Chapter 2
A.N. Allow me to take a moment to explain a few points brought up by Dark Triad and smashbrawlguy regarding finer details of this work and of the Mass Effect universe. These are valid points, and I appreciate such feedback.
1. If the galaxy believes Shepard's warning about the Reapers, why is he still working with Cerberus during the events of ME2?
I had Shepard working with them because, while all the governments may be building up for the Reapers in this universe, Cerberus is still hated and despised by pretty much everyone. If someone you knew well and trusted died, then showed up again helping your worst enemy for any purpose, even if the goal was to help people, you would question their motives, nay, you would question whether it really WAS them at all. It wouldn't be clear who Shepard really stood with until he blew up the Collector base, and gave TIM the finger.
2. Why is the army so enormous? The population you have put forward doesn't come close to matching up with population figures for the worlds we have seen in the series.
It is stated several times throughout the series that Shepard is working to save trillions of lives. Perhaps this was an exaggeration, but I took it to be fact. Also, we have seen many star systems in Mass Effect, but the galaxy contains millions upon millions upon millions of stars, all with their own system of planets. It is perfectly believable that there are many other colonies that we never set foot on.
3. Bioware really screwed up the Illusive Man; he was a wonderful villain and they wasted his potential.
I agree. I think that Cerberus's role in ME3 was not as great as it could have been. Bioware had the perfect opportunity to create a massive three-way battle royale, but instead just made Cerberus a Reaper puppet. In "And We Shall Overcome", Cerberus will not be looking for a way to control the Reapers, and thus will not be indoctrinated, but they will still make giant asses of themselves. More details to follow.
4. If everyone is building up for Reaper attacks, why hasn't the Crucible been built, or even discovered, yet?
The Crucible will not even exist in this tale. In addition to the BS with the Catalyst A.I., I feel that having a super weapon that will destroy the Reapers in one blow is anti-climactic. The Reapers are beings of immense power and military might that have been destroying and harvesting organic civilizations for billions of years. It should be a long, hard fought campaign to defeat them, not one huge battle to deploy an "anti-Reaper nuke". Liara will still find something in the Mars archives to help even the odds, but this war will be a long, hard slog through the deepest, stickiest, widest mud puddle imaginable.
5. On the Spectre terminal, it says that the strain of the war will cause the galactic economy to collapse in a year's time. How did the galaxy sustain war preparation for two?
Because the war was not on yet. I feel that a great deal of the economic slowdown described in that message was due to the fear of the Reaper invasion being on; whole colonies obliterated, refugees pouring in by the millions. None of that was happening during the two year build-up. People KNEW about the Reapers, yes, but knowing of them and seeing them in action are two entirely different things.
oo-00-oo
The instant he said those words, everyone went silent and turned to stare at him. A palpable sense of dread and terror settle on the room; what little time they had to prepare for this invasion was gone. The mother of all wars had begun.
The female councilor was the first to recover. "Then….. how do we stop them?"
"'Stop them'", Shepard repeated. "This isn't about strategy or tactics. This is about survival."
He walked towards the table, continuing his appraisal of their dismal situation. "The Reapers are more advanced than we are. More powerful. More intelligent. They don't fear us. And they will NEVER take pity on us!"
"But…" the female councilor stammered, "there must be some way to fight them off. We can't let them strike Earth."
"If the Reapers are here, and make no mistake, they are here," Shepard said, "then they WILL hit Earth. They will come in force, and will strike down ANYTHING that gets in their way. It is too late to keep them away from this planet. The only thing we can do now is stand together, as one, and fight them with everything we have.
"That's it!" the first councilor hissed, absolute terror plain on his features. "THAT is all you've got for us! You KILLED two of the things."
"Correction," Shepard stated plainly. "I killed a husk of Saren, which caused Sovereign's shields to overload, allowing the Fifth Fleet to finish it off, and I destroyed a partially formed Human-Reaper that was the Reaper equivalent of an embryo. I am afraid if you want some magical strategy to get us out of this mess, there simply isn't one."
Just then, one of the officers on the left side of the room spoke up. "Admiral Anderson, we've just lost contact with Luna Base!"
"The moon!" Anderson seemed shocked. "They couldn't be that close already."
"How did they get past our defenses?" the female councilor asked no one in particular.
"Sir," the same officer shouted, "UK Headquarters has a visual." A large screen turned on near the ceiling turned on, at first showing nothing but static. Every pair of eyes was focused on that one area.
Then, an image of an Alliance soldier materialized. The sound of battle blasted from the speakers. The soldier said something to the camera, but the noise drowned out whatever he was attempting to say. Suddenly, the deep, terrifying drone of a Reaper silenced all the battle sounds, and an explosion occurred nearby. Immediately, the screen went black, the words 'Signal Loss' emblazoned on it.
An instant latter, a new image appeared on screen. A Reaper, the same size and shape as Sovereign, had landed in London, on the banks of the River Tames. Anti-Air batteries fired streams of rounds at the leviathan, but the small missiles were useless against the dreadnought's kinetic barriers. Then, ruby red beams shot from the Reaper's foreward weapons, destroying the guns firing at it seemingly without effort. With the minor annoyance gone, the monstrosity began obliteration civilian targets.
Then, vengeance arrived in the form of a duo of Thanix rounds, fired from orbit. The streams of molten iron-tungsten-uranium hardened into armor-shearing shells just as they reached their target, slamming into the Reaper's shields. The ship staggered, knocked off balance by the assault. Just as it was beginning to regain its footing, a third round hit it from behind, broke through its battered shields, struck near the top of the vessel, and gutted it. The monster's lights dimmed and it toppled over into the river.
Shepard smiled darkly. "It looks like Admiral Hackett is doing his job quite well."
"But why haven't we HEARD from him?" Anderson whispered.
"What do we do?" the first councilor almost begged.
Frowning, Shepard turned back to the council, pointed at the screen, and proclaimed, "The only thing we can; we fight, or we die!"
The councilors bowed their heads, fear, but for the first time, determination, filling their features.
Then, a very familiar sound filled the room; the sound of a Reaper droning. Standing the councilors turned to look out the ceiling high window. "Oh my god," the female councilor breathed.
Out of the cloud cover, a Reaper descended on the city of Vancouver. Before it even landed, it began firing an energy beam weapon.
Which began moving toward them.
Backing away, Shepard shouted, "MOVE! MOVE!"
It was too late.
The window exploded inward. The councilors and other nearby personnel were killed immediately, and the enormous, heavy table was thrown towards Shepard and Anderson. Running away from the errant furniture, John and Anderson both ducked, and the table sailed over them. Finally, it slammed into the doorway, finally coming to a halt.
Just as Shepard recovered from the first blast, a second sent him flying into the wall. Rolling off a bench and onto the floor, he laid there for a moment, completely dazed and only half conscious. Blinking, he sluggishly tried to regain his bearings.
"Shepard!" he heard someone call, seemingly far in the distance. Lifting his neck, Shepard held a hand up to his aching head. "Shepard!" the far-away voice called again.
Coming up into the sitting position, John heard his name called again. With his hearing back, he realized it was Anderson. The Admiral ran over to the commander and held out his hand, saying, "Come on, get up."
After helping Shepard to his feet, he said, "Here, take this," and placed a sidearm in John's hand. Turning to the gaping hole left by the Reaper's weapon, Anderson placed a finger on his earpiece, and called out, "This is Admiral Anderson. Report in, anyone." He paused, then said, "Lieutenant-Commander Williams, is that you? What's your status?" He paused again, and then finished with, "I can't raise the Normandy. You'll have to contact them. We'll meet you at the landing zone. Anderson out."
By this point, John had reached the ledge on the outside of the building, and could see the extent of the devastation. Already, more Reapers had landed on the city. These metal towers of destruction were larger than most skyscrapers, and they broke down most buildings simply by smashing into them. He could hear the screams of thousands of people as the leviathans ripped the city apart. In the sky overhead, thousands of meteorites falling through the atmosphere, the ruby trails of invading Reapers, and the sapphire streaks of Thanix shells fired by Earth's defensive fleets.
The red ones far outnumbered the blue.
"Come on, Shepard," Anderson called, jogging him out of his trance. "Ashley's headed to the Normandy. They'll pick us up if we can get to the spaceport." Nodding, Johne started walking along the uncomfortably narrow walkway that would eventually lead to the Normandy's dock. Suddenly, a Reaper beam appeared in front of them.
"LOOK OUT!" Anderson cried, just as a nearby skyscraper was gutted. Continuing on, Anderson asked rhetorically, "How do you stop something so powerful?"
Smirking slightly, Shepard answered "Shoot anything enough times, and it is bound to die eventually."
"That includes US, Shepard," Anderson snapped back.
Continuing along the walkway, they reached the adjacent side of the building. Then, they were nearly blown off by a passing Alliance fighter, which was being chased by three Oculus drones. The lead Reaper fighter fired its beam weapon, striking the Alliance craft in is port engine, causing it to spin into a nearby tower. As the Oculi began to return to their parent Reaper, they suddenly came under fire from above. One was destroyed outright, and another severely damaged. The two survivors split off, each pursued by two Alliance interceptors, fighter craft designed to attack other fighters.
After climbing up a ladder and over some ventilation ducts, Anderson again contacted Ashley on the radio. "Lieutenant-Commander, can you read me? I'm patching in Shepard."
His ex's voice came through his earpiece an instant latter. "We're almost to the Normandy. I've got Lieutenant Vega and Tali'Zorah with me, but we're taking heavy fire."
"HUSKS!" Anderson shouted, pointing downward. Following his gesture, John spotted the targets; Husks were humans that had been repurposed by the Reapers. Using giant, collapsible spikes called Dragon's Teeth, the machines slowly removed water and trace minerals from the bodies impaled upon them, and replaced them with cybernetics. Once the process was complete, the empty, mindless carcasses obeyed their Reaper masters without questions, attacking living beings and ripping them apart with their bare hands, without thought for their own self-preservation. The husks they were confronted with now were climbing up the side of the building in front of them, and were not an immediate threat.
Taking aim with their side arms, the duo opened fire on the mechanical zombies. One by one, the mindless cannon fodder of the Reaper armies fell to the distant ground bellow. Pausing for a moment, Shepard altered his weapon to fire incendiary rounds, than continued firing. The super-heated bullets ripped into the husk's partially metal flesh, and set it alight, burning them from the inside out. In short order, the dozen or so enemies were dispatched. Turning, the two fighters jumped down to a lower level of the roof.
And immediately were confronted by half a dozen more husks coming up the side.
John and Anderson immediately opened fire, cutting down three before they made it half-way to them.
Suddenly, a burst of steam sprang out of the pistol, accompanied by an alarm. His weapon was overheated, and he was out of thermal clips. Similar sounds to his right indicated the same was true for Anderson.
Snarling, Shepard tossed his sidearm to his left hand, and braced himself for close combat. The first husk reached him first, reaching out with its twisted arms to rip and tear him. John quickly grabbed the monster by the neck, and smashed the butt of his pistol into the husk's temple. Its head broke like a melon. A crunching, splattering sound nearby told him that a second husk had met a similar fate at the Admiral's hands.
Just then, the last husk lunged at Shepard, who raised his left arm against its chest, trying to keep the beast off of him. The monster howled for his blood.
Reacting without thought, John activated his Omni-Tool, brought out its blade attachment, and drove it into the husk's head, between its eyes. Its body went slack immediately, and when he removed the blade, it collapsed like a sack of potatoes.
As this happened, a familiar droning split the air, and a nearby Reaper fired its beam at their building, and the room before them exploded as the round struck.
With the windows and door smashed, Anderson and Shepard's path was clear. Coming to a door within the building jammed part way open, John placed his back to one side, and pushed with all his might on the other, opening it just enough for Anderson to get through. Just as he was about to go through himself, he heard a sob coming from a open ventilation shaft. Walking over, he bent down to look inside.
Hiding there was the boy he had seen playing earlier. He was pale with fear, and tears streamed down his face.
"Hey," Shepard whispered, trying to calm the boy and avoid detection from any more husks. "Hey, its okay…"
The child shook his head. "Everyone's dying," he cried.
The boy's eyes widened, and he gasped. Turning, Shepard saw a Reaper's leg come down a ways away. Looking back at the vent, he saw the boy back further into the shaft. "Come on," he whispered. "I need to get you someplace safe." Reaching into the vent, he continued, "take my hand."
The boy just shook his head. "You can't help me," he said sadly.
"Shepard!"
John jumped at the sound of Anderson's voice. Turning his head, he saw that the Admiral had forced his way through the door back to him. "Come one," he said, "we have to go."
John looked back into the vent, only to find it empty; the boy had slipped away while he was distracted.
Shaking his head, Shepard followed Anderson back through the door.
Working their way through the next room, which had taken the brunt of the blast, was slow going. Rubble seemed to fill every spare space.
"This is a goddamn mess," Anderson snarled. Shepard knew he wasn't referring to the state of the room. "Every minute these machines are here, thousands of innocent people die. I won't be responsible for it."
Working together, the two shifted pieces of building so that the other could get past, leapfrogging their way to a gaping hole on the other side.
"They hit so fast," Anderson said. "I thought we would have more time."
"We knew they were coming, Anderson," John replied. "And we've been going all out to get ready for them."
"And they still just cut through our defenses," Anderson exclaimed. Just then, a deafening explosion sounded nearby, shaking the building. The next instant, a Reaper fell next to their skyscraper, its lights out and clearly dead.
Smiling, Shepard said, "Doesn't seem all that one-sided to me, Admiral."
"Don't be arrogant, John," Anderson snapped. "Hackett and his fleets can't keep this up forever. The Reaper fleet is thousands strong. Tens of thousands. We need to go to the Citadel, talk with the Council."
"The Citadel," Shepard exclaimed. "The fight is HERE, Anderson!"
"It will be everywhere soon enough," the admiral replied. "And even if it wasn't, there is no way the System's Alliance can stop the Reapers alone. We NEED the Council. They HAVE to help us!"
Having reached the hole in the wall, the two began carefully scooting across an outcropping of the building.
"You sure they'll even bother," Shepard asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Their usual plan of attack is to stick their heads in the sand."
"Maybe," Anderson admitted. "But you're still a Council Spectre, one of their top hand-picked agents. That has to count for something."
Suddenly, another nearby explosion rocked the building causing Shepard to lose his balance and begin to fall forward. Before he plummeted to his doom, though, Anderson reached forward, grabbed him by his shirt, and shoved him back against the building.
Heart pounding from the close call, John breathed, "Thanks. I owe you one."
"More than one, John," Anderson replied gravely.
The meaning was obvious to Shepard; the feeling was very familiar. He had felt it during his pursuit of Saren, and again during his fight with the Collectors.
Everything depends on me.
oo-00-00
WOW! This chapter ended up being a LOT longer than I thought it would be. I'll get to the Mars mission another time.
