Having avenged the victims of Project Delta, the Fulcrum works tirelessly to prepare the galaxy for what is coming. Her influence is spreading across the civilized galaxy. Alliances forged in secret are bearing fruit. New starships and soldiers are being forged at all times. Hidden allies maneuver their own pieces into place, preparing for a catastrophe they don't yet understand. The Milky Way is girding itself for the coming war, even though few realize it. However, it might not be enough. The Fulcrum now faces the vanguard of the true enemy and it is beyond anything she has ever faced before. Part 2/4 of the Fulcrum series.

Prologue

Date : 1.20.2183

Location : Arcturus

Udina

He was standing at his office window, watching ships from the 5th fleet drift by when his aide called. "Ambassador? Admiral Hackett and Captain Anderson have arrived."

Udina checked his clock and nodded to himself. "Right on time." Glad that everything was on schedule, he keyed the comm on his desk. "Send them in Anna." The ambassador nodded to the two men as they came into the office. Both were in their dress uniforms, though without any medals or adornments.

"Admiral." He shook Hackett's hand before reaching for Anderson's. "Captain." The other man hesitated briefly before returning the gesture, using a little more pressure than needed. Udina hid the wince with practiced ease. Anderson wasn't the first officer to try and make him flinch. "Please, take a seat."

They took the available seats, taking off their caps and murmuring something about appreciating the offer. "I want to thank you both for coming. We have something important to discuss."

"The Spectres." Hackett said.

Udina nodded, pulling a trio of small glasses from his desk along with some scotch. After pouring a few fingers for his guests, the ambassador took a sip. "The Spectres." He leaned back into his chair, sighing in contentment as the drink trickled down his throat. "I've discussed your recommendation with the Prime Minister Shastri and he has given his approval. Shepard will be put forward as Humanity's candidate for Spectre."

Captain Anderson nodded, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Not surprising. She's the best operative the Alliance has."

"Yes… I suppose she is." The ambassador was less enthused by the idea than the captain, something Hackett picked up on.

"Then why are we here, Udina?" His cold steel eyes bored into the ambassador, forcing a chill down Udina's spine. Hackett was a rare breed of officer that demanded obedience by his presence alone. Meeting with him often made the Ambassador a bit nervous, not-the-least because he might be the most powerful man in the Alliance military.

Udina cleared his throat before taking another sip. "While I see the merit of the decision, I have a number of questions about her and why the two of you have pushed her above all the others."

"What's there to question?" Anderson asked, his eyes narrowed. "She has the highest mission success rate of any N7, let alone the rest of the Alliance military. Her technical scores are perfect and she has extensive experience in covert and small unit operations. It's practically what she was born to do."

Udina nodded, well aware of Shepard's record. "After considering it for the last few weeks, I acknowledge that she is the prime choice and I know the decision has already been made, but I would like to know why the others were rejected. After all, if things work out, she'll only be humanity's first Spectre. I need to know about the others' shortcomings to help make the next selection, once the time is right of course."

Anderson looked to the admiral, who nodded. "Alright ambassador, ask away."

"Well, first off, Kaiden Alenko." Udina had personally pushed for the marine to be the candidate. "Given his status as a war hero and his general Alliance Poster Boy reputation among much of the public eye, his rejection seemed, well, bizarre."

"He was high in the running, believe me," Anderson said. "The fact of the matter is, he's just not as… ruthless as we needed. He has a streak of nobility running through him that could compromise his decisions at a critical moment. While certainly more capable of making the hard choices than he was before serving with Shepard, Alenko is better suited where he is now."

Udina nodded. "I suppose so. That is the general idea I got from his personnel file. The Ascension Project will want him back, by the way. His new deployment is still temporary, yes?"

"So far." The captain confirmed.

"What about Major Kyle?" Udina asked. "His mission success rate is almost on par with Shepard's and he has the respect of the army and navy alike."

Hackett sighed deeply. "The major is a good man, a good soldier, but he just hasn't been the same since Torfan." The admiral shook his head in regret.

Udina shifted in his seat, sitting up straight to ask, "Why?"

The admiral looked down with a bitter frown, suddenly looking utterly exhausted by the weight of secrets that Udina shuddered to conceive of. "It's not something that I can share. There are promises to keep, among other things. Suffice to say, he saw something on Torfan that, for lack of a better word, broke him. His entire command team has already taken early retirement because of it and if my last meeting with him is any indication, he'll be leaving the corps soon as well. It's a pity… General Hidesh was grooming him as an eventual replacement. He could've gone so much further…"

Hackett and Anderson both nodded to each other as Udina watched. He knew nothing about what had happened to the major and given how reluctant the admiral was to talk about it, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "Very well. I'll not push the matter any further. What about Yasmine Nuri, from the Intelligence Corps? Despite technically being outside the military, she was put forward and supported by several members of High Command itself. As I understand it, her mission success rate is actually slightly higher than Shepard's. Why was she rejected so quickly?"

Anderson turned to glare at the Ambassador. "Because she's a goddamn soulless psychopath, that's why. Shepard has issues, by God does she have issues, but at least she has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong. Nuri has and will kill anyone, for any reason, at any time, even if it's not mission critical. The only reason she has a higher success rate than Shepard is because she's never refused an order, even when said order directly violated the Alliance constitution, let alone the Charter of Sapient Rights or any of a dozen other treaties meant to spell out what is and is not a crime against existence.

"Jane will ignore any order or mission objective she considers to be unjustifiable and will actively hunt down anyone that tries to force her to do otherwise. Something else for you to keep in mind, ambassador. Don't try to trick her into doing political dirty work. She'll kill you without hesitation if you do, no matter the fall out."

Udina swallowed hard, more worried than ever about where his new position may lead. "So, I'm to convince the Council to elevate a woman with an explosive temper, a history of extreme brutality, an active disdain for political maneuvering, and a moral code that swings frequently between wanton butchery and true mercy, to the Spectres." He sighed, turning back to watch the space beyond the window. "Is that really the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?"

"Given what might be out there…" Anderson said, his eyes watching the ambassador intently, "she's the only kind that can."

"Very well. I'll make the call." Already composing the missive in his head, the ambassador asked. "Where is she at the moment?"

"The Serpent Nebula, just at the edge of the Widow System," Anderson said, "She's taking part in a joint operation with C-SEC. They're after a slaver group that's been hitting isolated colonies around the Nebula. Clever bastards set up a hidden station deep inside the nebula so nobody could find them without the right coordinates."

"Then how did C-SEC find them then?"

"They got lucky. A patrol ship suffered a navigation failure and caught one of the collection crews during a raid on a small research outpost. As I understand it, the C-SEC officer in charge of the case asked specifically for Shepard's help in the assault on their main base of operations."

"Lord only knows why they did that…" Udina murmured to himself. When he looked at his guests, he saw them starting at him, perplexed by his attitude.

His throat suddenly dry, Udina took another drink. "Please do not misunderstand me. I don't doubt her abilities in battle. Far from it. Her record practically screams for her deployment into the most hostile of situations. From the defense of Mindoir to the bloodbath on Torfan, Shepard has proven her metal. My concerns are about somewhat… less well known facts, such as where exactly she came from. There are a number of significant anomalies in her personnel file. I'm afraid that some of the lies will not hold up to Council scrutiny. I need to know the truth so that I can prepare for any unpleasant questions. After all, to ensure our success in this matter, everything needs to be in order."

The admiral narrowed his eyes, furious that Udina had dared to utter that phrase with no advanced warning. Hackett reached into a concealed pocket and pulled out a circular device the size of his thumbnail. Anderson did the same, and they both pressed the hidden buttons on the devices. Every digital display in Udina's office shut down under the EMP, along with every hidden listening device. It would be annoying to have them replaced, but the conversation they were having needed to be secure.

Anderson got up from his seat and checked the door. The EMP served a twin purpose, both destroying anything that might allow an outside party to eavesdrop on them and frying the controls for every door within twenty meters. It guaranteed that no one could enter until maintenance teams restored power or someone physically pried the half ton security door open. Once the captain was sure, he returned to his seat. "We've only got a few minutes before someone comes to fix this. Talk. Now."

Not wasting time, the ambassador leaned forward and began. "I apologize for taking this risk, but questions are already being asked in certain circles. A number of theories are popping up and I need to be able to counter any falsehoods as well as bury anything that can compromise our security. When I joined the Order, I was promised answers. Not just about the galaxy, but her as well."

"What do you need to know?" the captain asked bluntly.

"Where did she actually come from, for starters?" the ambassador asked. "The line about her being a rescued slave is great for PR, but I know damn well she isn't Shepard's biological daughter, and so will anyone else that manages to get their hands on a sample of her DNA. Who is she really? And how does Hanna Shepard actually fit into this?"

"For the most part, Shepard is a cover story." Anderson said. "She was chosen as a caretaker after Jane was recovered from Omega. She lost her own daughter in a slaver raid over a decade before and the lie of Jane's 'rescue' was a convenient way to keep people from looking too deeply."

Hackett sipped his drink and took over, "As for Jane herself… How much do you know about 'Project Delta'?"

The ambassador raised an eyebrow. "It was some kind of black ops genetics program that was shut down decades ago, and if I recall correctly it was also the crux for the recent arrests of several members of parliament. Why?" Both officers glared at him with matching looks of annoyed patience. "Wait… was Jane Shepard involved?"

"Not just involved, she was a test subject." Anderson took another drink and continued. "She was one of five hundred infants. Some were abducted while others were bred from men and women that fit specific genetic profiles. Most of the parents either believed their children were killed in industrial accidents or pirate and slaver attacks. Some even had their real children replaced with orphaned infants, though that was fairly rare. The few witnesses that might have compromised the secrecy of the project were murdered through means that wouldn't leave a trail. Jane's biological mother was abducted from one of the dome cities on Mars and taken to a hidden facility, we're not sure where."

Udina listened, aghast, as Anderson continued. "From there she was impregnated and kept in a drugged stupor for nine months, only to die shortly after childbirth. Jane knows how it happened, but she refuses to say. Over the next seven years, Jane, along with the other 499 infants, was subjected to the most brutal regime of augmentation humanity has ever known, of which she was the only survivor. Afterwards, she was taken to a facility built on Omega where the director of Project Delta experimented on her, testing the limits and capabilities of his favorite lab specimen. Based on what few records have been recovered about that time and what little Jane has been willing to say on the matter, she eventually saw an opportunity to escape. In the process, she slaughtered everyone inside the lab."

Finishing, the captain leaned back into his chair and watched Udina. The ambassador quickly downed the rest of his drink before pouring himself some more. It took a few moments for him to gather himself. "I must say, that was significantly more disturbing than expected. At least those responsible for such barbarity are finally behind bars."

He felt a chill run up his spine as Anderson rolled his eyes. "You can't really be that naive," the captain said, his mouth sinking into a deep scowl. "The men and women that were put in prison were in the wings of the project. They were stooges and middlemen at best. The people actually responsible were hunted like animals and put down by the self-same survivor they created, and she was very, very thorough."

A chilling thought came to Udina. He cleared his throat and asked, "Am I to assume that she was involved in the high profile disappearances these last few years as well?"

"What do you think?" Hackett asked dismissively.

"What do I think? I..." Udina shuddered, suddenly unsure. "I don't know what to think. I've just discovered that the candidate I'm expected to push for the Spectres is responsible for the disappearance of several members of the Alliance parliament! Of a candidate for prime minister even! What am I supposed to think?"

Hackett slowly stood from his seat and stepped closer, glaring down at Udina with steel grey eyes. "You're not supposed to think anything. This conversation isn't happening. Those disappearances were just that, disappearances. Shepard was not involved, at all, and there were no survivors of Project Delta. Is that understood?"

The ambassador hesitated to answer, well aware that the wrong word would see him dead inside the hour. When he was inducted into the Order, the admiral was very clear. The Order's secrets did not leave the Order, ever. He quietly muttered. "I understand. The secret is safe with me."

"What secret?" the admiral asked sharply as he returned to his seat. "I'm afraid I didn't catch that, ambassador."

Both men looked at him expectantly as he gathered his thoughts. "It was nothing, admiral. A slip of the tongue." They nodded to him, apparently satisfied. "Now, I do need some more information on her before we continue with the process."

"What about?" the captain asked.

Udina shifted uncomfortably. "It's about Torfan. I need to know exactly what happened."

Anderson scoffed. "What's there to know? She led a surgical strike on the Red Wake's leadership and kept their high command occupied while the invasion took place. She personally killed Jortan and his entire cadre of advisors."

"Yes, yes, I know the version of the story was shared with the public. I also know, given just who we're talking about, that there is more to the story. Nothing she's involved in is ever that simple." He pulled out a datapad from an EM shielded drawer in his desk. He already had the important image loaded onto it, the one that was actively being suppressed on the extranet. "This is what I need an explanation for."

The image was of the peak of the central keep of the fortress on Torfan, taken from over a kilometer away. There was a blast of light shining from the top, branching out in two directions, very vaguely resembling a ragged pair of glowing golden wings. His guests grimaced at the picture, already knowing what he was going to ask. "The Council will absolutely have this image, despite our attempts to suppress it. How am I to explain it, and the sobriquet the media labeled this event with?"

"I would advise you never use the name around Jane." Anderson shook his head at the picture. "She detests it, along with the entirety of Westerland News for coming up with the name in the first place."

"Why?" Udina asked, genuinely confused. "It's better than what's left of the Batarian Hegemony tried to call her."

The admiral sighed. "In all honesty, being labeled the Butcher of Torfan would have been more palatable for her."

"She would… prefer to be called a butcher?" Udina couldn't wrap his head around that, save for one detail. "Would that have something to do with the-"

"The cult, yes," Anderson cut in, "She's tried to get them to stop, but with every victory, the cult just grows in size and conviction. That damned picture," the captain pointed to the screen with a sneer, "along with the name has only helped them spread even further, like a cancer. When it comes up, play it off as nothing more than a blast of biotic energy. Based on what she's told us, that's genuinely all it was. As for the name, Westerland News has a well known reputation for sensationalizing things to a nonsensical degree. Use that."

"Will the council believe a human biotic is actually powerful enough to do that?"

Anderson smiled. "Oh they'll believe it. They almost certainly had an agent or two observing the battle." The captain finished his drink with a satisfied sigh. "Besides, by treaty all member races of the Citadel community have to submit documentation detailing the terminology that describes the units that might be deployed in support of Citadel forces. It's not for nothing that Jane's existence is the reason for the creation of two entirely new biotic classifications."

Udina groaned, remembering some choice tabloid articles talking about what the new terms meant. "Yes, I'm sure explaining to the Council that someone labeled as an 'Ascendant Biotic' is in no way leading the cult of fanatical worshipers declaring her glory to anyone in earshot will be a walk in the park." Udina leaned back into his chair, already dreading the inevitable conversation. "It will come up at some point, I'm sure. I-'' There was a series of loud bangs on the door. "I guess we are out of time."

Anderson got up to assist the maintenance team on the other side of the door. As he began to help them slowly pry open the fried door, the admiral said, "If there's anything else you need, ask now. Having an EMP go off around you once is suspicious. Anymore will draw unhealthy attention."

Udina nodded. "There are only two more critical questions. How much does she know about what is coming? And, when do we tell the Citadel Council about what is creeping in the darkness beyond the rim?"

Anderson was talking to the maintenance team through a newly opened crack in the door as the admiral answered. "We tell them when the time is right. Too early and we could very well trigger the Arrival. If that happens, all is lost." The captain pulled an offered crowbar through the gap in the door and jammed it in place to help the men outside. Udina and Hackett got up to feign assistance. As they did, the admiral whispered into the Ambassador's ear. "Shepard knows something about what's coming, maybe even more than we do. She's been working behind the scenes to prepare as much as possible. Pushing for military reforms, making alliances, secretly eliminating obstacles to fleet expansions, including politicians that get in the way." Udina was certain that the last part was added for his benefit.

The door was finally open enough for the three of them to squeeze out. Udina grunted in annoyance at a few specks of dirt that were left on his suit afterwards. As he tried to brush the filth off, the leader of the maintenance crew saluted them. "Sorry it took so long, sirs. The whole section's control systems are burnt out. It took us a few minutes just to get through the outer doors."

A security team was waiting nearby to escort them away, just in case the EMP was part of some larger plot. Before leaving, the ambassador shook his head. "Nothing to worry about, sergeant. Thank you for arriving as quickly as you did." The man offered a slight smile before leading his crew to the next door in line and beginning the process again, while the security team led the three of them away. The doors into the section had been sliced open with a plasma cutter and the security team leader cautioned them to avoid the still scalding hot edges of the cut.

After an hour or so spent sorting out the various reports and demi-briefings on what had happened, Hackett, Anderson, and Udina stood at the window of an observation deck, quietly admiring the view. While they watched, a small vessel drifted into view, escorted by half a dozen others. Something so small normally didn't warrant the watchful eyes of six cruisers, but that little ship was something special.

"It's a good looking vessel, no doubt." The Ambassador idly mused. "I understand she was involved in its design."

Hackett nodded. "To a certain extent. A good deal of the design was based on what was left of her first ship after all. She provided engineering advice from those responsible for the Pale Horse's final specs. It solved quite a few issues with the new core. Without that, its first flight might have been the last." They kept watching the new vessel performing its first maneuvers for some time, trading idle and meaningless small talk.

Hackett

Eventually, the ship returned to its assigned dock for a final examination by the team of engineers dedicated to it. As it disappeared from view, Anderson cleared his throat. "Well, I suppose I need to make final preparations myself. The crew has mostly arrived and I intend to personally brief them." He looked to the Admiral with a grimace. "Has my XO request been approved?"

"It has," the admiral said, "Expect her arrival by this time tomorrow."

Anderson nodded before turning on his heel and leaving. After he was gone, Udina asked, "May I assume the captain understands how short his command will be, should everything go as planned?

"He knows." Hackett stepped away from the window without another word, making his way to the Arcturus comm facility. When he was given a secure room, he punched in the codes to contact Shepard. After several minutes, the channel came alive with the sound screams and gunfire.

There was an explosion on the other end, then she answered, "Shepard here. Not a great time to call Admiral." There was another explosion, followed by a long volley from an automatic weapon.

When the cacophony of battle faded slightly he said, "Apparently. I would have waited for your report, but something's come up." There was a slight delay in the response, given her position's distance to the nearest FTL comm relay.

Shepard cursed over the line and shouted, "Spits, Sul'Va!" There was a guttural howl over the comm, quickly followed by a series of ear-splitting screams. The screams continued for several seconds before suddenly being cut short, leaving nothing but silence. It was so quiet that Hackett was worried he'd lost the connection. He was about to try to reconnect when a final explosion echoed through the comm and Shepard grunted from some hard impact. "Always with the damn rockets…"

She spoke to someone else on the other side before saying, "I've got a few minutes, Admiral. What's wrong?"

"Like I said, something's come up. How soon can you get back to Arcturus?"

There was another break as she spoke to someone off-comm. "We'll be done here in a couple hours, but the clean up will be about three days. Why?"

"She's finished."

Shepard was silent for a time before telling someone on the other end to get moving without her. "Finished? Already?" She scoffed over the line. "That's six months ahead of schedule. I've never heard of something like her being done that fast without cutting corners."

The admiral could appreciate the sentiment. "Normally I'd agree, but I've had my eye on her since the beginning and I guarantee that she's as close to perfect as possible. All that's left is a proper shakedown run. Given where she comes from, you've been chosen as the XO under Captain Anderson for the maiden voyage."

"Really?" Shepard's voice was dripping with suspicion. "And what's the real reason? Why should I care? After all, I've got plenty of things to do that are more important than going for a joy ride in the Alliance's new toy."

Expecting her to be mistrustful, Hackett let out a quiet chuckle. "For most people I'd feed them some line about the honor of being chosen or, how important for their career such an opportunity was, but I don't think you'd fall for it." There was a bark of laughter as the sound of gunfire resumed. "So, let me be honest with you. We found something. Something left behind by some long, long lost friends."

The sounds of battle were suddenly and completely replaced by a roar of biotic activity loud enough to cause a feedback pulse in the comm's speakers. One of them blew out in a shower of sparks and the roar faded away. All the admiral could hear was Shepard breathing heavily before she growled into the comm, "I'll be there in twelve hours." Three shots rang out over the line before she spoke again. The menace in her voice was palpable as she snarled, "You better not be lying to me."

The line went dead, leaving Hackett with his thoughts as a maintenance team arrived to deal with the damaged speaker.

Unknown

As the supposedly secured comm line was closed, an intelligence vast beyond imagination stirred in its hiding place between stars, intrigued by what it had heard. "Long lost friends… What does that mean, I wonder." Tendrils of its mind stretched out across its data network, stirring multiple sleeper agents into action.

With its slaves working to uncover what exactly the Alliance had found and why they sought to involve the Fulcrum, the intelligence turned its attention to a high priority alert from drones in the region the current cycle knew as the Exodus cluster. Relay activity was spiking far beyond the normal recorded levels for the area. The intelligence analyzed the full spectrum of data and realized why. "Nazara? Why would you show yourself now?"

It watched through a hidden drone as the great abomination emerged from a relay corridor, closely escorted by several miniscule vessels from the lesser machine race of this cycle. It quickly calculated their destination, which only caused more questions. "You go to Eden Prime... Why risk exposure before the Arrival? What draws the eye of the vanguard to such a pathetic ball of dirt?"

The intelligence's curiosity was peaked and it scoured its network for any information that could answer the question. An alert from Alliance assets drew a fragment of its attention back to the human admiral on Arcturus. He and his underling had just arranged for a journey bound for the same meaningless world. The intelligence dug deeper, sacrificing multiple expendable assets to uncover the reason. It was almost amused when it found the answer. "It would seem that the Protheans were not as great a failure as I thought."

The intelligence began activating hundreds more agents scattered throughout council space, preparing for what was to come. "Long lost friends indeed…"

After a year away, here is the beginning of Project Delta's 1st sequel.

This story, while following the basic outline of ME1, will have numerous and substantial deviations, all driven by the origin established in Project Delta. I recommend reading it first, or there will be quite a few confusing things in this story.

Fulcrum will be significantly shorter than Project Delta, as I don't need to do quite as much in this story beyond revealing how the changes in Shepard's past will alter her future.

I'm happy to hear from readers. If you have suggestions, ideas, criticisms, or corrections, feel free to PM me or leave a review.

For anyone curious, the reason I've delayed starting this for so long is because I've been working on my own Sci-fi story. It's an entirely original setting of mine and will be the first non-fanfiction I've published. I'm currently in the process of revision for the very first part and once it is ready it will become available for sale.

I have a discord channel, if you're interested. You can find the way in my profile.

Thanks for reading and I hope you'll stick around till the end.