#Paragon Shepard

[tarysande]

There are a couple more Garrus-Vakarian-related hills I'm willing to die on.

Maybe this particular bit of fanon has faded over the years, but there used to be a lot of insistence that Garrus is young and somehow inexperienced when he meets Shepard. Canon doesn't really support this. Turians start their mandatory service at 15. Garrus has at least a decade of experience. Even if he's 2-4 of years younger than Shepard (according to Patrick Weekes), he's got at least as much field experience as she does by dint of the difference in turian and human "enlistment" ages.

Garrus is really damn good at his job at C-Sec. You don't give the Case of Investigating the Rogue Spectre to a greenhorn. You give it to your best, most tenacious agent. Pallin may not always approve of Garrus's actions, but that doesn't actually stop him from putting Garrus on the tough case. Also, we don't know much about how C-Sec works but we do know a bit about how the turian hierarchy works, and we know C-Sec was essentially a turian initiative. That means it's a meritocracy where failure reflects on the superior, not the one who failed. So, in roughly a decade (Shepard's 29 in ME1; I always think of Garrus as about 27), Garrus has not only done shipboard military service, but he's also risen to be one of C-Sec's top investigators; Pallin wouldn't risk having Garrus's "failure" reflect poorly on HIM otherwise. I'd say that actually makes Garrus as remarkable in civilian law enforcement terms as Shepard is considered to be within the ranks of the Alliance military.

Of course Garrus was scouted by the Spectre program. And honestly, if his dad hadn't stepped in, I think Garrus would have become a Spectre, no problem. Especially for a turian, he's cut from precisely the cloth the Spectres would be looking for: extremely skilled, extremely capable, and--most importantly--he's a turian not just able but willing to work outside the chains of command that turians are taught from birth to revere and be loyal to above all else. This is the reason Pallin is leery about Spectres: he's a good turian. Good turians follow straight lines; they don't carve out their own paths.

Garrus's dad's not dumb, and he's not cruel, and he, too, rose to the top of the C-Sec hierarchy. He took one look at his kid, I think, and said, "I love my child, but I'd say it's a 50-50 chance he ends up a shooting-first-asking-questions-later Spectre like Saren Arterius, and I don't want to see that happen." Yeah, he uses his parental influence to try and jam square-peg-Garrus into round-hole-C-Sec and Garrus resents him for it, but there's no way he did it just to stop his son from getting his way or because he doesn't like Spectres. I expect Vakarian Sr. had to clean up more post-Spectre-interference messes than we can possibly imagine. But we also know he and Alec Ryder were pals later.

So the importance of what Garrus learns from a Paragon Spectre Shepard is this: You can't just do what you want and claim the ends always justify the means. That's what Saren does. Over and over again. Garrus's code and his idealism and his sense of justice and his ability to work alone should make him a great Spectre, actually, but he needs Paragon Spectre Shepard's actions to show him the lesson he tells her he's learned during ME1: "If the people I'm sworn to protect can't trust me... well, then I don't deserve to be the one protecting them." (And the seed of Archangel was planted.) I think for the first time he realizes that even though he believes his sense of justice to be correct, it doesn't matter for shit if he can't show others why that's so. And that's where the trust comes in. (Also, ow, the extra level of importance this gives their exchange where she tells him she trusts him and he tells her she's about the only friend he has left is... a lot. Cool, cool. I'm totally fine. Nothing to see here.)

When Shepard asks him what happened on Omega, he replies, "My feelings got in the way of my better judgement." Something tells me that this never happens to "good" turians, which just makes the line so much more devastating. And although the lesson some might take away from this is "feelings bad; no feelings ever," the "grey" that Garrus has to learn to deal with is precisely the grey of recognizing feelings, validating them even, but not acting on them until they've been examined. (Which is why my Shepard stands between him and Sidonis; she doesn't give a shit about Sidonis. But Garrus has refused to process his own feelings of failure and self-loathing, so they have to take the therapy session to the Citadel and deal with it there.)

Ahh yes. The mountain range of character analysis.

[mzz-hyde]

Never be better than commander Shepard ❤️‍🔥

If you like my art, you can buy me a cup of coffe - https://ko-fi.com/its_mzz_hyde

[frecklef0x]

If anyone deserves their soft epilogue it’s these guys, for real

[monowires]

METAMORPHOSIS

done by me in procreate, 5/1/23 (approx. 4 hours)

[meowsgirldrawing]

Mass Effect-New Escort- Chapter 1

Signal Start

Word Count- 1,866

AO3- Link

Masterlist-----Next

Shepard walks out from the elevator, stifling a yawn as she makes her way to her terminal. With still tired eyes, she runs through her emails, marking the long ones to read back at her cabin while the shorter ones she takes care of now. Considering how early it is, most of the crew isn’t present, still sleeping away. Even Kelly hasn’t shown up yet. Shepard doesn’t know if she is happy or neutral about it, considering how baggy her eyes almost drag at the moment.

Two arms wrap around her waist, startling her at first- before she relaxes at the fluttering of mandibles against the side of her head. “Garrus, what are you doing up?”

“I should be asking you that.”

She rolls her eyes, a smile tugging on her lips, “I am the Commander, so I have to at least be one of the early ones.”

“Not what you said yesterday morning.” He hums.

“Do as I say, not as I do..”

He chuckles, causing her smile to fill out more. Mornings like these are ones she savors the most. Just a calm, genuine one. No hurry, no deadline, a chance to ignore the threat of the Reapers just for one second, a chance to feel somewhat normal.

Well, as normal as they can get in between downtime on the search for stopping the Reapers. They’ve been acting more like freelancers as of lately, taking care of jobs the Alliance sends out such as rescue, escort, and more treacherous ones that need the Normandy SR2 crew to take on. All beginning after the Suicide Mission that turned so not as the name suggest, everyone coming out safe and accounted for, save for the short lingering injuries.

Now Shepard is just hoping the next one is rather calmer than the last, given the fact she, Garrus, and Samara almost got blown up at a mining facility that pirates tried taking from the Alliance. Her muscles still ache slightly from all the running, nothing she isn’t used to of course, just gets annoying after a while. However, with the warm body pressed against her softly, it does distract her enough.

“Why haven’t you got coffee then? Don’t need you snapping at the crew like a wild varren.” Garrus suggests, nudging her head gently.

She simply shrugs, “You did say they looked cute.”

He laughs lightly, “Alright, you MUST be exhausted out of your mind, because I never ever have even said anything like that before. You’re probably mistaking me for Jack. First time I’ve seen her genuinely happy about something that didn’t involve killing or hurting someone.”

“Someone said it, I honestly can’t remember who.” She blinks then rubs her eyes. “Fuck, that last mission screwed with me.”

Garrus goes silent, staring at the monitor. His face was devoid of emotion for a few moments.

“Garrus?” Shepard asks. When she receives no response, she gets worried. “Garrus, honey.”

“Do you want me to take over emails for a moment?” His murmur is close to quiet. That prompts her to quickly look over.

“Oh c’mon…” She glares. A new email has popped up, labeled important from Admiral Hacket. Garrus leans back, resting his palms on her hips as she sighs and straightens up, ready for whatever new assignment. Well, maybe not completely ready. Her body feels a tired wince as she forces the sleep out at last.

Opening it up, she reads it through carefully as she does with every other one. To sum it up, there is a mysterious signal that the Alliance’s posts haven’t seen before. They have gotten the location, bits of the message uncoded, and every other thing done, but something about it has specifically needed Shepard’s attention. She almost scoffed at his words, only to stop short when she opened the file he sent as well.

“There’s no Shep0-1-0-1-0-1-0-” A few, unreadable inscriptions follow after it.

Her mutter is soft, “What the….”

Garrus, who has been reading over her shoulder, squints at it. “Is that…your name? Or at least part of it?”

“I guess so..” She swiftly starts writing a response to the Admiral, letting him know that she’s on it. Her sleepiness leaves no trace as she calls out to EDI, “EDI, do me a favor and clear this message up?”

“Of course, Shepard. It might take a few moments.”

“No prob, bob. Garrus, can you see if Miranda is up? She might want to look at this.”

“You got it.” He nods, but before he leaves, he presses his mouth plates against her head once more then goes. Switching from caring boyfriend to business.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It’s where?” Jacob asks, looking at the data map with raised brows as EDI narrows down the location.

“Therum, a planet known in the Knossos System.”

“That place hasn’t been touched in years.” Thane comments. Zaeed glances over, “Didn't take you for a materials bug.”

“I’m not. Some of my assignments have been in similar places before.” He blinks, sitting straighter in his chair.

Zaeed shrugs.

“Hey- wait, isn’t that the place we found Liara in?” Garrus asks.

“Yep,” Shepard nods, smirking at the memory of her other best friend. She’s grown a lot from being a damsel in distress. “So much nostalgia, don’t you agree, Tali?”

Tali sighs, “Don’t remind me, I never thought I would get thrown by a krogan that fast or hard before.”

“How’s that message coming along, EDI?” Miranda asks. She has her arms crossed next to Shepard. Second in command as usual.

“One moment. The message is heavily encrypted, it’s coding suggests it was customly made from scratch.”

“Isn’t all messages like that though?” Grunt asks, confused.

“Yes. But this one has no initial address of where it’s actually from. What I have gathered shows no indication that it was made anywhere in the galaxy.”

“Wait.” Shepard pauses, raising a brow. “So what you’re saying is, the signal just randomly popped out of nowhere, with it’s only purpose being to send out a direct message. And where it was made is just..gone, out of existence?”

“Correct.”

“I..haven’t heard of that before. Even some of the most top-secret signals or messages have their own initial location or person. After some digging of course.” Miranda presses hand to her chin, furrowing her brow. What is this…thing?

“So we’re fucking dealing with someone or something that obviously knows how to cover it’s tracks. Great, just great.” The scoff from Jack has Shepard glancing over to her seat.

EDI’s voice continues over the comms. “In addition, I have successfully made the message readable….” She trails off. Shepard and some others look up.

“EDI?” Tali asks tentatively, “Is something wrong?”

“Besides the goddamn mystery fuck we’re dealing with? What else?” Zaeed rolls his two toned eyes.

EDI finally responds, “Apologies. Shepard, We had suspicion the message was directed personally towards you. However, the message suggests more.”

“What? The hell do you mean?”

“Sending message to visual.”

The message pops up on the hologram, floating innocently above the table. As if it’s words don’t mean to cause both their Commander and sniping Turian to tense up in astonishment and confusion.

There’s No Shepard Without Vakarian

“What the fuck is this? Some little catchphrase for the two of ya?” The real freelancer sits up straighter, staring a whole into the visual like everyone else.

Not a sound comes from even Jack and Grunt as they attempt to figure out why it’s directed at the two specifically. The krogan only tilts his head while Jack squints at it.

“...No? I..I don’t think I’ve seen this before or heard it.” Garrus stands up, leaning against the table, like getting closer will clear up the obvious.``Shepard?” He glances at her, who in return shakes her head without looking at him.

Pinching her brow, Shepard calls back out to EDI, “EDI, tell Joker to plot a course to Therum. If this…whatever it is, is asking for us directly then we need to get to it quickly.”

“Right away, Shepard.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you sure this is a wise idea, Commander?” Samara finally has her say, “Clearly you and Garrus are their intended target, will this not just be giving them what they want?” She keeps a level gaze with Shepard.

“I agree” Thane has his hands folded together as he sits on the other side of the two. “Are we sure this isn’t the Reapers? Or maybe even some fooling attempt from the Illusive Man?”

“Scans give no sign or Reapers or the Illusive Man.” It’s Legion that answers the questions now, the plates surrounding the light on his head flicking calmly.

Jack leans back in her chair, nodding towards the geth, “Besides, the fuck does that bastard know about Shep’s and chicken legs’,” Garrus deadpans at her. “Relationship thing? At that point he’ll just be looking like some sad, butt-hurt puppy grasping at straws.”

“And I doubt the Reaper’s give a damn about it. The only thing they care about is death and destruction.” Jacob shakes his head.

“So!” Shepard claps her hands, grabbing everyone’s attention once more. ( Much to the relief of Garrus )She gives a sarcastic grin, “Are we all in agreement then?”

Zaeed shrugs, “Might as well. We didn’t survive that godforsaken collector mission just to run away from shit like these. It’s been boring with all the fucking escorts.” Jack’s chuckle is clear; she agrees as Grunt growls lowly, both ready for something more challenging than the so-called bullshit they’ve been doing. With how they agree on things, Shepard thinks they would be the best of friends. Sadly no.

The others do their response of a nod or acceptance.

Kasumi appears next to Shepard, omni-tool out and ready with an excited grin, “In the meantime- I’m going to crack the code on finding out this beauty’s making location..Seeya!” She blips out after scanning the message.

“Who are you going to have for the groundsteam, Shepard?” Miranda asks, turning to her.

“Garrus is obviously going- if you’re cool with that?” She looks down at her boyfriend, he makes a turian noise equivalent to a snort, “Oh yeah, of course, always wanted to go check out a mysterious place that called me by name.”

Tali cuts in with what sounds like a smirk in her voice, “You do remember that you joined Shepard and I last time we went down there, right? So it isn’t that mysterious.”

Mordin’s omni-tool flashes as he brings up the planet, “Also same weather and atmosphere as records stated before. Old outposts, but still. Normal for planet standards.”

“See! Just as we left it!”

“Does that mean you wanna go down there too, Tali?” Garrus teases.

She looks down at her omni-tool, “Oh dear, I see an update I have to take care of for my suit- I don’t think I can help.”

“That’s what I thought.” He hums, leaning back with his arms now folded.

“Kasumi?”

The hooded woman appears next to Jacob. He jerks back slightly, before sighing. “I’m game!” She replies.

“Good. The rest of you, I’ll assign when we see our destination more clearly on the planet surface. In the meantime, dismissed.” She says with a nod.

[lorekeeper-backset]

Hacket's always surprised when I end a mission without bloodshed as if I'm not the Queen of Paragon.

[grtmnick]

Just had to boost this great art!

[lukedanger]

Another one for @cannot-rest and the Ashley Appreciation Week. This one focusing on Ashley and (Paragon) Shepard’s dichotomy.

One aspect of Ashley and Shepard’s relationship, specifically with Paragon Shepard, that I think is often slept on is that at the end of the day their motives are not that different. The game would have us believe it to be an opposites attract because Ashley is coded to prefer Renegade choices. The ignorant would have us believe she is everything Paragon Shepard should stand against. In truth, their motives are remarkably similar, only looking different because of the lens that their motives are shined through and the experiences with authority shaping their outlooks accordingly.

Ashley herself says that she sees Earth’s interests as her own, and we see it early. She takes a huge risk as the most vulnerable crewman on the SSV Normandy to check Shepard about the wisdom of allowing two potentially very unreliable unknowns on the ship with full access to systems they had no business accessing as auxiliaries to the marine detachment. And going by how many people want to nuke her for it, I’d say her fears were well justified. Come Virmire, she repeatedly volunteers for the most dangerous jobs based on available information. And if she had any inklings of there being glory, the sheer amount of undue hate she got in boot camp and beyond would put to bed any notions she had for the glory in war’s hell. She knows how the sausage is made, and is ready to make it if necessary.

Paragon Shepard joined the Alliance Marines not dissimilarly - they want to do what is best for the Alliance, and heavily believe that a part of that means being part of the wider galactic community. And as we all know, Paragon Shepard will go to great lengths to do the right thing and is willing to make the necessary personal sacrifices. And despite being viewed as naive by some, Paragon Shepard is not unaware of how the sausage gets made. They just look for alternatives, even if it means choosing the harder path to avoid a choice that otherwise would be necessary.  And make no mistake, when faced with the situation that demands the horrible choice be made with no way around it, Paragon Shepard can and will make that choice. Arathot and the slave-majority population trapped there learned that in the shockwave of the destroyed Bahak Mass Relay.

Both of them, however, recognize that these choices may be necessary but it does not make them good. The right choice, maybe, but not the good one.

Beyond that, both are exemplars in different ways. During training, the records of which were nothing but praise when Shepard accessed them, Ashley had helped train the recruits who were lagging behind and brought them up to speed. Even soldiers who benefited from her being discriminated against looked up to her and did not enjoy her being bypassed even if it was to their benefit. Paragon Shepard needs no explanation, being a living exemplar of Mass Effect’s theme about how people can come together. Unlike Ashley, though, Shepard was given all sorts of opportunities while Ashley was deliberately sidelined by the brass. After all, if Ashley gained a reputation like Shepard, wouldn’t that bring the entire Shanxi affair into a much closer light that might make certain individuals in power look extremely suspect?

And that is where their differences began to manifest. Shepard was encouraged to be a Paragon (or Renegade, as that may be) by the brass and honored accordingly. Ashley by contrast gave them everything and for it they kicked her into multiple crap postings to try and dead end her career. Those experiences shaped them both very differently. Shepard came out believing in the system, Ashley was driven to cynicism. She knew that if humanity was this bad amongst their own, how would humanity and aliens alike be in a wider community? Paragon Shepard comes to believe that everyone can work together. Ashley had seen the dark side of humanity enough to know that if push came to shove, looking out for their own was more important.

In Paragon Shepard, however, she finds someone who both respects her as a person and is willing to argue with her as a peer. If Shepard tells Ashley to drop the discussion, she does so immediately. If Shepard keeps engaging with her, though, Ashley opens up because Shepard has asked and is engaging with her in a debate. At the end of the day, both want the Systems Alliance to succeed. The main sticking point is that Ashley does not believe that Earth can rely on their allies to survive as if push comes to shove, they will sacrifice Earth and humanity to save themselves*. Shepard, by contrast, believes that humanity needs to learn from those who have already been out here in the galaxy and that they can work together. They may not see eye to eye on everything, but they at least respect each other and their differing opinions. *After all, humanity would do the same if the situation was reversed, and Ashley knows it. They threw her whole family under the bus and still are.

And then Shepard gets the opportunity to convince Ashley to reconsider* - to swap out the lens she views everything through and to consider viewing from Shepard’s more big-picture examination. Ashley starts to weigh whether Earth could sacrifice a bit now to pay dividends later, whether they can really work with everyone rather than having to assume they’ll go it alone down the line. Yet the motive is still the same - what is best for Earth and the Systems Alliance? The difference is she stops assuming the Tragedy of the Commons is inevitable. *You know, if this wasn’t locked behind a romance… imagine if Leliana or Alistair could only be Hardened if you romanced them. That kneecaps their entire arc, doesn’t it?

That difference is huge, but it also brings to light what I would say is the most important part of Ashley and Shepard’s relationship. They are two people with very similar motives at the core - they want to put themselves between the galaxy’s horrors so someone they will probably never meet or know about doesn’t have to face it. They are both Alliance Soldiers (literally by character class, potentially) and are loyal to it at the end of the day. They both want to do the right thing, even if they may disagree on exactly what that is. And they can respect each other enough to discuss the argument and talk like people who are not so thin skinned that the first sign of a point that is disagreed with must be met with nuclear fire or the airlock.

With Ashley, Paragon Shepard has someone who can give them the calling out they need when their idealism might blind them. Someone who can present a coherent argument that isn’t “hard (wo)men making hard decisions (while hard)” or “I just want to shoot the bad guy and be done with it” for why certain Renegade actions might be wiser. Someone who also helps highlight why Paragon Shepard feels - it’s not just doing good for good’s sake, Paragon Shepard has logical reasonings behind it. The ability to learn from their allies, to not have to go it alone even if they should be able to stand on their own two feet. Without Ashley, who really allows Shepard to show that side of them?

With Shepard? Ashley has an exemplar who gives her the chance that has been long overdue for her, who respects her views on affairs even if they differ and is willing to argue with her point rather than hide behind “you’re a Williams”. Someone who shows her that maybe the galaxy doesn’t have to be as cynical as she feels it is. That maybe people need to believe in the ideals more openly, how else will they become? Paragon Shepard is that someone who can remove that cynicism that Ashley is wearing as an armor harness while respecting why she wears it and not force it off of her.

This is a point that fanfic authors using Ashley should lean into. That while at first sight she seems to disagree with Paragon Shepard, she’s actually driven by a very similar motive. If anything, I would posit the argument that Ashley embodies what Renegade Shepard claims to be - the person who makes the pragmatic choice no matter how distasteful it might be. The difference? Ashley would rather not pick the callous options that Renegade does with glee and sanctimonious cynicism, and Ashley actually weighs the morality of her actions rather than dismissing it as baggage.

Too bad Bioware decided not to do anything with it, especially since Ashley’s cynical stance has a particularly gaping hole in it: “What happens if survival of the one species requires all the species to cooperate to save themselves?” Mass Effect 3 is the perfect situation to put Ashley in a position where her old stance would doom everyone and she damn well knows it. Kaidan would be confronted by the challenges of convincing people to do what seems to be obvious, Ashley is confronted by having to overcome her own beliefs to act on what truly motivates her and in the process save as many as could be saved.

[keepitmovinshawty]

I’m doing 2 playthroughs simultaneously. One I’m a paragon who occasionally does renegade shit (like pushing that one guy out a glass wall 🤭). I plan on doing paragon all through 1 and 2. But I feel like in 3 Shepard should be fed up with everyone not listening to them for 3 years and now all of a sudden wanting them to rally the troops to save the day. So I’m gonna renegade most of my way through that game.

My other playthrough I’m just gonna be an asshole to everyone but Kaidan 🥰

[tarysande]

The best part about coming back to the source material after a looooong time is you sorta get a fresh look at canon in comparison to whatever the dominant strains of fanon have become. Or, in fact, whatever your own dominant strains of headcanon have become.

I mean, yes, Garrus “I’m not a good turian” Vakarian gets infinitely cooler (and more competent!) by pretty much every metric as the storyline progresses. He does. But fresh out of ME1 and into ME2 through his recruitment, I find myself genuinely amused by how thin the veneer of badass is over a pretty dominant core of straight-up nerd sprinkled with idealism mixed with self-doubt.

When you have Garrus in the squad all the time (and thus get all his ambient dialogue and remarks), you really pick up on the number of times he calls out bad behavior, unethical actions, cruelty, and rule-breaking, especially in ME1.

He’s not actually a hothead who can’t abide rules of any kind. In fact, most of the time he’s pretty pro-law-and-order, and he gets amusingly hall-monitorish when people are breaking rules he considers important and worth following.

Fundamentally, Garrus chafes when his sense of what is just is at odds with what the authorities do about that injustice (or what they stop him from doing). And I would hazard a guess that the reason his actions seem so intense or harsh or "of course we should have shot down that ship in the middle of the Citadel" is indicative not of his impatience but of the degree to which he thinks the authorities have failed to uphold that justice. We know he can be patient. He's a sniper. His whole modus operandi on Omega is precision kills without civilian casualty. But when that long fuse finally burns down, he goes from zero to shooting down ships in the middle of the Citadel in what looks (from the outside) like a heartbeat.

And yes, injured pride hastens the burning of that fuse; he doesn’t like losing. Or admitting defeat. Or failing.

Having just replayed his recruitment mission, a few things really stood out to me this time.

The merc bands really hate him--and they also reluctantly admire him (he's described as smart, resourceful, dangerous, idealistic, brave, slippery; they all agree they only way they managed to get this far is by isolating him and employing dirty tactics). I mean, there's literally a station-wide announcement that Omega can return to "business as usual" once Archangel is out of the picture because he was disrupting things so completely.

The way Garrus blames himself for the deaths of his squad is so freaking turian. Failure reflects on the leader who places his people in danger they can't handle, not the individual who fails. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Yes, Sidonis betrayed him, but the person Garrus blames the most? Is himself. For trusting Sidonis in the first place. For raising Sidonis to a position where he had the means and opportunity to harm others--and the weakness of character to turn coat, to save his own hide, instead of dying to protect the others.

Garrus mentions more than once that he was trying to emulate Shepard. And his tone always implies that he knows he failed because Shepard would never have let a Sidonis into the fold. Again, he's blaming himself. Like a good turian. Yes, he wanted to avoid the red tape and bureaucracy of C-Sec, but his code--Archangel's code--certainly aligns with Paragon Shepard's morality (with a Garrus Vakarian twist).

And since it wouldn't be meta without adding a Tara's Headcanon Twist ... I've always wondered why "Archangel" when it's such a ... human concept. But this time, when I noticed how he spoke about Shepard's influence, and how quickly he brushes aside the name when she asks him about it, I wondered if it wasn't actually his way of honoring the mythology of the dead woman whose example he was trying to follow. Not that Shepard is a God he's worshiping, but ... there is something about the way he talks about her. Garrus doesn't make himself over in the image of a God, though; he's the soldier, the right hand, the avenging angel responsible for carrying out divine punishments suited and proportional to the crimes committed, the rules broken, the selfishness or cruelty of the perpetrator.

[onetruechromosome]

It’s funny when doing the pull up challenge, there’s Paragon and Renegade options. Like some of the pull ups are evil.

[frecklef0x]

This is my son’s Shepard, Jack. He gave him red eyes and a heart of gold: peak character design 🌟

[meowsgirldrawing]

Mass Effect- New Escort- Chapter 2

Arrival! Mission is a go!

Word Count- 1,260

AO3- Link

Previous ----Masterlist 

“Holy shit.”

 “You can say that again.” Jack retorts. Staring down the planet's surface that was holding a massive, blown-out wave mark that surrounds one of the buildings. Everything else is blown apart or thrown several yards away, leaving a giant area of devastation. Thankfully, the people were pulled out years ago after they depleted most of the mining area, sent to another planet to continue work with Alliance Facilities.

 “Mordin, I thought you said the planet was still normal? Like we never even touched it?” Shepard takes her eyes off the holo-screen that Joker put through and glances over at him. The salarian doctor looks through his readings, eyes flicking everywhere on the screen, “Yes yes. Did say so. Something…off.”

“Shepard-Commander.” He grabs Shepard’s attention. She looks back at him, “Yeah? Did you and EDI find anything?”

 “Traces indicate the surface was altered 4 days ago.”

 This confuses her. A lot of confusion with this now dubbed Mysterious Message Mission (as Jack and Tali wanted to call it). “But Hacket said they got the message 2 days ago. How are the readings that far off?”

 “Unknown.”

Jack throws her arms up, almost hitting Thane in the face. He dodges it with a side-eye. “Great! This is just turning out fucking perfect! First a fucked up message, saying somthing fucking stupid and weird as hell, now this!”

 Miranda glares, “Cool down, Jack. We’re all confused on this one.”

 “Damn right we are, I’m actually enjoying this though.” She snarks back, a wild smirk on her lips.

 “Alright” Clearly done with the confusion nonsense, Shepard decides,” Kasumi, Garrus, suit up and meet me in the hanger. We need to figure this out, quick.

 The two nod, Kasumi blips out as Garrus makes his way to the armory. Shepard gives out some final commands, getting everyone to their assignment before heading up to her cabin to suit up.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Normandy to shore party, how are we doing?” Joker’s voice cuts through to the comms.

“Good so far, no sign of activity yet.” Garrus responds, keeping his gun held up as routine. They landed a good distance from the site, and since they don’t have the Makko or any other ground’s transport besides aircraft, they decided in the end that on foot would be safer once they got a certain distance from it.

 Joker snickers, “Don’t know if that’s good or bad then.”

 “Can’t really be favorites on those.”

 “Air team, what’s your status?” Shepard asks, coming behind a ruined building that looks to be barely holding together. The outer walls like most buildings around them, look almost chemically burned, lightning blue marks stretched across them all. In a miraculous event, the only building that doesn’t look to be affected at all is the one in the middle, connected to the planet’s underground with a tunnel.

 “No activity here. It’s all silent.” Miranda checks in. She along with Thane, Zaeed, and Mordin are in an aircraft however, ready to be their needed transport and to get the hell out of dodge if necessary. 

 “Fucking weird, boss lady.” Jack comments, “Geth boy said the systems here are all clocked out. Whatever hit here wasn’t playing around.”

 “We are not a boy, we are Geth.” Legion corrects.

 “Whatever, dude.” Shepard and her team round up on the building closest to the untouched one, leaning against a still standing wall. Not the best cover, but it’ll do for now.

 “Makko team?” 

 “Nothing.” Grunt..well, grunts. He is with Samara, Jack, and Legion as the backup team to follow behind them once they enter the building. In case things go south, they come in and help out.

“What about you Tali?”

 “Nothing here either, Shepard.” Tali was to be on the ship to help EDI pick up anything that Legion or Mordin can’t get. 

“Alright then. Let me know if something comes up, we’re going in. Team, follow behind and stay quiet.”

Garrus raises a brow as Kasumi giggles, “Have you met us, Shep? That’s a pretty tall order.” Shepard shrugs in response, “Figured we could try at least.”

 They continue their course, stepping over chunks of planet matter and parts of utterly destroyed buildings. Their weapons stay up; with the current circumstances, they don’t want any chances of being caught off guard. 

“So..what do you guys think it is?” 

 Shepard glances at her, a narrow in her brow, “Kasumi.”

 “What?” She-thief blinks back at her. As far as she’s guessing from the blank look she can see under the hood. “C’mon, you guys especially have to be curious. I mean, Normandy’s lovebirds being summoned on a place they’ve worked on before? Wait…” She sends a look and grin to Garrus, “Is this some turian-natured proposal, G?”

 “W-what?!” Shepard shushes him quickly, glancing around the corner, into the now open door of the building.

 He clears his throat and glares at Kasumi, who smiles innocently. “No. No, it isn’t. Besides, a turian proposal would be more private, or more…polite? I don’t know, it just wouldn’t be on a planet we found someone else on.” Shaking his head, “Not this confusing nonsense.”

 “So No Shepard Without Vakarian wasn’t you then?” She’s teasing him now. 

 “No. It wasn’t. Stop it.”

 She giggles, “Only a tease, sniper boy.”

 He rolls his eyes as Shepard leads them in. They turn the lights attached to their guns on as Kasumi flicks to invisible again. The room around them was dark and cold, much to the dismay of their turian teammate. Shepard herself doesn’t know what to make of it, something obviously happened here, but the place is empty, save for furniture. The only sign someone was here is the footprints on scans of multiple people which they can guess were the people from before.

 “Shepard.” EDI.

 “Talk to me EDI.” She looks over a thrown over table as Garrus watches behind them. Kasumi’s cloak shines past her, walking around to inspect the room further.

 “Tali and I have found an airship 20 kilometers away, it’s batarian style.”

 “Wait what. How did you guys find it just now?”

 “Batarian? This day just keeps getting better.” Garrus mutters before he notices something. He checks Shepard, she's scanning her light over the blank ways, walking over to it.

 “Something messed with the links all over this planet. It knocked out anything that could be detected.” Tali cuts in to explain. “It’s possible the wave that hit the outpost accidentally or not rendered all others to go offline.”

 “So it made their ship practically invisible.” Scoffing at the idea, Shepard rubs her neck. “Alright, anything else we should know?”

 Garrus speaks up, “Shepard, you might want to see this.” He holds up his light as she walks over to join him. With her at his side, she realizes what he meant. His light shines over them, many of them along with a half-burned glove on the ground. 

 “Bullet holes.”

 “Yep, and this.” He grabs the glove, lifting it and rubbing his thumb over it to move it around. 

Hold up, “Wait..can i-?” Once she sees it fully, she counts, “..Three, four..That’s four fingers. Three and a thumb. And I don’t think it’s from a drell, they’re all the same size.”

 “Unless we’re dealing with someone who lost a finger, I don’t think we’re dealing with a species we’ve seen before.” 

 “Shep! Oi, Shep-shep!” Kasumi whispers-shouts from a doorway, “Over here! I think I found something.”

 The two glance at each other, then check their guns before following her. “Looks like we’re about to find out.” Garrus notes.

[briarfox13]

Happy N7 Day everyone!! ❤️💙