Haestrom: The Last Day of the Reaper War

The ground below kept shaking and pitching violently. Ancient quarian architecture was crumbling, tumbling, shattering. The Kodiak hovered above it all.

But Shepard and Garrus were still nowhere to be seen. The Commander had ordered the rest of the team to evac a while ago. They had come here to investigate a sudden flux in Dholen's stability; as if the star were getting ready to blow. At the same time, Dark Energy readings from Haestrom had spiked significantly.

It was only because of Dholen's... worrying behavior that they had chosen to investigate this, very quickly, before destroying the base on Rannoch where the Reaper signal was coming from. And they had found something so much worse than what they were expecting. How could nobody have noticed? How could this have slipped by the galaxy? The quarians? Even the geth...

Liara's breath caught in her throat when she saw him; Garrus, stumbling as Haestrom itself tried to kill him with rock, fire, or Dholen's harsher than usual punishment.

Legion nearly knocked her out of the shuttle as it-or he-jumped out without concern for the height(safe landings being an advantage of being a geth, she supposed), and, staggering because of the violent tremors, made it's way to stabilize the turian.

"Cortez! I see Garrus, get us close to the ground!" she called to the cockpit. Javik joined her at the entrance, and as she watched the two lone figures on the ground, she realized Garrus was wounded. The ground near the Kodiak cracked as they hovered closer and closer to it.

"Move faster, turian! Your species evolved for speed!" Javik yelled, quite unhelpfully. She only just refrained from bitterly pointing out that Garrus' leg seemed to be broken, from the way he was using Legion for support. Haestrom cracked and pitched violently and suddenly, sending Garrus and Legion to the ground.

The geth pulled him back up and practically dragged him to the shuttle at a speed that probably didn't do the sniper's leg any favors. He hissed with pain as she and Javik pulled him up, and James banged on the cockpit door when Legion boarded.

"Where's Shepard?" Tali demanded, joining them with a med kit. The Kodiak hovered up, and Liara felt something snap cold inside of her when Garrus shook his head sadly.

"Not coming; Cortez, get us back to the Normandy." he said.

"But-" the pilot protested at the suggestion of leaving Commander Shepard behind.

"NOW! Before the planet blows up in our faces!"


Habitat 2: Day 329

In case of emergency, pod blocks could be ejected; either to save the occupants, who would then be retrieved by shuttles, or to save a section of the ship by quickly suffocating fires with the unobstructed presence of a vacuum. In case of planet re-entry(and assuming the planet in question had a breathable atmosphere), each individual pod had several pockets built into the outer side, and two on the inside.

The two inside pockets were the ones the occupant would first have access to. The one on the right was an 18 by 12 inch space for personal effects; Garrus had filled this space with his Incisor sniper rifle, taken apart and folded so as to better fit, his visor, which was given to him by his mother and held extreme sentimental value, and his omnitool, which was a Savant model he'd received as a birthday present from Tali.

The pocket on the left contained a survival bracelet of roughly ten inches in length(ten feet of jet black paracord, total), a basic survival guide, and a blessed little pocket knife(a blade of only three inches, but better than nothing) that made him feel a bit more secure.

The first outer pocket, the only one of which was re-enforced, contained three 8-ounce packs of water, and(since the pod was built with turians in mind) three dextro-amino chirality ration bars, each one containing enough protein and nutrients to get the eater through one day, easily, two days if you were used to rationing off and thought your body could take it without becoming exhausted.

The second pocket on the outside contained a fire starter kit, with a single, 12 by 7 inch artificial log that could burn for up to 20 total hours if need be. The third pocket contain turian-tailored medigel(approximately one ounce), medical alcohol(three ounces), a small roll of gauze bandaging that he judged to be approximately as long as he was tall when unrolled, a few pads of cotton packed tightly together, a pair of plastic tweezers, a rolled-up sling, and a medical omnitool.

The last pocket contained a flare gun, an emergency light, a fire blanket, and lo and behold, a small distress beacon. Garrus kissed the beacon. He might actually have a chance!

It was quick to set up, and while it started broadcasting, he started preparing for his call for help to go unanswered. Knowing his luck, it would. There were twenty pods, aside from his own. Some of them had had the supplies within destroyed. The dead wouldn't need rations, so he didn't think they would be too terribly offended if he took their supplies, moved the bodies to he could bury them, and tear apart their pods so he could make an insulated shelter.

The pods were well-insulated; they had to be. And if this desert was so hot during the day, he was certain it would be as cold as Javik's blood by night. So, he stared using his omniblade to rip doors off. He set up one of the pods in an upright position in the shelter of a dune once he'd determined which way was downwind and upwind in this region of whatever planet he was on. He began propping up doors and set aside a fire kit for the night, however long it might be here.

He was a turian; he could take the heat. But the cold? No. It was his species one soft spot aside from water, and the complications of freezing such a cold-susceptible species were what got him stuck on the Natanus on the first place, instead of on the Hyperion with the rest of the crew. Minus Tali- the rest of the crew minus Tali. She and Legion had gone with Kal'Reegar and the rest of the quarian survivors a few weeks before the exodus from the Milky Way. He'd heard that, because of their low numbers, they'd been moved to the Nexus instead of the Keelah Si'Yah(which was quickly modified to fit more turian, drell, and Elcor survivors), since the Andromeda flagship was the only one that was armed in any way, deeming it the safest place possibly for an endangered race to spend 600 years.

He hoped she was okay.

The last words of Commander Julian Shepard rang in his ears as the sun sank lower beneath the horizon; those last, surprising words, coming from the mouth of a man with more than his fair share of moral shortcomings, to the turian who proved himself a failure in more than a few ways.

"Keep my ship and her crew safe, Vakarian; I'm counting on you."

Counting on him to do what? Take his place?

Garrus shivered as the air continued to cool. He took his visor off, and ran one talon along the names that he'd carved there. The names he saw in the corner of his vision every time he sighted a target, every time he checked the life signs of his squad, every time he woke up in the morning. A reminder of the ones he'd failed. The ones he'd been failing since forever ago.

His team on Omega was just the start. Corpalis wasn't something anyone could fight, but his mother still felt like a battle he'd lost. The Reapers came and blew Palaven's cities away, Cipritine included. Then Mordin... Thane... and after that, Shepard. It became a problem, wiping out whole systems in an instant. He could only watch as Tali completely crumbled and lost herself, as the Migrant Fleet and the geth were both exterminated in a flash. He could do nothing, help nobody, as the galaxy ended and the Initiative became the last option.

The hoards of people trying to attack and force their ways onto the arks and the Nexus. That last call from his father and Solana before he went into cryo... trapped on the colony of Invictus...

Moments before it was wiped out. He'd stayed on the comms with them. Spirits, through it all, there had been nothing more difficult than helping his little sister through her final moments. Nothing more destructive than the burst of static that ended their final call. He'd spent a day or two processing it all before going into stasis. Trying to deal with all the emotions before he was thrown into another galaxy. Checking in with other members of the crew via messages before they entered stasis themselves.

He opened his omitool app, and stared at those last messages. There had been no further comments added, and he stifled his disappointment. Too much to hope for. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

His mandibles twitched as he looked at his correspondence.

Jim Hammer: Still awk, Scrs?

Sc0ped&Dr0pped: Awake and wondering what kind of username Jim Hammer is

J:I thought it was obvious the human liked to use idiotic aliases.

Jim Hammer: No1 askd you, buggy.

Sc0ped&Dr0pped: play nice you two. great now I'm nervous about you guys on the same ship together

QuothTheRaven: Javik's actually behaving better than normal. Why is that anyway? And why are you even using this app; you never talk to us.

J:I do not want to risk damaging any pods by killing idiots. I also deemed it wise to make sure the turian had actually made it to his ship, instead of being intercepted by our enemies.

Garrus had to snort another laugh at that one. Guess he kind of cares; in his own, rude way.

Sc0ped&Dr0pped: nope. no enemies here unless you count the lunch lady. this freeze dried stuff tastes like husk spit

QuothTheRaven: I'm sorry, I'm going to have to be the grammar police here; either you start using proper capitalization and punctuation, or I swear, Vakarian, I'mm kick you right back to the Milky Way when I see you next.

Sc0ped&Dr0pped: well excuuuuse me princess im going to use all the bad grammmmmer i can git awak with. bad sppealing inclueded

His nictitating membrane swiped across his eyes rapidly as he continued to read through. One by one, they had gone silent. It was a bit odd seeing 'recent conversations' being marked as over 600 years ago. Taking a leap of faith, he keyed up the typing interface, and sent a message.

Sc0ped&Dr0pped: Hey, 'Jim Hammer'? Don't touch that.

His omnitool bleeped at him.

Recipient Chat Room Out of Signal Rang

Chat Room Will Be updated When Signal is in Range

Again; of course it wasn't that easy.

He started the fire, and pulled one of the fire blankets around himself. Tonight would likely be the first in a series of long nights. In the end, he fell asleep with his left wrist held close over his chest, and one, long ago promise echoing in his mind.

"I promise! We'll all make it through this, I'll make sure of it!"

I promise I'll keep you all safe. No more failures. This was a new galaxy. They were his crew now.

And he was going to make it back to him. For everyone he'd failed before, he was going to keep them all safe and alive... no matter the cost.


Ark Hyperion: Day 421

The ship jerked and pitched, and the gravity cut off suddenly. Javik's equilibrium left immediately as he was sent careening into the opposite wall. He barely managed to use his biotics in time to stop a collision, and he threw one hand out to latch on to the nearest bolted object.

"Dammit, Vega!" Williams yelled from the other side of the block. "You just had to open your mouth!"

"All I said was 'welcome to Andromeda'!" he protested. And so the idiotic primitive social intricacies began again. He couldn't have a few minute peace to himself after walking out of cryo for the second time in his life?

In the back of his mind, he wondered how much all this freezing and thawing had shortened his life span. Stupid primitives with their stupid exploration plans and their dangerous AI's...

"You jinxed it!" Williams snapped.

"Fool; you are superstitious." Javik told her witheringly. "This was a doomed trip from the start; one statement could not have affected our likelihood of a collision with..."

And that was when he finally had the idea of finding a window to look out of. The ice was still making him think slow. It was Vega who saw it first, twisting in mid-air as someone opened the shutters on the collision-proof window of the outer pod block(or he hoped it was collision-proof).

"Uh... what? Sorry... but what?" was the human's reaction to whatever had halted-and possibly damaged- the Hyperion. Javik pushed himself towards the doorway, and caught the edge to stop himself.

He blinked all four eyes in rapid succession to make sure what he was seeing wasn't a post-cryo hallucination of some sort. A cloud of energy, like tendrils of some beast made of wicked spikes, pulsed and seemed to breath, just outside the hull. All six of his senses started screaming danger at the mere sight of it. He was glad he'd gone in still wearing his armor.

"What is that?" Williams asked from beside them, bracing herself against Vega to stop her movement.

"Probably something bad that wants to kill us." the male human shrugged.

"I agree that it may be dangerous." Javik commented. "But I doubt that it 'wants' anything. It looks like pure energy."

It looked like nothing he'd ever seen before, to be accurate. Not in his cycle, or the current one. Something the turian had once said came to mind unbidden.

"I'd say you're the weirdest thing I've seen; but after three years of fighting myths, and dead commanders coming back to haunt me, my threshold for preposterous is way out of whack. I've learned to just roll with it."

Preposterous indeed. Different galaxy, same cycle. And this cycle had... many problems.

"Brace for grav!" a voice announced over the intercom. Javik quickly oriented himself, and managed not to stumble as his feet hit the deck. He retrained a sense of odd vertigo from the sudden gravity, but it quickly wore off.

"Someone ask what we hit?" Williams called.

"I just got a message from the Admiral; she says we hit some sort of dark energy anomaly." the Normandy's MCO strode up with a data pad. Dark energy. He thought grimly. The very thing we fled. "Is everyone alright over here?"

"Looks fine." Vega shook his head.

"Looks can be deceiving." Javik shot back. Just because a pod was intact didn't mean the occupant was. That, he knew from bitter experience.

"Well, everything checks out for you, Javik." the old human said. He hadn't noticed she was scanning him. Post-cryo inattention; he hoped it wouldn't last as long as it had last time. "James, put that coffee down! Your body's been inert for six-hundred years; the last thing it needs is a caffeine injection."

"Whatever you say, mom." the human snorted. Javik tried his best to suppress a leer. He seriously needed to find a closet, or something. He'd only been awake for a few minutes, and he was already sick of listening to primitives talk. The sooner they reached the Nexus, the Normandy, and his secluded sanctuary in Port Cargo, the better.

"Pathfinder team; report to bridge." a new voice called out.

"Am I the only one who's glad someone else is doing the grind work this time?" Williams asked the general audience.

"I would rather be fighting than waiting for a report." he shook his head. Waiting was unpleasant; if he was fighting, he could actively control the variables of the outcome.

"Well I, for one, am glad we aren't the ones stuck doing all the work this time." James commented. "Time to sit back and watch things happen for a change. Little bit of peace, you know?"

"Peace rarely lasts." he pointed out. When were primitives going to learn this?


Yeah, don't you guys worry; you'll wind up at the front of the action again in no time!

TheXGrayXLady: Proud to hear I wrote it well! So much better than the last time I tried to write this fic. The crew winding up in Andromeda was my first ME fic idea, but I just kind of lost my fire for it after the first two chapters. Hopefully, with a totally-revamped way of telling the story, I can get back into it for real someday.

DRWPJT: Lol 'you again'! Thanks for that, that was hilarious.^^

As you can see, things aren't so great. If you're thinking that 'wow, all those supplies in those escape pods'; I determined what might be in there by using the castaways on Havarl as an example. I don't know what each pod is equipped with, but considering Rix and the others were able to survive long enough to build the things that they did, there had to be some form of rations and supplies hooked to each pod in case of emergency.

Like with Losing Time, I will be taking everything said and done in this fic into careful consideration. Just like how I determined how long the different stages of Destiny 2's Red War were, and the heath problems that Asher Mir's condition would result in, I'm going to try to approach this fic with as realistic an angle as possible.

Which may mean dumping some of the canon Andromeda content. Including, but not limited to; the unrealistic ratio of gay/bisexual-to-straight people. The fact that none of the ships are armed in ANY way whatsoever. The fact Tann remained director even though he screwed the pooch so bad. The plot holes revolving around the Angara's entire history(i.e if the Remnant ruins are only 600 years old max, how could the Angara have been introduced, been around for the scourge eruption, rediscovered spaceflight, and re-established a space-bound civilization with no suspicions themselves about the blatant technological acceleration of their society?).

Just to name a few. And things will be a little more dramatic. About as dramatic as we WANTED MEA to actually be. So there we go. My plans for the future, if they ever fall through.

Chapter Recap: Garrus is missing his messed-up little space family, and Javik is sick of everyone already.

Fare Thee Well!