ACT 1:
Priority A: Palaven
Shepard lands on Palaven instead of Menae in this timeline, because fuck it, I want to see the turian homeworld instead of a random moon. Why would the turian primarch even be on the front lines of a warzone (and subsequently be able to be shot down) instead of in a secure bunker on their homeworld or aboard a flagship dreadnought? That's stupid as hell. So Shepard and squad carves their way through the burning streets of Palaven, killing husks and cannibals on the way to Primarch Fedorian's last known location. Dreadnoughts are bombarding cities in the distance, destroying entire evacuated cities without hesitation if they can even slow down the Reapers just a little bit in any way, shape or form. After some grueling fighting, they reach an entrenched fort in the city currently being overrun, and is told the Primarch had not been able to evacuate from it before the invasion. Shepard leads the nearby turian jetpacking platoon in an assault to liberate it, succeeds, and finds the Primarch trapped inside. As leader of the previously thought to be useless Reaper Taskforce, Garrus is found right by his side, advising him personally on the war effort. The last thing Fedorian received was Sparatus' message, and so, immediately agrees to attend the War Council and save his people. The Normandy is then able to evacuate them safely, even after it short-circuited for a few seconds so EDI could take over Eva's android body, which Shepard just rolls with. Instead of walking around like looking like the Terminator though, EDI actually uses the camouflage suite Eva had to look human. As cool as robots are, how does it make sense to run around looking like one when sentient AI is outlawed? Why even take the risk of being mistaken for anything other than a mech? Come on. And though a human and robot falling in love is a nice story, it wouldn't nearly be as weird if Pinocchio looked like a real girl instead of looking like, in Jack's words, a sexbot. Though after seeing how Joker became attracted to a giant blue floating eyeball, I guess I could see how he'd settle for the robot.
Priority B: Eden Prime
Transition to Shield and Liara landing their personal ship, a Normandy-class frigate the Broker had made that Shield's taken to calling...the Invisible Hand. Speaking of which, he's gotten a replacement for it. A really sleek looking Ymir attachment that doubles as a rocket launcher and gatling gun...lol. Could you even imagine. No, it's just a regular old black prosthetic. He went back to ol' reliable Doctor Michel to graft that bad boy after AHR. And while at her clinic, he finally paid her back for her previous generosity in AHM. Though he was at large, he managed not to get caught on station with his l33t infiltrator skills. Anyway, once on the planet they rendez-vous with an Alliance battle group there to evacuate the colony. That just so happens to be the 355. Shield's old platoon from boot camp. FB, Whitey, Super and the rest all say hey. It's soon learned however that Cerberus hasn't take over the location by force, and instead, has won over the local population, showing another instance of them actually becoming an influential galactic NGO. The Alliance failed the colony in the geth attack, and since they went viral, Cerberus has been supplying the colonists with arms, gear, and the technology to defend themselves against the Reapers. Some colonists are even electing to join Cerberus' private army willingly, allowing Cerberus to install cybernetic enhancements into them to become super soldiers. While the Alliance forces don't know quite what to do, Shield and Liara head for the excavation site they were told about. They force their way in when Cerberus soldiers try to stop them, and after some brief fighting, find the discovery: a sealed coffin. Using her expertise, Liara opens it up to find The Other Prothean...Moe. Sorry. Just kidding. Again. It's Javik. After a brief dialogue, they leave the planet with him right as Cerberus sends in back-up to recapture the prothean.
Priority B: SSV Newton
Shield and Liara accompany the Alliance Battle Group with their new discovery back to the Alliance's special forces staging point within the Fifth Fleet: the SSV Newton. There, General Jason Von Grath is directing what will come to be known as the N7 Special Ops in their war effort against the Reapers. But that's not important right now. As Liara attends Javik's 'debriefing' by the Alliance, Shield receives an invitation to meet one of its staffers. One Major Rikard Gaskin. They catch up, and Gaskin makes clear that he was originally going to take Shield down himself for killing Taskmaster/Izanami and joining Cerberus, but he's since learned the circumstances. Shepard joining them in 2185 had certainly created a tough nut to crack in the whole Cerberus situation. But he's thankful for her efforts in tallywhacking the Collectors regardless of allegiance. He has Shield swear he's not a dog of Cerberus anymore, and once Shield affirms it, Gaskin extends an offer to him, and join the newly formed Taskforce Hercules. Shield refuses, as he's got other missions he has to help with. Gaskin is sad but understands.
Once it's revealed to Command that Javik is just an angry soldier with no idea of what the Crucible is or does, they set him loose. As prothean experts however (obviously save Shield), they are then invited by Hackett to help with another prothean-related matter. Though Liara considers it, Shield is adamant they have to get back to the Normandy and help the Commander. Hackett then tells them that Shepard is humanity's ace in the hole. She'll make the right calls. While she does need help, that doesn't mean they have to be there physically holding her hand. Everyone has their own roles to play in this war. And at the moment, he has one for them.
Priority A: Sur'Kesh
The War Summit goes poorly: it's literally only the turians and krogan. Every other race basically says they're going it on their own due to past slights and current ignorance on the threat. As I said only the COUNCIL believed in them. The independent governments of each race are kind of dicking everyone. Shepard is there on the Alliance's behalf, but it becomes clear she's just facilitating the meeting. The Hierarchy didn't agree to Councilor Sparatus' beliefs in helping the humans with the Crucible either. Especially if Cerberus is involved. As Wrex and Fedorian get into it, they are approached by an unknown ship. Before firing, it's revealed to belong to the Salarian Union. And Dalatrass Linron forces herself onboard. She knows what Fedorian is going to ask, and gives a counter-offer, saying she'll lend them salarian support if they don't go through with it. Fedorian says fuck off, they need shock troopers, and pisses Linron off when he agrees to get Wrex a cure to the genophage.
This starts off the main twist where to stop the turian/krogan alliance, the salarians turn to the only other group who agrees the krogan should suffer under the genophage. The Genophage Arc essentially has the salarians and TIM make their own alliance to oppose the efforts to a cure, highlighting that even with the invasion going, the races of the galaxy still don't agree on exactly how to save it. This at least explains away how a Cerberus team got onto the salarian homeworld with the salarians not knowing anything, despite being the race described to know everything. The Council orders Sur'Kesh to allow the Normandy to land despite Linron's orders. It's a stand-off. After talking everyone down, Shepard lands at the base their inside scoop was located at. Mordin and Bakara would then barely escape with their lives due to Shepard and Wrex's efforts, as the Dalatrass' personal hit team and Cerberus try prevent the hand-off. STG splits in half during the chaos, with Major Kirrahe leading a faction to help Shepard and Lieutenant Tolan leading Linron's loyalists.
Priority B: Irune
The Hand drops off Shield and Co. on the volus homeworld. They make sure their suits are nice and hermetically sealed so they don't explode due to the pressurized surface or die from toxic gases. Now, some background. Since the Vol Protectorate refused to become a client race to the turians again despite their planetary crackdown, the Hiearchy's fleets withdrew entirely once the Reapers came, leaving them defenseless. The volus now regret their public protest and withdrawal from the Council as husks flood their streets. Looking for as many friends as possible, the volus have shared with the Alliance that they had a cache of prothean relics they had slowly hoarded since joining galactic society. Having done exactly the same thing as the asari, the whole reason for their withdrawal from the Council now seems somewhat hypocritical. Hackett sends Liara, Javik, and a protege of Liara's named Treeya, to verify that their artifacts are indeed genuine, and of any help to the Crucible Project. Escorting Treeya is the accomplished Delta Squad, led by Treeya's boyfriend, James Vega. Shield is basically just the taxi driver. Not that he actually pilots his own ship. That's Rok's job. That's right. Cadus' original salarian pilot from the MSV Erros, back in AHM. The one Shield had knocked out. It's kind of funny in hindsight.
They cut through husks and cannibals and a brute, which is now just described as a reaperfied krogan. Because why do we have a hybrid frankenstein monster, with additional lore even explaining that they're bodies are incompatible of working together due to dextro and levo proteins? It's a Reaper construct, they shouldn't even have to worry about proteins. What proteins? They're goddamn cyber zombies. And at that point, why not have Drell/Hanar reaper enemies, or asari/human enemies, or batarian/elcor, or keeper/pyjaks or literally every and any other combination. It's just dumb. The turians already have a reaperfied version of themselves too. Just give us a reaper enemy for every race, is that too hard to ask? Think of it. Floating hanar constructs that lash you to death. Cybernetic volus suicide bombers to replace abominations. Mechanical salarians that are really lithe and hard to shoot, jumping around like geth sappers. Reaperfied elcor tanks. Elcor. Tanks.
Rant over. The team arrives at the supposed vault location only to find it's empty. They've been duped, bamboozled, and possibly even schmeckledorfed. As they leave pissed, a horde of reaper forces seemed to have honed in on their location. Right as they're about to hunker down for a fight, a squadron of Cerberus fighters come through, bombing the monsters to hell and back. Their suspicions are confirmed back aboard the Hand, as Barla Von tells the 'Broker' that the Vol Protectorate had made the exact same offer to Cerberus. The NGO has delivered their advanced fighters and a large number of mechs to the besieged planet, and received the prothean relics in turn. You snooze you lose. Barla Von sends Shield a clip of the Cerberus ship the cargo was loaded on. And as Cerberus troops file in, Shield recognizes the one leading them. Captain Vamshi. Oh boy.
Priority A: Utukku
A favor to Wrex results in a quick detour. The Rachni Boogaloo: Part 2. In a crazy happenstance, the Rachni are still alive despite Shepard's earlier efforts. I mentioned that in AHR didn't I? And it's not due to Reaper cloning? God that's the stupidest plot point. You killed the Rachni on Noveria? Haha, no you didn't. The Reapers for some unknown reason some unknown amount of time ago somehow found the material to clone a queen and make them pump out shrimp babies that they turned into tanky artillery for some unknown reason. Reaper elcors could have filled that niche. Imagine that. Reaper. Elcors. Anyways, despite Shepard sinking the lab on Noveria, Shield had still given the Queen a large enough head-start to escape an icy grave. While indebted to the man for saving them and letting him know on Illium, she is not as pleased with Shepard for trying to do the opposite. If only Shield was here to win her over...anyway, as Shepard works with Aralakh Company to get to the Queen, she's faced with the same choice from 3 years ago. Save the Rachni, or extinct them. This time...she allows them to live. Gasp. After the Listening Post sidequests in ME1 that led her to Depot Sigma-23, Shepard has acknowledged that the Rachni weren't just the ravenous mindless creatures that she had thought they were from her contact with them on Noveria. They were sentient beings, just like you or me. Nice Shepard. The Queen thanks her as it skiddly bops away, and Grunt thanks Shepard for her help, as he's the ultimate krogan, of course he tanked all those rachni. Okeer's genetic treatments for select krogan commandos are also really starting to improve their physique. Despite being banned, his research and work has really been helping the cause. This action also completely halts any Ravagers from appearing anywhere else in the story. I mean seriously. How do they still appear as enemies when you destroy the only source of them in the galaxy? Come one maaaaan. Did the Reapers really have time to find the queen, capture the queen, set up a harvesting facility to outfit all her babies, AND ship them to a hundred different warzones in the galaxy, RIGHT as the war started? Unless they have a hundred different cloned queens hidden elsewhere. But if that were the case, what even is the point of this mission and killing one?
Reaperfied elcor with giant tank cannons on their back dude.
Priority B: Turvess
Cerberus is refusing to share the goods they got on Irune, which means the relics they got hold something that can directly benefit them alone. So Hackett tells the team to get the relics back. Shield uses his contacts to track down the ship, and the trail leads the team to a planet Shield had been to once before. The raloi homeworld, which has not taken news of the Reapers well. They are pretending to be pre-spaceflight, having destroyed all records of them existing, cutting off all contact with the outside world, and attempting to go technologically dark in hopes of surviving. The only flaw in their plan being the resource shortage. Due to the economic crash and demand for resources, Turvess was rolling in the dough. They had huge surpluses of food and mined ore to sell and made it known, their economy skyrocketing from the exports, and they had become a major source of relief for many markets. Now with the Reapers around, that demand is even higher. Despite several governments asking for whatever excess and aid they can send however, the raloi aren't having any of it, ignoring their pleas completely. What good are credits when the galaxy is being culled? Due to their refusal to help, Cerberus has recently decided that planetary sovereignty doesn't really matter to them. The raloi have what they want so they're going to take it. Simple as that.
TIM has his legions attacking the raloi's production facilities to seize what they need for the war effort. Due to their black out and technological regression, the raloi don't exactly have the power to repel them. And due to their isolationism and the Reaper invasion, the rest of the galaxy doesn't really feel like advocating for their rights. So when the Hand drops off the team and Delta Squad, they realize they might be on the right trail. They're told to stop by the old embassy from 2184, kept on the outskirts of their main city this season. It's made known it's only been reopened specifically for them. Despite a a very cold welcome from the small staff, one raloi in particular greets Shield warmly: Ta'lako. Due to his actions in AHL, the Mohpiya was made a ceremonial representative of their people and its culture. And as a Mohpiya kept around to constantly entertain the raloi elite, he has gotten quite a bit of information on the local going-ons too. Despite Cerberus taking as many raw resources as they can from storehouses, that doesn't seem to be their only focus. A lot of activity appears to be happening in the uninhabited mountain valleys across the continent, but their government doesn't have the luxury or will to follow up on what they're doing. The rest of the Tllaloi staff tell them to get rid of Cerberus and leave. After some recon in the mountains, and probing the edge of the operation, it's discovered why: huge deposits of eezo have been hidden in Turvess' mountainous regions. One of the relics Cerberus recovered apparently detailed a reservoir there, and Javik identifies it as one of the lost vaults, a vast resource reserve unable to be reached by the protheans during the last war. Apparently, Turvess was yet another prothean touched civilization. They just can't keep their hands to themselves.
Going deeper into the operation, Shield spots Vamshi organizing the location's defenses. And upon locating the ship the relics were last seen upon, they make their move, clashing with the Cerberus troops below to seize it. As they face off, Vamshi asks Shield if the Alliance was really willing to dirty its hands like Cerberus. If it's willing to steal from the raloi just like Cerberus...why does it matter who mines the eezo? Either way the war effort will get it. Shield simply points out to him that the eezo's a huge bargaining chip for Cerberus. And it really wouldn't be smart to give them anymore leverage. Before Shield can even ask why Vamshi is fighting with Cerberus in the first place however, the man retreats from the scene after the turns start to table. Shield guesses he just likes being on the losing team. Anyway, after losing the main reason for their insurgency along with the prothean relics, Cerberus withdraws from the planet entirely. Despite their aid, Turvess still wishes not to be noticed and tells the team to leave right after, banning anyone else from landing on-world after hearing the events from Ta'lako. Shield's attempt at persuading them to help falls on deaf ears. Except for Ta'lako and some scientist ambassadors willing to help with the Crucible. Believing Shield, Ta'lako expresses his desire to join their team in order to save his people. There's no way Turvess would ultimately be left untouched by the War. Despite the objections of his Tllaloi handler, he's gladly welcomed aboard and leaves, having shown the team he's a talented shot. And also pretty good with a staff. Though I won't go too into it...it's a pretty damn cool staff.
The prothean relics they recover detail several other lost vaults the Alliance sends teams in to claim. And despite Turvess' official stance, the Alliance still sends down some miners and N7 special ops teams to secure the eezo vault on the planet. At least until the location's no longer tenable.
Priority A: Tuchanka
Back to Shepard, Cerberus has taken a massive artillery cannon to shoot down turian aid and bomb krogan camps. Cerberus has also exposed the turian bomb with leaked intel from the Union, in hopes to prevent the krogan from advancing. Shepard goes in to rectify the problems before continuing. While they're distracted however, Linron sends in the STG to destroy the Shroud. Kirrahe gives them the scoop, and the Normandy team is forced to rush in to deliver the cure before it's too late. Long story short, krogan fight STG, a Reaper lands, Kalros fights that, Shepard ignores Linron's backstab deal, escorts Mordin in to deliver the cure, tower blows up from collateral damage, cure disperses. But Mordin lives baby, as he never had to enter the tower to begin with. Shield had discussed curing the Genophage with him half a year ago. And after his words had moved him, I would have hinted at Mordin visiting the Shroud in AHR to see if it could work, fixing the problem while they were there for Maelon and Grunt's Rite. The Krogan Clans join the war effort and Kirrahe rallies a large faction of the STG to assist the Alliance's efforts despite the Dalatrass' stance. And many salarian citizens are furious upon realizing they will not receive any aid from the strongest military forces in the galaxy.
Priority B: Parnack
Due to these events, the Salarian Union is now left holding the bag, and Dalatrass Linron faces a coup. In an attempt to address the issue that they have no allies or front line shock troopers, she immediately moves to uplift the yahg. Idiots. Back aboard the SSV Newton, describing the Turvess location to Von Grath for defensive purposes, our 'Broker' receives a tip from an anonymous source about what's going down. He informs Hackett, and after elaborating on the original Broker's backstory, the Alliance officer tells him to investigate the matter. Repeating the Krogan Rebellions during their war with the Reapers is the last thing they need. Since he knows the most about the yahg, which Shield kind of bullshitted about, Hackett gives him the authority to do what he thinks prudent. Shield departs with Liara, Javik, and Ta'lako, alongside Alliance Representative Elias Keeler.
They land on Parnack, and after killing some EXTREMELY dangerous wildlife, Shield meets the source of his tip: Padok Wiks. He really doesn't want his people to mess with the natural order of things again. As an integral part of their work there, he starts to tell them the scoop. One of the most powerful yahg warlords, Krregdaksh, had been contacted by the Union. Offering her weapons (obsolete salarian ones from 19th century CE, though still better than the yahg's 20th century Earth equivalents), they'd let her expand her influence over her continent, only in turn, she'd send them slaves she's taken from other coteries. Not cool salarians. The deal has only ramped up with this new salarian initiative going on. Shield's meeting would then suddenly get crashed by the STG, though Shield recognizes their leader as they're held up. Ganto Imness, who he had saved on Virmire. What a coincidence. And technically, it had been Shepard who saved him but who really remembers. Shield speaks to his debt, and how the salarian government is really fucking up here. Ganto does express his regret at the Union's actions. Shield convinces him to let them go, or actually, do them one better, and take them to where the captured yahg were. Being swayed, the STG group escorts them to the conversion facility in a remote canyon, separated from the intense and dangerous jungle foliage around them. There, they're recaptured, as the other members of the STG squad did not like Ganto and Padok's betrayal.
Inside, Dalatrass Linron herself explains why the Alliance needs to keep this quiet over holo. The yahg would be an instrumental tool in saving their people, and possibly humans as well. Stolen plans from Cerberus, about their method for grafting cybernetic implants, combined with their own uplift research, is allowing them to create loyal soldiers willing to obey any instruction. The applications of this could save countless lives and fronts, especially with the yahg's savagery and size. While Keeler says this could help the war effort and Javik approves, Liara and especially Ta'lako don't, considering his former background. Shield himself says the moral bankruptcy of mind control and slavery are not really worth the reward imo. Then he says wait, did Cerberus not help you with this? Linron confirms Cerberus knows nothing. Shield says they do know that those cybernetic implants are Reaper in origin right? That all their troops are indoctrinated? How did the salarians stop that?
She can only say uhhhh as the several prototypes just finished in the labs below activate themselves and become frenzied, breaking out of the 'secure' operating room. Teaming up with the STG, Shield's team sweeps through the facility, killing the crazed reaper yahgs. Against better judgement, he also releases the rest of the prisoners in the facility's lower depths. As Linron calls in again, Shield says they need to stop playing god, and that if she had just agreed to contribute salarian effort to the Allied Effort instead of Cerberus (and betraying them too), they wouldn't even need all this skulduggery. He then does some sort of bullshit to set the facility to self-destruct. Once safely outside, the salarians of the project agree that this was a pretty bad idea and collectively decide to abandon the project. Padok wonders why the Cerberus troops grafted with the cybernetics don't go insane too. The freed yahg that escaped also want pay back however, surrounding them. The leader of the captured coterie (basically their word for tribe), having picked up some words overhearing the salarians talk, demands blood and for them to submit. She attacks Shield as soon as he says something sarcastic.
Telling everyone not to interfere, Shield seeing she had done the same to the rest of her yahg, they fight in savage hand to hand combat. Using his patented omni-fu, Shield actually bests the yahg to everyone's surprise, especially after almost getting dismembered several times. Realizing she's been bested, she immediately submits, and I'd go into my own head-canon for how yahg society works. But since that's not important right now, just know that she'd agree to follow Shield emphatically. Gladly taking his yahg teammate, she's timidly given a translator by Keeler, and with the limited data on it from the Council's first contact with them, identifies herself as Karrgoskk. Despite the rest of the team's misgivings, Shield allows her to accompany them, giddy with hanging out with another new alien. However, he agrees that taking along 30 other pack members isn't a good idea, and sends the rest of the yahg off to be free. Without their leader, they immediately become savage, starting the process to choose their next. And in the middle of their blood sports, the two groups depart.
Author's Notes:
One of the greatest things about buying ME3 for PC in the universe was the Expanded Galaxy Mod. I simply can not state that ME3 becomes almost an entirely different game with the mod installed. Revisiting the old worlds from ME and ME2 in sidequests, with little snippets following up on what has happened on the planets since then. Being able to use every single weapon in the game, regardless of DLC. Seeing refugee fleets outside the Citadel, and having them grow in size over the course of the game. Mix and matching every armor set you can imagine with any color scheme. Assisting in the evacuation of Thessia and choosing which cities and people you actually rescue in the mission. Having Shadow Broker teams, Geth Prime, Aralakh Company, and more in the Normandy's garage after completing their relevant missions. Redecorating said garage with mechs and vehicles. Picking new crew members to show up on the Normandy to give you bonuses, with complete biographies on their occupation. And the greatest of all, the freakin' codex entries. The AIS battle updates are an incredible addition to fleshing out Mass Effect's galaxy, and absolutely should have been in the base game to build up the stakes and atmosphere, giving you a sense of an urgency as fleets and worlds are falling left and right to the Reapers throughout Shepard's travels. Rikard Gaskin (from AHL), Taskforce Herakles (Hercules), Jason Von Grath and the SSV Newton are all characters and ideas created by the Mod, and I like to give a shout-out to its makers by 'borrowing' them. But seriously. If you have ME3 for the PC and have never heard of it, download it 100%. ME3 is like a brand new game, and not a single thing in it feels out of place.
Also, one of my biggest gripes with the Yahg constantly being portrayed as the leaders of the next cycle in fanon is the amount of time. Humans reached the moon in 1969. Then in 2149, discovered FTL travel. That's mastering space flight and establishing extra-solar colonies within 200 years. The Yahg are already said to be on the verge of spaceflight in 2185 themselves. Having 50,000 more years to develop would be absurd. The salarians have only been on the galactic scene for like 2600 years (discovering FTL in 520 BCE). And look at how advanced they are. It's absurd to think the Reapers would allow the Yahg to ferment for 20 times that amount. Especially since the galaxy's apparently overdue for their reaping too. I think Hackett mentioning the Reapers avoiding them is a HUGE oversight in-game. And due to this summary of events, I won't devote all the shit I would have gone into for Ta'lako or Karrgoskk (Karg for short), but I would have had a blast getting into their characters and fleshing out their race's culture through them. Ah, another day, in another life...
