I GUESS...MASS EFFECT 3

Written By: Gamermd83

DISCLAIMER: Bioware owns all the rights to Mass Effect, I own nothing. This is merely a fun project I have been cooking up for a while. I thought it would be interesting to write a possible Mass Effect 3 plot given the information that is already known (news, demos, trailers, etc.). To get a better understanding of this fanfic, watch the recent Mass Effect 3 demos that were released at E3 2011. 

CHAPTER 1

The Proof

“I don’t understand why we are even here! She destroyed the Alpha Relay, obliterated an entire system, and killed 300,000 Batarians along with it!” The furious Batarian waved his arms around.

Alex Shepard flinched slightly at the accusation. It was one of those moments where you knew you had done something horrible but wanted desperately to deny it. In this case, she couldn’t…and she wouldn’t. She had to, “face the music”, as Admiral Hackett had warned her nearly six months ago. Six months. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. The sound of the Batarian drilling her in the background was reduced to nothing more than a monotone muffle. Almost immediately after the Alpha Relay had been destroyed, Earth called. She hadn’t been surprised. The destruction of an entire system wasn’t something that could be pushed aside for later. Since then, she had been suspended of duty, grounded, and had gone through hearing after hearing. The fact that she had been involved with Cerberus wasn’t helping her either. Many accused her of committing an act of terrorism against the Batarians, saying that it all made sense given Cerberus’ pro-human agenda. At first, she tried to fight. Not only for herself, but for the sake of the galaxy. The Reaper threat was still there and they needed to understand that she could help stop it…but, they didn’t. For once, she was tired of fighting. Tired of all the yelling, and accusations. Tired of everything. She jumped back to the present when she heard the Batarian slam his fist against a table…again.  

“To top it off, she’s telling us that she WAS aware of the consequences! She KNEW these Batarians would all die and she STILL destroyed the relay!” The Batarian turned to face Shepard, giving her a look of profound hatred, which was understandable given the circumstances. “You never faltered because it was Batarian lives that were on the line.” His voice went dreadfully low, sending a shiver down Shepard’s back.

Shepard frowned. “I already told you, I tried to warn the colonies but the system was overwritten in the process. It never went out. I had no choice!”

SLAM!

The doors burst open and Admiral David Anderson stormed in.

Shepard’s mouth went wide and even though she didn’t know what he was doing here, her heart sank. Was this it?

“As of now, Commander Shepard is under my command and has been fully pardoned for any and all charges against her.” Anderson quickly made his way down the aisle. He was wearing his military uniform.

“How dare you!” The Judge stood up. “You have no right—“

“The Reapers are minutes away from Earth’s orbit.” Anderson cut the Judge off and looked over at Shepard.

            An eerie silence washed across the court room.

            Shepard shot up and jumped over the stand to get to where Anderson waited.

            The Judge finally managed. “What?”

            “There’s no time to explain, we need to get as many military teams assembled to try to evacuate as many people as possible.” He looked over at Admiral Hackett who was already making a sprint towards the door. “Admiral,” Hackett turned to look at Anderson. “We’re going to need all the fire power we have.” Hackett nodded and rushed out. Anderson looked back at the Judge. “Looks like you finally have the proof you wanted.”

            Outside, Anderson and Shepard rushed through the streets. Emergency alarms were sounding from one corner to the next. People were already starting to panic. It wasn’t the best way to inform civilians of the threat, but in this case, they had no other choice.

            “How the hell did we not see them coming sooner!” Shepard yelled over the alarms and the bustle of what quickly was turning into panicking masses.

            “I don’t know!” Anderson pushed his way through the people. “They just came out of FTL drive about thirty minutes ago…that’s when we spotted them. They’re Reapers, Shepard, they’re not like other starships. Our scanners just didn’t pick them up until they were out of FTL. With the relay gone, we had no way of knowing what direction they would take or when they’d actually arrive.”

            “How many?”

            Anderson stopped and took in a deep breath before he looked at Shepard. “A lot.”

            Shepard didn’t need to know more than that to understand the gravity of the situation. It had taken a full armada of Alliance starships to take down Sovereign…and even then, the Alliance had lost entire fleets in the battle along with the near destruction of the Destiny Ascension. Before her mind started to panic, she straightened up. She was a soldier. Not a civilian. “What’s the plan?”

            Anderson nodded and took her arm so they could keep moving through the crowds. “We need to get out of here first.”

            “Do you have a base or—“

            “We need to get off the planet Shepard.” He looked at her.

            “What?!” Shepard looked around and saw all the helpless people. There were more soldiers running around the streets now, trying to get people assembled to board them into transport shuttles. “We can’t just leave them.” She looked back at him.

            “We have to. You know we don’t stand a chance here. People are going to die but—“

            Before Anderson could finish, there was a series of deafening bangs. Shepard and Anderson instinctively crouched down and shielded their head with their hands. They could feel the ground rumbling. They both looked up at the sky and found themselves starring at a horrific scene. The sky turned from blue, to a disturbing mix of purples and grays outlined with thunder and lighting. Then there was that familiar electronic hum that nearly dropped people to their feet. If that hadn’t, the earthquake that followed would.

            Anderson took Shepard’s arm and ran as fast as he could before the shaking got worse. When it did, they both lost their balance and fell to the ground. “We have to find a radio!” Anderson called out.

            “You’ll never get a signal with all of this!”

            That’s when they saw a series of Reaper ships appear in the sky.

            Shepard felt her stomach sink. At the moment, there were about seven Reapers visible.

            After the shaking stopped, they both jumped to their feet and sprinted across the courtyard. When they saw the Reaper closest to them was about to land, they braced themselves.

Once the Reapers were on the ground, they started a series of loud mechanical screeches and moans. Then, they opened fire.

             They continued running through the chaos but the people they were running passed were all running the other way. A lady ran by screaming. “They’re coming!” At first Anderson and Shepard thought they meant the Reapers but the more they heard what these people were screaming, the more they started to think they were running away from something else.

            Then they heard it. It made Shepard and Anderson skid to a halt. They looked at each other as if unsure of what they had heard. But then they heard it again.

            “Husks!” Shepard felt completely vulnerable at that moment, she had nothing!

            “Shit!” Anderson took out his spare hand gun and tossed it to Shepard. “Move!”

            When they came face to face with the enraged creatures, they didn’t hesitate to open fire or bother to look for cover. Once they had plowed through the wave of husks, they stopped for a second. As much as they wanted to focus on getting out of there, they couldn’t help but gawk at the scene before them. The Alliance had been able to rally many of their soldiers to prepare for battle but this was no match for them. The Reapers were plowing through Alliance ships as if they were nothing but annoying bugs.

            “They're massive…God help us...” Anderson was about to drop his guard as he watched but the soldier in him prevented him from losing himself in his surroundings.

            Soon, they came to a building that had been partially destroyed. It would be much safer to go through the building than taking their chances in the streets. Before they could make their way through a small opening in the roof, two husks jumped out. They took them out without difficulty and continued on. Anderson looked down into the opening and when he was sure it was safe, he waved to Shepard. “Come on.” He jumped in.

“Right behind you.” Shepard jumped in after him. There were some fires inside the building but it seemed to be better than their other options.

Shepard rushed over to a door that was half way shut and pushed her weight up against it to hold it open for Anderson to get through but before she could make it through herself, she heard something behind her. She turned around and realized it was coming from the lower vent on the wall. She carefully approached it and when she looked inside, she saw a small boy, crawling away from her. In that moment, reality hit her hard. “Hey…it’s okay.”

“Everyone’s dying.” The boy said.

At that moment, a Reaper passed by the building, it’s legs visible through one of the windows. The boy gasped.

Shepard looked back at the boy. “Come here. I need to get you some place safe.”

The boy just stared at her.

“Take my hand,” she reached out.

“You can’t help me…”

Shepard let her hand fall slowly. She couldn’t help him…she couldn’t help any of them…she was going to leave them all to die.

“Shepard!” Anderson called to her.

She flinched and turned to see Anderson making his way back to the door. “In here.”

When Shepard looked back to where the boy was…he was gone. She just stared into the vent and bowed her head for a second before she finally stood up and followed Anderson.

To Be Continued…