For this story I will be using my created character for Shepard's looks, behavior, and combat skill.
Name: John, Shepard
Class: Soldier
Advanced Training Power: Slam
Attitude: Well you'll see
Physical description: Default male
Obviously because this is a Shepard/Tali fic all of the romance options with Tali have happened. The fic will pick up during the suicide mission during the part with the biotic barrier.
Also all of the character's abilities are based on what they can do in the cut scenes. So Thane will have the whole super agility thing and Garrus can shoot the wings off a fly etc.
Well Enjoy
"Shepard, I can't hold the barrier for much longer." Samara moaned. The strain of maintaining the barrier for so long was evident in the way she stumbled down the corridor.
"Just a little farther Samara the door is only twenty meters away." He said "Thane on your left!"
Thane whirled, his M-29 Incisor coming to bare. In less than a second his shot was lined up and three bullets flew from the muzzle. All three rounds struck a Collector drone between its middle eyes. A spray of yellow blood splattered from the wound as the Collector fell.
"Shepard, you need to hurry we won't be able to hold on much longer." Tali's frantic voice called out over the com channel.
"Mordin do you have anything that could give Samara a stamina boost?"
"Sorry Shepard nothing on me that would help in this matter." Mordin babbled as he lit a Collector up like a torch.
"Well then this is the only option." He hefted Samara onto his back.
Though surprised by the sudden action Samara was able to keep her barrier active. Shepard began to run towards the door hoping to make it before any of his crew was too seriously injured. Thane and Mordin followed closely firing the occasional shot or two at Collectors who were getting too close.
The team was stopped dead in their tracks as four Collectors landed in front of the door particle beams poised to attack. With one final grunt of effort Samara rapidly expanded the barrier crushing the Collector's against the door. She collapsed onto Shepard's back a moment later.
"Mordin get that door open now! Thane cover our backs!" Shepard barked. The Salarian and Drell nodded and rushed to perform their tasks. Shepard could hear Thane's M-29 and Mordin muttering to himself as he tried to break the encryption on the door lock. Shepard laid Samara next to Mordin before drawing his M-96 Mattock and began to help Thane pick off targets.
"It is done." Mordin said about a minute later the door sliding open. Thane and Mordin sprinted threw the door and took cover on either side of the entryway before giving Shepard covering fire.
Shepard dragged Samara quickly the five feet into the door before shouting. "Shut it!"
"Mordin let the rest of the team in. Thane look after Samara." He said pulling his Geth Plasma Shotgun off his belt. It unfurled its three barrels looking like a hydra of old Greek mythology. He nodded and Mordin opened the door.
On the other side stood his team, they stood in a pile of collector bodies, A little battered but all alive. "Everyone inside NOW!" Shepard shouted.
Garrus and Legion bolted threw the door and began to lay down covering fire. Chunks of Collectors went flying as Legion's M-98 anti-material rifle tore through their ranks. Tali, Miranda, and Jacob followed. Jack came in last throwing large spheres of biotic energy in her wake. She dove into the room and the doors were swiftly shut.
"John!" Tali shouted wrapping her arms around his neck. He was glad his helmet obscured his whole face for he grimaced in pain as his Kestral armor rubbed against a burn from one of the collector's particle beams. Despite the pain he still hugged her back.
"Commander, Grunt has just arrived with the surviving crew. Would you like me to send him back?" EDI said over the radio.
"No, have him stay to incase another boarding party shows up. Though I think we have most of their attention." Shepard replied.
"Legion I want you to encrypt, cross wires, burn out fuses whatever you need to do to keep the Collectors from coming through the doors. When you're done you and Garrus should try and find some cover near the rear of the room and provide sniper fire. Tali I want you to stick with them in case a Collector gets too close too fast."
"Shepard I don't need to be protected I can fight." Tali interrupted.
"Tali we don't have time to argue. I'm not putting you there for your protection; I'm doing it for theirs" He says motioning to the two snipers. "If they don't notice a Collector they will need someone who can take care of it quickly." Shepard said.
Tali remained silent for a moment before nodding.
"Jacob and Jack take point near the doors" He continued. "Samara and Miranda I want you to guard the two on point, keep them alive. Target any Collector that looks like they are lining up a shot at them. I will say to all of you; there are no rivals here only friends, people who will risk their lives to keep you alive."
"If we do this right we will all come back alive from this." Shepard finished.
Everyone nodded and began to check over their weapons one last time.
"John make sure you come back." Tali said as he stepped onto the platform.
"I will Tali just make sure you keep yourself safe." Shepard responded, the platform moving into the open air.
After it was a few hundred meters out, the platform began to rise rapidly. Floor after floor whipped by, dozens of Collectors turned to look at them but none were fast enough to see who the three occupants were. A Salarian, a Drell, and a Human, armed to the teeth ready for anything.
Ten minutes after the platform began its assent it came to a stop. An eerie roar came from the wall opposite Shepard and his team; several platforms began to move towards them.
Thane was quickly able to clear the first one. His M-29 fired out 15 rounds in rapid succession, fire flashing from the muzzle. Five Collectors fell dead three bullets embedded in their oversized skulls. The remaining Collectors all fired their particle beams at the three.
Shepard dove for cover, narrowly avoiding two particle beams, but agitating his wounds from earlier. Pain lanced up his side, but he shrugged it off and focused his small amount of biotic talent. He lifted a Collector off its feet and sent it crashing into the ground with sufficient force to break it's carapace with a sickening crack. As it tried to stand the Collector burst into flames, the newly exposed flesh burned till only ash remained.
The remaining Collectors found cover not wishing to meet the same fate as the others. As the platforms linked one of the Collectors began to admit a piercing yellow light from its eyes. It stood no longer afraid of the bullets hitting its kinetic barrier. A ball of black-red energy shot from its palm launching Mordin back shattering his kinetic barrier.
The Collectors took advantage of this gap in Shepard's defense and swarmed. Shepard drew his Geth shotgun pumping out the first volley the second the three barrels snapped into place. All three plasma projectiles hit a Collector drone in the chest knocking it off its feet dead. Firing from the hip he put three rounds from his Mattock rifle into another Collector, its biotic barrier fading. Pissed the Collector unloaded its own rifle at John. Shepard launched a concussive shell into its chest sending it over the waist high wall of the mobile platforms.
Mordin took this chance get up and rejoin the battle. Stunning a Collector with his neural shock ability, as Thane put three bullets in its head. As the Collector fell Harbinger sent another biotic blast at them. Mordin ducked behind one of the walls while Thane took another approach. Using Modin's bent form as a springboard he vaulted over both the biotic attack and Harbinger. Landing gracefully he turned and put five bullets from his M-5 into the base of Harbinger's neck. He fired the last round into a Collector that was on top of Shepard.
The momentary distraction allowed them John to pull a combat knife out of its wrist sheath and stab the Collector in the neck. Yellowish blood flowed from the wound coating his helmet. The Collector screamed in outrage trying to pull the knife from the wound. Shepard focused his biotic power and flung the Collector off of him. He rolled out of the way as the Collector came crashing down again, hitting the ground dead.
"Everyone alright?" He asked, wiping the blood from his death mask.
"Affirmative, thanks to Mr. Krios." Mordin said in his usual spasmodic way. Thane nodded before offering a prayer to the fallen. Soon the three were on their way again. It only took four minutes to reach their goal, what they found horrified them.
Suspended by four tubes was the upper torso of a giant human reaper. The internal workings were completely exposed and one hand was missing but it was still a horrifying sight. Inside the tubes was the grayish liquid that the captive human's had been broken down into.
After getting over his initial shock Shepard pulled his M-79 Revenant off his back and put his Mattock back where his sniper usually was. "Thane open fire on the left two I've got the right two. Mordin give us cover if more Collectors show up." He ordered.
As soon as the order left him mouth Thane already had three rounds from his M-29 aimed and loosed. One of the tube shattered as Thane loosed another three rounds having a similar effect on the tube bellow it. Shepard for his part activated his adrenaline implants and let the feeling wash over him. Aiming the Revenant he loosed a spray of ten bullets on each tube. As the final support broke the Human Reaper went plummeting into the abyss.
Shepard sighed and visibly relaxed. Removing his helmet he wiped sweat from his brow. "Mordin get that core ready to blow we need to get out of here soon no telling how many Collectors are in this place."
"Right away; should only take minute." The Salarian replied
"Tali how are you holding up?" Shepard asked over the com.
"If you're asking if we are all still alive yes but we are in a bit of trouble since you left they haven't stopped coming at us. We are running low on thermal clips. Garrus get down!" the sound of a shotgun firing could be heard.
"Hurry and get back to the Normandy, we'll meet you their soon."
"Make sure you do. Alright everyone fall back to the Normandy Shepard's…" The sentence was cut off as Tali turned it off.
"Joker is the Normandy ready yet?"
"Just about, but sir there is a message from the Illusive man inbound do you want me to patch it threw to you?"
"Yes send it to my omni-tool."
The Illusive man's face appeared "Shepard you've done excellent work."
"It's not over yet this base is still in one piece; I need to fix that." Shepard said
"I have a better idea, use a timed radiation pulse to kill the Collectors and then we'll have Cerberus teams salvage the technology."
"I can't risk it; this place has to be destroyed."
"Shepard be reasonable this technology could save humanity from the…" Shepard killed the signal not wanting to hear anymore.
"Core almost ready should only take another moment, whats that?" Mordin asked.
Straining his ears Shepard could hear it too, a mechanical whirring followed by a louder thud. "Thane get a visual on what's making the noise." Shepard asked.
Thane searched the room for the source but found none till he looked over the side of the platform. Crawling up the wall of the base was the incomplete Human Reaper. Thinking quick Shepard pulled out the M-920 Cain and began to charge it. The Human Reaper turned its head and began to fire its own weapon.
One of the adjoining platforms was knocked away. The vibrations knocked Shepard over sending the first shot from the Cain several dozen meters off target. Using its one good arm the Human Reaper was able to finish the climb onto the platform. It fired again sending Mordin sprawling a severe burn on his right arm.
"Thane try to keep it busy I need this next shot to hit!" Shepard called.
"I will try." Drawing his M-9 Tempest Thane began to engage the reaper. He jumped and rolled around one of the platforms, occasionally sending a volley of bullets the reaper's way to keep its attention.
Shepard reloaded the Cain and prepared to shoot. The usually quick charge time of ten seconds seemed like a life time now. When the indicator finally reached 100% Shepard allowed the adrenaline to once again flow threw his veins. The feeling was slightly relaxing. He lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. The high explosive slug barreled into the human reaper, the explosion threw it from the platform tearing it to pieces.
Running to the core Shepard entered the last few commands in before placing back. "Joker get over here ASAP the base is set to blow we need immediate evac."
"Already on our way." He responded.
"Shepard, Mordin is hurt." Thane called out as he crouched over the prone Salarian.
"I'll be fine just some thermal burns an easy fix." He mumbled his usually bubbly tone missing.
"Commander EDI just scanned the room you're in and there is a huge amount of thermal signatures moving towards you, prepare for a fight." Joker said over the com.
Shepard grabbed his helmet from its spot on the floor, dropped during the commotion with the Human Reaper. Replacing it atop his head, he pulled his M-79 out and slammed a new thermal clip in. Seconds later they were upon them.
Hundreds of Collectors flew like a swarm of locusts towards their position. Shepard and Mordin opened up on them, and even Thane just fired blindly into the swarm hoping to cause as much collateral damage as possible. Right before the swarm was able to land; a volley of torpedo's soared over the team's head. Impacting with the front lines of the swarm the torpedo's released the same cryogenic material as Shepard's cryo ammo. Dozens of Collectors fell frozen solid; another hundred fell from the shock wave of the impact.
The SR2 Normandy flew up beside the platform hatch open. Thane was the first to react he ran and dove into the open hatch. Mordin followed next slightly slower than the Drell, followed in turn by Shepard. A crewman closed the hatch. "Joker their in." He after
Shepard ran to the cockpit as the Normandy raced out of the base. A large timer counted down in the corner of Joker's instruments. 17,16,15…..3,2,1. The explosion had the force to knock Shepard off his feet. Joker pulled up one of the rear camera views and sighed in relief.
The Collector base was no more.
During the jump back to the Omega nebula
Shepard and his team sat around the conference table discussing their next move.
"We should go to the Council try and get them to make fleet construction a priority." Garrus suggested.
"They'll never listen to us we should got back to Cerberus and see what resources the Illusive man can provide us with." Miranda countered.
"I say we just cut our ties with Cerberus all together we don't need them." Jack shouted at Miranda.
"Of course we do. A frigate and a strike team of 11 can't win a war with the Reapers." Miranda shouted back.
"Oh really, we seem to be doing just fine now. An entire base of the Collector freaks and no more than a few scratches on us." Jack retorted.
"Both of you shut up." Shepard said. "You're acting like kids. You need to get over your differences. After this mission I'm not too keen to be working with the Illusive man again, but if the council won't listen to us he will be a powerful ally."
Both women were silent. So Shepard continued. "First we should head to the Citadel regardless of what we are going to do because the Normandy need's repairs. After that we'll figure out what to do."
Nods went up around the table and people began to file out.
"Legion, Tali one moment please." Shepard said suddenly.
"What is it Shepard commander?" Legion inquired.
"I want the two of you to figure out a way to hack the Citadels information network. If I can't get the council to see reason then I'll have to rally the people to me to make them help us. The key part of this is to make sure the Council doesn't shut us down in the middle of the broadcast. Do you think you are up to this?"
"John do you really doubt my skill that much you think I couldn't do it, especially with a Geth to help me?" Tali said jokingly
"Of course not, I've seen both of your skills before. What I haven't seen is the level of cybernetic security the Citadel computer network has." Shepard said.
"We'll be able to handle it no problem. The Citadel has never seen a mechanical genius like Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." Tali said. Her voice was filled with pride when she said vas Normandy. It was no longer a symbol of her exile but a symbol of her deeds.
The ship lurched as it decelerated. "Commander you may want to come look at this." Joker called over the com system. "There might be a problem."
When Shepard arrived to the bridge he saw on the radar a cruiser was waiting for them.
"Commander we are being hailed by the cruiser should I patch it through?" EDI asked in her mechanical voice.
Shepard nodded. "This is Alliance cruiser Vienna; we have orders to escort the Cerberus vessel Normandy to dry-dock at the citadel, will you complies?"
"Who gave you these orders Captain?" Shepard asked cautiously
"Admiral Anderson sir."
"How did he know we were out here, I don't remember sending him a message that we were even going through the Omega 4 relay yet." Shepard responded
"An Alliance frigate near Omega picked up the activity at the relay. When the news reached the Admiral he dispatched my ship to escort you back to the citadel."
Hitting the mute button on the control panel Shepard began to speak. "EDI run a search through the Alliance database see if the ship is registered." After a moment of silence EDI spoke up.
"The Vienna is registered as an active ship in the Alliance database Commander."
"Good then Joker tell the Vienna we will comply I am going to get some sleep." Shepard said yawning.
Citadel Council Chamber two days later
"I refuse to believe this ridiculous nonsense, it is all a ploy by Cerberus to draw attention away from their actions. I beg my fellow councilman not to be swayed by this man." Councilor Udina shouted.
Shepard had a feeling things were going to go this way. The minute Shepard had finished his report about the Collector base, Udina tried to cover it up.
"Councilors, my entire crew can vouch for the authenticity of my report." Shepard almost shouted frustrated the council refused to believe him, again.
"The Human may have point Udina; Collectors have been seen in Galaxy before. Many times asking for unusual things mainly humans with peculiar genetics. It could be very possible they used the missing Colonies to create this, Human Reaper." The Salarian councilor stated.
This cheered Shepard up slightly, but with the new Asari and Turian councilors still not chosen, the only a unanimous vote could get anything done in the Council. Udina had a lot of power at the moment and he was enjoying rubbing it in Shepard's face.
"The Collector base has been destroyed, for this I thank the commander and his team, but the Reapers are just a rumor started by this man." Udina shouted. "Do I have to remind you that Sovereign was a Geth warship, and this man here has the gall to bring a ship with a Geth as one of its crew to this station? I don't care how many times you insist that the Geth is different, Geth are Geth, no two ways around it Commander. I want you off this station until that Geth is disposed of from your ship." Councilor Udina said finishing his rant. He stood and left the room essentially ending the meeting.
"I apologies for his rudeness Commander, Udina is a; how do you humans say it? Hard ass I believe is the phrase." The Salarian Council stated.
"Don't worry about it; I'm used to it from my days as a specter." Shepard stated pleasantly but on the inside he was fuming. Once again he was ignored and once again he was going to have to pull their asses out of the fire.
Shepard sighed; this was going to be a pain in the ass. Shepard found Tali waiting outside the door to the audience chamber. "What did they say?" She asked as he walked over to her.
"They don't believe me again." Shepard replied with a sigh.
"How can they not believe you, we brought so much evidence." Tali asked.
"Udina acknowledges that we destroyed a Collector base but he doesn't want to believe anything about the Reapers involvement. He stated that it was all a ploy by Cerberus to draw attention away from their illegal actions.
"Will that bosh'tet never listen to reason?" Tali cursed.
"In time he might but I fear only an impending disaster will make him take us seriously." Shepard said with remorse.
"What are we going to do in the mean time wait around for the council to come to their senses?" Tali asked frustration obvious in her voice.
"No, of course not. We build our own forces in the mean time. Collect people from all over the galaxy. Collect and build warships, train an army. Make sure the Galaxy has a first line of defense ready for when the Reapers do strike. Give the Citadel time to gather their own army."
"So where should we start?" Tali asked as she called for a taxi to take them back to the Normandy.
"I have an idea but I'm not sure Garrus is going to be happy about it."
Well this is my first attempt at a Mass Effect fanfic, I never actually played the original Mass Effect so I am not going to mention much about events that happened during it unless absolutely necessary.
If you see anything wrong please tell me I will listen and fix things, but you have to bring it to my attention first.
On a final note, reviews of all kinds are appreciated
Prince of Madness 54