Fanfic inspired by Mass Effect I–III.
The peace is welcome, but it is not the happy sort of peace one reads at the end of a story…
It is far from that impression.
The bodies are countless…They lay in exposure, no one to mourn them nor recognize their lifeless faces or their remains. The old cannot save the young—too old to provide, and perish before the young can grow older to take care of themselves…
And so the young follow shortly, after the old go into the ground, or die where they sit, or labor…It is a time of peace, but great sadness…
Failure…Too short is life for many children this way…
Parents do not return.
They go to fight a war they know they cannot return from…Parents, siblings, young ones…Old enough to pick up a gun, sprint supplies or a message, lob a grenade, plant a mine under cover of darkness—with monsters about that hunt, prey on them for their own survival…All separate from the survivors, the families, they leave behind.
Many are across the galaxy—on worlds unfriendly and strange, foreign and inhospitable…Many alive as many dead, and must find their ways home…Impossible without the means of space travel, and relays inoperable, ships rare that may fly the courses homeward-bound.
These men and women must adapt to their new environments and if they try, the odds are against them.
Some form colonies of the survivors to live on their new worlds and face their odds together, stronger in numbers—groups as diverse as the universe's stars and planets…Whereas others take survivors into slavery, and force them to labor for their needs and worse…
Mercenaries find and recruit those desperate for food and medicine, maybe a wage, shelter, or security primarily…People who need to feed their families, their friends—men, women, children, even strangers they know and choose to protect out of need, love, or loyalties…
Warlords and anarchists—who believe in government-less societies—seek to install their own corrupt, and contemptible, systems of authority in the bitter height of ironies and hypocrisies…take grip on whatever territory, property they can with violent clashes, competitive surges for rule—over one and others. Friends weigh the advantages of friendship with certain people—over resources as basic as food and water, medicine, weapons, access to energy, supplies…
Former friends become enemies very easily this way…
One body of government attempts to reinstate law, aid, to the galaxy's Survivor List of Constituents (SLC)…All who remain that this government can locate and reach safely. One multi-planetary host that seeks to regulate chaos and provide guidance to those who need, and accept it…
The Council Systems Alliance (CSA).
A system of justice forces—that punish violators of free will, usurpers of peaceful citizens' rights, abusers of those who suffer the plight of the galaxy's most recent Reaper War's aftermath…A unity of multiple species that can bring resources to each their citizens or their citizens to their necessary resources…One fleet of multinational races that may fly star-worthy vessels, supplies, crews and passengers to and from destinations among the systems—without dependency on mass relays formerly capable of instantaneous travel…A systems alliance that can pursue perpetuators of criminal activity, fight against inhumanity, unholy evil, warlords, monsters—Sometimes all of these at once…And save as many victims as they can…
One planet at a time, and this…This is Galah Shepard's plan.