The Story of the Shepard

by bigmacrmuk

2183. A galaxy under a threat beyond imagination - one that they don't even know exists...yet. And only one woman, one member of the newest part of the galactic community, has the ability to fight it. A complete written chronicle of the Mass Effect Trilogy with some minor plot adjustments, following the path of a largely Paragon Shepard as she seeks to save all she holds dear.

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization.

In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars.

The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.

They called it the greatest discovery in human history.

The civilizations of the galaxy call it...

MASS EFFECT.

"Well, what about Shepard? Earthborn...but no record of her family."

"Doesn't have one. She was raised on the streets. Learned to look out for herself."

The interior of a top of the line military spacecraft is almost always busy. Room to move is at a premium, and everyone has to be doing something.

This is no more obvious then when such a craft is preparing for a now-standard but still carefully-monitored procedure. A jump through a mass relay.

"She saw her whole unit die on Akuze. She could have some serious emotional scars."

"Every soldier has their scars. Shepard is a survivor."

It had been almost forty years since humanity had found the first of these gargantuan devices capable of catapulting spacecraft over hundreds of light years in an instant. It had been packed in ice orbiting the distant dwarf planet Pluto - for the longest time, it had been assumed to be a satellite of Pluto in its own right. Even less time had passed since the mysterious 'element zero' had been identified and harnessed as a tool for manipulating gravity in a way that no one could have predicted, thanks to a chance discovery of an abandoned outpost of an ancient spacefaring civilisation on Mars. Up until the year 2148 humans had spread out into their own solar system, but the dream of extending their reach further had been exactly that - just a dream.

Until the day when unnatural gravitational readings drew a team of explorers to an area near the south pole of Earths closest planetary companion.

"Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?"

"That's the only kind of person who can protect the galaxy."

In the few decades since then, humanity had expanded out at a rate never seen or foreseen. Dozens of colonies and outposts had been established, easily reachable through the vast relay network. They had made the monumental discovery that they were not alone in the galaxy, through first contact - violent first contact - with an alien civilisation. And they had discovered that they were just one part of a much bigger, galaxy-spanning community.

"I'll make the call."

But the time that humans had spent as part of the newly-discovered galactic order was still short. And because of that, there were many powerful interests among those there already who mistrusted the new arrivals. And a few that viewed them with outright hate.

"The Arcturus Prime Relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence."

"We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination."

As part of easing the integration of humanity into the greater community, the ruling Council of the varying areas of galactic civilisation had been pressured for a long time by Earth to accept a human into their ranks. Due to the diplomatic response that this would have engendered from the other non-Council races and with the reasonable judgment that humanity was simply too new in the community to warrant such largesse, their requests had always been refused. However, now the Council were considering something lesser in standing but equal in significance - to enter the first human into the Spectres; the elite group of special military forces that was the dark arm of the Councils power.

"The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit."

"The board is green. Approach run has begun."

Spectres were a multirace group of combat and infiltration experts whose job it was to carry out tasks that were too difficult, too diplomatically hot, or simply needed to be denied - all in the name of the future of galactic civilisation as a whole. They operated alone or in small groups, and their activities were almost always a secret of the highest order.

"Hitting the relay in 3,2,1..."

And now the second-in-command of the SSV Normandy, Commander Julia Shepard, was looking to be in the spotlight of all of humanity and a considerable amount of the greater galaxy for exactly that reason. To possibly become the very first human to ascend to the elite group of beings from many different worlds that comprised the Spectres.

But that would merely be the beginning.