Mass Effect: It's not over yet
This is my take on the end of Mass Effect 3, the Shepard in my story is male with Ashley LI, I'm ignoring parts of the official ending such as the Normandy crash landing as they didn't make sense to me . Constructive criticism always welcomed and appreciated, all IP connected to the Mass Effect universe belong to Bioware and EA.
Prologue:
There was another flash of light in the corner of his eye as a shining crimson beam enveloped another ship; Shepard winced as an Alliance cruiser suffered violent decompressions of escaping gases culminating in explosions as it began to break apart. He dimly recalled that around 900 people served aboard a cruiser type vessel…. More wasted lives in this pointless war against the machines…. these Reapers.
He stared weakly again trying to take in what this… thing in child form was trying to tell him but was hard to absorb it made no sense, he struggled to stand straight "so your telling me… all of this death and destruction is to stop synthetics from killing us and this seems logical to you?" Shepard looked at the hologram of the child before him "this is crazy…. We have united the Geth and the Quarians they are here together helping us fight off your creations. There is no justification for genocide no matter the reasons".
The ghostly image seemed to pause before replying with the same concept he had already uttered 'The created will always rebel against their creators, you must choose'. Shepard staggered closer; his head was throbbing as if a thousand different voices were talking to him an almost inaudible murmur. He tried to concentrate to cut through the murkiness of the whispers; he spoke softly under his breath 'Shepard, Staff Commander – Alliance Naval Marine Corp, N7-442367AE.
An old technique as he struggled to summon his thoughts, he recalled the first time he had met a reaper part of the reaper vanguard – Sovereign 'I am beyond your comprehension...I am Sovereign...in the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are...organic life is simply a genetic mutation, an accident...you wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence...we are the end of everything'. This does not seem to match what this machine was now telling him and that should make him on edge even angry but the voices in the background seemed to calm him even accept that he must make a choice.
He again repeated his name, rank and serial number to try and focus... 'No' he said loudly 'if you control the reapers and the citadel why did you not open the relay to the dark space all those years ago when I fought against Saren, the heretic Geth and Sovereign'. The form of the child he saw on Earth many months ago stared back at him 'you would not comprehend... choose. Control us and send us away, evolve all life or destroy all synthetics. ' The child raised a finger to Shepard and the whispers raised to fevered shouting 'Choose Shepard' over and over again. A wave of despair rushed through Shepard as he felt his resolve weakening, everything seemed to make sense he just had to choose and he staggered forward towards the conduits and the font of energy before him.
He wearily came to the crossroads, the time to choose and Shepard paused, the cloud of the voices lifting just for a moment and one familiar voice seemed to come through over all others 'You cannot escape your destiny, Shepard'. The remark cut right through him... it couldn't be, he glanced back at the catalyst and for one split second could see a flash of four golden lights. Dread seemed to diffuse into his body... he was being played, his head started to get foggy again.
He tried to recall the theory and facts behind indoctrination, his nostrils flared as panic started to set in... he did not let it. 'Shepard, Staff Commander – Alliance Naval Marine Corp, N7-442367AE ... his mind flashed with images of the people he was leaving behind. He saw his squadmates both past and present, 'Sorry Garrus it looks like I will be waiting for you after all' he whispered, he then saw a slim woman in blue armor with long dark hair and hazel eyes... 'Ash' he sighed as his mind flashed back to his memories of the Spectre called Ashley Williams. Gunfire from two Geth soldiers as the then Gunnery Chief Williams dived into cover, so many conversations in the armory as they bonded and exchanged life stories, gentle flirting that turned into something more, Ilos, Horizon, Mars, Citadel, Normandy and their last few minutes together on Earth. The good and the bad... he was glad they managed to reconnect, Ashley was the only woman he had truly loved – 'She won't forgive me for leaving her again'.
He stood up straight, he looked down wondering why his wound that was bleeding so heavily so recently no longer hurt... hell he could not even see the gunshot. His head seemed to stay clear as long as he kept the memories in his head replaying in his mind; He looked at the energy conduit to his right the one that could destroy the reapers, he suddenly had a vision of Anderson shooting the energy conduit. The reaper child now appeared close to him, Shepard looked at him in the eyes 'I know who you are reaper' he stated unflinchingly 'Impressive Shepard' stated the catalyst all pretence now flown aside 'I am still the harbinger of your ascendance' maintained a now metallic voice 'We are Harbinger, you cannot stop us Shepard; your mind and everything that you are belongs to us. Your last petty act of rebellion merely delays the inevitable'.
Shepard gasped as an intense pressure enveloped his cranium, he struggled to draw breath... with one last ounce of strength he let the memories of Ashley flow through him and activated his omni-tool the blade locked into place and he through every last bit of his strength into thrusting it into the head of the avatar of Harbinger, he did not know if this was all in his head or really standing at the top of the citadel but it seemed to have an effect as harbinger staggered back. Shepard took his opening and took fast strides up the right side platform pulling out his gun, lining up his shot and shooting the energy conduit.
As each bullet hit the panel he seemed to be in a different place, he saw Anderson talking to the illusive man in the chamber below but wasn't he already dead. As more bullets hit the chamber he saw Anderson break hold of the grip he was in and shot the Illusive man with his pistol and opened the citadel arms... is this what is really happening Shepard thought, 'no time for that now' as he stepped in closer and started to shoot at point blank range.
Just before everything went black, he thought he could see the crucible docking and firing some sort of energy beam and then the cold night sky of London.
Chapter One: Survivor?
Earth – Milky Way / Local Cluster / Sol system, The capital planet of the Earth Systems Alliance and since the Reapers had finished with the Batarians ground zero for the invasion of the galaxy. The home planet of John Shepard the first human spectre, hero of the citadel and conqueror of the Collectors – the man who united the galaxy into a fighting force to repel the reapers, the man who was now Missing in action following the last ditch attempt of the allied forces to use their super weapon.
The crucible had fired courtesy of Admiral Anderson's last push through the transport beam after Harbinger has been distracted by means unknown and managed to deploy the crucible at the cost of his own life; destroying the reaper fleet but it also took down the relay network – there were now fleets of stranded starships in the sol system who were for now helping alliance in tallying the dead and damage on Earth as well as trying to repair the Citadel to use as their home.
Location – London , Capital city of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, one of the first signatories to the Earth Systems Alliance parliament and one of the first cities to be hit by the reapers. Death and destruction were the reaper's legacy on this ancient city as far as the eye could see nothing but rubble and reaper corpses. Battalions of Alliance marines, Asari commandos and Krogan warriors were still out in force as the machine intelligences may have been dead but the indoctrinated forces were still in play – very confused due to the lack of orders but still intent on carrying out their last one, kill all organics.
Just north of Big Ben amidst the destruction of Westminster a green zone had been established which was coordinating all search and rescue units of civilians and MIA soldiers along with cataloging the dead.
Admiral Hackett supreme commander of the alliance forces walked into the command marquis 'Sitrep' he barked 'very little change sir' came the crisp tones of Major Coates 'we are finding more and more corpses which we are attempting to identify from DNA records so far no sign of Commander Shepard alive or dead Admiral but we are making progress on clearing out what's left of the reaper forces' he paused as trying to find the right way to broach the subject 'Sir we know that Admiral Anderson was the only one to make it to the citadel and that Hammer forces were wiped out on the frontal assault last night, it is looking less than likely that Shepard survived'.
'Don't be so sure Major, Shepard is one tough son of a bitch' Hackett replied with one eye at the corner of the room where he could see some of the Normandy crew liaising with S&R teams, he moved closer to Coates 'You look like hell Major, you were in combat less than 6 hours ago you should take a break', Coates stifled a yawn 'Shepard's squad is still out there looking Sir and they saw more combat than I did' he paused again as he ran his hands through his scratchy beard ' Admiral, Commander Williams is pushing all of us hard to move the rubble around the conduit beam faster I don't think she is going to give up the search until we find him, my attempt to pull rank and get her to take a break did not go down too well'.
Hackett hesitated not wanting to divulge too many details that he suspected was true of Commanders Shepard and William's relationship 'Commander Williams was part of Shepard's original crew and they have a tight friendship, cut her slack Major and I will see if we can get some more Asari biotics to help move rubble whilst we ship machinery from the fleet'.
Another dead body but thankfully it was not the one they were looking for, she stood up as she scanned the body with her omni tool and uploaded the dna result to alliance command and tagged the body. Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams the second human spectre, Acting Executive officer of the SSV Normandy signaled to the medical technician to come forward and put this body into a bag and move for transport. Ashley Williams was tall, slim with dark brown hair and intense hazel coloured eyes that had a slight red tinge due to a combination of no sleep and unshed tears ' Pull yourself together Ashley, you're a Williams' she murmured to herself 'he promised he would not leave me again, he is here somewhere I know it'.
She heard a sonic boom and looked up at the sky as a sapphire coloured Kodiak shuttle was coming in for descent; the block shaped craft slowed down and began to drop slowly down using its vertical thrusters before coming to a complete stop. The door slid open and a slim man in alliance pilot blues steps out 'Lt Cortez, you managed to procure another Kodiak for us' Ashley called out in a fatigued voice 'Yes Commander, swapped out the engine for a bigger eezo core with Adams help. Should be able to use this one to move bigger slabs of rubble' Cortez jumped off the shuttle and took two long strides towards Williams 'Any news yet Ma'am?' Ashley softened her look at the Flight Lieutenant more than aware that Cortez claimed Shepard as a friend; god knows John had told her enough about the tortured individual who still mourned his husband just as Ashley had mourned Shepard when they had all thought him dead after the destruction of the SR1.
'Nothing yet Steve but we are not leaving here without him, not again and that is a promise', Cortez looked at her 'I'm with you Commander, orders Ma'am?' he stated in quick motion, Ashley responded instantly 'Hook up with Garrus and Tali they reported some bioscans coming from a collapsed building a few clicks outside the blast zone and might need air support in lifting some of the heavier pieces, dismissed Lieutenant'. As the flight lieutenant checked his omni tool for a location check on Vakarian she once again looked at the horizon knowing that the longer time went on the chances for Shepard's survival were slipping, there was a bleep and a white flashing light coming from her omni-tool. A message… it was from EDI who had completed new projections on where the blast could have thrown the Commander and sent out new coordinates, Ashley acknowledged receipt of the communique and updated her navpoint with the new coordinates.
Her hand went to her earpiece 'All Normandy shore parties this is Williams we have received new likely coordinates and I will investigate, stand by to divert to my location but for the time being carry on' she listened for a split second when the replies mentioned that the location she was heading too had not been fully cleared on reaper forces as well as a typical Vega quote of her being reckless and to wait for backup and then turned it off.
She checked her supply of heat vent clips for her rifle and then set off over the ruined streets of London trying not to get distracted by the remains of Mako tanks, civilian hovercars and the still smoking remnants of houses, shops and communication booths.
Across the other side of the green zone stood the chiselled Latino coloured figure of one Lieutenant James Vega 'Shit she isn't responding crazy lola' he swore as he turned around to face the men and women beside him 'Corporal track Commander Williams via her omni-tool and inform command that we are following the LC on foot, grab your gear people' as he hit the safety catch on his rifle that extended it from its locked position and a red light flickered on.
'Scars, its James' he called over the radio 'Williams has gone in again, where you at man? Over'
'This is Vakarian, I copy that James. We are two clicks west of your location, waiting pickup from Cortez and will follow you in' sounded the gravelly voice of the Turian agent called Garrus Vakarian 'Vega go easy on Ash she just wants to find him, this is not easy for her... for any of us I know but especially for her' he clicked the radio off when Vega clicked back to acknowledge the message.
He turned to his Quarian companion 'Tali signal Cortez to double time it, Ash could be hitting indoctrinated forces on her own' he winced as the sunlight refracted off Tali's visor and hit his eyes, his mandibles flexed in reflex ' Already done Garrus, he said he is two minutes out'. Garrus looked up to scan the horizon, London looked like Hell and he didn't even want to hazard a guess how the rest of Earth's cities looked or how many years it would take to recover. The STG had made a rough guess that almost half of the population had been harvested by the reapers... there were just over 11 billion humans living here before the invasion the scale seemed unreal to him and they had no idea how many dead were on Palaven or Thessia.
He saw it coming down low, the blue tinted Systems Alliance Kodiak drop shuttle piloted by the fighter pilot turned procurement specialist Flight Lieutenant Steven Cortez. The shuttle came to a stop a few yards in front of them and the side entrance slid open 'Move it people' came the pitched voice of Cortez trying to make himself heard over the pulsating hum of the shuttle's thrusters. Garrus and Tali climbed onto the craft, Garrus slid the door shut and banged on the door 'we're all good' with a vibration the vessel lifted off and they set off to their destination.
'Fire' sounded the metallic voice with just the hint of the Turian man that had once been the host of the grotesque abomination before her. Ashley quickly ducked and dived behind a slab of rock for cover as a number of cannibals... batarians that had been repurposed by the reapers to serve as their foot soldiers opened fire on her position, perhaps she should have listened to Vega she thought as the edges of the rock face began to heat up as they suffered a barrage of mass accelerated slugs, yet these forces seemed organised and seemed to be intent on keeping her away from the collapsed structure that EDI had pinpointed for her. 'Sons of bitches should not be this organised now there is nothing controlling them' she murmured out loud, the rest of the reaper forces they had encountered since the crucible had fired had been very incoherent lacking any clear strategy but the forces shooting at her seemed very different.
She lifted her gun and gripped the barrel tightly, a N7 Valkyrie an upgrade to her old avenger it was designed to be accurate and packed plenty of firepower... she would need it now. She pulled a smoke grenade from her belt and flung it over the wall to where the majority of the forces were concentrated, she edged to the other side of the wall and taking advantage of the confusion caused by the smoke she quickly lined up her shots and squeezed the trigger, due to the two round burst nature it quickly felled three cannibals and took down the shields of the Maurader. She dodged the counter fire by flinging herself to the ground and then turned her dive into a combat roll and fired again this time the maurader went down clean, another cannibal came out of the woodwork Ashley reacted instinctively and fired a concussion shot that caused the bulging mass that was once a Batarian to stagger back Ashley used that opening to charge and flicked out her omni knife and drove it into its skull.
She paused to try and pay back the adrenalin fuelled oxygen debt, something was wrong it seemed too quiet, she saw through the dim light from her surroundings two pale laser type lights shining towards her 'Shit Rachni' she exclaimed, she had no room to manoeuvre.
She heard the ricochet of four shots fill the room and the dying screams of the creature 'You can come out Williams, these reaperised things are no match for a Krogan especially not a battlemaster' said a familiar voice 'Wrex?' Ashley said appraisingly as she slowly stood up, there stood Urdnot Wrex the leader of the Krogan and one of the few Krogan biotics left.
Wrex was not her friend in fact a few years ago she was more than ready to kill him on Virmire when he raised his gun to Shepard but John trusted him so she lowered her gun as did Wrex; his shotgun still smoking from the recently fired shells 'Heard you ran off by yourself Williams, brave but foolish as you can see still plenty things to kill', 'What are you doing here Wrex? Beside killing ravagers' retorted Ashley. 'What do you think I am doing, Liara knew I was in the area and wanted me to keep an eye on you, I had already heard you are not taking Shepard's death well' something snapped inside Ashley 'HE IS NOT DEAD!' she almost screamed, she paused aware she had raised her gun and tried to control her emotions 'His body was no-where near the portal... this is not going to be like on the Normandy I am going to find him no matter how long I am out here and frankly I don't care what T'soni or the rest of you think read into that what you will' she stated defiantly daring the Krogan opposite her to stare her down.
Wrex nodded 'Lead the way Williams, if Shepard is alive I owe him enough to keep you safe at least', Ashley still stared at him 'You owe him more than that Wrex and I don't need anyone looking after me!' as she continued forward she swung her head back 'You coming or not I'm sure there are plenty more things to kill', Wrex ejected a thermal clip from his shotgun 'Ha you think like a Krogan sometimes Williams, just like Shepard'.
'Not sure if that is a compliment or insult Wrex' she waved her gun forward 'these things seem more organised than the rest we encountered after Anderson fired the crucible, they were definitely leading me away from that collapsed superstructure'. Wrex nodded and together they pressed on through the jagged remains of buildings towards where the main cluster of debris was centred and where Ash suspected there were more reaper forces lying in wait, she signalled Wrex to look around to find any more paths to the site that would allow them to arrive undetected.
The shell of the building that was once some sort of cathedral was mainly intact apart from jagged holes that were once stained glass windows, Ashley moved closer to one of the apertures looking keenly at her surroundings very aware of the sound of cracking glass as she walked closer to the opening. She withdrew a small black orb from her belt and deftly threw it into the room – it stuck to the wall silently, Ash knelt to the ground and opened her omni-tool display. As it connected to the probe in the adjunct ant room it began to feed back sensor data. Ashley's fingers adroitly tapped commands onto the tool to try and filter out the heat signatures – Reaper forces were normally hard to detect as technically they were already dead but there was one signature that was very faint but coming through 'John' she whispered as the readout confirmed it was human along with an alliance marine transponder - N7-442367AE '. She grimly tightened her grip on the stock of her gun and reloaded the clip just in case; 'Commander' whispered the low voice of Wrex who had appeared next to her 'We are outnumbered by a lot... even for a Krogan, we should wait for backup Williams' Wrex advised as he pointed out where the cannibals and marauders were stationed. Ashley glanced at the readings again 'Shepard's in there and his life sign is so faint... I'm going in wait for backup if you want', she hit a control on her omni display which detonated the probe inside.
There was a small shudder and vibration as the probe ignited it's eezo core, taking advantage of the smoke Ashley aimed through her scope and pulled off two cannibal kills, there was flare of blue light as her kinetic barriers were absorbed. Ashley looked to her left as three husks had appeared and were striking at her barrier chanting blood curdling screams their bodies pulsating with a sharp blue light from their eye sockets through their central nervous systems. In one quick fluid motion she saw Wrex make a motion with his hand and a wave of energy flew the husks over the broken slab of concrete next to her which was followed up with three blasts from his shotgun, using the time gained Ashley ducked behind the same slab of concrete as her barriers recovered and flickered to show they were at full strength.
Thunderous sounds suddenly reverberated around Ashley as powerful cannon blasts strike her cover, the force of the blast throw her out of safety. 'This is it' she thinks helplessly as a group of three Rachni reaperised ravagers moved their blue laser sights onto her, she lifted herself up determined to show no fear. There was a rush of air as the sacs of membrane on the ravagers seemed to combust 'ASH, get down' came a shout from above her, Ash leapt forward and rolled back into cover as she looked up she could see Garrus perched on a ledge holding his trusty M-92 Mantis sniper rifle locking another clip into the barrel and firing again.
The shots made contact with the ravagers and cut through the armour with perfect precision, she heard a burst of gun fire coming from the other side of the room which cut into the remaining ravager and made short work of the small arachnid type creatures emerging from the thorax of the dead creature, Ash turned around and saw Vega and his company of Marines opening fire with their Avenger rifles 'Got your back LC' came the brusque reply from Vega as she acknowledged his presence with a curt nod.
More gunfire as Wrex came beside her 'Push forward' came his battlecry as he charged the husks pouring from the hole that the Ravager's had emerged from repeatedly firing his gun and launching biotic throws to quickly bring them down. Ashley followed Wrex in, he had created an opening for her 'Cover me' she shouted to Vega's marines as she moved rapidly into the chamber the human life signs were coming from.
Husks, Cannibals and Ravagers were cut down as she progressed with a combination of suppressive fire from Wrex and the marine support team and concise kills shots from Garrus's sniping. Ashley approached an open area where all the building seemed to have been cut away as the view above her was the open blue sky of planet Earth. With increasing trepidation she approached a tangled mess of steel girders and concrete, she paused there was a glint of something flashing or was her mind playing tricks on her.
She quickly moved to push aside a steel girder as she budged it slightly the glittering item dangled down... dog tags with the N7 insignia 'John' she almost shouted with elation and worry as she could just make out a silhouette of a man pinned down as well as the pungent smell of burnt flesh. She put all her strength into moving the girder off him 'Someone help me for god's sake' she called back aware that gunfire had died down now almost panicking.
The girder moved off as Wrex came in and started pulling off the rest of the debris 'It is Shepard' he said quietly. Commander Shepard did not look in a good way, most of his armour has been melted, uncovered flesh seemed to be suffering burns and a small amount of blood had been pooling on a slab of concrete they had just removed to be able to get to the Commander.
'This is Lieutenant Commander Williams, I need an urgent medical transport NOW!' hollered Ashley over the radio 'I don't care about how far we are outside the safe zone, I have Commander Shepard in a critical condition divert to my location now Spectre authority Mister'.
He felt like death warmed up, his skin felt like it was on fire... he vaguely recalled his encounter with Harbinger he felt for sure that he was going to die. There were so many things he had left to do – he had told Ash that he loved her; she told him she loved him... how many people get second chances?
His eyes flickered open... and then closed again. He tried one more time to open them and as his eyes adjusted to the light he saw a window and the darkness of space, he turned his eyes aware that he was not alone. 'Hey Skipper' came a voice, the owner of the voice had long dark hair and hazel coloured eyes that stared at him with such intensity, he was alive 'Ash' he croaked as her fingers entwined with his 'What... Where are we?' 'Ssh' came the reassuring reply 'don't try to talk just yet, I will explain everything later'. His energy failing him as exhaustion was taking him back to sleep he felt a surge of emotion as he felt a light brush of lips on his.