Mass Effect Shepard Rises:
Shepard opened his mouth and was ready to speak. He closed it a second later, however, the words simply not coming to him.
A tiny part of himself cowered away at making such an galaxy-shattering decision.
'Surely, admirals were better suited to such a decision?'
He quickly squashed that thought, and threw it away.
He had never shied away from the difficult decisions, and now would be no different.
Time seemed to slow down to a complete stop. His mind conjured up his conversation with Vigil, the Prothean V.I, on Ilos.
One sentence stood out from the rest.
"That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we even realised we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and through it, the mass relays."
The world slowly came back into focus, and Shepard realised he had been quiet for a few seconds.
He looked down at his Omni-tool seeing that he was still connected to the Normandy.
"Joker, I'm unlocking the relays now. Save the Destiny Ascension. I repeat, save the council!"
Joker:
Joker had positioned the Normandy, in such a way that it became the head of the Fifth Fleet.
He had sent numerous signals to the relay, but each time the relay had rejected the signal.
As such, the Fifth Fleet was unable to access the relay.
That was, until the commander's voice came over the speakers in the bridge.
"Joker, I'm unlocking the relays now. Save the Destiny Ascension. I repeat, save the council!"
Joker smiled and clicked his fingers in front of him, before sending the signal again. A heavy sigh could be heard in the cockpit, as the relay finally accepted the signal.
He opened up comms to the fleet:
"All hands, relay is open. Save the Destiny Ascension."
A chorus of 'Roger that' and 'Acknowledged' sounded over the speakers.
Joker's hands flew over the controls of his pride and joy, and the Normandy vibrated; power from the drive core surging through the ship, bringing it to animated life.
"All hands, battle stations! We're going in hot! Jumping in, 5. 4. 3. 2..."
"1."
He finished his countdown and at that exact moment, the Normandy was surrounded in azure light, before shooting away.
Joker glanced briefly at the sensors and saw that all of the Fifth Fleet had followed him into the relay. A gruff voice echoed through the bridge, as Joker monitored the Normandy's status.
"When we exit the relay, unleash hell! It's time to show the rest of the galaxy just what humanity can do!" Joker smiled, as the fleet continued through the relay.
The shuffle of boots sounded behind Joker, and he glanced over his shoulder to see the Normandy's tactician sit at his station.
"Shields are operational and GUARDIAN lasers are locked and loaded."
A single siren sounded that reported all stations ready for battle. A single red light on one of the back walls glowed steadily every few seconds.
"It's now or never... Get ready for us commander, we're coming in hot, and we've brought some friends with us." Joker muttered under his breath, the swathing azure mass effect fields beginning to get lighter as the relay's journey began to end.
Sovereign:
Nazara tried code after code, trying to break through the firewall surrounding the stations master controls.
The organic part of its systems burned with anger at the prospect of an irrelevant species locking out his control, but the synthetic aspect felt nothing.
His puppet had failed, and the inefficient Geth were nothing but cannon fodder.
They couldn't comprehend what he was trying to achieve.
All advanced life must be harvested.
Nazara tried to contact the creator that was buried deep within the Citadel, but the connection never established.
Only one route was available now.
Red energy arced around the Reaper's squid like tentacles, and shot through the metal of the chambers below it.
Joker:
Joker's blood pounded in his ears, his heart thudding rapidly as the Normandy exited the relay.
Straight away numerous sensors began pinging incessantly; the rubble of destroyed ships in the area, as well as the enemy and friendly ships being the cause.
According to the sensors outside the hull of the Normandy, a proverbial shit storm was raging.
He pressed a small button in front of him, causing armoured shielding to lower over the small windows of the Normandy.
Before they shut, he saw the lumbering, and damaged form of the Destiny Ascension.
From his quick glance, he could see it was being swarmed by what looked like cockroaches.
The armour slid over the windows blocking the view, and a warning beep told Joker that a Geth fighter had locked on to the ship.
"Oh no you don't! Get the fuck away from my baby, you metal Bastard!" His fingers flew over the controls, and he felt the G-force push him back into his harness as the Normandy did a barrel roll to the left.
"All ships! Save the Destiny Ascension!"
Shepard:
Shepard glanced down at the body of Saren.
Blue blood was seeping through the hole in his head, forming a pool upon the ground.
He noticed the blue cybernetics still had their glow, but were dimmed.
He looked across, towards Wrex's lumbering form.
The Krogan gave a curt nod, before kicking the Turian. When there was no movement from Saren, Wrex merely shrugged, indicating that the Turian was not moving at least.
The hairs on Shepard's neck stood on end however, and he continued to glance around the room.
Tali merely walked to the edge, to have a better look at Saren's corpse, where as Garrus kept his attention on his commander.
Shepard kept roaming the area, his eyes focusing on specific points before locking with his Turian sub-ordinates.
Once their eyes were locked eyes, Shepard hurriedly spoke, "Garrus, get on your sniper rifle and scan the area. Something's off."
He watched as confusion spread on Garrus's face, "Off? What do you mean?"
Shepard shrugged and pulled his rifle off his back, "I'm not too sure... It's just a feeling I've got."
He locked eyes with Garrus's again, "Please."
The commander watched as Garrus nodded and raised his rifle scope to his eye, before he began to scan the area.
Shepard turned back to Saren's body, before looking at Wrex again. Wrex's eyes met Shepard's, before a nod from the commander told the Krogan what he needed to do. Wrex lowered his shotgun, aiming at Saren's chest. With a final nod, two loud shots echoed through the chambers.
Shepard felt the hairs on his neck stand on end again.
This time the feeling did not abate.
The comm crackled to life:
"Anyone else feel that?"
Shepard turned, and looked at Garrus. The Turian had taken his helmet off, and was rubbing the back of his fringe.
Shepard glanced around the area, his instincts screaming at him to move, or do something.
What little light there was in the chambers, flickered for a moment. That is, until red electricity began to dance its way downwards, from the ceiling.
It arched down the large window and across the floor, until it spilled over the edge and arched downwards, finally ending its little performance by hitting Saren's body.
Shepard watched as Wrex stepped backwards, his shotgun still gripped tightly.
Saren's skin started to melt and the Turian's body began to twitch and shake.
An audible gurgling sound could be heard, echoing in the chamber, its source being from what was left of Saren's vocal cords.
The sound sent shivers down Shepard's spine, and he watched in horror as the melting body rose to its feet.
What Shepard saw made him feel sick.
Saren's bones had been replaced by a metal skeleton, and Saren's talons became sharp blades.
What was left of Saren's skull was missing its lower jaw, and his glowing blue eyes were now red glowing orbs.
Its feet had sharp edges that dug into the ground.
Red electricity danced over the metal skeleton.
"This station is mine! I. AM. SOVEREIGN!"
For a split second no one said, or did anything.
Not even what was left of Saren's body did anything, except to eye each of the team members.
Shepard watched as Sovereign raised its right hand; the sharp blades gleaming in the little light.
Wrex saw a small ball of red energy form in the palm of Sovereign's hand, suddenly realising it was an attack.
Without warning, the large Krogan was hit by the ball, slamming him into the ground with an audible thud.
Shepard jumped into action.
His body was aglow with biotic power, and he jumped over the edge of the platform, landing on the ground below with a thud.
He snapped his rifle up and fired at Sovereign, but before his bullets could even hit the machine it jumped out the way, at least twenty feet, and threw another ball of red energy at Shepard.
He rolled out of the way, before commanding his team:
"Garrus! Tali! Get down here, and combine fire! Hit this metal bastard!"
Shepard watched as Sovereign jumped into the air, and hooked its back legs into the metal ceiling.
Its head spun round, and the glowing red eyes glowed even brighter. Suddenly, two beams of red energy shot through the air.
Once the Quarian and Turian had gotten down to their position, they had taken to cover immediately.
Tali was hidden behind a low wall of rocks, but she peaked out behind cover and was shocked to see two energy lasers heading towards her position.
She ducked back behind cover as the beams began to hit the wall she was pressed against.
It was simply too much.
What was once cover, was now a smoldering, cracked bit of rubble...
Shepard stopped in his tracks. His heart froze, his breath became caught in his throat...
"I'm alright! Bosh'tet nearly got me, but I'm alright!" A tinny voice said, as Tali's helmet appeared into Shepard's view.
Shepard's heart began pumping once more, his breath coming back to him. Simply put, his heart soared, and a fire roared within him. Sovereign wouldn't get a chance like that again...
To punctuate that feeling, a loud booming could be heard behind the commander. He spun around and smiled when he saw that Wrex had gotten to his feet, and was firing his large shotgun at Sovereign. In the corner of his eye, he could see orange blood seeping through the cracks in Wrex's armour...
No one could say that Wrex wasn't tough.
Garrus watched through the scope of his rifle as he fired shot after shot.
He could see the barriers protecting Sovereign had begun to flare.
He aimed for Sovereign's head, but the machine jumped from the ceiling to the floor and started to crawl around.
He watched as Sovereign shot towards Shepard with surprising speed, and knocked the Commander over.
Shepard was just about to take aim at Sovereign, but before he could even aim his rifle at the crawling abomination, he was knocked off his feet.
He landed on the floor with a heavy thud.
A heavy weight crawled up his body, and Saren's puppet body filled his vision. The reaper knocked his helmet off, and Shepard felt searing pain coursing through his nerves, as three blades sliced into his face.
Wrex wasted no time, rushing towards the abominations back.
Tali couldn't help but grit her teeth in anger, as Shepard roared in pain.
She raised her shotgun, in conjunction with Wrex, and fired, round after round, as she began to march towards Shepard.
She watched as the barriers around the beast protected it.
Tali ducked into cover behind another low wall, before firing up her Omni-tool.
Selecting her overload option, she raised her Omni-tool in front of her and popped out of cover; firing a small ball of blue electricity at Sovereign.
The blue ball hit the abomination square in the side.
Shepard clutched his face, and saw an opening as the abomination turned its head to look over its metal shoulder.
Shepard formed a biotic fist, and threw everything he could into a punch that staggered the abomination.
He raised to his feet, and charged at the creature, wiping blood away from his eyes as he did so.
The commander watched, in the corner of his vision, as Tali fired another overload that caused the cybernetics in the machine to twitch.
He reached the machine, and started to pound and pummel it with his biotics, his anger fuelling his exhausted body.
Shepard watched with an air of pride as the metal bones and casings started to bend.
He raised his foot to deliver another kick, when the machine bent its spine at an unnatural angle and rose to its feet.
Wrex watched as the machine performed this action, and got to its feet.
Ignoring his own pain for a moment, Wrex ran as fast as a 800 pound Krogan could, and rammed into the machine.
"Stop this you Pyjak!" He said, as using his own weight and biotics he slammed fist after fist towards the machines head.
Shepard ran towards Wrex, before adding in his own kicks and punches, with the two powerhouses beating the crap out of the staggered creature.
When the metal around the skull started to bend and buckle, they both rammed their shotguns into the freshly made holes, and fired shot after shot after shot until their weapons overheated.
The abomination that was Saren began to twitch once more, before the metal surrounding it started to glow red and melt, leaving no trace of the machine.
Not even a puddle.
Joker:
Joker tried to ignore the panicked cries from behind him, as the Normandy was hit; fire causing it to shake, and smoke began to fill the air.
His fingers flew over the controls, causing the Normandy to spin and a sense of sickness to settle in his stomach.
A grizzled voice could be heard over the ship wide comm, the voice of Admiral Hackett, "The arms are opening! All ships, converge on the Citadel. As soon as we get an opening, take that monster down!"
Joker saw a small opening on the sensors appear, and used his controls to send the Normandy through the hole.
What he saw on the sensors, caused him to falter slightly.
According to the sensors, a two kilometre ship basically sat atop the council spire.
He opened the shutters that protected the glass of the bridge, and looked outside.
"Oh shit..."
"This is Admiral Hackett to the remaining Citadel fleet. Spectre Shepard has opened the arms. Fire at will."
"We need to retreat admiral!"
"Negative! Take that monster down!"
Shepard:
Shepard could hear the distant sound of fire as the ground beneath his feet started to shake.
"Move it!"
He motioned his confused team away from where the still melting machine was.
It had somehow gotten to its feet, again.
The commander climbed up the side of the walled-off garden, and landed by a keeper going about its work, as though nothing was happening.
He was followed by his team, before they ran down the narrow cat walk, and jumped over another small wall.
The terminal where he first meet Admiral Kahoku was to his left, along with the stairs that led to the platform.
The chambers shook more violently, and the sound of weapons fire got louder and louder.
He glanced behind him and looked through the large window to see a most beautiful sight...
Dozens of Alliance and non-Alliance ships mixed together, united against a common enemy.
A shadow started to block the sight, and Shepard realised that Sovereign was falling off the spire from the combined assault.
He watched as the hull started to crack, before Sovereign exploded.
'Oh, fuck...' He thought, as a large chunk of metal headed towards the window.
Shepard glanced back at his team mates, knowing they would never out run the debris even if they tried.
The cuts on his face stung as a tear ran down his face.
Using what little strength he had left, Shepard used his biotics and pushed his team mates away...
"What the fuck?!"
"Keelah!"
"Spirits!"
These were the last things he heard, before a loud bang signalled that the large metal chunk had smashed through the window.
It smashed into the ground, and everything went dark.
Tali, Wrex, and Garrus shook off the dizziness they had gotten from the biotic push, and went to get to their feet.
That was until a large bang shook the floor, and slammed them back to the ground.
A metal beam hit them and caused each of them to succumb to the black void...
Tali slowly opened her eyes...
Her head throbbed from the cold she had, and her body hurt.
She raised her head to see a metal beam laying across her stomach.
She glanced around to see Wrex and Garrus stuck under the same beam.
'Wait… where's John?!' She thought as she glanced around...
'No… no you didn't…' Her thoughts raced as she realised that John had pushed the team away; to save them from the large chunk of metal now sticking out the ground, in the centre of the council chambers.
She heard groans at the side and turned to Wrex, who was starting to open his eyes
"Quick, get this thing off of us!" She pleaded.
Being considered a child in her culture, she never had the 'talk' yet about quarian mating cycles and how once the female quarian got the scent of her mate it would infuse within her chemically, almost like a physical memory.
Quarians had better sense than most other species, and had evolved to be nocturnal predators.
Their senses were more evolved than most in the galaxy.
They were faster, more agile and had better hearing and so as her mind and body realised, John, her Nehya and mate, was missing she was unaware of her body's reaction.
His scent suddenly filled her nose as she pushed the beam with Wrex off them.
She jumped to her feet, leaving Wrex to get the beam off Garrus by himself, as something primal took over.
She bared her teeth and started to sniff inside her mask as though trying to smell John.
But it was pointless with her mask on...
'No. If he's dead I can't, and won't go on without my mate…. Nehya where are you?' She thought as she frantically scanned the area.
In the distance, she could hear voices.
Using the audio pick-ups in her helmet, she enhanced the sound and listened...
"Captain Anderson! I'm picking up three life forms, just up ahead."
"Well done marine! Let's get this wreckage moved, double time."
"Yes sir!"
The sound of metal scraping against the floor was heard by all the team members, before orange light was shone in the area they were sitting or standing.
Garrus watched as Captain Anderson ducked through the wreckage, followed closely by a man using his Omni-tool as a torch.
He watched as the Captain walked over to them, before looking each off them, speaking as he did so:
"W-where's the commander? Where's John?"
Garrus didn't say anything.
His ribs were likely bruised, and his armour had been crushed to his chest, so breathing was difficult.
Instead, he just looked over to the large wreckage, sadness in his eyes...
"N-no... Please no..."
The five of them all looked at the wreckage for what seemed like forever, waiting for Shepard to appear.
It was the young officer with Captain Anderson, that broke the silence:
"Sir, you won't believe this!"
Before Anderson could ask, a sound of metal falling was heard and he found himself holding his breath.
He walked to the Quarian woman and placed a hand on her shoulder as she sobbed.
Shepard moved the two beams that had fallen on top of him, and dragged himself shakily to his feet.
He had likely a few broken ribs and a sprained ankle.
He raised his hand to his face, feeling three lines cut into his flesh going from the right side of his face downwards and over his nose and lips.
His hand came away bloody.
Summoning all his will, he hobbled over the large chunk of metal before him, and stood on it.
He couldn't help but softly smile at seeing his team safe, and Anderson with his hand placed on Tali's shoulder.
He could see the amazement in their eyes at seeing him atop the wreckage...
With a growing smile, he slowly hobbled down the wreckage, a few hisses of pain punctuating his near death.
Shepard walked towards his team, and the woman and father figure he loved.
there you guys have it right a big big big shout out to ConradVernerN7 you are a diamond have said it the last couple of chapters and I will keep saying it read his story war in the galaxy. right should I carry on a do a few more chapters about what happens between me 1 and 2 or should I do another story for that let me know.