What Could Possibly Happen In Mass Effect 3?
12:53 [Standard Earth Time]
Friday 13th March 2186
Earth
Central Plaza Hotel
Room 7001
Tali'Zorah's luminous eyes opened slowly, as she woke from her deep sleep.
She groaned as she rolled over, the movement making her stiff limbs ache. She noticed the time readout on her visor's HUD. Wow, its 12:54PM, she thought groggily. I slept in quite a while.
She realised that her Commander wasn't lying next to her. She sat up, looking around the room for him. He didn't seem to be here. Confused, she stood up, and walked into the centre of the room. It was then that she noticed something tacked to the top of her helmet; she tore it down, and looked at it. It was a note from Shepard; he had gone off to his trial. Tali slipped the note into one of her suits many pockets. Looks like it's just me today, she thought glumly.
She walked slowly over to the couch, and lowered herself into its ergonomically-designed embrace. Once sat down, she activated her omni-tool, and activated her combat drone, Chiktikka vas Paus. Tali smiled inwardly as she remembered where the ship name "Paus" had come from; an old quarian vid show that used to play at certain times and places around the Flotilla for young children to watch. Ah, memories.
The drone spun on its axis, zooming curiously around the room like a hyperactive five-year-old. Tali watched it in amusement.
After a few minutes, it got a little boring, so Tali recalled Chiktikka to her omni-tool. She sighed, a mannerism picked up from Shepard, and sat back. There wasn't much to do.
She picked up the remote control for the vid screen in front of her. Clicking the red button on the top left made it burst into life. Truth be told, Tali had never really used a vid screen herself very often; such things were a luxury on the Migrant Fleet and so had to be put in public places, and the Normandy didn't exactly have many of them either.
The vid screen was tuned to the Alliance News Network. Tali recoiled in shock as she read the caption at the bottom of the vid screen.
"FLEET MASSES ABOVE EUROPE: Are we under attack?"
Tali then realised that there were two humans talking in a darkened room; well, actually, there was only one. The other was there via holographic frequency.
"Doctor, how exactly are you defining en masse? Are we talking about hundreds of ships, here?"
"No, we're talking about thousands, actually."
"So, is it, in your opinion, then, that this is in fact a preparation against a legitimate attack?"
"I really wouldn't lend any credence to reports of mythical sentient warships coming to kill us."
Tali stopped listening. She knew exactly what was happening. She jumped up, and looked quickly out the hotel window. At 70 stories up, they were quite high. She looked up, and saw several small orange objects in Earth's atmosphere, coming at some speed. Tali ran out into the corridor; she knocked frantically on the hotel room door that belonged to one of her oldest friends, the turian Garrus Vakarian.
"Garrus!" She yelled through the door. "Garrus, switch on your vid screen!"
The door opened. Garrus was there, looking bewildered and dressed-down but still wearing his custom-made visor.
"Tali? What's going on?" he asked her nervously.
"Just… come here, Garrus! Come see this!"
Garrus obliged. They hurried back into Shepard & Tali's room, and Garrus checked the screen. He looked around at Tali, with definite fear in his eyes.
"Is it…" he began.
"It is!" replied Tali, half yelling. "Look!" she pointed out the window, staring at Garrus. Garrus looked; he also spotted something Tali was not seeing; definite laser pulses coming from each UFO; and one of them was headed straight for their building.
"Tali, look out!" bellowed Garrus, vaulting over the couch and tackling Tali to the ground as a mighty explosion erupted overhead. Chunks of the ceiling fell in; a particularly heavy-looking chunk landed where Tali had been standing a moment before; it was inches from Garrus' leg. Tali noticed the time just before she blacked out. Her visor's HUD read 13:00 exactly.
13:22 [Standard Earth Time]
Friday 13th March 2186
Earth
Alliance Headquarters
Military Courtroom 001
"Sir! Sir! Oh God, please wake up!"
Commander Shepard sat up, rubbing the nasty bruise on the back of his head. The voice he was hearing belonged to the bewildered face that was too close to his.
"Are you alright?" asked Sanders.
"Yeah, I…" Shepard looked around: half of the room was missing, and there were a lot of dead people. The windows were missing their glass, and the massive wooden door frame was missing it's doors. The distant sound of explosions could be heard and so could screams of pain and horror.
Shepard looked at the young Alliance soldier.
"We've got to get out of here," he stated. Sanders nodded. "Come on."
Shepard pulled his Predator pistol off his hip, and raised it to aim like he was trained to. He hurried out of the doorway. Sanders pulled his Mattock out from its slot on his back also, and followed.
Tali woke up suddenly. The first thing she saw was Garrus, extending his three-fingered hand to her. She used it to pull herself up.
"We've got to get out of here," stated Garrus, his tone concealing the fear he felt. The two of them ran out of the door. The corridor seemed to have suffered more than their room; an entire wall was missing at one end, clearly showing a large drop, and beyond that, massive machines smashing and shooting everything they could find. Garrus sprinted the length of the hall, with Tali in hot pursuit. They reached the elevator; neither of them was stupid enough to risk calling it, so Tali kicked open the door to the stairwell. She was about to step through when Garrus stopped her.
The thing was, there was no stairwell. It had collapsed, leaving a tall pile of rubble at the bottom of where the stairs used to be. Tali could feel her quarian heart going a mile a minute: Now what are we going to do?
A/N: This is getting interesting! I'm enthralled and I'm the one writing it! Just got my trusty notes here *Shuffles stack of paper nervously* See ya next time! Please review!
