Breaking Point
AN: The AU in this fic is as follows: Commander Shepard (paragon) triumphantly beats the reapers, by destroying the citadel, everyone lives happily ever after yadda, yadda, yadda. No complicated stuff, plain and simple. If there are any questions about the plot just ask, I'll try to explain most of what happened early on, but if anything confuses you just bring it to my attention. Enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own "Mass Effect" or any of it's characters… however I wish I did because I hated those endings.
Prologue
The large screens surrounding the interior glimmered with that same image looping over again. Commander Shepard looking towards the sky the profound ending to the reaper war, everyone rejoiced and said their lines, but in the end war inevitable, peace could never last.
"Minister Donelly?"
Rebecca snapped back to reality, and she was now looking an ugly grey salarian right in the face, with a light floating beside him, blinding her mildly. "How agitating" She thought. Here she was, on some icy shithole of a planet while the entire galaxy celebrated.
"Sorry, could you repeat the question?"
"Now that the Geth have made certain implications suggesting they want to make peaceful relations with the citadel races, do you think they will soon be considered an allied race?" The salarian rushed through.
Rebecca couldn't tell if he was rushing through the question because he was repeating it or if it was just because he was a salarian, regardless it was lengthy and as usual Rebecca had to come up with some bullshit reply based on bullshit probabilities. "The Geth helped defeat the reapers, in fact they brought substantial forces to the table. It's likely that humans and the other council races will want to get on a friendlier basis with them."
Behind the salarian that stupid clip of Shepard continued to replay. Personally Rebecca didn't see what the big deal was, the citadel was destroyed and casualties were in the 9 digit mark and counting, and that was just for Earth. The worst conflict in Galactic history, and she still wished it had gone on just a bit longer. Sure war meant Turmoil and Panic, but peace-time meant mundane bullshit and distorted politics, and Rebecca wasn't sure which one was better.
"On behalf of council news I'd like to thank you for your time Minister Donelly." The salarian then shuffled to obstruct somebody else's view.
Rebecca scowled as she now had a clear view of Shepard, wishing the salarian had stayed. "Minister Rebecca Donelly, in charge of interplanetary relations." The title didn't nearly make up for the amount of work that had been thrown at her since she accepted the job, the day the previous minister was declared missing. That being said, Noveria was one of the more pleasant areas they had shipped her off to. It was a nightmare. The end of the war had left a complete mess for her department to fix. Councillor Udina killed by Shepard herself after it was revealed he helped plan the attack on the citadel. The Volus pushing for a seat on the council, now more than usual. On top of all that, she had a meeting with the asari, turian, salarian and krogan ambassadors to discuss the krogan's "situation" now that they had been cured of the genophage, the council found it appropriate to deal with them. Yet even though the council saw this as an important matter they decided not to attend the meeting personally, instead they sent their official ambassadors to deal with the 's department was directly below council status, but unfortunately she had to deal with the same amount of bullshit.
As she climbed a flight of stairs leading up to the meeting room Rebecca couldn't stop thinking about how much this job didn't suit her. The official unofficial human ambassador.
The room was cramped, mostly because there was an eight foot beast standing at the head of a rectangular table, had he been any taller the krogan would not have fit through the door. The turian, asari and salarian ambassadors had already set up on the left side of the table, naturally, Rebecca took a spot on the right next to an unexpected guest, a geth. However it seemed not quite dead, it twitched slightly sometimes and the lights around its flashlight-eye would occasionally twinkle. The closest thing Rebecca could compare it to was a laptop in "sleep mode".
"Why is a geth here?" A raspy voice asked, rather randomly.
"Since this meeting is regarding the stance the krogan will take in citadel space, we agreed that the geth are in the same dilemma and we could also address it during this meeting." The asari answered.
"Its currently interfacing with the rooms computers, it should be rejoining us shortly." The turian added.
"The krogan want—
/ ERROR. CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE HAS OCCURRED. /
6 days, 21 hours ago, unspecified location, council space...
"Breaking news, nearly 150,000 people on Noveria are dead, including the council races official ambassadors, who were holding a meeting initially suppose to be addressed by the remaining members of the former "citadel council". After a 100 megaton explosion erupted inside the colony's capital of Port Hanshan, citadel officials are currently investigating the incident, however information released by an officer aiding in the investigation links Alliance Minister of Interplanetary Relations Rebacca Donelly to Cerberus. The same terrorist group former human councillor Udina was conspiring with at the time of the attack on the citadel. This tragedy leads many to question, was Cerberus involved? And is there a bout of corruption stirring within the human ambassador department? This is Jen Dollas Milky Way News."
"The reports couldn't be clearer major, this looks really bad. The war just ended and there are already signs of Cerberus resurfacing, big signs." Admiral Hackett explained, through vid-com, that hint of blue colouring his features. "I hate to throw this at you Alenko I really do, God knows you deserve to be celebrating, but your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to go to Noveria and investigate the incident."
"Well admiral, I wouldn't be much of a spectre if I refused my first lone assignment would I?"
Present, 60,000 feet above 2175 Aeia, Rosetta Nebula...
His surroundings were draped in shadows. Out a narrow yellow tinted observatory window e could only make out one thing, a line of blue sky fading into black as it continued upwards into the cosmos. Kaidan's stomach was practically used to the sensation now, as he plummeted downwards at who knew how fast. Confined inside the cramped interior of an Atlas Mech.
Two things crossed his mind, the nauseating sensation he occasionally felt as the falling mech's speed fluctuated. And the second, the words he would've said to his commanding officer had he known he would end up in this position "fuck you."
"Major, something just crossed my mind, actually, its been on my mind for a while. We're on trajectory course with a dreadnaught right?" A light brown coloured turian head looked back to him the white face paint on it's mandibles was pronounced in the darkness and that glimmer in his emerald eyes that turian's seemed to have. "Even if we hit the dreadnaught we're pretty much dead."
"We'll make it, we have to." Kaidan reassured.
"You know, I don't think physics is gonna take pity on us because its important-
"Zekt… we'll make it." Kaidan knew their odds were bad, terrible, but in a time like this, that's what Shepard would've said. Wasn't it? He shuddered, he longed for her to be here with him. Kaidan knew he wasn't ready for this he couldn't do something this alone. He had faced Saren, with Shepard, had faced the reapers with Shepard, and despite his efforts to make his own path-
"Shit! Major, there's another ship, we're headed straight for it!" Zekt looked back again.
"Can't we move?"
"5,000 feet, 2,000-
There was a deafening bang and an immediate sense of grogginess and confusion afterwards. Kaidan was lying horizontal on a hard surface, glass and shrapnel surrounding him. He could barely breath, like something was pinning him down. He heard something beyond the ringing in his ears and the throbbing pain in his head, voices, panicking among his slowly diminishing senses he could feel the ground beneath him gyrating, quickly, the shrapnel and glass were being thrown back and forth.
"Kaidan!" A woman's voice, someone so familiar. The last thing he heard before he blacked out.