Disclaimer: Chapter 1.

I'm… actually pretty surprised, and flattered for that matter. A lot of people already seem to have their eyes on this fic, even though I'd only put up the prologue before this chapter. I'll try my best not to disappoint, and thank you for the reviews, watches, and fav's.

And for those of you who are wondering, this isn't really the same Shepard as Glass Coffin, at least in as much as Garrus's team still being alive. I think I will still be writing her leaning towards Renegade, though ('cause Renegade is fun to write).

At the end of chapters, I'm going to do a little summary of the game mechanics and what sort of extra work would be required if this ending were in the game instead. The work required would just be a guess; I'm only using knowledge I've gained from friends who are trying to break into the game industry, so I could be wrong. And I'm not going to include voice talent, as that's quick and (fairly) cheap. Feel free to correct me for any errors.


Chapter One – Fighting Chance

"But an even greater evil threatened the city: the Words of Power, remnants of ancient magic long forgotten, were being sought by Maugrim's followers to bring devastation to the North." – Neverwinter Nights


Garrus woke up with a sharp breath of pain. For him, this return to consciousness felt all too familiar. He idly rubbed one gloved hand along the scarred side of his face as he hoisted himself up from the ground.

The next few seconds took to get his bearings and remember where he was, remember his mission. Earth. He looked from side to side, trying to determine where the team was, where the beam to the Citadel was.

Where Shepard was.

He pulled himself up into a standing position and whipped out his assault rifle, immediately yelling into his comm. "Commander! Shepard! Can you read me?"

Nothing.

"Commander!" He scanned the area and went in the only direction that had anything resembling a path in the rubble.

Finally, something broke through the comm static. "Vakarian, this is Victus. We'd been receiving word from the Alliance that Hammer had been devastated."

"Sir," Garrus grunted, "I can't say we're in good shape, but I wouldn't count us out of the fight, yet." He spotted movement in the distance, so he rolled into cover and popped the spent heat-sink from before still in his rifle. "We're not getting out of here until it's done."

"How does it look down there?"

"Can't say for sure. The beam is missing and I can't get a hold of anyone down here. Frankly, I'm surprised you're responding."

"We're taking a beating up here, but we're now getting a whole new worry. The big Reaper has moved up to orbit and is near enough to the Crucible that we don't know what to do. We can't risk shooting it when it's so close."

"Harbinger moved? Why?"

"We can't tell for certain. I've been trying to contact the Alliance, but Admiral Anderson managed to get to the beam and their communication has been tied up since. We need confirmation about what it's up to from Hackett. Can you get to Shepard?"

"I have no idea where Shepard is." He felt a stab of pain as he admitted that. "For all I know, she got to the beam, too."

"Find somebody down there who knows! We're putting in shots as best as we can to the rest, but it could mean nothing if that Reaper does something with the Crucible!"

That order was easier said than done. As they spoke, hostiles closed in towards him from the distance. A good distance, thought with appreciation. He switched rifles and looked at them through the scope.

Cannibals and marauders. Well, that wasn't anything he couldn't hand—

Wait, was that a brute? Damn, he had to face one of those fucking flesh tanks alone?

Armor-piercing rounds it is, he thought bitterly. His first course of action was usually to take down those marauders, but he was going to have to take down that brute before the bastard got too close. He didn't have the luxury of any sort of decoy or turning invisible and running away once it got close. He gritted his teeth and took the first shot.

After a jerk of its neck, the brute turned towards Garrus, and charged.

Garrus never popped heat sinks between setting beads so quickly in his life. His heart was racing and he was severely wishing he did try to backpedal as the thing trampled through various kinds of concrete rubble, and just as the shadow loomed over him, his left his shields go from the shots of the marauders and cannibals also advancing.

Somehow, he had just enough grit in him to aim his gun straight up at its face, even as he could feel its drool and blood drip down onto him. The brute quaked one last time through its massive body and fell.

Oh, thank the spirits!

The thing made excellent cover, and though he was officially out of ammo for the sniper rifle, the assault was more than capable to take out the remainder at this point. Now, as long as a banshee doesn't pop out—

That'd be the perfect way to end my day.

None did, but with his fight done, he advanced forward from where they were coming from, just hoping he didn't come across even more. But, it wasn't like he had a choice; there was only one direction unless he felt like trying to climb the rubble with what was surely a twisted ankle and a wrenched shoulder. Hell, it was bad enough trying to roll into cover.

His destination determined brought him to some husks, distracted by a human squad. It was easy enough to take out the hostiles. When they were clear, he ran up to assess. "I'm looking for someone who has a link up to Hackett."

"Alliance communications have gone haywire ground-side since the beam faded and the big Reaper moved," the squad leader said, or more shouted through his helmet, "We've been scrambling sense."

"Damn. Anything we can do about that?"

"We think some comm towers went down, closest one is half a click or so to the northeast. We've been trying to get there, but there've been too many swarms along the way and we're out of medi-gel. No way we could take any direct action here on out. If you could head up out front, we could give some support from behind."

Garrus really wanted to sigh and complain, but he wasn't talking to Shepard. She'd understand the fatigue and the fatalism. He had to find her. "Better than standing around and waiting for the world to end. Let's get going."


Kaiden found himself at one of the communication towers after more fighting than he'd care to do after being laid out by a Reaper beam. More work than anyone should have to do in such a ridiculous situation, but, of course, the situation was as patently ridiculous as it could get. A fleet of Reapers, Harbinger by the Crucible, and Shepard was... who knew. He'd found Coats earlier, but he was more injured than he was and hardly in any shape to be walking around as much as he was.

With some difficulty, Kaiden repaired the tower's main power supplies and held off another wave of Reaper forces as best he could until it could return to full broadcasting capability. When it seemed like he couldn't take another hit for the lack of medi-gel and his failing shields, the static cleared away.

"This is Major Kaiden Alenko! I got the west-bound comm tower operational! Is anyone receiving?"

There was only a short pause before, "Impressive timing, Kaiden. I just got the east-bound done."

"Garrus!"He gave a laugh in relief. "You really weren't kidding about being hard to kill. Do you know where Shepard is?"

"Negative. I was hoping someone in the Alliance could enlighten me. The primarch is freaking out about Harbinger and is requesting some insight about the status of the Crucible."

"That's what I'm trying for." He tried switching signals to command. "Major Kaiden Alenko reporting! Requesting direct correspondence with Admiral Hackett."

There was a longer pause and a hiss, making his heart stop until the silence broke and allowed it to beat again. "Hackett here. Major, what is the status down there?"

"Some of us are up and able, but we need time to regroup." He looked up to the burning sky, bursts of incendiary clouds peppering it with even more red light. "The... whereabouts of Commander Shepard are unknown."

"Anderson and Shepard both managed to get to the beam, but there was a scuffle and we lost contact with them both shortly after. The Citadel arms have opened and the Crucible is in position. But the beam deactivated, anyone we send in from this point would go via ship, and it's hard to get in so close with the Reaper hovering near by."

"Then what are our orders, sir?"

"Hammer has finished its mission. Gather the survivors and report at a secure location and report for further orders."

"But—"

"Hackett out."


Keeping with the baseline of about 2000+ EMS, your squad would still survive given the already set standard. These two would then get their own separate gameplay levels, fighting alone.

Meanwhile, the rest of your team you didn't bring with will live or die depending on conditional ground assets: Alliance assets in the case of humans (Ashley, Kaiden, James), geth for Tali, turian and/or krogan (due to the treaty) for Garrus, particular conditions regarding Shadow Brokership and asari commandos with Liara (if not tying her directly with her ME2 DLC), rachni for Javik, Ex-Cerberus and/or fleet assets for EDI. If the proper conditions are not met for that character, they are considered killed (or their body destroyed, in the case of EDI).

This chapter would mostly only require level building: two areas with determined mobs, played with the two squadmates the player chose. The capability to have you able to play as those characters should already be there. And if you didn't have high enough EMS, this whole chapter would be skipped.