Mass Effect - All That Remains - A Role-Playing Narrative

by Fabled Eden

All That Remains follows the events of Mass Effect 3, wherein Commander Shepard chose to destroy the reapers. Exploring his decision and setting him on a path of disturbing intrigue, All That Remains allows you to continue building Shepard as a character through dialogue options akin to those found in the Mass Effect games. Art by DavidEG88 on Photobucket.

2. Back on the Clock

2 - Back on the Clock

The ever-persistent, distant murmuring of the Normandy's engines could be heard as Shepard entered his private quarters. With gentle blinking and beeping, his incoming video transmission made itself known.

With a touch of the fingers, a holographic screen display flickered to life.

A hooded figure flashed upon the display, their surrounding fluttered with life. "Hey Shepard, how are you doing?" the figure remarked in notably good spirits. The voice had a slightly off, robotic ting to it. A voice changer. The hooded figure was well-shadowed, and Shepard could not make out the colour of their linen, although he speculated that the figure was female. A soft, round jawline indicated as such.
[Option 1] "Hello? I'm… recovering, let's say that." Shepard answered, unsure of how to respond competently to the question. Still unknowing of the figure's identity and intentions, he sensed a ploy of sorts, and decided that to play along may be the best course of action.
[Option 2] "Do I know you?" Shepard responded, unsure of the figure's intentions.
[Option 3] "What do you want? I don't have time for calls like this. Apparently the Alliance's communication filters aren't as good as I thought." Shepard grunted, clearly regarding the figure as somebody unmet.
[Option 1 Consequence] The figure laughed lightly. "That's good to hear." After a clear moment of hesitation, the hooded figure looked deliberately to the right, allowing a slither of light to crawl onto the lower half of their face.
[Option 2 Consequence] "Forgotten me already, Shepard?" remarked the figure with subsequent amusement. "Those reapers really did get inside your head, didn't they?" The hooded figure looked slowly, almost hesitantly, to the right, allowing a slither of light to creep onto the lower half of their face.
[Option 3 Consequence] A light laughter emerged, as the figure responded "Didn't know they had trained you to become a cranky bastard, either!" Shepard glared at the holographic transmission incredulously, noticing the hooded figure had turned to the right. Light had submerged the lower half of their face.

Taking the opportunity to scrap anything he could on his caller's identity, Shepard leaned forward. The figure possessed a small, vertical marking on their bottom lip. Its dark colour contrasted that of the figure's pink skin.

Kasumi Goto.

Bewildered, Shepard simply kept silent. Why was she hiding her identity? Why was she using a voice changer? He figured that Kasumi had used her location to force him to answer, but the amount of unknowns worried the man immensely. Shepard noticed that a slim, mobile object lit up in Kasumi's grasp.
A datapad.
"Hey, have you seen this extranet article about how you took down the reapers?" Kasumi began, her slightly robotic voice exuberant. She began typing rapidly and rotated the datapad towards Shepard.

There are eyes and ears EVERYWHERE, Shep! The Normandy is not safe. Don't say anything out of the ordinary, and don't let on that it's me. Not to anybody. Meet me at your apartment tonight. 20:00 Galactic Standard Time.

"Don't worry, we won't look in the comments." remarked Kasumi playfully, while turning back the datapad. "I can't believe that actually made it through processing, but I'm glad it did! Anyhow, I better get back to it, Shepard! I'll speak to you soon!"

Shepard nodded.