Post by aceman67 on Mar 7, 2015 8:59:38 GMT 1
Mass Effect: The Hard Road Ahead
A FanFiction by Phill Green – Aceman67
FemShep/Liara – Engineer – Earthborn – Red Ending
Rated - M - Language, Mild Violence
Prologue
Keep going Liara! One foot in front of the other, just keep going! She thought to herself as she ran down the battlefield towards the Reaper beam. To her left she caught Garrus ducking under gunfire from a Marauder; it was quickly taken shot down by another marine. Ahead of her Shepard was sprinting towards the beam, dodging explosions in her path with ease that comes with experience.
A brilliant, blinding flash of light from an explosion nearly knocked Liara from her feet. She looked up and saw an APC flying through the air and Shepard sliding under it as it rolled through the air before coming crashing down. A second explosion stops her and Garrus in their tracks, staggering them both.
“Get down!” Garrus yells; pushing Liara hard before diving in the other direction as a tumbling MAKO, sent flying by an unseen third explosion, sails through the air towards them both.
A split second after the MAKO lands it explodes, washing Liara in flames that quickly overload her barriers, peppering her with shrapnel, causing her to cry out in pain. She struggles to get to her feet as two armor‐clad hands grab her arm and pick her up to bring her to cover. Liara looks up at Shepard, trying to convince her that she is ok, despite being covered in blood.
“Normandy! Do you copy?” Shepard yells into her comm. “I need an Evac. Right now!”
“We’re—aking heavy lo—up here, Commander.” Joker responds; his transmission garbled. Shepard checks over Liara’s injuries while still keeping a hand on the com‐unit in her ear.
A high‐pitched whine of engines over powers the explosions and gunfire of the raging battle as the Normandy descends down through the skeletal remains of a building, setting down and opening its shuttle bay.
With Liara’s arm draped over her neck, Shepard makes her way to the shuttle bay’s gangway while being covered by several marines.
“Here, take her.” Shepard says; handing her off to Garrus, who looks just has hurt but still able to stand on his own.
“Shepard…” Liara cries out, pain showing through in her voice.
“You got to get out of here!” Shepard tells her.
“I’m all right, Shepard…” Liara said, trying to convince herself more than Shepard.
“Don’t argue with me, Liara.” Shepard tells her.
“You’re not leaving me behind!” she retorts.
“No matter what happens…” Shepard says, walking up the gangway towards her. “You mean everything to me, Liara. You always will.” She continued; placing a hand on Liara’s cheek, wiping away some of the blood along with a stray tear.
“Shepard, I…” Liara begins to say, as Shepard steps away and starts walking down the gangway. “I am yours.”
Shepard smiles, then turns towards the beam, seeing the glowing orange eyes of Harbinger behind it and scowls.“Go!” Shepard orders, and then runs back into the fray as the shuttle bay closes.
“We’re good to go Joker.” Garrus says into his comm‐link. “Come on, let’s get to med‐bay, man, is Dr. Michel going to be pissed.” He says, helping Liara to the elevator.
“Normandy, we’ve got a destroyer bearing down on our port side, see what you can do about it!” a garbled comm message said.
“Roger that Shanghai.” Joker responds.
“Thanix cannons are fully charged.” EDI states in her matter‐of‐fact tone.
“Joker, get us into position. EDI, let loose when you have a firing solution.” Ashley Williams orders, her hand resting on Joker’s headrest while holding on to a handrail on the ceiling.
“Firing now.” EDI says with a somewhat sinister grin on her face. “Target destroyed; anyone up for seconds?” She calmly asks.
“Holy shit, she did it. This is the Admiral. We’ve got reports that someone made it to the Citadel. We need to give them time to get those arms open. All Fleets: Converge on the Crucible. Protect it at all costs.” Admiral Hackett orders, his voice sounding over the Normandy comm.
“Another time EDI, Joker, you heard the old man; get us into covering position with the rest of the fleet. I’ll be in the CIC. Pick your targets, don’t get cocky, I know you too well.” Ashley orders and walks out of the cockpit.
“When have I ever been cocky Ash?” Joker yells back to her, causing Ashley to shake her head.
“I have on record one hundred and twenty-three different occurrences…” EDI begins to recite.
“Ha ha EDI.”
“Traynor, how’s the ground team?” Ashley asks, making her way around the large hologram of the Normandy.
“Dr. Michel reports that Garrus will be fine, and that Liara will be fine in a day or so. We’re also heavy 12 additional marines; Doc says they’ll pull through as well.”
“Good, any news on the Citadel?”
“No ma’am. I hope it doesn’t take too much longer; the comm chatter I am getting is… We’re losing this fight, Ma’am.” Samantha says, looking at Ashley with fear in her eyes.
“But we’re still in it. If anyone can pull this off, it’s Shepard.” Ashley says, putting a reassuring hand on Sam’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry about the big picture. Just focus on your job and trust in everyone else to do theirs.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am.”
“Commander Williams!” a voice from across the CIC called.
“What is it Copeland?”
“The Citadel, the arms are opening!” Ensign Copeland, getting a subdued cheer from the room.
“This is it everyone, the arms are opening…” Admiral Hackett reports.
“The Crucible is moving in for docking.” Samantha says, changing the Normandy hologram to show the Citadel and Crucible.
“Ten seconds to contact…”
“The Crucible has docked.” Copeland says, looking down at his console. “Now what?” he asks.
“We wait, and we do our jobs, focus people, this isn’t over yet.” Ashley orders while making her way back to the cockpit.
“You know, for a giant reaper killer super‐weapon, that thing has surprising maneuverability.” Joker jests has Ashley steps up behind him. “Think they’ll let me drive it when this is over?”
“You get us out of here in one piece Jeff and I’ll ask Hackett myself.” Ashley promises with a slight grin. “EDI, do you know what’s going to happen?”
“We knew when we were constructing the Crucible that it was a massive exotic energy generator. Now that we know that the Catalyst is the Citadel, I believe that it will be used as a focusing lens and amplifier. As for what will happen…” EDI says, pausing. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“That’s reassuring.” Joker says sarcastically. “What’s the plan to get them off the Citadel?”
“I don’t know Jeff. I don’t think there is one.” Ashley says solemnly.
“Commander, there’s a massive buildup of energy on the Crucible, something’s happening.” Samantha says, running up to the cockpit.
“All fleets! The Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point.” Hackett orders.
“What about Shepard?” Joker asks, looking up at Ashley.
“I repeat: Disengage and get the hell out of here!” Hackett says before Ashley could respond.
“Joker… It’s time to go.” Ashley orders.
“Damn it.” He says, knowing that he’s leaving his friend behind. He reluctantly manipulates the ships helm and takes the Normandy into FTL.
“The shockwave is approaching rapidly!” EDI exclaimed.
“Jeff get us out of here!” Ashley orders, strapping herself into the port navigation station.
“I know!” He says raising his voice over the growing din of alarms. “Adams! Start shunting heat from the engines into the I.E.S., dump every bit of juice we have into the engines!” He yells into the intercom.
“Coming your way Joker!” Adams responds over the intercom.
“All hands, strap yourselves in!” Ashley orders over the ship‐wide com.
The deck starts to rumble as the ships engines are pushed well past their maximum. Sparks and fires start erupting from consoles and power junctions all over the ship.
“We have reached theoretical maximum velocity.” EDI reports. “The shockwave is still approaching, impact in 3… 2… huuunnn! Critical errorrrrrrrr…” EDI involuntarily stammers as her body convulses, then goes limp.
The deck bucks under everyone has the ship is tossed out of control, dropping out of FTL, lights flickering off and on, errors sounding everywhere. Explosions reverberate beneath the deck plating
“A.I. Core Offline. Critical Failure.” Normandy’s Virtual Intelligence reports over the growing din.
“What the shit?! EDI!” Joker cries out. “Ash, I’m losing helm control and I’m flying blind!” Joker yells frantically, hitting a switch opening the forward viewport armor shutters giving a view of a tumbling star‐field.
“We dropped out in a planetary system…” Ashley says before being interrupted.
“Joker, drive core offline, breaking engines won’t engage, I can get you RCS but that won’t stall our momentum.” Adams
reports from engineering.
“I’ve stabilized our flight path but I’m still blind here.” Joker informs Ashley, while going over her navigation console.
“There’s a habitable planet off our port, come one‐four‐five degrees.” Ashley orders, sending the information Joker
needs to make a planetary decent.
“You know this isn’t going to be a nice landing, right?” Joker says, turning to look at Ash, pausing for a moment on the still form of EDI’s body.
“Take us in Lieutenant.” Ashley says in a commanding tone. “All hands, assume crash positions!” she orders over the
intercom.
A FanFiction by Phill Green – Aceman67
FemShep/Liara – Engineer – Earthborn – Red Ending
Rated - M - Language, Mild Violence
Prologue
Keep going Liara! One foot in front of the other, just keep going! She thought to herself as she ran down the battlefield towards the Reaper beam. To her left she caught Garrus ducking under gunfire from a Marauder; it was quickly taken shot down by another marine. Ahead of her Shepard was sprinting towards the beam, dodging explosions in her path with ease that comes with experience.
A brilliant, blinding flash of light from an explosion nearly knocked Liara from her feet. She looked up and saw an APC flying through the air and Shepard sliding under it as it rolled through the air before coming crashing down. A second explosion stops her and Garrus in their tracks, staggering them both.
“Get down!” Garrus yells; pushing Liara hard before diving in the other direction as a tumbling MAKO, sent flying by an unseen third explosion, sails through the air towards them both.
A split second after the MAKO lands it explodes, washing Liara in flames that quickly overload her barriers, peppering her with shrapnel, causing her to cry out in pain. She struggles to get to her feet as two armor‐clad hands grab her arm and pick her up to bring her to cover. Liara looks up at Shepard, trying to convince her that she is ok, despite being covered in blood.
“Normandy! Do you copy?” Shepard yells into her comm. “I need an Evac. Right now!”
“We’re—aking heavy lo—up here, Commander.” Joker responds; his transmission garbled. Shepard checks over Liara’s injuries while still keeping a hand on the com‐unit in her ear.
A high‐pitched whine of engines over powers the explosions and gunfire of the raging battle as the Normandy descends down through the skeletal remains of a building, setting down and opening its shuttle bay.
With Liara’s arm draped over her neck, Shepard makes her way to the shuttle bay’s gangway while being covered by several marines.
“Here, take her.” Shepard says; handing her off to Garrus, who looks just has hurt but still able to stand on his own.
“Shepard…” Liara cries out, pain showing through in her voice.
“You got to get out of here!” Shepard tells her.
“I’m all right, Shepard…” Liara said, trying to convince herself more than Shepard.
“Don’t argue with me, Liara.” Shepard tells her.
“You’re not leaving me behind!” she retorts.
“No matter what happens…” Shepard says, walking up the gangway towards her. “You mean everything to me, Liara. You always will.” She continued; placing a hand on Liara’s cheek, wiping away some of the blood along with a stray tear.
“Shepard, I…” Liara begins to say, as Shepard steps away and starts walking down the gangway. “I am yours.”
Shepard smiles, then turns towards the beam, seeing the glowing orange eyes of Harbinger behind it and scowls.“Go!” Shepard orders, and then runs back into the fray as the shuttle bay closes.
“We’re good to go Joker.” Garrus says into his comm‐link. “Come on, let’s get to med‐bay, man, is Dr. Michel going to be pissed.” He says, helping Liara to the elevator.
* * *
“Normandy, we’ve got a destroyer bearing down on our port side, see what you can do about it!” a garbled comm message said.
“Roger that Shanghai.” Joker responds.
“Thanix cannons are fully charged.” EDI states in her matter‐of‐fact tone.
“Joker, get us into position. EDI, let loose when you have a firing solution.” Ashley Williams orders, her hand resting on Joker’s headrest while holding on to a handrail on the ceiling.
“Firing now.” EDI says with a somewhat sinister grin on her face. “Target destroyed; anyone up for seconds?” She calmly asks.
“Holy shit, she did it. This is the Admiral. We’ve got reports that someone made it to the Citadel. We need to give them time to get those arms open. All Fleets: Converge on the Crucible. Protect it at all costs.” Admiral Hackett orders, his voice sounding over the Normandy comm.
“Another time EDI, Joker, you heard the old man; get us into covering position with the rest of the fleet. I’ll be in the CIC. Pick your targets, don’t get cocky, I know you too well.” Ashley orders and walks out of the cockpit.
“When have I ever been cocky Ash?” Joker yells back to her, causing Ashley to shake her head.
“I have on record one hundred and twenty-three different occurrences…” EDI begins to recite.
“Ha ha EDI.”
“Traynor, how’s the ground team?” Ashley asks, making her way around the large hologram of the Normandy.
“Dr. Michel reports that Garrus will be fine, and that Liara will be fine in a day or so. We’re also heavy 12 additional marines; Doc says they’ll pull through as well.”
“Good, any news on the Citadel?”
“No ma’am. I hope it doesn’t take too much longer; the comm chatter I am getting is… We’re losing this fight, Ma’am.” Samantha says, looking at Ashley with fear in her eyes.
“But we’re still in it. If anyone can pull this off, it’s Shepard.” Ashley says, putting a reassuring hand on Sam’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry about the big picture. Just focus on your job and trust in everyone else to do theirs.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am.”
“Commander Williams!” a voice from across the CIC called.
“What is it Copeland?”
“The Citadel, the arms are opening!” Ensign Copeland, getting a subdued cheer from the room.
“This is it everyone, the arms are opening…” Admiral Hackett reports.
“The Crucible is moving in for docking.” Samantha says, changing the Normandy hologram to show the Citadel and Crucible.
“Ten seconds to contact…”
“The Crucible has docked.” Copeland says, looking down at his console. “Now what?” he asks.
“We wait, and we do our jobs, focus people, this isn’t over yet.” Ashley orders while making her way back to the cockpit.
“You know, for a giant reaper killer super‐weapon, that thing has surprising maneuverability.” Joker jests has Ashley steps up behind him. “Think they’ll let me drive it when this is over?”
“You get us out of here in one piece Jeff and I’ll ask Hackett myself.” Ashley promises with a slight grin. “EDI, do you know what’s going to happen?”
“We knew when we were constructing the Crucible that it was a massive exotic energy generator. Now that we know that the Catalyst is the Citadel, I believe that it will be used as a focusing lens and amplifier. As for what will happen…” EDI says, pausing. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“That’s reassuring.” Joker says sarcastically. “What’s the plan to get them off the Citadel?”
“I don’t know Jeff. I don’t think there is one.” Ashley says solemnly.
“Commander, there’s a massive buildup of energy on the Crucible, something’s happening.” Samantha says, running up to the cockpit.
“All fleets! The Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point.” Hackett orders.
“What about Shepard?” Joker asks, looking up at Ashley.
“I repeat: Disengage and get the hell out of here!” Hackett says before Ashley could respond.
“Joker… It’s time to go.” Ashley orders.
“Damn it.” He says, knowing that he’s leaving his friend behind. He reluctantly manipulates the ships helm and takes the Normandy into FTL.
“The shockwave is approaching rapidly!” EDI exclaimed.
“Jeff get us out of here!” Ashley orders, strapping herself into the port navigation station.
“I know!” He says raising his voice over the growing din of alarms. “Adams! Start shunting heat from the engines into the I.E.S., dump every bit of juice we have into the engines!” He yells into the intercom.
“Coming your way Joker!” Adams responds over the intercom.
“All hands, strap yourselves in!” Ashley orders over the ship‐wide com.
The deck starts to rumble as the ships engines are pushed well past their maximum. Sparks and fires start erupting from consoles and power junctions all over the ship.
“We have reached theoretical maximum velocity.” EDI reports. “The shockwave is still approaching, impact in 3… 2… huuunnn! Critical errorrrrrrrr…” EDI involuntarily stammers as her body convulses, then goes limp.
The deck bucks under everyone has the ship is tossed out of control, dropping out of FTL, lights flickering off and on, errors sounding everywhere. Explosions reverberate beneath the deck plating
“A.I. Core Offline. Critical Failure.” Normandy’s Virtual Intelligence reports over the growing din.
“What the shit?! EDI!” Joker cries out. “Ash, I’m losing helm control and I’m flying blind!” Joker yells frantically, hitting a switch opening the forward viewport armor shutters giving a view of a tumbling star‐field.
“We dropped out in a planetary system…” Ashley says before being interrupted.
“Joker, drive core offline, breaking engines won’t engage, I can get you RCS but that won’t stall our momentum.” Adams
reports from engineering.
“I’ve stabilized our flight path but I’m still blind here.” Joker informs Ashley, while going over her navigation console.
“There’s a habitable planet off our port, come one‐four‐five degrees.” Ashley orders, sending the information Joker
needs to make a planetary decent.
“You know this isn’t going to be a nice landing, right?” Joker says, turning to look at Ash, pausing for a moment on the still form of EDI’s body.
“Take us in Lieutenant.” Ashley says in a commanding tone. “All hands, assume crash positions!” she orders over the
intercom.