Thank you all for your well wishes. I am much better now. The rest has helped me clear my mind and I am happy to be back. I am glad to have readers like you with me. Enjoy the chapter.
—
Hello there,
If you enjoy my stories, you can read up to 15 chapters in advance per story on my Patreon page / patreon.com/Samael61.
Shepard is a genius, violent machine, ready to bring his boots down on the corrupt, the evil, and the genocidal machines. What inspired me to write him in such a manner was Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Tikkun System
Aboard the Shepard-class Fortress Station
Legion ran him through the finer details of the station as they made their way to where Tali was working.
They had even named the station after him, with plans to build more.
He found his girlfriend in the hangar, directing supplies and machinery as the work progressed.
Tapping her left arm, Shepard walked to her right side, startling Tali as he appeared in front of her.
"Shepard?" she asked, throwing her hands around him, "How are you here?"
"I finished that wormhole generator," he said, hugging her back. "I thought I would visit Rannoch as a test drive."
"Ancestors, that's great; I missed you so much," she exclaimed, pulling back to hold his hands.
"Me too," Shepard said, squeezing her fingers.
"So, Admiral," he winked, having been briefed on Tali's promotion, "care to show me around?"
"You heard about that?" Tali asked, nudging him with her elbow, "I was waiting to surprise you."
"You surprised me enough," he said, remembering the bikini.
—
Tali took him across the length of the station, showing where the construction efforts were continuing. Geth and quarians were working hand-to-hand, where the ingenuity of the organics met the precision of the synthetics.
"What did you guys do with the larva?" he asked.
"The geth use it as target practice to test weapons," Tali replied, showing him the footage of the tests.
Shepard nodded. "Good." It was the best possible use for that thing.
—
He spent the rest of the day with his girlfriend, having dinner and then some quality time, before returning to Earth.
The Federation received the blueprints for the wormhole generator, and he would distribute them to the rest, creating a network across the galaxy.
—
One Year Later
Shepard rose to sit on his bed as James pressed the intercom and banged on the door at the same time in the middle of the night.
"Commander, you need to get up," his secretary screamed.
Something must have happened.
"James? What is it?" he asked, getting dressed.
"It's time."
—
The moment Shepard entered the Defense Committee briefing room, Admiral Hackett started the debriefing.
"Six hours ago, the Reapers entered the batarian space with overwhelming force. Initial scans put their forces at over fifty thousand Sovereign-class dreadnoughts and a quarter of a million destroyers at one hundred and sixty meters long," Hacket said as images taken in the batarian space were shown.
"However, that wasn't all. They also brought swarms of Oculus that the scanners couldn't count in time, but suffice to say, there are millions of them. The defensive measures in the batarian space, including the anti-proton torpedoes and the nuclear warheads loaned from other races, have all been spent to stem the tide, but the Reapers punched through. We believe they will start harvesting the batarians for ground troops before spreading to the rest of the Citadel Space," Hackett added.
"One weapon they presented was these dense gravitational fields to pull the torpedoes and everything else launched, saving the Reaper armada from facing much damage."
The images on the screens switched to recordings as torpedoes and nukes were drawn towards a singularity, causing the warheads to detonate prematurely and save the Reaper fleet.
"We can launch the anti-proton torpedoes alongside modified disruptor torpedoes to act as an anti-gravity field to negate it," he theorized. It was expected of the Reapers to know how the galaxy would prepare for their arrival. Sovereign had faced the anti-proton torpedoes firsthand, and the Collectors were in contact with the previous Shadow Broker.
"That was our thinking as well, and the engineers are working round the clock to modify enough torpedoes in time," Hackett said, showing him the modifications.
"What else the Reapers have for us, we don't know, but it is agreed that fighting this battle outside our space is for the best, and the fleets are gathering to enter the batarian space."
The idea made sense, because as long as the Reapers were contained to one part of the galaxy, production of weapons capable of defeating them could proceed without an issue.
"Commander, your task is different for now." Hackett gestured at him. "Dr. T'soni has been working in the Mars Archives to find anything against the Reapers, and she reported a breakthrough. We need you to extract her, gather your team, and prepare to face the Reapers," he explained.
"In the meantime, we'll collect more intel to not walk in blind."
"Yes, sir," Shepard saluted.
The war had just begun.
—
Shepard had been taken to the docks with Hailey and James Vega, who would be joining his team.
To his surprise, two old friends were waiting at the airlock. "Ashley, Kaidan, what are you guys doing here?"
His former teammates stood at the ready, dressed in the latest iteration of Alliance marine armor and carrying the improved version of the laser rifles.
"Admiral Hackett's orders: we are joining you aboard the Normandy," Kaidan explained. They were not able to join Shepard last time and had jumped at the chance.
"Get in; we need to head out immediately."
"Yes, Commander," both marines replied, following him in.
"Joker, EDI, set a course for Mars," he ordered as soon as he stepped through the airlock.
"Aye, aye, Commander, good to have you aboard."
—
Mars
Prothean Archives
Above Mars, Joker contacted the archives to have Liara ready to meet them in the landing zone for immediate leave.
The asari was ready there, with a bag on her shoulders, and as fast as they arrived, the Normandy left the planet again.
"Liara, nice to see you again," he said, helping her with her bag.
"Shepard, glad you are here. I heard the news; the batarians are getting hammered." Liara shook her head. The batarians were barely getting on their feet, free from their past practices, but now, the Reapers were burning down what they had managed to build.
"The fleets are converging to meet the Reapers head-on. I heard something about you making a discovery in the archives." If there was a superweapon against the Reapers, this war could be over quickly.
"It is a device of protean origin, though I am not sure what it is capable of. I hope you can make sense of it," Liara said. Shepard clicked his tongue, but if it was that easy, the Protheans would have succeeded.
"Alright, we need to pick Garrus from Palaven; I can look at it on the way," he said. There was no one else he could recruit for now, and he needed his second in command.
"Commander, orders from Admiral Hackett," Joker called from the intercom. "The Alliance found something huge on Eden Prime months ago, but the research team there is not equipped to handle it anymore. He wants us to pick it up."
"Then set a course for Eden Prime," he said, chuckling to himself.
Back to where it all began.
—
Eden Prime
The trip to Eden Prime gave him time to catch up on his sleep. The information on what the research teams had discovered was scarce since all Alliance resources were moved to counter the Reaper threat, but as Joker contacted the ground teams, he finally learned what had been found at the dig site.
An intact stasis capsule, containing a live prothean, and the last functional one in the complex. A couple months later, it too would have ceased working.
His whole team followed him down the ramp, and the dig team was waiting for them.
"Commander Shepard, welcome to Eden Prime again." The lead researcher shook his hand. "We are evacuating the dig site; the Alliance needs all its forces, but we could not find a way to open the capsule. I was hoping you could take a look."
Shepard nodded and approached the capsule without a word. The memories that were burned to his mind from the beacons flared to life, and the words on the holographic console made sense. It required a specific signal to start the defreezing protocols, but he was familiar enough to override the system.
"The capsule is damaged, so we need to wait a couple of minutes," he explained.
"Goddess, to think I would see a live prothean. Things the one inside could teach us," Liara said, giddy like a child in a candy store.
"Hands off triggers; the prothean will be disoriented and may try to attack us. I don't want an accident," Shepard warned. It wouldn't do if someone had an itchy finger, and they ended up with a corpse.
"Yes, Commander."
The countdown had reached the end, and the pod opened with a hiss. Inside, a prothean lay covered in frost, and he looked exactly like the Collectors, minus the cybernetics.
All four of his eyes flickered around, and Shepard motioned for the people to give him some space. The prothean held the side of the pod, dragging himself out, but fell down, barely able to turn himself over. He blinked and shook his head.
Giving the prothean a couple of minutes, Shepard approached, holding his hand down to help him up.
The prothean looked at him with bleary eyes but took the hand nonetheless, and Shepard found himself in the middle of a battle.
The brainwashed traitors were attacking the stasis compound, and he had to repel them until the neutron purge could be initiated. His men were dying by the minute, and by the time he reached the stasis capsule, the damage to the facility was too severe.
Shepard took a step back as the visions of a battle flashed in his head. Dissociating himself from the foreign memories, he found the protean at the end of several barrels.
"Easy, guys, I am fine," he said, waving at them to lower their weapons.
"Are you sure, Commander? You didn't answer for a couple of seconds," Kaidan asked, on guard as he watched the prothean.
"Yeah, he just gave me one hell of a flashback, but I don't think he will be a problem," he said, turning to help the prothean up. "Will you?" he asked.
"No," the prothean replied, speaking in English with an accent similar to African countries.
"Good. What did you just do?" Shepard inquired. It almost was like an asari meld, but faster and smoother.
"My people could read thoughts and exchange memories with a mere touch," the prothean explained, surveying the aliens gathered before him. "I simply read your psyche to understand your language."
So he was right. "Like an advanced version of the asari meld," he said, glancing at Liara, who was already writing down everything the prothean was uttering.
"Indeed."
"I am Commander Jonathan Shepard of the SSV Normandy," he introduced himself. "Your stasis capsule was the only functional one we found."
"I see," the prothean replied, closing his eyes. It took him some time to open them again. "What of the Reapers?" he asked.
"Their initial arrival was thwarted, and they had to take the long route. Fleets are gathering to put an end to them," Shepard explained. If the prothean knew anything about the device, perhaps they could start construction soon.
The prothean chuckled, though there was no mirth to it. "So our warnings were received."
"They helped for sure. Come on, let my doctor check on you to make sure you won't keel over," he offered. Who knew what a fifty-thousand-year-long stasis could do to his body, considering the capsule was damaged?
"Very well, Commander Shepard. I am Javik, the last of the Prothean Empire," the Prothean said, finally introducing himself.
—
"How is our recent arrival, doc?" he asked Doctor Chakwas as the Normandy sailed to Palaven.
"Based on what we know of the prothean physiology and the principles most organic life shares, he is in extremely good condition for someone in stasis for that long," Chakwas reported.
"Wonderful," Liara jumped in, already having prepared a list of questions to ask Javik.
Shepard guessed it must have been something like a human finding a live dinosaur.
"He wants to speak to you as soon as possible," Chakwas added, and Shepard motioned for the highest-ranking Alliance marine to move. "Kaidan, escort Javik here."
"Aye, aye, Commander," Kaidan saluted and left the room. A couple minutes later, he returned with Javik following him behind.
"You said that your fleets have gathered to put an end to the Reapers," Javik said, taking a seat. "I have nothing to offer you, except for my worth as a soldier. Let me join your crew, so the last prothean may see the end of the Reapers."
Shepard hummed. Guess the only thing the last Prothean could seek was revenge.
"Alright. I guess you don't know anything about this device?" he asked, and the holographic scans of the device appeared.
"There were rumors that our scientists were working on a great weapon left behind by the previous races to vanquish the enemy, but it needed a final part, the Catalyst. Seeing as how we failed, they must have failed to discover what it was. I know nothing else," Javik explained, and Liara deflated.
"Welcome to the crew, Javik. As soon as you rest," he ordered. Stasis was not exactly resting.
He would know.
"Commander, Admiral Hackett's on the line," Joker said from the intercom.
"Relay it to the meeting room," he ordered, and Admiral Hackett's hologram appeared over the table.
He got up to salute, but Hackett motioned for him to sit down before he could.
"Shepard. What's the situation on Eden Prime?"
"We found a prothean, alive and well, but he doesn't know anything about the blueprints, except that they were not their original work," he explained.
"I see," Hackett said, stroking his chin. "What do you plan to do with him?"
"He wants to join my crew to see the end of the Reapers; I am inclined to accept," Shepard replied.
"The protean is with you then. The Fleets are gathering in the Exodus Cluster to create a staging ground, but we couldn't learn anything else about the Reaper presence in Kite's Nest. Salarian stealth vessels have been sent to the system, and until they return, we'll be here." Hackett gave him a rundown of the situation.
"Understood, sir. I'll join you as soon as I pick up Garrus," he said. The Normandy could watch the enemy movements, rather than act as a direct warship, but the greatest impact it would have would be to increase morale.
"Godspeed, Commander. I'll keep you aware of any new developments."
"Yes, sir," he replied, and the hologram disappeared.
There was still time to Palaven, so he dismissed the crew to rest. He was not tired, and the device needed to be decoded to reveal its purpose and what this Catalyst was. If they could not discover what it was, then those resources would be better spent elsewhere.
War was already a brutal occupation, but against the Reapers, it would be worse. Unfortunately for them, the enemy had picked the wrong cycle.
—
In the next chapter:
"Hey there," Garrus said with a low growl. He hadn't even dropped his luggage, walking straight into the forward batteries.
"Hey," Hailey replied, turning around to lean on the console, "nice armor."
"A gift from the Primarch," he said offhandedly.
"To his favorite advisor?" she winked.
Garrus approached, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I just care about being your favorite."
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