Shepard tried to remind herself to breathe. She was in the ruins of London, looking at a glowing map on her omni-tool, one that was showing the aftermath of the orbital battle. The massive fleet of ships she had gathered to retake Earth, the largest fleet ever recorded in the three-thousand year history of the Council, clashing with the massive orbital force the Reapers had over Earth. In the hours since she and other ground forces had landed on Earth, with orders to liberate any surviving civilians and to destroy any and all Reaper facilities, she had constantly been checking the progress of that battle when Joker wasn't giving her updates.
They had found no magical bullet that would defeat the Reapers. The Protheans hadn't left behind a device that would conveniently kill all the Reapers if only they could find a few missing parts. That would've been asinine, just as asinine as just off the top of Shepard's head, the idea of the Geth utterly betraying who they were and deciding to become true individuals. No, things didn't work that way. The Geth were still the strange, barely comprehensible machines they always were, the Quarians had made peace with the machines that were truly unique, not simplified into something more friendly for organic minds to understand.. And the Reapers would have to be defeated the old fashioned way, a grueling battle.
The past twenty-four hours had been what Shepard imagined purgatory must feel like. Heaven just out of reach, Hell uncomfortably close. The battle had been do or die time. Such a massive amount of the galaxy's naval might had been committed to this battle that, if it were to be destroyed, she wasn't sure that they would be able to come back from it. The Reapers would be able to sweep across a good portion of the galaxy, disabling major shipyards and launching ground campaigns. Those campaigns would take years, if not decades, for each one, but the Reapers would be able to wait, and with space under their control, victory would be certain for them.
As such, whenever the battle shifted even slightly in the Reaper's favor, Shepard felt an overwhelming sense of dread come over her. The battle on the surface had been steadily going in favor of the allied forces facing the Reapers, gaining footholds and destroying Husk production centers, as well as refueling stations the Reapers had set up for their war machines, but it would be for nothing if the Reapers themselves survived.
But then, the tide had slowly begun to turn. A few Reapers on Earth itself had been destroyed through use of WMDs, and STG operatives cooperating with Alliance engineers had torn into their databanks, finding general outlines for the planned defenses of Earth. This had been transferred to Admiral Hackett, who had used the data to find weak points in the Reaper's lines where small surgical strikes could be launched. Individually, these strikes did little more than claim a Reaper or two.
However, the battle had truly turned when the location of Harbinger had been located in the middle of the fleet. A daring attack involving the Normandy and a group of dreadnoughts had been launched. With heavy losses, the head of the Reapers had been destroyed. Shepard had hoped that the Reapers would all deactivate after that, Harbinger's death being the cut off head of a serpent. Sadly no such thing happened, as the Reapers continued to fight, but there was a blessing. Without Harbinger, they struggled to coordinate, relying more on personal survival than fighting as a group, which the allied fleet had taken advantage of.
After many painstaking hours, the Reapers numbers were thinned to the point where the allied fleet were able to swarm and overwhelm them from all 360 degrees, Reaper fatalities snowballing in the process. Eventually, the battle in space had been won, a dozen or so Reapers fleeing through the Charon Relay in order to escape overwhelming destruction. There were no more Reapers in the Local Cluster. But at a heavy cost.
Hundreds of ships were strewn lifeless in Earth's orbit, and many more were badly damaged with heavy fatalities. A few ships had managed to launch escape pods before they were destroyed, but the majority of them had been annihilated within seconds of being fired upon. The dead were beyond counting, in orbit and on the ground.
Breach heads had been established all over Earth on all the continents, local resistant groups were linking up with the relief forces and assisting in whatever ways they could. But the Reapers had dug their claws deep into Earth. At the very least, tens of millions of Husks were now on the planet, spread out all over it, and there were quite possibly more. And that was to say nothing about the like Husk presence that was doubtless now on Luna, Mars, Titan, and who know where else in the system. The Reapers had lost Earth, but it would be a long time before their forces had truly been eradicated from it.
"Shepard?" Shepard looked up. She was lying on her back in the middle of a makeshift tent that had been set up in the center of friendly controlled territory in London. She had taken a rather nasty couple of gut shots from a Ravager while assisting the STG teams eliminate a Reaper Destroyer that had landed outside the city limits and had been moving to eliminate the ground forces. Liara was peering at her from the flap in the tent, a heavy set of bandages over the left side of her face.
She had taken a barrage of fire from a trio of Marauders in an ambush on the way to the Reaper Destroyer. A shot had gone right through her cheek, almost entirely tearing it off. It had only been hanging on by a disturbingly thin piece of flesh. Shepard's heart had stopped when she had seen that. For a brief, terrifying moment, she thought Liara had been killed. "You are resting, right?"
Shepard paused before answering. "I can't," she said, turning back to the map. It was perfectly true. She felt utterly exhausted, but sleep refused to come to her. She had spent one hour tossing and turning on her cot before giving up and returning to the orbital map. The remains of the allied fleet were now sweeping the system, firing on the wreckages of many of the Reapers, ensuring that they were truly dead. She herself had suggested this approach, not having forgotten her experiences on the Reaper corpse when she had been fighting the Collectors.
"I can find one of the doctors," Liara said at once. "Get you some pills to help you sleep. Shepard...El...you haven't slept in nearly two days." Shepard did some quick mental math. The full day since they had landed and started the attack, the ship wide system checks she had performed personally before hand, the nightmares she had had of Kaidan Alenko's and Mordin's burning corpses that had caused her to wake up in the middle of the night. She added all the time these events had eaten up and realized that Liara was right. "We're finally winning, but this is far from over. You need to sleep."
"Liara, there are people in pain who need that medicine more, there's only so much on the planet until they can get supply lines going again," Shepard said. Now that she stopped and thought about it, she really did feel the lack of sleep starting to hit her. Her head was throbbing, her hands were shaking, and her body felt like it was made of lead. Yet, despite all this, she knew that lying down and closing her eyes would bring her no sleep. "And that's going to take a couple of days, best case scenario." A couple of days to get the ball rolling more like. It'd be weeks before relief supplies were arriving in amounts large enough to make a difference. But Liara didn't need to hear that, not right now.
With a few strides, Liara crossed the room and sat down on Shepard's bed. Shepard wiggled over to the side to make some room, leaning up into a sitting position of her own. "I'm serious, I'm already swimming in painkillers, I don't need anymore medicine wasted on-" she was cut off as Liara threw her arms around her, pulling her into a gentle but firm hug. Jane only hesitated for a second before returning the gesture, wincing a little bit as pain shot through her stomach. She had been bleeding internally when she had been brought in here, and it had only been staunched a few hours ago.
"Please," Liara said, an edge of desperation in her voice. "I was ready for everyone I loved and cared about to die. I made peace with the Goddess." Shepard couldn't help but remember Javik telling Liara that the goddess the Asari people as a whole worshipped had actually been a Prothean who had visited the Asari 50,000 years ago. Then she wanted to slap herself. The worst time, this was easily the worst possible time to bring that up.
"But we made it through, we made it through again," Liara said. "But I can't do it again. I'm sorry Elizabeth, I just can't. I can't tell myself that you might die in front of me again. You beat them. You finally beat them. You sent them running. We have momentum. But...but you can still die. There's Reapers on Palavan still, on Thessia, on so many other planets. We'll have to push them back planet by planet, you and I will have to go into the fray again. And if you die after you proved we can win, after we can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel...I don't think I could take it. It'd be too cruel. Both of us dying in a futile battle against the Reapers would've been kinder than one or both of us dying when they're on the run."
Shepard pulled her head back, gently nuzzling Liara. It was a small gesture that Liara had always enjoyed, ever since the SR-1. The more she thought about it, the more Liara's fears made sense. Two days ago, she would've said that dying after taking away the Reaper's gartuneed victory and giving the galaxy hope would've been a much better death than dying fighting a battle she couldn't win. But now that she had avoided the latter and was confronted with the possibility of the former, she wasn't so sure anymore. She tried to imagine it. Clearing the last planet of the last Reaper, only for a stray shot to hit Liara. This time, it wasn't just her cheek, it was her whole head. Shepard's throat tightened.
"We have overcome the impossible so many times, you and I," she said gently. "Illos, the Shadow Broker, the Illusive Man, that pathetic little assassin he sent after us," god it had been satisfying to watch Thane wipe the floor with that little shit, "Thresher Maws, Geth, Rachni, we've taken all of them head on and won. We can handle the rest of this war no problem." But how long would this war be?
The Prothean-Reaper war had lasted 300 years. Liara had suggested that the less developed modern galaxy would last around a century should the Reapers win. The Reapers couldn't replace their starships the way other species could, but they could replenish their ground forces. And even then, there were still plenty of space capable Reapers out there, with Husks spread out across dozens, if not hundreds, of planets. Even with their main force shattered, it would take years to finish of the Reapers. Maybe even decades. Would she live to see the end of it?
She imagined growing old and weary, to the point where even modern technology couldn't even keep her going, while the Reapers were still out there. She had had vague ideas of retiring from the military at around 80, a good retirement age with an average of 70 years left to go in life, but if the Reaper War went really badly, she might be a very old woman by the end of it all.
"It can't last forever," Liara said, her voice strained. "It hasn't lost forever. Alchera...Cerberus won't bring you back a second time." Shepard's stomach sank. She had forgotten about that. Ok, that had been a bad choice of words, she would never forget falling through a planet's atmosphere, heat building up around her suit while air leaked out. The only reason that wasn't in her nightmares was that other matters were too busy dominating them. It would be more accurate to say that she had blocked out the fact that she had been dead for two years. The implications were...horrifying. She wasn't ready to think about them, not even now. She very much doubted she ever would be. "That's all it takes El. One direct hit to a starship"
"It's downhill from here," Shepard said, nuzzling Liara. "This was the best the Reapers could do, the very best resistance they could offer us, and we showed them that it wasn't enough. If they couldn't kill me with this, they've got nothing left. The Collectors only got the upper hand on us because we had no idea what to expect. The Reapers are all out of surprised, they don't have anything else to pull out of their sleeves, because they would've done it by now if they did."
Liara paused. Shepard knew her lover well enough to read her. She saw the logic in Shepard's words, but all the fear in her wasn't going to go away just like that. Particularly when this was doubtless a very old wound being opened up again. As much as she tried to not think about the two year gap in her memories, Liara had memories of that time period. Doubtless very painful, stressful, and traumatic memories. "I'll be there," she said. "I'll always be there." A shy smile spread across her face.
"Shepard, I-oh. Uh. I hate to interrupt, but Hackett wants to talk to you." Both Shepard and Liara looked up. Ashley was at the entrance to the tent, her face a smidgen red. One of Ashey's arms was in a glowing cast, keeping her arm monitored. It had been crushed when a Brute had rammed into it, nearly ripping it off. Ash's face was also a mismatched blotch of blue and purple, having not walked away from that fight with just a broken arm. The Brute had thrown her against a wall too.
"They say it's important," she continued, "We've got communications set up in the commander center, if you can call it that. They want us to make a run for Palavan. Not only do they want us to deliver information to the Turians and Krogan for how we're going to break the Reaper's hold on the planet, they want us to help in commando raids on the surface."
"We can do that," Liara said, "but it's going to need to wait a bit if they want Shepard on the ground. She's in no condition to be leading the raids herself." Liara stood up. "The rest of us will be enough though, and Shepard needs to rest. Is there any chance he could tell whatever it is to you Ash?"
Ashley paused. "I'll see what I can do. I mean, I'm technically the closest thing the Normandy has to a XO at the moment. It's sort of within my responsibility to take care of that. I'll just-" she stopped as Shepard got to her feet.
"I can spare ten minutes," Shepard said. Sleep wasn't coming as it was, no point in trying to fight a futile battle. Besides, she was going stir crazy trying to force herself to lie in a bed while nothing happened. It would be a small relief to get up and contribute to beating back the Reapers, even if it was positively trivial.
"Shepard," Liara said softly. It wasn't a sharp, disapproving voice like Shepard had been expecting. It was soft and pleading. Begging. "You're no good to them if you collapse. Promise me this. If you're going to talk to them, let me get you something to help you sleep for when you get back." Well, that backed Shepard into a corner. She really did feel that that medicine was needed more elsewhere. But, if it would bring Liara peace of mind, she would bite the bullet.
"Of course," she said. Gingerly getting to her feet, she followed Ashley out of the tent. She wasn't even halfway out when she spotted Liara moving to talk to one of the doctors. On her way out, she passed dozens of soldiers in the allied force laying on beds. Humans, Salarians, Turians, one Asari that was clutching the stump that had once been her leg and sobbing, and a Krogan that was pawing at his now empty eye sockets.
Exiting the tent, she and Ashley moved through the bombed out ruins of northern London. At least Shepard thought it was northern London. They had been on the move so much since they had landed that she wasn't sure anymore. Military checkpoints had been set up all over, men manning machine-guns while keeping an eye out for Husks. A large pile of the cyborgs lay in the distance, a few soldiers dragging a couple more onto the pile. In the distance, Shepard could hear gunfire and shouting. Occasional the cry of a civilian reached her too, no doubt from the nearby refugee camp.
One of the few buildings that was still standing, an old office complex by the looks of things, was where local command had been set up. Around twenty Alliance Marines were guarding it, a few aliens helping them. They stepped aside as Ashley and Shepard approached, the two being allowed to enter unharassed.
"So, planetary assault, killing an eon old god machine, and helping win a battle against the most horrific things in the galaxy, but you're still not satisfied," a dry voice said. "Will you be happy if you end all hunger and diseases in the galaxy too? Or do you need to institute universal equal income on top of all that?"
A small smile spread across Shepard's face. Garrus was manning a nearby window, the tip of his rifle poking out of it. "I mean hey, you explain why you're still up and trying to save the galaxy all by yourself." Shepard gave a noncommittal shrug. Part of her wanted to respond with a snarky comment, but her head gave a particularly painful throb, and she abandoned the idea.
"I don't think so, she's helped put an entire species on the road to recovery for their defective immune systems, so you may be onto something." Shepard's smile was grew a little wider. Tali was at the base of a holographic projector, making some minor adjustments to it. She paused for a minute, shivering violently. "Present company excluded of course."
Tali had suffered no less than seven punctures to her suit, with two leg shots, three gut shots, one that had skimmed her and one that had cracked her helmet wide open. She had injected herself with double doses of preemptive drugs to prepare for the battle, and even then she had been running a dangerously high fever ever since she had been shot. Her suit that clumsily been mended with omni-gel, the sealed cracks in her helmet being obvious visible, but it was vacuum sealed again, and her fever was slowly creeping back down. Though it was still rather high.
"Everyone still kicking?" Shepard asked, walking up to Tali.
"A lot weaker than we used to be able to, but yes," Tali said, getting to her feet. "Just inputting some requested modifications. We don't think there are any Reaper facilities in the area that can intercept communications, but no one wants to take the risk." She paused, giving another violent shiver. "Shepard, small request. Can we please go somewhere very warm when this is all done? No matter how high I set my suit's internal temperature I'm still freezing. I'd like to forget that I even know what cold feels like."
Shepard gave a thoughtful pause. She had been to quite a few planets in her days, both growing up on a spaceship and during her own military career. The majority of them had been inhospitable to all intelligent life in the galaxy with the possible exception of the Krogan, populated only sparsely by domed mining outposts. Some of them had had methane atmospheres, others had been frigid worlds stuck in ice ages, and all too many had been barren rocks with no atmosphere. But a few of them had been pleasant garden planets with diverse biomes, including pleasant beaches. "Did you ever want to try swimming Tali?"
"Oh?" Tali responded, wringing her hands for a second before forcing herself to stop. "I suppose I always wondered what it would feel like. It is a little scary. I mean, I still have a hard time imagining that much water all in one place, outside of a water purification plant." She hesitated for a moment before straightening her body out, to the point where it looked like she stood a little taller. "But yes. I want to try."
"Gonna have to pass," Garrus said from the window. "Turians can't close their mouths all the way and we're a little too dense for swimming. Unless you count frantically splashing and choking while trying to get out of the water swimming. I'm not opposed to some sunlight though. Granted it'd probably feel pretty cool compared to Palaven's sun."
"Oh Keelah," Tali said. "I just remembered. My skin's never been exposed to sunlight on a planet before." Ah. That would be a problem. Tali would probably sunburn like a newborn baby. "Well, I'll have to do some research into that. There's probably something." She gave an annoyed sigh. "We're still going to be stuck living like this for awhile. Anyway, Admiral Hackett is waiting on you."
Nodding, Jane stepped forward, waiting. A pale blue hologram of Admiral Hackett appeared in front of her. He looked like she felt. His uniform was disheveled, his cap was slightly askew, and he appeared to be in dire need of sleep. Still, he forced himself to stand with his back straight. "We did it Commander," he said breathlessly. "You did it. You took back our home."
"Everyone did their part," Shepard said, her cheeks flushing just a little. "I just pointed them in the right direction."
"Fair point," Hackett said. "But, as I imagine you've been told, we still have a long fight ahead of us. I've been gathering intelligence reports from all over the galaxy, now that Harbinger is dead. We saw how Reaper cohesive tactics broke down when it was destroyed, and we were hoping that the same would be happening all over the galaxy." He sighed. "No such luck. It seems that only the Reapers under Harbinger's direct plan were affected. Our working theory is that every large Reaper force out there has a commanding Reaper acting as a coordinator. Harbinger was just filling that role for this force."
"But that still means we can repeat what happened here," Shepard said.
Hackett nodded. "Possibly. Though the Reapers will doubtlessly try to make it harder for us. We have no idea how they'll adjust their tactics, but this is still something we can exploit to some degree. Even if they turtle their forces around the command unit, we can intentionally force them into that position to limit their movements. But, as you suggested, we'd prefer to recreate what we achieved with Harbinger."
"Palavan, right?" she said.
Hackett nodded. "I want to head out as soon as the fleet has reorganized. This defeat has freed up some pockets elsewhere in the galaxy, a few isolated picket units that are heading to join up with us, but we're still going to be relying on the bulk of what was left until we can free up the main Turian navy. With any luck, we'll be heading out in a week. And I want you to make a strike deep into Reaper controlled territory on the planet's surface."
"Crack another destroyer and get inside it?" Shepard asked. "I'll do what I can, but that'll be tricky to do if it's just me and my crew."
"I appreciate your mindset, but no. At least, not at the moment," Hackett said. "There are so many Reaper data cores in orbit that we're hoping that we'll be able to figure out which Reapers are higher up in the command hierarchy." He gave a small smile. "The Reapers rarely had to deal with their own being destroyed, we're hoping that they didn't feel the need to destroy vital data the way the Geth did. No, you're simply going to be destroying Reapers where you can. We'll be giving you ordinance to plant in Reaper controlled territory. You've had a hand in killing five Reapers if you count the larval one, I imagine you won't mind upping it to six. Higher if possible."
"But we shift back to ripping data if we have to?" Hackett nodded. "Got it."
"The working plan is to move onto Thessia after this, cleaning up all of the Reaper's smaller invasions along the way," Hackett continued. "We have to maintain momentum, I don't want this combined fleet to stay in one place for too long, otherwise the Reapers might have time to consolidate their forces. And the more major worlds we liberate from their assault, the more resources and allies we have to draw on. I'm going to need you there every step of the way, infiltrating behind enemy lines to hit where the Reapers are most vulnerable."
Hackett activated his omni-tool, pressing a few buttons, prompting a beep from Shepard's own. "I've sent you a rough plan of the route we plan to take and the planets we intend to liberate. For a lot of them, we'll only be able to deploy token ground forces to set up safe zones for refugees. It'll be some time before we'll be able to muster enough forces to clear the Husks off of this world. Most likely not until the Reapers themselves have been dealt with. If we take soldiers away from worlds that haven't been harmed yet, they may be left naked if the Reapers go after them to replenish their way machine."
Shepard opened up the message Hackett had sent her, studying the map. She didn't like the idea of leaving so many worlds crawling with Husks, but she couldn't think of an appropriate counter-argument. God. She hated this. "Shepard? Credit for your thoughts?"
Shepard paused for a second before answering. Then, she decided to tell Hackett the truth. "I think I'm going to retire when this is all over," she said. "I don't think I'd be up for a soldier's life after this. I think I'd be too tired." She felt like she was too tired to do this all now, but someone had to do it.
Hackett nodded. "That is perfectly understandable. I have entire Marine divisions that haven't done as much for the Alliance as you. You've earned your right to retirement and a plentiful pension. But, sadly Shepard, I feel that it'll be some time before I can accept your resignation. And even then, there will be plenty within both the Alliance and the Council who will try to pull you back in. Both as an advisor and a high ranking commander, and that's without getting into using you in politics."
Shepard blinked. She hadn't thought about that. The thoughts of what it would take to finally kill the Reapers had driven the finer details of a post-war life out of her head. She grimaced. "Any chance you can help me on that front?"
"I'm not a miracle worker Commander," Hackett said sadly. "It's funny when you think about it. I've been given command of the only fleet that has had a chance of standing against the Reapers in millions of years, and I have more faith in my ability to defeat them than my ability to keep politicians out of a well known soldier's personal life. Mainly because I've actually seen evidence that the former is physically possible. They will come for you Shepard, and I'll do everything that I can to stop them, but there's nothing that motivates someone quite like holding a seat of power or getting an even better one."
"Never got that myself personally," Shepard said sourly. "But I guess that's why I never wanted to become a flag officer."
"Speaking as a flag officer, that was a wise decision you made," Hackett said. "You have enough of a burden to carry on your own without the responsibility of managing an entire fleet. Speaking of which, you look exhausted. We move out in three days. Until then, get some rest."
"Don't compete with my girlfriend in telling me when my bedtime is, you'll always loose Admiral," Jane said, only half joking. "Only my mother can win that." As she spoke, a horrific realization shot through her. Oh good God, Liara was going to kill her.
Hackett chuckled. "Noted. Thank you again Commander. You've done more than I ever could've asked for." With that, his hologram vanished.
"Well, you heard him Shepard," Garrus said. "Straight to bed with you. No stopping at the fridge for cookies and milk."
"I swear, if anyone else was saying that, they'd end up with a metal pipe sticking out of your head," Shepard said dryly, but she was smiling. "But you make it work. I can see why Tali picked you."
"Shepard," Tali blustered out. "Be a little quiet please? We're still not quite ready for most people to know."
"Yeahhhhhh," Garrus said slowly. "We kind of talked about this, and we're trying to figure out how to break the news to my family. I doubt my sister would mind, she's in a much better mood now that our mother is doing better, and my mother would just be happy to see me. But my father? I don't know. A traditional Turian to the core."
"If it makes you feel any better, my father most certainly would've hated you," Tali said comfortingly. "He and Han'Gerrel were inseparable, and Han'Gerrel made too many threatening moves towards the Hierarchy for him to have nice things to say about the Turians."
"That's kind of why I was concerned, public opinion about the Migrant Fleet kind of soured in the Hierarchy after that," Garrus said. He gave a small shrug. "We'll figure something out."
"Between the three of us, I really wish I had kicked Gerrel off the Normandy when I had the chance," Shepard said. "I feel like screaming at him was letting him off easy."
"Oh I don't know, I rather liked watching that," Garrus said. "I think he needed his ego popped."
"True. Well, as great as its been talking to you, I made a deal with Liara. And...uh...I need to tell her that I forgot to tell my mother about us," Shepard said awkwardly.
There was a long pause. "You did?" Shepard's heart sank as the flap of the tent opened and Liara's head peeked through. "Even back when we first met?"
Shepard gave a painful nod. "Between going AWOL, dying, working for a terrorist organization, being put on trial for war crimes, and a Reaper invasion, it kind of flew my mind." She tried to read Liara, Garrus and Tali looking noticeably concerned out of the corner of her eyes. Liara didn't look mad, and merely stepped forward.
"Well then," Liara said. "We know what we're doing tomorrow." A smile spread across her face, albeit a nervous one. "I hope she doesn't mind her grandchildren being blue. Or purple. It's hard to tell sometimes with us." Shepard suddenly found herself feeling nostalgic towards fighting a Reaper on foot. Not because her mother was racist, but because she was doubtless going to rip her head off for leaving her in the dark for three years. Well, putting it off was only going to make it worse.
"Until then though," she said, handing Shepard a set of pills. As she saw them, it hit Shepard all at once just how tired she felt, even more so now. "You made a promise."
"Sure, I just-whoa." She had attempted to take a step forward, only to stumble forward in her sleep deprived state, forcing Liara to catch her. "On second thought, I think I may not need these anymore," she said truthfully.
"I see," Liara said. "Well, let's see if you can follow through on that." With another smile, she helped Jane out of the tent. Jane was silent as they moved, taking it all in. Earth was broken. At the very least, it would take half a century before it was returned to its former state, maybe longer. But she was still standing, Liara was still standing, and the corpses of Reapers were all that were left of their enemy. It had been hard, long and tough, but it was unambiguous. They. Had. Won.
XXXXX
Author's Note: I still think telling us that the Crucible was the only way to defeat the Reapers when the Turians and Krogan were killing dozens upon dozens of them at Palavan is a massive middle finger. Granted ME3's ending is 70% middle fingers and 30% bullshit logic.
Also, I really despise the idea that people didn't like the ending because it wasn't happy. We didn't like the ending because it was a great big heaping pile of poorly written dog shit. The writers at Bioware need to understand that tragic and sad are not interchangeable terms. Mass Effect 3's ending wasn't profound, thought provoking, or engaging. It was asinine, forced, illogical, and had its head stuck up its own asshole.
Also, I ironically don't hate Kai Leng as much as the majority of the fanbase, but I still find it fun to shit on him. And it's not like having Thane beat Kai Leng changes the fact that Thane...probably isn't going to see the end of the year. Actually, now that I'm typing it out, I think that would've been more tragic. He beats the uber assassin, but then his condition degrades to the point where he's bedridden and can't participate in the final battle. If Fem!Shep had romanced him, that'd be a perfect point to really tug at the heartstrings. After all, his romance seriously is one of the best in the game.
I would like to thank my Patrons, SuperFeatherYoshi, xXNanamiXx, Ryan Van Schaack, RaptorusMaximus, and Davis Swinney for their amazing support