Introduction

Welcome to my brainchild! I'll keep this short so you can get to what you're here for.

I love Mass Effect. A lot of people love Mass Effect. It's facillitated a lot of great discussion across the internet, about culture, science, politics, romance, comedy, tragedy and everything between.

With that, of course, comes controversy. The end in particular has been criticized by a lot of different people. I'm not gonna go in deep on this as it would obviously spoil not only the games, but also this story! Suffice it to say that they might have gotten to a more satisfying resolution had they charted out the intended path for all of the games from the beginning. I'm not mad this didn't happen--pressures of the marketplace are what they are. But the time to solicit "lots of speculation from everyone" is at the beginning of development, not the end.

Another common frustration I've noted is how many b-plots aren't explored, or plots which should be main plots get demoted, plots that were subplots get elevated to main plot at the expense of potentially more interesting ones, etc. A lot of this is just good game design. Since we play as Shepard, by necessity, the narrative must focus around empowering her and everything else gets left by the wayside. It's great fun for the game, but does make it harder to suspend disbelief as the scale and stakes increase. Straight fiction, though, does not have these limitations. We can check in with whoever we want whenever we want, as long as they are doing something that is (a) plot relevant and (b) entertaining.

I've had this universe and these characters living rent-free in my head for more than ten years by now, so they might as well start earning their keep. The proceeding work attempts to follow the basic structure of Mass Effects 2 and 3, but this is not the story of Mass Effect 2 and 3. Some characters we will never meet, have been melded together, or had their roles seriously reduced. Others will have an expanded role, and may or may not be doing the same things they were doing in the games. That said, the characters will remain true to themselves, and react the way you'd expect to whatever circumstances the galaxy throws at them. My hope is to breathe some new life into the world by telling the offscreen stories of some of these characters, while introducing the world to people who have not or can't play Mass Effect. If you like what you've read, please drop me a line! I'd love to know what you thought. This is my first real published work, so any feedback is a gift. Thank you so much for reading!

CW's and spoilers: It should be self-evident but the story picks up after the player defeats Sarren in the first game. (if you consider it a spoiler to learn that Mass Effect is about someone named Shepard who defeats someone named Sarren, then consider yourself spoiled by this post, I guess. My bad) I've tried to write it so that someone who has no prior familiarity with the universe can understand what's happening. This requires explaining, and thus spoiling, the plot of Mass Effect 1. If you are serious about avoiding Mass Effect 1 spoilers, you should not read this post. If you have not played Mass Effect 1 but are not serious about Mass Effect 1 spoilers, then this is where you belong. It will also spoil a lot of Mass Effect 2 and 3, so similar rules apply though to a lesser degree. If you want to experience ME2/3 to find out what happens, go do that. If you already know, or aren't interested (you really should though, they're great) read on!

The tone isn't nearly as viscerally disgusting or fowl-mouthed as your average war movie, but the subject matter does involve quite a lot of death, torture, dismemberment, rape, mind rape, drug use, all that fun stuff. I've tried to ride a similar line here. We're not going to flinch away from adult topics, and some moments may be disturbing. There will also be moments of happiness and joy. There will be cussing, a lot of violence, and maybe--maybe, some sex! If you play your cards right.