#Akuze

[painterofhorizons]

It‘s a long way getting over something like Akuze, and it‘s no one-way-street.

Reda Shepard, earthborn, sole survivor of humanity's first contact massacre with the Big Angry Space Worms. Find out more Akuze related writings, musings and art in my Akuze-masterpost. Long fic for the illustration is currently WIP. Starting quote is from the 20 times Akuze almost gets Shepard fic. Commission by the most wonderful @drawinglinestoconstellations! I am beyond words in appreciation for the incredible art and brilliant work with Marty. 14/10, do recommend!

[laelior]

In the end, getting off Akuze alive comes down to math.

The equation is simple.

One broken distress beacon, shot through and shorted out by a random, panicked bullet. One shattered M-29 Grizzly, armor plates cracked and smoking with corrosive acid. One malfunctioning Kessler II with a single thermal charge left, blinking out glaring red warning lights. One blood-spattered medi-gel pack.

Three kilometers to the landing zone, where the only working radio on this fucking planet is.

Forty-nine dead marines, and two dying ones: Bethany Shepard and Marian Luo. Both are as close to death as they have been to each other since the day they met in basic training. Luo is closer, but only by meters not by miles.

Only one of them makes it out, minus the medi-gel pack and the pistol. 

Shepard has to live with it afterward.

Luo doesn’t.

[mass-effect-galaxy]

Sole Survivor: A Mass Effect Fan Film

[fuckheadz]

[grusik]

Akuze... by colourourcity

[snappingthewalls]

[bearlytolerant]

Fandom: Mass Effect

Rating: T (swearing and canon typical violence)

Character: Zero Shepard

Word Count: 610

Reflection

All her life she’d hated being a number. Despised the way her mother had trained her to be a weapon and not a person. Loathed the label, ruthless.

The thresher maw had killed them all. Every one of her fucking comrades. Jones. Miller. Even Toombs was gone. Hell, she was almost certain the blood splattered across her armor was Jones’. She dug her fists into the dirt and wanted to drown out the screaming. They were all still screaming in her head. But she clenched her teeth and crawled forward, a painstakingly slow process, eventually wedging herself between two rocks. She closed her eyes and remembered.

“Get up,” her mother commanded. “Quickly!”

She was ten when she finally had the guts to jump to her feet and do a sweep, watching as her mother fell on her face. She’d smiled, thinking mom would be so proud. But her mother just grabbed her leg and knocked her straight on her ass. No mercy. No pride.

“You’re pathetic,” she’d spat, looming over Zero. Then she’d turned on her heel and left while Zero laid there, the metallic taste of blood on her tongue.

Shepard opened her eyes again. Pathetic. Blood was on her lip. She was tired of its taste.

There was an explosion and she jumped, peering out from behind a rock, she saw one of the soldier tents go up in flames. Her chest squeezed, pretty sure Millers’ body was still in there. Or pieces of it anyway. One, two, three—ten. Counting to keep back the bile. Counting an inhale and exhale of breaths.

The ground shook beneath her.

“No, no, no, no, noooo–fuck–you’re not gonna get me you massive fucking bastard,” she muttered.

She dared to peer around the rock. Putrid green acid splattered against it just an inch from her face. The smallest drop splashed onto her cheek. It sizzled and sputtered as she held a gloved hand there, hissing a string of curses.

“You fucking asshole!” she screamed and lit up the thresher with explosive rounds. It screeched for a minute straight before diving back into the earth.

She sprinted for the landing zone. She counted her paces.

Ten—

Twenty—

Thirty—

A crack splintered beneath her feet and she stumbled.

“Can anybody hear me!” she shouted through her earpiece.

There was static.

The whoosh of the shuttle dropping to her level was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.

“Dad. Thank the fucking stars,” she whispered.

The shuttle came to a stop. Ground trembling beneath him and he was stepping out and she was stepping on. Eyes wide and the word no, slipping off her tongue. What the hell was he doing? Time stopped within a second frame. She clung to the I love you from his lips as she watched in horror. The great maw snapped and he disappeared into the ground. Taking off in the shuttle with tears in her eyes, she numbed herself to what her mother would have to say about it all.

It was fitting, she supposed.

For her first real mission to go down like that.

She made it back but at what cost?

Nothing except everything that mattered to her.

They congratulated her.

Interviewed her.

Praised her.

Fifty dead and that’s worth a monument?

Her mother had scoffed and disowned her. Which was fair and she was too numb to care. And even if she could muster a feeling that resembled care, her mother had never been a mother.

And she still hated being a number.

Zero sucked but one was worse.

The fucking loneliest number.

She was the sole survivor and she wished she could go back to ground zero.

[painterofhorizons]

"How's Giles doing?"

It's a macabre question to ask, but it cuts to the chase.

Shepard shrugs. The answer is as simple as fucked up.

"Better."

Well, obviously Giles isn't better. There's no way he can get better, because he's dead. He's rotting in the dirt of Akuze, eaten alive by thresher maw acid, cowering behind a rock right next to Reda. He's taken most of the hit, and she hasn't (still got enough damage to need a trachea transplant and eighteen percent third degree burns on her skin, but she's alive and he's not, so that's that).

Corporal Giles won't get better.

But he stopped haunting her every single night, and every single minute of the day, and every single art therapy session. Because he's the only thing of Akuze she remembers and while she's bad at drawing, she's apparently gifted in the horror genre, and she's gotta draw something.

Maybe she'll draw something else tomorrow.

Or maybe she won't.

Because Giles is better, but he's still dead.

[seithr]

remembered that my shepard/spacer shep has a still alive mom in the alliance according to ME2/3

also remembered that that character (katrine/caia) always has a sister uninvolved in the family's career military history

remembering she had to mourn her elder sister who just Disappeared for two years, and would have spent even longer knowing shepard isn't alive bc their alliance mom probably can't just tell a civillian doctor,

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

Sophie Shepard & Kaidan Alenko (ME3) 1/?

MIRA'S MORE CANON ME3 "You're real enough for me." AKA: The tango. :) Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

[the-cryptographer]

Am only an hour into ME and can already see why Ashley so hated. Aggro issues xenophobia woman with an annoying voice? Basically on the fandom kill-list for life. Fortunately or unfortunately I'm going to have to choose between her and slightly passive aggressive nice 🙂 guy, and since it's me choosing between someone who brings all the explosive interpersonal issues to the game and someone who brings very few, haha- I think we all know who's going to end up dead.

[socialprawn]

I had a creepier image in my head… I’ll try later

[grusik]

AKUZE instagram.com/akuzer/ by wiredforlego

[snappingthewalls]

[oso-nan]

my mass effect 1 shep

[skullmoss]

i did forget how unhinged garrus is in ME1 he really is all "we really should've shot that ship down even tho there were hostages. they were dead anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

and even my renegade earthborn sole survivor shepard was like "dude........no?"