Heads up, this chapter is not involving Westeros. That won't happen until later just to set the Mass Effect side of things. More info at the end of the chapter.
Commander John Shepard
"No! PLEASE NO! STOP! DON'T!" the Catalyst wailed. Shepard didn't care. He kept marching towards the conduit, firing round after round after round from his M-6 Carnifex. Faces flashed in front of him after each trigger pull. Tali'Zorah. BANG! Thane Krios. BANG! Jack. BANG! Legion. BANG! Admiral Anderson. BANG! Mordin Solus BANG! Chakwas, Chambers, Donnelly, Daniels. Click. He pulled the trigger again, but the thermal clip was used and he had none left. He approached the glass and slammed his fist into it.
"STOP!" the Catalyst shouted, pain leaping from the word. Shepard turned back to look it in the eye. "Let's not keep the Devil waiting," he said grimly. He dropped the gun and raised both hands above his head, linking his fingers together. He screamed at the top of his lungs; metal fragments that had been blown down his throat tore their way back up again sending blood out his angered maw.
His fists connected with the glass, his half synthetic body punching through the weakened glass. The glass shattered and the red energy jumped at him, sending him to the ground. He felt the Crucible shake as it dislodged from the Citadel.
A red light exploded to his right and he saw a Reaper die. Red energy covered its body and, in a flash, it detonated, sending pieces of purple metal into the cosmos. And flying by, several Geth fighter craft evaded the debris. "Lying bitch," he cursed at the Catalyst, only to see that it was now gone.
He tried to stand up but fell to the ground and started hacking up blood. "Guess this was a one-way trip," he told himself as the realization dawned. He was dying. In his last moments, he pulled up a picture on his omni tool. It was his crew, his family.
He focused on Miranda. He stared at her face the longest. Thinking of the promise he hadn't been strong enough to keep. Another face drew his eyes, but he pushed those feelings aside. He was Miranda's now, for what few moments he had left. He heard the hull begin to fly off the falling Crucible. He closed his eyes, pushing all thoughts of anger away so he would die with his eyes and not the eyes Cerberus gave him. When he opened them again, the crisp blue eyes of his birth were alive as he awaited the gates of Hell.
Everything was pain. Metal bit into his flesh and his lifeblood spilled out. He couldn't feel his left leg, but there wasn't any pain either.
He heard voices above him. He made out one as a krogan, the other two sounded turian. No. Other three. There were three turians. And there was a women's voice. A familiar one. He pushed past the pain and pulled himself from the wreckage, his guts spilling from the hole torn in his stomach. A hand shot out of the wreck, exposing tattered flesh and metal parts to the cold air.
"I thought that blast killed them all," the krogan voice shouted.
"Not…not a Reaper," he tried to say, but the words wouldn't come. He pushed harder, using his arms and sole working leg to climb out of the wreck and expose his body to the air. The tattered muscle forced to face the world by the wreckage bled fresh.
His eyes met the krogan's. The reptile laughed, but just before his weapon fired the woman pushed the gun away from its target. "What did you do that for?" he asked the woman. She ignored him, approaching the dying SPECTRE.
"Shepard?" Ashley Williams asked. He nodded, causing his head to pound more. "Call for a medical transport. NOW!" she told the turians. She activated her Omni tool and applied the Medi-gel as best she could.
"You're going to be alright skipper," she told him, "You're going to be alright." She continued to speak, but the words held little meaning to him as he gave in to the darkness that wished to drag him down.
When he awoke again it was not in the cruel embrace of wreckage, nor was it the Nine Circles of Hell which he more than deserved. Instead, it was prefab structure at the Alpha Site, the rally point for the final ground assault on the Reapers.
He tried to rise and felt a sharp pain in his stomach. But he ignored it and rose to his feet. He heard footsteps and an asari doctor entered the room. "Careful," she said approaching him, "You were dead for two minutes on the operating table. And it took us days to get your intestines back in place,"
"I need to let them know I'm alive," he said, trying to push past the doctor, "They need to know…" He didn't finish as a sharp pain struck him and he keeled over. The blue-skinned alien helped him back onto the bed. "Don't worry, they know you're alive," she told him, "The entire galaxy does. They've been running the story nonstop, it's starting to get annoying, no offense,"
He let the words stew in his mind. Despite having seen it himself, he couldn't believe it. The Reapers were gone. They had won. "How long am I stuck in this bed?" he asked.
"Another week, and no strenuous activity for at least another two weeks,"
"Normal strenuous or my strenuous?" he asked. She smirked, "It's not my wellbeing. If you want to ruin our days of work for a quick moment to show off your masculinity be my guest. You'll end up right back in that bed with a higher medical bill,"
Shepard scoffed as the asari left the room. He looked out the window took in the view. He saw a skyline that, a few weeks ago, would've been obstructed by rising pillars of metal and rockcrete, symbols of human engineering, and the skies would be filled with sky cars. Now the skies were empty and those once-great structures had been laid low by the horrors of war. He remembered one street, a place where the Reapers had been collecting the dead. There were thousands of carcasses piled on top of one another. Men, women, and children from hundreds of different backgrounds. All dead for the simple crime of being alive.
Five years ago, he wouldn't have cared. He could've seen their corpses piled up by the millions and he wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep. But at that moment, he felt guilt. He was supposed to save them but he had failed them all.
He heard crutch assisted footsteps approaching and he turned back to the door. "You are one tough son of a bitch, you know that right?" Commander Bailey of Citadel Security said. Both his eyes were blackened and a freshly healed scar glared from brow to cheek. Shepard took his inspection lower and saw that his friend's left leg was missing from knee down.
"You're a tough bastard yourself. What did that to you?"
"Husks. When the Citadel arrived in the Sol system the Reapers boarded us. We were overrun in minutes. There were maybe a dozen of us left trying to keep a group of fifty civilians safe. A Cannibal had hit Lang in the shoulder. I was trying to drag him back and one of those Husk bastards grabbed my leg and dragged me into a group of them. They were ripping me apart, then they just started falling on top of me. Boys patched me up best they could, but they couldn't save my leg,"
"Look on the bright side, you work behind a desk every day," Shepard said, "You aren't losing much,"
Bailey laughed, "At least I can walk. I heard you're stuck in that bed for a while. Would be a shame if a disgruntled cop you pissed off made that while even longer,"
Shepard chuckled. "Even with a hole in my gut and being stuck on my ass, I could take you and another three of your C Sec buddies,"
Bailey laughed, "You probably could. So, what's next?"
Shepard opened his mouth to answer but stopped. He didn't know. He hadn't really thought farther than stopping the Reapers. "We'll rebuild," he said, "In a couple of years, the status quo will go back to what it was. The turians will want to shoot shit. The salarians will be creating problems and spying on everyone. The asari will be bitching about the rest of the galaxy's problems without fixing their own,"
"And the humans will be doing everything we can to take the galaxy?" Bailey asked.
"Probably," Shepard answered sullenly.
"That's a bleak way to look at it," Bailey said, pulling out a chair and taking a seat.
"It's realistic," Shepard answered.
"And what does the future hold for Commander Shepard?" Bailey asked. To that question, he had no answer. His whole life had been devoted to being the best soldier he could be. And while it wasn't a problem now, his body was failing.
He was 32 now, albeit he spent two of those years as a corpse. In ten years, he would start to get slower. In fifteen he wouldn't be able to keep up in combat as well as he used to. In twenty he wouldn't even be able to beat a quarian in hand to hand.
"I don't know," he answered.
"That's disappointing," a feminine voice said. Shepard looked to the door and saw Miranda Lawson. "I'll give you two some space," Bailey said, standing up and exiting the room.
Miranda sauntered over to Shepard and sat down on the bed. "I thought you'd have everything planned out,"
He shook his head, "That's what I have you for. You point, I shoot,"
"If you don't make plans, then what do you call the last few months?" she asked, getting closer to him.
"Stumbling through the motions," he answered. She leaned in and kissed him. "Don't leave me again," she whispered.
"I'll try," he told her.
Eighteen months later
"Commodore, we have almost arrived at the archeology site," EDI said over the intercom. "Understood EDI," Shepard said, sitting up. Miranda laid next to him. He kissed her forehead before rising from the bed, cold filtered air hitting his bare skin. From his dresser, he withdrew a gray shirt and a pair of jeans. After he put those on, he pulled on his leather jacket with the N7 emblem displayed on his left shoulder.
He took a glance back at Miranda as she slept before he made his way to the elevator. When he made it down to the Crew level, he was greeted by Seiala, the Asari Huntress the Council had assigned to his vessel. "Commodore," she said, "I would like to go over the base security one last time,"
"Coffee first," he told her, pushing past her and walking with the intent of reaching the coffee maker.
"But sir…" she attempted to protest.
Shepard turned to face the asari, "Would you rather I have this discussion half asleep, or with some caffeine in my system?"
She lowered her head in a show of defeat. "Fine, just make it quick," she told him. He did as he was bid and filled an insulated cup with 16oz of piping hot coffee. "What were you saying about the base security?"
"Well for one, there is no defensive fleet,"
"It's a civilian installation. Were you expecting them to allow military vessels anywhere near it?"
"Fine, moving on. We are expected to transport this "mystery relic" with a squad of Alliance Marines…"
"They prefer to be called Jarheads," Shepard jested as he took a sip of his coffee.
The asari woman gave him a stern look. "Are you going to take this seriously?" she asked.
Shepard smirked. "I'm sorry. I get that this is important to you after Fendal…"
"Can we please not talk about that?" she spat, "The sooner I get off probation the sooner I can get off this ship,"
Shepard waited for her to calm down before he spoke again. "The Ninth, twelfth, and thirteenth Hunting Packs have been combing the region for possible threats for the past two standard weeks. As for only a squad of Marines, you forget that this a squad of Marines consisting almost solely of N3s and greater. We also have an experimental Geth SPECTRE platform and its support teams, a Captain of the Imperial Army, my fellow SPECTRE Ashley Williams, and myself,"
"Not going to mention your girlfriend or the Shadow Broker?" the asari asked smugly, realizing his nonchalantness emanated from an understanding of the situation rather than arrogance.
"And two incredibly powerful biotics," Shepard added dryly, "Any other concerns?"
"Alexander Sanpamon," she said the name, and Shepard's scars began to glow red.
"You mean Alexander Shepard," he spoke the name with a venom he hadn't even used for Saren or the Illusive Man, "What about him?"
"He's filed a request that you do not leave the Normandy, a request that was denied of course. But like you said, he is your brother…"
"A brother who I have not spoken to for nearly a decade. A brother who brought a Batarian into my family's home after the Blitz. The brother who threw away his family's legacy so he could spend his days with…"
"I get the picture," she told him, "But will he be a problem?" Shepard laughed. "He's always been spineless. When push comes to shove, he'll fold like a wet towel,"
She looked at him oddly. "What?" He snapped.
"Sorry, it's just I've always thought humans were very family-oriented. Not as much as salarians…but close to it,"
"Sorry to burst your bubble," he said dryly. They sat in silence before she stood up, "I'm going to go over the plan with Commander Vega," said. "Have fun," Shepard said dryly, finishing his drink.
He was about to go to the bridge when Liara's door opened and she asked, "Shepard, do you have a minute?"
"EDI, how long until we arrive at the archeology site?"
"Approximately twenty-seven minutes," the AI told him.
"I can give you twenty," he told Liara.
"I won't need all of it," she told the human, inviting him into her room. It had originally been the XO quarters, occupied by Miranda and then later Garrus. But when Liara rejoined the crew at the beginning of the Reaper War she had coopted the space and used it to coordinate her connections as the Shadow Broker and decipher the Crucible plans.
Her VI assistant Glyph flitted through the air, occasionally moving to a terminal to either deposit or extract data. "What'd you need to show me?" he asked.
She pulled up several images on her various screens. Most were various stone tablets written in some ancient language that, at a glance, looked Egyptian or Sumerian. There were also some various machines and devices that Shepard didn't even bother to imagine a purpose for. The one that drew his eyes was the artifact that they were going to be transporting. The Stone Disc as it had been called.
"One of my operatives within the project managed to send these to me a few hours ago. The site heads have been keeping this information very need to know. They also sent me radiometric dating results,"
"And?" Shepard asked.
"The artifacts and bodies they have found predate the Protheans by hundreds of thousands of years! These beings may have been alive before the Reapers," Shepard stared at the images.
"So, you are saying that these might be the race that made the Reapers?"
"That's just it, they haven't found anything that resembles Element Zero or any devices that produce Mass Effect fields. If they made a Civilization that was not hindered by the need for Element Zero, why didn't the Reapers possess such technology,"
Shepard turned to look her in the eyes. "You're saying that if we can decipher their language and get their machines working…"
"We could be able to remove our dependence on Element Zero completely!" the asari said, but without the happiness that Shepard would've expected from her. "What are you leaving out?" he asked. She looked to the floor.
"I would sit down," she told him.
"Just show me," he told her. She tapped the console and a new image replaced the one of the Stone Disc. Bodies. About twelve or thirteen mummified bodies. But that wasn't was shocking, what was shocking was what species they were. "They're human…" he said, "How…how is that possible?"
"We don't know," Liara told him.
"I can see why they are keeping this hushed up. If this got out, who knows what kind of chaos would happen,"
"Exactly. That little revelation won't be made public knowledge for a few decades," she said.
"It's good at least one of us will get to see that," Shepard said. Liara smiled at his statement. "Shepard…there's something else," she attempted to say. But before she could finish EDI spoke over the intercom. "Shepard, the station is transmitting a distress call!"
"On my way," he responded, "We'll finish this later," he told Liara as he sprinted out of the room. Running for the elevator he saw Garrus running from the Main Battery. Doctor Michel ran out as well, her hair a mess and pulling her clothes on.
Garrus and Shepard both made it to the elevator at the same time. "Looks like Ashley won the bet," Shepard jested.
"I was going to tell you," the turian said.
"Don't let it affect unit cohesion and both of your duties and I'll turn a blind eye," Shepard said, earning a sigh of relief from Garrus. The door opened and they entered the command deck. Shepard stepped onto his command station. "Replay the message," he said.
"This is…al-Sahesh of the United Arab…We are under attack by a Quarian Free…Anyone who can respond please…they are taking no prisoners…"
"It cuts out there," EDI said. Shepard weighed his options. He turned to face Hive, the experimental Geth SPECTRE platform. Based on the Geth Prime design, Hive's platform was scaled down by half. It was faster and stronger than most Geth of similar sizes and possessed greater faculties than even the Legion Geth Platform.
"Inform your escorts to enter combat formations when we reenter real space,"
"Affirmative Shepard-Commodore," the Geth said, sending orders to the three Kal-Kesh pattern corvettes escorting the Normandy.
A top-secret project developed during the Second Geth-Quarian war, a Squadron of six of the vessels had harassed the Quarian civilian fleet until, through the platform identified as Legion, Shepard entered their systems and ordered them to withdraw.
The Kal-Kesh was similar in design to the He-Cax pattern cruisers fielded by the Geth, only much smaller. It possessed six heavy repeating pulse cannons and two torpedo bays. And a third of Kal-Keshs possessed spinal mounted Thanix Cannons. It also carried four Geth Relac interceptor fighters for void superiority and fighter interception.
He tapped the ship-wide intercom at his station. "Attention crew. The archeology site is under heavy assault by a Quarian Free Navy force of unknown size. As soon as our vessel returns to sublight we will engage the enemy. Cobra squadron be ready for combat. Wolf and Raven teams, be ready to board the station. All non-combat personnel get ready for a rocky ride,"
Shepard smiled, glad that his last field mission wasn't going to be as boring as he first thought.
Author's Note
Here it is, what I promised all those months ago. Only, minus A Song of Ice and Fire and added a little Stargate. We'll get there next chapter. And a quick question before I start writing out anything too far into that.
Should I stick closely to the events in the series, Eddard losing his head, Lady dying, Jon going to the wall, etc... Or should I change things up drastically with the inclusion of these new characters to Westerosi politics.
Anyway, thanks for reading any comments criticisms, or concerns would be heavily appreciated. Stay safe and have a great day.