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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.
—
"Commander, I hate to ask this of you, but there is another team we have out there. The last report said they found an orb before we lost all communications," Dr. Bryson said, out of breath.
"Send me the location."
"Thank you, Commander."
—
Pylos Nebula
Zaherin System
Namakli
"What do we have on the research team?" He asked James.
"The team is led by Ann Bryson. As the doctor said, the last report included a positive ID on the orbs. Connection with the research site was lost shortly after."
The name explained why the doctor was so worried. The Leviathan would not hesitate to kill Ann.
Javik scoffed. "I do not know what this Leviathan is, but it seems unlikely to cooperate. We should consider an alternative approach to make use of it."
"Such as?" he asked.
"Kill it, and study the remains. If the fault that turned Leviathan rogue could be replicated, it could serve to sow dissonance among the Reapers."
Shepard hummed. It was a path they could pursue, provided they were not too late.
"Let's find Ann Bryson and her team first. We can decide what to do with the Leviathan once we understand what exactly it is," he said. It seemed less and less likely for Leviathan to be a rogue Reaper.
"Movement on the landing pad," Cortez warned.
Shepard opened the door. Three people were running out to the pad. A woman in an Alliance research uniform was waving at the shuttle. The men at the back were subduing another one.
"Thank god for reinforcements," she said, hands resting on her knees. He signed for Javik and James to check the area while approaching the human.
"Commander, I don't know what brought you here, but you are a sight for sore eyes," she said, trying to get her breathing under control.
"Ann Bryson?" he asked for confirmation.
"Yes. I assume my father sent you?" she asked. There was no one else who knew she was even here.
Shepard nodded, holstering his rifle once James gave the all clear. "He did. We were worried the Leviathan might have taken control of someone here."
"The Leviathan?" Ann straightened up. "That explains why Nolan was out of his mind."
Her teammate kept muttering the same thing and would not come to his senses.
"The orb you found—where is it?" It was best to quickly neutralize it before someone died.
"The orb? It is in the main building. We had to leave after Nolan destroyed our comm relay, and it caused a fire."
He explained the situation regarding the Leviathan. The orb was neutralized with a stasis bubble. The puppeteered researcher, Nolan, came to his senses. He too was in a dark, cold place, with no idea what was happening.
Ann Bryson and her team took what research data they had and abandoned Namakli aboard the shuttle.
Her team had also discovered paintings regarding the Leviathan. It did appear like a Reaper, with primitives under its control. Combined with what he had learned so far, Ann hypothesized that rather than destruction and preservation through Reaperification, the Leviathan preferred to control the organics.
—
Citadel
Dr. Bryson's Lab
"Ann, are you alright?" Dr. Bryson asked, holding his daughter by the shoulders.
"I am fine, Dad. I am not the one who almost got shot," she said, having heard how her father came so close to dying.
"Yes, it certainly puts things into perspective. Come, there is much we need to do."
Ann had detected an energy signature the orb released. By her account, it was similar to QEC, but organic. It could be traced without the need for wormhole tracing.
However, she could only track the Leviathan if the connection was active. Someone would have to be the guinea pig.
Shepard, already having experience when it came to fighting off mind control, was the natural choice.
"Alright, Commander, if anything goes wrong, we'll cut the connection and try with someone less lethal," Ann said.
If the Leviathan managed to control Shepard, they would be screwed.
"It will be fine, doctor. You may proceed."
James dropped the force field. In that instant, he felt a cold, slimy feeling crawl through his skull. His temperature dropped; at least he felt it did. The lab disappeared, leaving him stranded in a foggy, endless void.
"Why do you pursue us?" The Leviathan roared. It bounced inside his skull, threatening to tear through the bone.
Shepard rose to his feet. The Leviathan had taken Dr. Bryson's shape, with dark, beady eyes.
Unlike Sovereign, which had kept its immense size even in the minds of Benezia and Thanoptis.
"The galaxy is fighting the Reapers. You are going to tell me why you are not with the rest of them and everything you know about their history," he said. The playtime was over. He had enough with the Leviathan's bullshit.
"There is nothing to tell. Begone." It turned around, ready to leave. He felt the cold feeling retract but managed to grab the creature by the throat.
"I don't think so," he growled. It was not going to run away again.
"Impossible." The Leviathan thrashed, trying to break free from the hold.
"You clearly don't know who you are dealing with," he said, squeezing harder. "Harbinger just tried to detonate a star to defeat us. Yet, we survived without a scratch. Unless you want to be next on the receiving end of our weapons, you will speak."
It stopped, gazing down at him. "Despoina. Find us, Shepard, and we shall speak."
He let go, and the landscape disintegrated.
"Commander, are you alright? Commander?" He heard James call. His vision slowly returned, and he was back in the lab again.
"Yeah, yeah, I am fine. Despoina, the Leviathan said Despoina."
"Does it want to speak now?"
"It does."
James clapped him on the back. "Seems you scared it, Commander."
—
Psi Tophet System
2181 Despoina
"The scans detected a trace of the Leviathan's energy signature. We are in the right place," Joker said.
"Prepare the shuttle. Let's go and see what is down there."
There was no landmass on Despoina. The closest place to land was the remnants of a platform. It was of human origin, with dozens of orbs around.
"How do we find the Leviathan now?" Ashley asked. Unless someone was going to take a dive, there was nowhere to explore.
Kaidan removed a tarp. Beneath it, dozens of orbs were resting in crates. "With all these orbs, it has to know we are here."
"Spread out, and keep the deflectors at full strength. I don't want any mindfuckery accidents," he warned.
"Yes, skipper," she muttered. Their musings were interrupted when something broke through the surface of the water. Two more followed the immense size, revealing the Leviathans.
They appeared incredibly similar to the Reapers in shape. Two massive horns and tendrils at the front and sides, all attached to a bulbous body. The paintings made it easy to confuse them with the Reapers.
The Leviathan was just a Reaper, but organic in make.
"Uh, guess you were right," she said, watching the creatures.
"Well, now that you showed yourselves, I have a feeling you've got one hell of a story to tell."
So they did.
Around a billion years ago, the Leviathans ruled the galaxy. They enthralled the organics, demanding tribute. All was fine until the organics advanced enough to develop artificial intelligences, which evolved and killed their creators.
The Leviathans did not care until the tribute they received began to dwindle.
In a fit of the greatest stupidity he had ever seen, the Leviathans created an AI to solve the problem of AI killing the organics. The Intelligence, as they called it, required data throughout the galaxy.
It had gone as predicted. It had betrayed them, created the Reapers as a means of preserving organics, and has been harvesting the galaxy every fifty thousand years or so.
"You lot are the dumbest things to ever come out of the sea. You are even worse than hanar, and they are jellyfishes with no brains." For the love of god, it was so dumb he could not wrap his mind around it.
Like a galaxy-sized black hole of stupidity. Even Vorcha seemed intelligent compared to the overgrown cuttlefish before him.
"Your insults mean nothing," the one in the middle rumbled.
"Of course not." Shepard crossed his arms. "The vocabulary to describe how dumb your entire race was does not exist in any language."
His teammates tried to keep the snickers under control but failed miserably.
"The Reapers, what of them?" the one on the right asked.
"They are about to have a nasty surprise. After disabling our mass effect drives, Harbinger and his minions destabilized a star. They abandoned the system without looking back. They most likely believe us dead. Once they come out of FTL, we are going to turn them to spacedust."
Even now, the system was being fortified. The Reapers would be hit with overwhelming firepower the very second they crawled out of FTL.
"None has come close to defeating the Intelligence. Yet we have seen it. Harbinger fears you."
"It should."
So should the Leviathans.
"Here is the way we are going to do this. You will contact the research teams through the orbs and answer the questions they have. You will never leave this planet, ever, and I won't shove a black hole up your collective asses."
His terms were difficult to swallow for the so-called apex life forms of the galaxy. But they understood that the biggest fish in the galaxy was before them.
And he wasn't afraid to bite.
—
Aboard the Normandy, he had gone straight to the QEC to brief Admiral Hackett and the Unified Command.
Suffice to say, they were dumbfounded.
Fedorian's mandibles twitched back and forth. "Every fifty thousand years for the last billion years? Spirits, if every cycle had as many races as ours, that would make two hundred forty thousand species erased from existence." More if he were to count the non-FTL races such as the raloi, the yahg, and the vorcha.
"All because some oversized species of fish wanted to play the god," Hackett said, cursing under his breath.
"Commander, do you trust these Leviathans to carry out their end of the bargain?" Lidanya, unlike the rest, was more focused on the now rather than the past.
"Yes, out of a desire to see the Reapers gone. Which would give them another chance at trying to rule the galaxy," he said. They did not strike him as the type to back off so easily.
"We should contain the system. Should the Leviathans try to leave Despoina, we might have to take drastic measures," Admiral Lekon warned. The salarian's eyes were darting around as he considered what precautions to take.
"Let's not forget about this intelligence. The Councillors said they found signs of an AI deep inside the Citadel. I think we all know what it is now," Wrex said. He had been on the station thousands of times in his life.
All without knowing it was the greatest trap in the galaxy.
"A hyper-advanced AI at the heart of our civilization. Could this get any worse?" Fedorian asked, not expecting an answer.
They would definitely have to evacuate the Citadel now.
"It is either in stasis or can't act at all. Sovereign wouldn't have to go through all that trouble to assume control of the Citadel otherwise," Shepard said.
Fedorian looked into his eyes as an uncomfortable silence dragged out for seconds. "That, at least, is comforting."
"Commander, you have done a great service to the galaxy again. There is still time before the Reapers arrive. For now, your orders are to go and rest. Admiral Anderson gave you his house on the Citadel for some R&R," Hackett said.
"Yes sir, thank you."
"No, thank you, Commander."
—
Citadel
"So we are actually getting shore leave?" Joker asked, his arm looped around EDI's. It would draw eyes, but the people were too busy gaping at Shepard like a fish out of water.
"Yes. Anderson is letting us borrow his house," he said. He had been to the place a couple of times; it was spacious enough for the crew.
"We should throw a party. You know, relax before the big battle that will decide the galaxy's future," James suggested.
"I agree with the primitive. It would boost morale." Everyone's favorite space racist agreed.
"A party it is."
They went through customs, where Garrus and Hailey were waiting.
"Hey, there you guys are. Where have you been?" she asked.
"Long story short, we found the origin of the Reapers."
Garrus blinked. "Uh, you should probably continue with the long version."
He told the whole story, leaving both his best friend and sister dumbfounded.
"Wow. I thought the quarians were bad because of their reaction to the geth gaining sapience. No offense, sis," Hailey added quickly.
"None taken, I agree with you," Tali said, smiling at being called sister.
"Alright, enough with the demoralizing talk. Get lost and have some fun while I prepare the party," he said, shooing the team away.
"Aye aye, commander."
—
"You know, we could spend some time before calling everyone else in."
"Got any ideas?" he asked. Running around as long as they had, he just wanted to sleep for a couple of extra hours.
"Ever watched Fleet and Flotilla?" she asked.
"I saw it enough, but no."
"What? How?!" she exclaimed, and Shepard knew he was in trouble. "That's not… You know what? We are fixing this travesty now."
"Whatever you say, dear."
Tali was quick to open the show. She sat next to him, removing her helmet.
The show was not all too bad. It had more drama than he preferred, but at least the soundtracks were nice. He considered it a nice change of pace. Action all the time made one numb to it quickly.
They even sang together with the karaoke mod.
It was relaxing.
Once she had shown him enough, with the promise to watch more together, she left to get some sleep. He was going to join her, but Joker sent a message, inviting him to a fancy sushi place as a treat.
He assumed it was for helping him with EDI.
Or for being the best boss to ever exist.
He made his way through alleys and back streets to avoid a crowd. The sushi place, which had a French maitre d' to bring him inside.
"Hey Commander. Nice place, huh? They even got a French guy to show us inside," Joker said, already seated.
"Yeah, though you should probably bring EDI here, not me," he said. She couldn't and didn't have to eat but would definitely learn a lot from the interaction.
"What?" Joker asked, taken aback.
"Didn't you send a message calling me here?"
"No. I got a message from you calling me here."
Shepard rolled his eyes. He really had to do something about the cybersecurity of the Alliance.
—
In the next chapter:
"Commander, I am Staff Analyst Maya Brooks, Alliance Intelligence," she said, finally remembering to salute. "There are people trying to kill you."
He looked at Joker, who was doing the same, and turned back to the staff analyst. "So?"
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