A/N: Given "Fractured" is hardly my best work (it was my first finished project), I'm providing this summary of it so that anyone wanting to read "Origins" can hopefully jump right in.

Prologue – "Fractured" in Five Minutes or Less

The galaxy chooses ignorance over action. Samantha Shepard's warnings have gone un-heeded.

In a remote galaxy, scout ships stumble upon an object familiar to those facing the Reaper threat: a dormant mass relay. Activating it, a group of powerful warships including a Star Dreadnaught 35km in length arrives at the Citadel and agree to remain and fight the Reapers, who have not yet shown up.

Seeing an opportunity to pursue human dominance over the rest of the galaxy (as the newcomers are human too), Cerberus tries to duplicate the technologies of the outsiders from turbolasers to hyperdrives. Heat management issues not faced by this Trans-Galactic Republic caused such efforts to fail, though pilfered developments from batarian starships lend Cerberus additional offensive punch.

Hyperion's misadventures with expensive journeys did not end with Jack and Pandora. Seeking further riches in a world far from their current, poverty-stricken star cluster, Hyperion's board attempts to launch a customized starship to another galaxy. Instead of carrying the iron rule of a corporation, however, it ends up transporting the true heroes of Pandora (who hijacked the ship). A follow-up fleet, brought together under the auspices of ending "Vault Hunter terrorism," sees Jakobs, Vladof, and Hyperion cooperate for the first time in decades.

When the Reapers finally arrive, a stout defense by the Trans-Galactic Republic sends most of them packing. Though there are casualties, they are far fewer than what would have happened without outside intervention. Dropping out of faster-than-light in what is hoped to be a new profit center, the JVLN alliance runs afoul of the batarian Hegemony, whose xenophobic, paranoid rantings have earned it a permanent spot on the Citadel Council's "ignore" list. Cerberus, ever ready to exploit events to its own advantage, solidifies a pact with these travelers, forming "Sapiens Shield."

Newcomers welcomed by Shepard come with a warning: the Reapers may have given up on her home galaxy, but now they threaten a neighboring cluster. Initial attempts to advance Citadel space technology to Trans-Galactic Republic levels lead to a new class of starship designed to kill Reapers: Aspirations Toward Infinity, which will deploy to protect that neighbor under the guidance of a "Local Cluster Council" and "Federated Cluster Union." However, a small wartime department called the United Defense Command schemes to expand its power under the pretext of managing the conflict. Severely depressed by the death of Liara T'Soni, Samantha Shepard slides into an easy fit within this warmongering, junta-like power structure. Corrupted along with Lilith Cashlin, the two (and others) depart with the goal of destroying Reapers the next galaxy over. Instead, they end up imprisoning former friends in a fortress on Pandora's surface, one of whom talks Lilith out of her madness.

Ultimately, Samantha Shepard becomes incapacitated as her flagship is stolen and used in a last-ditch effort to put an end to Reapers everywhere. Steering the massive craft into a temple made of Eridum at Pandora's north pole, Lilith's death assures the galaxies a future…