of fire. Explosions went off left and right inside the Normandy. Lieutenant Alenko ran past the fire and dodge the explosions that attempted to block his path to Shepard. Soldiers ran past him as they fled to the escape shuttles, various men and women were caught in the oncoming explosions and were killed. Kaidan ran to the cryo pods and spotted Shepard prepping the distress beacon on putting on her breather helmet.
"Shepard!" Kaidan shouted, getting his lover's attention.
"Distress beacon is ready for launch." She said as she turned to look at Kaidan who had just put on his helmet.
"Will the Alliance get here in time?" Another explosion went off which caused Kaidan to stumble forward and land in Shepard's arms as she steadied him.
"The Alliance won't abandon us. We just need to hold on. Get everyone on the escape shuttles." Shepard handed Kaidan a fire extinguisher and grabbed one for herself and started using it on the fire.
"Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship. I'm not leaving either."
Shepard stopped spraying the extinguisher and walked up to Kaidan. "Don't argue with me Kaidan, I need you to get the crew onto the evac shuttle. I'll take care of Joker."
"Commander!"
"Kaidan, please go. Now!" She said with a very harsh commanding tone.
Kaidan stared at the Commander and hesitated to leave. "Aye aye." Kaidan said as he ran towards the evac shuttle and waited for everyone to get on. One woman was last but didn't make it as another explosion went off and killed her. She was so close but couldn't get there in time.
Shepard let out a sigh as she heard the evac shuttles leave. This was insane, she had no idea who this enemy was. It certainly wasn't the geth, no way they could do this much damage in only a few minutes. Shepard ran her way through the crumbling ship that she once called home and made it into the CIC. The roof of the CIC was completely blown off, exposing the room to the vacuum of space. Shepard slowed down her steps and slowly walked through room to make sure she didn't float out of the hole in the roof.
Joker was behind a small mass effect barrier that sealed the cockpit. Joker was wearing a small mask that shielded his head from the void. Shepard now behind the small barrier ran to Joker and tugged at the chair.
"Come on joker, we have to get out of here!"
"No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" He shouted back at his commanding officer.
"Joker! The Normandy is lost, there's a giant hole in the CIC just look at it! Going down with the ship won't change that!"
Joker looked down to the interface then back up to Shepard. He seemed to contemplate the Normandy's condition. "Yeah ok, help me up." Shepard nodded and grabbed Joker's arm only to have him widen his eyes in fear. "They're coming around for another attack!"
One final blast came from the ship which severed the ship's cockpit from the rest of it. "Holy shit." Shepard whispered to herself as she quickly grabbed Joker's arm.
"Ahh! Watch the arm!" Joker shouted in pain.
"Sorry 'bout that." She apologized as she lifted Joker out of his carried him to the last pod. She placed Joker down onto the seat and looked over to the console that was on the other side of the cockpit.
"Jeff, please be safe." She said her final words to Joker before activating the pod.
"Commander!? No don't!"
Shepard smiled sadly behind her helmet and launched the pod.
"ALICE!" She heard Joker yell as her last explosion went off, causing her to be thrown out of the Normandy and into the vacuum.
Pieces of the Normandy were floating around her and the main vessel was blown to bits by the cruiser's final attack. She watched in horror as she floated away and was caught by the planet's gravity. She began to float towards the planet and watched other pieces of the Normandy fall to the surface below.
Then she heard a small sizzling and her oxygen began to deplete. She began tugging at her oxygen supply in an attempt to reconnect it but her attempts were useless as she couldn't gather enough oxygen to gather her strength. She couldn't breath anymore and began to feel dizzy along. She lost even more oxygen in her panic.
She was so cold in the vacuum, her world went dark around her as she had no more air to breath. Her body's life began to drain and she felt her world darken. Her vision grew dim as she looked out to the cruiser that had done this to her. She finally felt one last thing go through her mind before she ceased all function. Anger.
Her lifeless body slowly increased in speed and fell to the planet below. She plummeted to the planet below and was reduced to nothing but a lifeless corpse.
-Weeks Later-
A woman with long brown hair and blue eyes looked at the mess that was Shepard's body. Mangled and burned flesh was all that made up her corpse. In everyone's opinion she would have been six feet underground. But that's what they were here for. That's what her job was for.
"Commander Shepard has been recovered." She announced. "The Lazarus Project will proceed as planned.
This was a fun one because I've been wanting to write a ME fanfic, so why not make the first one about Shepard's death? Further one-shots shall be made but not immediately. As always, leave a comment telling me what you think, they really help motivate me to write the next. Peace.
