Chapter 3: Palaven (Menae)

Shepard got to meet a few old acquaintances and beat up the reporter again, before he returned to the Normandy. He got to meet Kelly, his ex-yeoman, who worked with him when he was with Cerberus, Thane, the drell assassin who joined him for his suicide mission, and Miranda, the now ex-cerberus operative, who helped him on his missions while he was still with Cerberus. Speaking of which, he was also an ex-cerberus person.

"Ha," Shepard thought to himself.

As he walked around on the Normandy, he had found out what his other important crew members had been doing while he talked to the council. Liara was with James until it was time to head to the council, and was there till the council session was over, but after that, she went to the café at the Presidium commons to get some refreshments. James was never at the session to begin with. As soon as he got out of the Normandy, he headed straight to the games section at the Zakera ward. Shepard found him in the armory with a few new games that he had bought.

"Check out these cool games I found, commander," James told him excitedly.

Shepard picked out one of the game boxes and looked at it. "Call of Duty: Black Ops 10?"

"Yeah. It's predecessors were really good, so I thought, why not try this one? It's even got a zombies mode. We can put it in the combat simulator and use it as training for fighting husks."

"Umm… ok," Shepard said.

Shepard took a look at the rest of the games James bought. Killzone 7, Battlefield 12, Army of Twenty-six Thousand, and then there was also one which Shepard thought looked rather familiar.

"What's this one, James? Mass Effect 5?" Shepard said as he read off the box cover. "Do I know the guy on the front? I feel like I've seen him before."

"Nah," James told the commander. "How could you? You've never played games."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right."

After small chats with his crewmates, including the random ones like engineer Adams, Specialist Samantha Traynor, Joker, Kodiak Pilot Lieutenant Steve Cortez, and Dr. Chakwas, Shepard headed back to his room to get some sleep before their arrival on Menae, Palaven's largest moon.

Shepard woke up in some random dark forest. Everything seemed destroyed and the trees bore no leaves. Everything was dark, except for one boy in the distance, who glowed with a small white light. Shepard ran nearer to investigate this boy. As he got nearer, he saw the boy. It was the boy who he couldn't save back on Earth. Shepard saw this as an opportunity now, and ran towards the boy. As he neared him, red light shot out from the sky, and the Reaper's charge noise could be heard. The boy looked up and ran leaving Shepard behind. Shepard followed the boy, but he couldn't run as fast as he wanted to. After a few minutes of searching, he found the boy again, and thought to himself that this time; he will reach the boy and save him. Shepard stretched out his hand as he got closer to the boy. Before anything could be done, the boy stood up and fire ignited around him, consuming his form. Shepard stared at disbelief that the boy was gone. This was the second time he couldn't save him. Shepard woke up in his bed, drenched with sweat.

"It was only a dream," Shepard said with relief. "I'll have James change my sheets later."

Shepard got to the bridge as the Normandy approached Menae. The turian forces were already engaging the Reapers above Palaven, and they seemed to be at an advantage with their numbers, but against the Reapers, numbers do not matter. Some Reapers tore into the turian fleets with their lasers and destroyed them almost immediately. All around them, other turian ships were getting shot down by Reaper forces, and although the turians were holding their ground, Shepard knew that they couldn't do it forever. After their arrival near the moon, Shepard went down to the armory to prepare for the mission. He was surprised to see James and Darius Mason already down there, swapping war stories.

"… and so with the threat of the alien bugs gone, we began to settle back on the surface," Mason finished.

"That's a pretty cool story," James commented picking up a gun and examining it.

"Alright," Shepard said, butting in. "We've got to get down there and make sure there's still a Primarch down there to attend the summit instead of a dead body. Got that?"

"Yes sir!" said James.

"Just kidding," Shepard said. "The turians are trained in combat situations from a young age. I'm sure the Primarch can handle himself."

There was an explosion on the moon's surface.

"Ok, maybe not," Shepard admitted. "We better get down there fast!"

As quickly as they could, the team suited up, grabbed their guns, and ran to the shuttle will all speed.

The Alliance shuttle descended towards Menae's surface. Video feeds of Palaven were appearing on the shuttle's screens. Shepard and his team watched the feeds in horror.

"No. No. Palaven," Shepard said and his teammates stared at him. "We have an old friend there."

"They're getting decimated," James said grimly.

Shepard just shook his head. "Strongest military in the galaxy, and the Reapers are obliterating it."

"Was it like this on Earth?" Mason asked him.

"Yes."

"Aw man."

Before anymore could be said, they arrived on the moon's surface. When Shepard opened the door, husks were swarming the landing zone. Shepard whipped out his avenger and gunned down a bunch of husks. James and Mason joined in a few seconds later, their guns blazing as well. Three husks ran at Shepard. He shot one, dodged the other, and stabbed the third with is omni-blade. Mason blasted the last husk with his shockwave and sent it flying. The landing zone was clear, at least for now. Shepard and his team headed towards the turian camp to look for the Primarch. The turian camp wasn't looking too good. They had many casualties already, and some spots were in ruins. Shepard made his way to the main area of the camp to find out about the Primarch's whereabouts. A turian general was there giving orders to the turian soldiers. That was probably the best bet Shepard had on finding the Primarch.

"General," Shepard said as he walked towards the turian.

"Ah, Commander Shepard," the general said. "Heard you were coming, but I didn't believe it. I'm General Corinthus."

"We're here for Primarch Fedorian," Shepard squeezed in.

The general looked down at his table for a while without saying anything.

"Primarch Fedorian is dead," the general spoke out after the silence. "His shuttle was shot down as it was trying to leave."

"Sorry. Heard he was a good man," Shepard told him.

"And a friend," Corinthus told him. "He would have been an outstanding diplomat."

"So what happens now?"

"I'll have to contact Palaven Command to see who is next in the line of succession. However… contacting them right now is impossible. The comm tower is out."

"I'll get the tower operational, general," Shepard spoke, taking out his avenger.

Shepard and his team had to fight through more husks to get to the comm tower.

"Why are there always only husks?" James asked, using carnage on a husk. "If husks are humans, then what are other species' Reaper forces?"

"I don't think I want to know," Mason said as he shot a husk in the face.

The husks were just coming out of every possible area, but Shepard, Mason, and James just took them out every time with a lot of ease. One nearly got James, but Shepard knocked it off a cliff with a concussive shot. With all the husks gone, for now, Shepard and his team made their way to the comm tower. Shepard tried to fix it, but apparently, it could not be done from the console he was using.

"James," he ordered. "Climb the tower and fix the signal."

James grumbled, but went up anyway. "Keep husks from coming up here at least, commander."

"No promises, James. No promises."

As James climbed higher, husks started appearing again, but this time from the sky as well. Mason shot away with his assault rifle and also used his magnet gun to smash a whole armada of husks down a cliff. Shepard just used his avenger and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the husks. He didn't bring any other weapons with him at the moment besides his avenger, but it didn't matter for him, because he found random piles of thermal clips on the floor when he needed them. Mason was different. Strange enough, he didn't need thermal clips. He used a different source of ammo instead of thermal clips. Shepard would have asked him, but now with all the husks closing in, this was not the right time to do so. Mason also had strange tech abilities. Or was it biotic abilities? He could use his tech powers to use biotic powers like shockwave, and singularity. So is it tech biotics? Shepard had no time to think about it much, but at least the enemy waves were finally dying down. As Mason finished off the last husk with a burst from his rifle, James climbed down from the comm tower.

"Hey, I think I fixed it," the lieutenant said.

Shepard looked up. Indeed, the tower was now blinking with lights.

"Good work James. Now let's get back to the camp."

"Succession is usually simple, commander," General Corinthus said. "But right now, the hierarchy is in chaos. Many are dead or MIA."

Shepard was annoyed with all this. "I need someone. I don't care who. As long as they can get us the turian resources we need."

Suddenly a familiar voice cut in from nowhere. "I'm on it, Shepard. We'll get you the Primarch."

As the turian stepped closer, Shepard recognized the scarred face and the scanner over his left eye.

"Garrus!" Shepard exclaimed. "Good to see you again. Thought you were on Palaven."

"The moon's important," Garrus told the commander. "If we lose it, we lose Palaven. We needed a Reaper specialist. I'm the closest thing to that, so… I'm advising."

Shepard introduced his teammates to his turian friend. "This is Lieutenant James Vega. He's… James."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, commander?" said James.

Shepard ignored him and continued talking. "And this is Darius Mason of the Red Faction. He's from Mars. He's agreed to help us fight the Reapers."

Garrus nodded, acknowledging them. After a short exchange between Garrus and Shepard, they figured out who they were after.

"We are looking for General Adrien Victus," Garrus said. "I was fighting alongside him this morning."

"Alright. Let's get him then," Shepard decided.

Suddenly Shepard's comm link turned on; Joker's voice screamed in his ear. Shepard turned down the volume to a reasonable volume and listened. "Commander, we've got a problem with the Normandy. Systems are shutting down and weapons are powering up. And we've also picked up a Cerberus shuttle, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything."

Shepard turned to Mason. "Mason, you said you were good at fixing things right?"

Mason looked at the blue device on his wrist. "Yeah, I'm pretty good. I used to be a mechanic. Then I took an Adam Hale to the knee."

Shepard was confused but decided not to ask. "Well, I need you to get back to the Normandy and figure out what's going on."

James raised his hand. "Hey, what about me? I know the Normandy a lot better –"

"No, James," Shepard cut him off. "I need you here in the fight."

"And you're no good at fixing things," Shepard thought to himself, remembering the last time James had tried to fix the coffee maker; his idea of fixing things was kicking it until it worked, although he did do a good job on the comms tower, strange enough.

James and Shepard watched Mason race back to the shuttle and once he was out of sight, followed Garrus out of the camp to find the soon to be turian Primarch.

"Harvester!" James shouted all of a sudden.

Shepard and his team looked up and there flying above the moon's surface, and there was a flying dark-blue nightmare. The three of them raised their guns to fire, but the Harvester just kept going until it landed beyond the gates to the camp.

"Try to contact Victus," Shepard told Corinthus. "We'll go take care of whatever that thing dropped off."

Shepard, James, and Garrus ran off and got ready for a fire fight.

Shepard's avenger jumped in his grip as he took down husks, cannibals, and ones that looked like turians. Apparently, they were called Marauders. The marauders were a little harder than the cannibals, but Shepard could still take them down. Garrus hid behind some rocks a little behind Shepard and sniped at the Reaper forces, each shot bringing down another enemy.

"I've got to work on my accuracy," the commander thought somewhat grumpily.

James ran up closer to the Reaper forces and tore through a pack of cannibals with his LS13 shotgun. Shepard tossed a frag grenade over to a bunch of husks and sent them flying while he did an unnecessary combat roll and shot some marauders up front. Shepard and Garrus shot concussive shots at more Reaper forces to the left of their position. James let loose one of his carnage shots at a marauder and blew him into bits. One marauder was daring enough to go up right to James as he reloaded. It reached over, but it never got a chance to touch James, as Shepard rolled up to it and stabbed it with his omni-blade, the force sending it flying backwards. The Reaper forces were defeated, at least for now. Shepard turned around to congratulate his team when suddenly, a huge, flaming wreckage of what used to be a Cerberus shuttle slammed into the ground in front of them.

"What the?" Shepard exclaimed.

The commander and his two allies crept towards the shuttle. As they neared it, the door suddenly flew off its hinges.

"Not again…" Shepard said, remembering the encounter before. "You'd think I don't have enough evil robots trying to murder me…"

As he expected another Dr. Core to step out of the shuttle ruins, a gloved hand began to feel around the shuttle door.

"Maybe it's a survivor," James said. "We can capture him, and interrogate him about Cerberus plans."

The three of them edged closer to the shuttle, their guns raised. Slowly, the person made his way out into the light of the fire, illuminating a bald head, and a face distorted into a snarl.

As the being stood up, its head way above Shepard's, Shepard glanced at his lieutenant. "Still thinking on capturing him, James?"

Lieutenant Vega simply shook his head and aimed his gun towards the "survivor".

The creature, which looked almost human, charged at them, roaring and screaming. Shepard and his team opened fire, but their bullets only seemed to make it angrier. They dodged out of the way as the creature barrelled past them. It slid to a halt and whipped its head around. No matter how much they shot at it, the creature didn't seem to be slowing down. They knew they were hurting it, as it held its hands high to protect its face.

"It must have a lot of HP…" James said out loud, as he dodged a flying rock that landed where he just stood.

"Quiet, James," Shepard commented. "Focus on killing this thing."

Shepard threw a frag grenade to its face, but before it blew up, the creature swept it back towards him, forcing him to perform a necessary combat roll. The force of the grenade still sent him sailing a little bit over to a rocky cliff.

"Ouch," Shepard said, while getting up. "Our guns don't seem to be doing much to this thing!"

"I've got an idea," Garrus told them. "Follow me!"

Garrus ran off towards the base. Was his plan a retreat? Shepard didn't like a plan like that, but he followed Garrus and James anyway, as he wouldn't be able to win this by himself. The creature turned and charged after them.

As they got closer to the base, Garrus shouted out to the turians, "Fire! Now!"

The turian guards turned and used their turrets to unleash a hail of bullets against the evil creature. Their turrets looked like they were doing more damage, as the creature slowed to a stop. It growled as the bullets smashed against its skin. After a few moments of trying to get through, the creature just turned around and ran off, apparently giving up.

"Yeah, take that, you ugly monster!" James shouted to it, mockingly.

"You're one to talk…" Shepard thought.

Shepard mowed down wave after wave of Reaper forces using the turian camp's turret. After he, Garrus, and James got back to camp, General Corinthus told him that Victus was away at a nearby camp. Before he could go any further, as expected, Reaper forces begun an attack on their base. Shepard had to get on the turret and cover the base, while his squad mates provided covering fire. The Reaper waves seemed endless as Shepard tore through the husks as they attempted to breach the base's defences.

"Ha! Piece of cake!" Shepard shouted, his voice rising over the roar of the turret fire.

"What?" Garrus asked.

"Eat this, you zombies!" James interrupted in before Shepard could explain his saying to Garrus.

"James," Shepard exclaimed. "You know this isn't a game right?"

"Yeah, I know, commander. Just trying to have a little fun."

Shepard shook his head and returned his attention to the battle. Before he could start shooting again, a massive behemoth hurled itself into the walls, causing Shepard to fall off.

"Ouch," Shepard gasped, as he hit the ground. "I need to start wearing a helmet even when I don't need one. I never know when I might need a helmet."

Shepard's teammates jumped down to assist him.

"Ugh, next time, I'm going back to repair the Normandy," James grumbled.

Shepard was about to remind James about how bad his mechanic skills were, when the giant brute charged at them.

"That's a good name," Shepard thought, as he performed a combat roll. "I think I'll refer to them as brutes from here on."

The "brute" swiped out at Shepard with its giant arm, but Shepard managed to get out of its range in time. Shepard let out a burst of fire at its turian looking head as he finished his roll. The three of them fired back at the brute, James' LS13 shotgun, Garrus's Mantis sniper rifle, and Shepard's Avenger spitting out bullets as fast as they could squeeze the trigger. However, none of their attacks seemed to have much effect, the shot pinging off the brute's heavily armoured body.

James, his gun empty, threw it at the brute, then took a grenade off his belt. He tugged the pin out, then flung it at his foe. It missed by a mile.

"Lousy low gravity!" James cursed.

Garrus and Shepard glanced at each other. They both knew that Menae's gravitational pull wasn't that different from Earth's, at least not enough to make James' throw go that far off target.

"Note to self," the commander thought as he changed his gun's magazine. "Make James do more target practice."

Garrus jumped backward, his turian physique making up for his slight lack of manoeuvrability then sighted down his sniper scope and squeezed off a single shot. The bullet sped down the barrel, and by some miracle, right into the brute's eye. There was a squelch, a sound of circuitry frying, and a roar as the brute's vision was cut off.

"Nice shot, Vakarian!" James said as he picked up his shotgun. The brute was charging around, completely blinded, ramming into rocks and the camp's protective walls. It crashed into a communications pylon, the same one that James had been fixing earlier. It swayed, creaked as the bolts and screws gave way, and with a final groan of overtaxed steel smashed down on the Reaper monster's back, trapping it in place.

Shepard and his crew advanced warily on the pinned brute, guns held ready in case it decided to get up. The brute stirred, clawed at the three men weakly, and tried to get up and failed.

"James, give me a grenade." Shepard ordered.

The ISA soldier unclipped a second grenade from his belt and dutifully handed it to the commander. Shepard took the explosive device, weighing it in his hand before pulling the pin and stuffing it into the hole where its eye used to be.

"Come on, walk with me," said Shepard, resting his gun on his shoulder. "And don't look back."

And the three of them walked away from the explosion, not looking back. It felt cool.

At least, until James tripped over a rock.

"Just had to ruin the moment, didn't you?" Shepard thought exasperatedly.

The three of them pressed on, still feeling unbelievably cool from what had just happened. No husks or cannibals could stand in their way, every bit of resistance falling before James' savage shotgun blasts, Shepard's unwavering rifle fire, or vicious no-scopes from Garrus.

Before long, they were at the camp where Victus was supposed to be at. It looked in rough shape, like two tornadoes and a truck had hit it. It was also under attack, which seemed like a third tornado, or two trucks. There were only a few turians left standing, including one who matched the picture of Victus. They were backed into a corner, desperately firing back at the innumerable husks, cannibals, and a marauder.

"We're coming, Victus!" Shepard yelled, roadie-running across the remaining distance before jumping four feet into the air and landing on top of a husk. Shepard then surfed its body into a crowd of Reaper forces, scattering them like bowling pins. The commander came up firing, cutting down a cannibal with a well-placed headshot.

Renewed by the sight of this human, the turians rallied, raining gunfire upon the husks and cannibals. The marauder took aim at Victus, but Garrus shot first. As the headless body thudded into the moon dust, Shepard and his two partners climbed through the remains of the camp wall. It wasn't pretty. It looked like Shepard had arrived in the nick of time.

"Victus!" the commander said happily. "You're still alive!"

"Yes, thanks to you, Shepard." Said the turian gratefully. "We wouldn't have lasted much longer out there."

"Hey…" James interjected. "Primarch Fedorian's, uh,"

"I know he's dead." Victus answered grimly. "and I also know why you're here."

"Well that saves us some time-" said the ISA trooper.

"But I don't know if I can do it."

"What?" Shepard said in shock. "Why?"

"It doesn't feel right just abandoning my troops and the fight here, just to be at some peace summit that might not work. I'm a general, not some politician," Victus said as he walked to face Palaven.

"That's why this'll work," Shepard added in. "You've got experience in the battlefield. You know how these work. You might feel like you're abandoning the fight, but without this summit, thousands more will die."

"Ok," Victus finally said. "Let me say goodbye to my men first."

Shepard nodded as Victus walked off.

"Cortez," Shepard buzzed. "We need you here to pick us up."

Garrus and James walked up to join Shepard.

"Are you sure he can do it?" Garrus asked curious of what Shepard thought.

"He'll be perfect! He'll have to be, anyways, or we're all dead."

Project Eel - Menae