This is the start to what I hope will be a very long and enjoyable story. My main focus is on a Tali/Shepard relationship but, at times I will focus on others as well. While the main timeline is set after the end of the war, backstories and flashbacks will take us into the original trilogy. I will try to stick with canon for the majority but, like most of us that have played the game, there are things we would like to have seen differently. This first chapter is rather short but it sets the mood. Chapter 2 is currently being written. I do have a rough layout of where I am taking this story but, I am open to any ideas or suggestions. This is my first time writing a story like this so I hope you enjoy it. Thanks!
Chapter 1. Darkness.
Pain. Every step was pain. Left shoulder dislocated if not completely broken, my right hand could barely hold my pistol and lifting it was excruciating as I stumbled forward to take aim at the pylon that would end this forsaken war. Blood dripped into my eyes from a cut on my forehead as I tried to squint at my target. Orange light filled my vision and I pulled the trigger. Bang! Bang! I heard a roar and heat engulfed me. The last thing I remember seeing was a purple mask with two glowing eyes staring at me with a light so intense it hurt and a voice crying out saying, "come back to me!"
"John! No! Joker go back, please go back!" Tali screamed at the pilot as the monitor in front of her showed the explosion at the center of the Citadel. The Normandy had leapt into motion only seconds before the crucible had fired due to EDI recognizing a massive build up in energy. Still screaming in anguish, the young Quarian threw herself into Joker to gain control of the ship.
"Garrus get her out of here! Take her to Chakwas she's hurt, and I need to concentrate, or we are all dead." Joker's command came with an unquestionable authority unusual for the wise-ass pilot. Had Garrus not already been on the move to do just that, the tone from Joker would have made him jump to at once. "Shepard must be rubbing off on him" crossed the Turian's mind as he gently picked up the distraught Quarian and carried her out of the cockpit.
"EDI prepare to divert all power to the shields and engines. It's the only way we will survive this. Attention Normandy, everyone goes to their own life support and strap in. We are entering the relay in 20 seconds and once in all power including life support and the inertia dampeners will be diverted to the shields and engines. With some luck we will make it through but, I would start praying to your gods now." The crew's military discipline and training kicked in immediately as helmets were secured and clicks were heard throughout the ship as safety harnesses were strapped down. Almost instantly Joker's board was green with all decks reporting secured.
The Normandy reached the mass relay and was launched forward seconds before the energy wave. Once in the relay, the Normandy went dark and shuddered as the power was diverted to keeping them alive and ahead of the wave of destruction nipping at their heels. Jeff Moreau was alive with motion as he felt the Normandy's inertia dampeners turn off and suddenly every vibration could be felt, and his body was slammed back into his chair with the sudden g-forces. It was rare to fly anymore without technology eliminating the natural forces at work but, he was not the best pilot in the galaxy because of simulators. His body may be weak, and he would never be a good soldier but, piloting a ship, he was invincible.
Fingers flew over the ship's controls with the confident movements of someone who knew his ship and its capabilities. Eyes steel firm and sharp watch the monitors for the changes his fingers made and the nerves throughout his body sent messages to his brain as they felt every shudder, tremor and a myriad of other motions from the Normandy. Never in Jeff's life had he flown a ship with such accuracy and determination. The Normandy in turn responded with precision perfect adjustments, a testament to the skills of the engineering team on the lower decks. Suddenly a red light began flashing on a screen to Jeff's left. A quick glance confirmed what he already knew, it was not enough.
"Brace for impact!" The flight Lieutenant's voice cried out over the intercom and thirty-two pairs of hands tightened their grips on the various chairs that their owners were strapped into. With a sickening lurch the energy wave slammed into the Normandy and the ship was flung out of the relay and back into space spinning wildly. Sparks flared from consuls as fuses blew and screaming could be heard from the crew as they were spun in all directions with the ship. Without the inertia dampeners and artificial gravity, loose supplies and equipment tumbled through the air striking computer terminals, walls and people without discrimination. Outside the thrusters could be seen firing in all directions as Jeff fought to regain control.
"EDI, I need help! Restore the gravity and get me more power to the thrusters. EDI!" When there was no response Jeff looked over at the metallic body in the co-pilots chair and found EDI slumped over unresponsive. Scorch marks could be seen on her body and small trails of smoke wafted up from joints. Her electronics had overloaded. "EDI! No! Damnit EDI wake up!" The steel resolve in Jeff's voice began to crack as the reality of EDI being gone hit him. EDI. He hated her just a couple of years ago but, had come to respect and love her and now she was gone. No. She was just inured. Land the ship and Adams and Tali can fix her. Just land the ship. Jeff focused on those words and a few moments later the ship stabilized out. They were quickly approaching a planet and Jeff began to prepare the ship for a landing.
"Listen up. We are landing the ship on a planet. I have no idea where we are or what we will find when down. Most people would call this a crash but, I don't crash. Still, I have no navigation, no sensors, barely and engine control and EDI is offline. This is going to be a rough landing. Everyone stay locked in and we will be down in few moments."
The Normandy cleared the planet's atmosphere to reveal a lush jungle landscape. A blanket of trees rolled out in all directions under the rapidly descending ship. Fortunately, the atmospheric thruster responded better that the space engines had, and Jeff was able to slow the ship and with the snapping of tree branches and a violent jerk, the landing struts contacted the ground in a clearing surrounded by the jungle and containing a bend in a river.
Jeff sat there with his hands poised above the controls for a minute as his heart rate calmed down. Finally dropping his arms to his sides, the pilot let his breath out and closed his eyes. "We're down. The ship is secure." Came a tired voice from the exhausted man. No other sound was heard in the ship as the surviving crew sat shocked and the events of the last several minutes caught up to them. The crucible had fired. Did it work? They were alive. Where were they? Is it over? Who is hurt? Where are we? What about the Commander? EDI? Jeff's mind raced with thoughts and slowly motion returned to the Lieutenant. Punching in a few commands on the consul to start running ship diagnostics he turned towards his love. EDI was still slumped over in her chair though no longer smoking, just silent. The usual glowing visor around her eyes was gone and her eyes were closed. As Jeff began to rise from his chair, pain flared in his abdomen and left leg. Bones were broken. He collapsed back into his chair as his vision went white with the pain. "Dr., help. I guess I broke a few things at some time." And with that he passed out.
Dr. Chakwas sat in stunned silence in her med bay on the crew deck. Equipment lay scattered across the room and the emergency lighting flickered weakly creating bizarre shadows on every surface. Her lone patient, at least for now, lay strapped to an exam table with her Turian brother covering her with his body to protect it from flying debris. No, the Quarian and Turian were not related but Karen knew how they felt about each other made them family. Garrus had made it a point to look after Tali just like a little sister and as the years went by, that relationship solidified. She watched as Garrus slowly raised himself off his young charge and silently stood and looked back at the doctor. Karen saw the blood running down the side of face from a wound on his head likely sustained from flying debris.
She unhooked her safety harness and stood slowly making sure nothing was injured on her own body. Satisfied she was okay, Karen grabbed her emergency aid kit knowing that the lab equipment would be offline till main power was restored and quickly went to Garrus and began her examination. Finding a cut above his right eye she quickly and expertly wiped away the blood, sterilized and slapped a bandage over it.
"You good Garrus? Any other injuries? Pain?" The Turian took a minute and shook his head. "No doc, I'm good. Thanks." The two stood there looking at each other for a few moments then they hugged. "Did we win?" asked Garrus in a soft voice.
"I don't know. It was all so fast. The commander… Did he? Do you know?" Karen's voice shook as she spoke the words.
"I don't know. It all just exploded… I don't know how… but it's the Commander right? I mean its Shepard. He's survived death before… I just don't know…" Garrus sagged a little against the woman as he felt strength go out of his limbs as he spoke. Then taking a deep breath he disengaged and stood up military straight. "We don't know yet. We must tend to those we can help now. Get communications back up and find out."
Karen smiled and nodded at the Turian. She knew he was in terrible pain just like she was and they all would be at not knowing about the Commander's fate or the fate of the galaxy but, he spoke the truth. There was working to be done and lives needing saving. "Thank you Garrus. I will see to Tali. Please take the first aid kit and go help the others. Treat who you can and bring me those in dire need. It will be a busy day."
Garrus nodded at the doctor and went over to a wall cabinet to retrieve the first aid bag. Taking one last look back at the human doctor and the Quarian in her care, he turned and walked through the door and into the chaos of the downed ship.
Karen Chakwas took a couple of steadying breaths then grabbed a handful of syringes and began injecting Tali with antibiotics and immune boosters. Fortunately, her actual wounds were far less severe than the damaged suit and blood stains would have first led her to believe. True the girl would have a broken arm to deal with but, with Quarians, the real threat is always infection. Due to her years of working with Tali, she was probably the most knowledgeable human doctor of Quarian physiology and especially Tali's. With an expert eye she quickly checked all the suits seals and slapped patches over the many punctures. Within minutes she had Tali stable and resting. Once the power was restored she could erect a sterile field around her which would speed up healing but for now, this would have to do. Turning from the bed Tali was on she began to clean up the bed next to her and prepare for the patients she would soon be seeing. Less than five minutes later the med bay door slid open and two crew members came limping in. "Put him on the bed. Let me see what's wrong."
Engineer Adams stood at his computer terminal as diagnostic readouts popped up as system after system completed their scans. Most were showing normal readings and would be back up within the next hour. Daniels and Donnelly were below getting the drive core ready to fire back up. Once that was done main power would be up and he could dive into the communications problems. Quantum entanglement was great when you had an advanced AI like EDI to work through it or even an expert Quarian engineer like Tali'Zorah but, right now it fell on his shoulders. Not that Adams wasn't up to the challenge. After all, he had spent the last several years of his career working either on this Normandy or the last, or in the labs working on her designs. No, he could handle it, it would just take longer. Time was not in their favor. They needed to know what happened when the crucible fired. Did it work? What about the Commander? The longer they sat in the dark the worse those questions would become.
"Gabi, Ken, how are those repairs coming?" Adams called down to his fellow engineers. Luckily, none of them had sustained any injuries greater than a sprained wrist when Gabi was thrown against a bulkhead and tried to catch herself. "We need to get power up, so we can get to work on the real problems. Also Dr. Chakwas could really use her med bay at one hundred percent.
"One more minute sir" Came the female Scottish accented voice of Chief Engineer Gabrielle Daniels. "We just have to finish securing this last cable and, there! Ken, turn it on!"
There was a click then a soft hum began to grow louder as the drive core powered back up. Slowly the lights came back on and computer terminals throughout engineering began to glow again. Adams let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and a smile crept across his face. "That a girl Normandy. I knew you wouldn't let us down. Now let's get you back into space and go home."
In the C.I.C. Samantha Traynor was practically bouncing with happiness as the galaxy map came to life. One would hardly recognize the usually shy comms officer as she stood on top of the ramp to the galaxy map and gave orders to the crew for repair work. Her uniform top was missing as she used it for bandages on wounded ship mates. The white undershirt was stained with blood from the crew and dirt from crawling around the underside of the various terminals reconnecting cables and changing fuses. Her dark hair usually washed and brushed to a shine was now a tangle of grime and while most days, her body washes would remind anyone passing of a flower garden, today a salvage yard would be more fitting. Left arm in a sling after dislocating her shoulder while in her safety harness and right hand flying over the controls, voice barking out commands, she would make any superior officer smile with pride and any subordinate flinch with terror.
Garrus chuckled to himself as he walked past the scene. In his arms was EDI's body. Garrus had patched up Joker with Dr. Chakwas' help over the comms and then spent the better part of fifteen minutes trying to convince Joker to let him take EDI down to the AI hub where the engineers could look at her once the ship was up and running again. Jeff had fought it, not wanting to let EDI go without him but, eventually Garrus' arguments made sense and he let his Turian friend take her out of the cockpit.
Now standing at the elevator the Turian General smiled inwardly as he looked at the crew. Would Shepard ever be proud of them now. Everyone of them had once again risen to the challenge at hand. They worked together with a determination that would put his fellow Turians to shame. As he watched Traynor firmly correct worker who had done something wrong while simultaneously teaching them how to correct it and running the calibrations needed to find out where they were he had to admit he was impressed at the young woman. "Shepard, your fledgling admirer has come into her own. You would be proud." A tear fell from his eye at the thought of his best friend. "You better be alive. I don't want to have to carry this alone." The elevator door opened and Garrus turned from the C.I.C. to deliver EDI to her room.
Admiral Steven Hackett, Alliance Systems Navy. The most senior ranking person left alive in the entire human government stood silently on the bridge of his command carrier and watched as the remains of the citadel came into view. The dead space station was still massive but, no longer impressive. Only two arms remained attached to the central hub. Ninety percent of the surface remaining was blackened and broke. No lights were on as the power supplies were destroyed. No fires raged any longer as the vacuum of space now filled what was once a thriving community. Debris floated past the station. Parts of bulkheads and destroyed space ships, countless items that represented people's lives and of course bodies. That was the worst part of space in the Admiral's opinion. When a catastrophe like this happened on a planet, you could find the remains, those that could be found that is, within a certain distance of the site of origin. In space, something that was propelled away would keep going indefinitely. The Admiral grimaced at the thought of how many millions of bodies may float in the vacuum of space, lost forever.
Behind this scene was Earth. His home. He was born there fifty-three years ago. He saw the rise of the Alliance and of intergalactic space travel through the relays. He was in the first contact war and many other battles throughout his career but, never in his life had he seen devastation on this scale. Earth's usual blue-green surface was blackened. Dark clouds covered most of the surface over major cities and spots of red, indicating where fires still burned unchecked peeked out from in between the cloud cover. The one ray of hope in this mess was the lack of reapers or more accurately, the lack of whole reapers. Fragments of the once mighty creatures floated everywhere. Most would have been unrecognizable as anything other than regular debris had he not spent the past year fighting them daily.
"Admiral. We have established short range communications with the base in London." Hackett turned to find his comms officer standing behind him. "They report no reaper activity at any of the resistance pockets they can communicate with. There is a lot of uncovered area but, from what they can tell, all the reapers suddenly self-destructed."
"My god, it worked. Shepard did it." For a minute the Admiral bowed his head in a silent thank you to the young soldier who had just sacrificed everything for the sake of the galaxy. "Inform the fleets of the good news. Request landing coordinates and let's get our people down to Earth to lend whatever support we can." Hackett paused for a second then continued. "I will contact the various fleet leaders and ask them for any support they would be willing to lend while we work to get the relay system and long-range communications back in working order. For now, find them a place they can off load anyone who needs to be on Earth. We may be acting as an emergency shelter for some time." The comm officer saluted and went to work.
Within ten minutes Hackett found himself in conference with the fleet commanders. The Quarians and Geth volunteered to start working on repairing the long-range communication towers and the mass effect relay. While the relay still maintained some functionality, it currently only linked to Turian space which was where the fleet had fled to after the Citadel fired. The Turians had split their fleet with some going back to Palaven, and some setting up security patrols within the Sol system to help protect Earth in case there was still a threat. Others also split their forces between Earth and Palaven with the consensus being to start help in recovery anywhere they could. Both Admiral Hackett and Primarch Victus expressed their sincere thanks and promised help to other worlds once the relays were back in working order.
One additional task had been assigned. Commander Bailey had managed to get a small force off around five hundred C-Sec officers, citizens and the remaining council members off the citadel before it was moved to Earth. They had managed to avoid capture in the Widow Nebula and had just managed to get to Turian Space and meet up with the escaping fleet as the crucible fired. While the council and the injured were shuttled to Earth, Bailey volunteered to take what was left of C-Sec and explore the ruins of the citadel to see what could be saved. This was agreed and a small contingent of Quarian engineers went with them to help restart the systems if possible.
Hackett walked back to his office reading the stack of reports that were coming in constantly. Most of them were lists of survivors and casualties. While the casualty list was astronomical, the list of survivors gave him hope for the future. The galaxy had just taken a massive beating. They were at their lowest in any races' history but, history would go on and they would still be in it. The heartache and pain would slowly lessen. Worlds would be rebuilt. Life will go on. Nothing would ever be the same again that much he new for certainty but, there was now a tomorrow to look forward to.
Entering his office, he dropped the reports on the desk, removed his hat and jacket and let the Admiral simply be an old tired soldier. His shoulders slumped as he poured himself a drink of scotch. Taking the glass to the window he stared out at the ruined citadel and Earth behind he raised his glass and took a steadying breath, "To you Shepard. Thank you." and downed the drink. The fiery liquid slid down his throat and immediately warmed his insides as only a fine scotch could do. Setting the empty glass down he turned to his bed and collapsed on it. Tears fell from his eyes as his thoughts and memories ran through his mind but, exhaustion quickly overtook him, and he fell into the deep and unbreakable sleep of a man that has spent the last year with the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders.