A/N: Hi, TDA792 here. This is a speculative story about what I think will happen in Mass Effect 3... ... It's probably wrong, though. I am gonna try and weave in some points from the demos shown at E3, though, so... enjoy. My first go at chaptered story.

What Could Possibly Happen In Mass Effect 3...?

08:58 [Standard Earth Time]

Thursday 26th February 2186

Arcturus System

Arcturus Mass Relay

The Cerberus-built human vessel, the Normandy SR-2, was approaching the Arcturus Mass Relay.

Having been cleared for passage through to the Sol system, the system in which planet Earth presided, the Normandy had wasted no time in accelerating alongside the massive tuning-fork like space station, building up and harnessing the strange blue energy emanating from it. It had been almost 40 years since the first human ship, captained by the legendary Jon Grissom, had first entered a Mass Relay; as a matter of fact they had arrived at the same point in which the Normandy was now leaving.

The Normandy made a slight zipping noise as it shot through space at an unintelligible speed teleporting to it's destination.

Mass Relays, although nobody really understood how they worked, and would never even dream of deconstructing one, seemed to work by instantly teleporting their quarry through to a linked one somewhere else in the galaxy. Way back in historic 2148, human explorers first found out that Charon, the moon of the supposed planet Pluto, was in fact a Mass Relay. Jon Grissom and his ship had been instantly teleported to Arcturus Prime, and thus began humanity's first step into deeper space.

Onboard the Normandy was war hero Commander Shepard; he became well-known back in 2183 when he helped defend the Citadel from Saren, his reaper flagship Sovereign and their army of geth. Unfortunately, the council could not be saved and the asari flagship the Destiny Ascension was destroyed; but a new council was made, a human-led council. In gratitude for saving the Citadel, Shepard was allowed to choose the human councillor. He chose Ambassador Udina to become the human representative on the council.

However, public knowledge of him had waned as he had been declared Killed in Action only a short while after the Battle Of The Citadel. However, pro-human extremist group Cerberus had kindly spent two years of their time - and much, much, much more money - rebuilding him so that he in return could investigate attacks on human colonies out in the terminus systems. Shepard had discovered on Freedom's Progress that the so-called Collectors had been kidnapping human colonists, to use them in creating a human-reaper. Shepard had destroyed the Collector Base and any hope of the Collectors building a reaper.

Commander Shepard had also done another, lesser known deed of questionable ethics; he had been the first in recorded history to actually destroy a Mass Relay.

Shepard had learned that the Reapers planned to use a Mass Relay, known as the Alpha Relay due to it's disconcerting amount of links to other Mass Relays, to invade the galaxy once again. So, Shepard had taken it upon himself to launch Operation: Arrival; fly an asteroid into this Mass Relay, and delay the Reaper's invasion for an unknown period of time. It was estimated it could have been weeks, months, or even years for the Reapers to take the long route through. However, the destruction of the Mass Relay caused the batarian-controlled Bahak System it was in to get wiped out due to the massive explosion

Operation: Arrival had taken place just over a year ago, and the Reapers had not yet managed to get through to the galaxy.

Commander Shepard felt slightly unsafe in the knowledge that the Reapers could burst through and destroy all sentient life as he knew it at pretty much any time. It could happen any day now; then he'd have to fight for his - and the galaxy's - lives.

Shepard had been ordered to attend a hearing on Earth to explain himself and what happened on that day in the Bahak System; he was travelling there with what was left of his crew; those who had wanted to stay, anyway. Many of the specialists who had helped take down the Collectors had left with a suddenly very full bank account freshly transferred from Cerberus; others had decided to stay on the Normandy with Shepard, to help him against the pending Reaper invasion. He couldn't blame those who had left, though. The drell assassin, Thane Krios, had left to spend the last years of his life with his son, Kolyat. Asari Justicar Samara had left to fulfil her role as a justicar, hunting down evildoers in asari space. Jack had some, as she put it, "Shit to blow up," Zaeed and Kasumi left having done the job they were paid to do;Grunt, Mordin and Legion had returned to their home planet (Not really so much in Legion's case) to do miscellaneous things relating to their work, AKA killing thresher maws, sciency stuff, and computer stuff. All that remained was Garrus and Tali, Shepard's oldest friends and, one of them his girlfriend. Miranda and Jacob had quit Cerberus when they learned what the Illusive Man wanted to do with the Collector Base, and stayed onboard the Normandy with Shepard as part of his crew.

All of a sudden the Normandy left the Mass Relay jump as quickly as it had entered. Of course, it's a teleportation device, thought the Commander. Even though they technically didn't move at all, it felt like they were.

The Normandy engaged its Faster Than Light (FTL) drives and shot through the human home-system of Sol towards the bright blue-and-green planet known as Earth.

A/N: Well, that wasn't really much speculation. More like explaining what we already know. Oh, sorry about the stuff that happened in ME1 (Choosing Udina), CURSE YOU DEFAULT PS3 SHEPARD! It might be a little too late to yell "SPOILERS!" but oh well. Please review if you have the time, it makes me happy to know people read and enjoy my work! :D