AN:- The long awaited sequel. It's finally here.

Chapter One: Earth

Maia Shepard sat in a cell and stared at the new dress uniform she had been issued. More specifically she stared at the new insignia on it. Because to her it looked a hell of a lot like a captain's insignia. And that was what the official looking letter had cited her as, in the same paragraph that it declared she was going to lose her commission.

The door slid open and James Vega strolled in. She had so far only spoken to him while they were off duty, which for her was now apparently an all the time sort of deal. He grinned when he saw what she was looking at.

"They promoted you?"

She nodded and ran her fingers over the bars, enjoying the tactile sensation of the metal under her enhanced fingertips. Six months in what was practically solitary confinement had finally given her enough time to come to grips with the majority of her cybernetic upgrades. "Technically they've been promoting me ever since I destroyed Saren and saved the Council. I guess it just took up until now for it to finally come through."

"Just in time for them to drum you out of the military."

"Well you know what they say about the wheels of bureaucracy."

She chuckled and tossed the jacket over the back of her chair, pacing over to the window. "When it comes to wheels and bureaucracy I'm mostly familiar with crushing sensations I'm afraid."

He stood next to her and they both looked down at the view. Lots of water and chromed metal, all very regimented and precise. She found that much comforting. Being planet side for so long was never her first choice.

"Any idea when the court martial is?"

He shifted uncomfortably and she grinned. "Forget I asked. I'm just going a little stir crazy, cooped up in here."

"Understandable."

Outside her window she could see a small grassy area, a couple of people walking across it and looking out across the water. "They have no idea," she said quietly.

"Shepard?"

She shook her head. "Forget it." She rolled her shoulders and stepped back from the window. "Poker?"

/|\

Hands reached out from every direction to claw at her, pulling her from her bed and down into darkness. It smothered her, filling her lungs as she took a desperate breath. Something had her round the neck, and she struggled to fight it off, trying to call out for her allies. Strong fingers gripped her face and wrenched her head round. She stared into brown eyes she recognised, a strong face that still held kindness.

Or had, when he had been alive. Now Kaidan stared at her with nothing but hatred, his eyes beginning to glow from within, metal pushing aside the human eyeballs. His cheeks sank deep into his face and the skin stretched back on the skull, turning grey as circuitry pushed through from beneath. The unearthly screech filled her head and no matter how she tried to turn away she was forced to watch as the husk of Kaidan began to burn from the inside with nuclear fire.

She woke up on the floor, her heart hammering, drenched in sweat and desperately struggling to draw breath. Her fingers hurt and she realised she had clawed at the floor hard enough to tear her nails. Snatching her hand to her chest she fought her way out of the bedding and managed to stand, staggering to the bathroom and falling against the sink.

The energy drained out of her and she sank to the floor, curling up around the sick feeling in her stomach. Another side effect of Miranda's experiments on her. No matter how much she wanted to and how hard she tried she was entirely unable to vomit anything other than actual poison. Her lungs were finally working again, and she drew in several shaking breaths as her head slumped against the wall.

/|\

A little boy was playing with a toy shuttle on the grass area outside her window. She watched him with a faint smile tugging at her lips as he ran round and round with it. She could absolutely imagine him making the whooshing noises and playing that his shuttle was about to set down on some unknown planet. She could faintly remember doing the same thing once upon a time. A little bit too long ago for her liking, but she could appreciate the reminder.

Her door cycled open and she heard the distinctive heavy tread of James, turning away from the window to smile at him as he snapped to attention and saluted. "Commander."

"You're not supposed to call me that anymore James," she said. No matter his informal manner when off duty she hadn't been able to make him relax when on duty. "And isn't it Captain now?"

"Not supposed to salute you either." The words were joking but he hadn't cracked a smile. "We gotta go." There it was. "The Defence Committee wants to see you."

"Sounds important." She crossed to the door and out into the hall, watching half a dozen marines hurry past her.

"What's going on?"

James led her through the building at a jog. She had barely seen any of it, preferring to stay in her room. "Couldn't say. They just told me they needed you." A stern looking officer actually ran past them and James gave her a significant look. "Now."

Up ahead she finally saw a face she recognised, in the middle of a concourse with people swarming around him. She and Vega came to a halt and Vega saluted.

Shepard simply nodded. "Anderson."

"Admiral," Vega said.

Still no smiles, even from the admiral. Perhaps there was a real situation here. "You look good Shepard, maybe a little soft round the edges." He turned on his heel and started marching away from the little crowd of people that had congregated around him. "How you holding up since being relieved from duty?"

She grinned. Having spent most of the last year feeling like she was deathly gaunt and pale it was actually a relief to have recovered some of the flesh to her face. "It's not so bad once you get used to the hot food and soft beds."

"We'll get that sorted out."

They had to pause at the bottom of some stairs as a whole cabal of officers went hurrying past them. "What's going on?" She asked. "Why is everyone in such a hurry?"

"Admiral Hackett's mobilising the fleets. I'm guessing word's made it to Alliance Command. Something big's heading our way."

Her chest went cold and the memory of Kaidan, husk eyes blazing in his face, caught her. "The Reapers."

Anderson carried on up the stairs. "We don't know, not for certain."

"What else could it be?"

"If I knew that…" He shrugged.

"You know we're not ready if it is them, not by a long shot."

"Tell that to the Defence Committee."

She was beginning to feel a special hatred for that particular C word. "Unless they're planning to talk the Reapers to death the Committee is a waste of time."

"They're just scared. None of them have seen what you've seen. You've faced down the Reapers. Hell you spoke to one, then blew the damn thing up. You've seen how they harvest us, what they plan to do to us. You know more about this enemy than anyone."

Thanks, because I wasn't aware of my own achievements. And nightmares. "That why they grounded me, took away my ship?"

He rounded on her and she was shocked at the anger in his eyes. "You know that's not true! When you blew up the batarian relay hundreds of thousands of batarians died."

She bristled. Of anyone she would have expected him to understand how that would weigh on her. "It was that or let the Reapers walk through our backdoor."

"I know that Shepard." Anderson took a breath and calmed down considerably. "And so does the Committee. If it wasn't for that you'd have been court-martialled and left to rot in the brig."

"That and your good word." She couldn't keep the sarcasm from her voice.

"Yeah." She didn't recognise the part of the building he had brought her into. "I trust you Shepard. And so does the Committee."

Just what I wanted. More trust on my shoulders. "I'm just a soldier Anderson, I'm no politician."

"I don't need you to be either. I just need you to do whatever the hell it takes to stop the Reapers."

And if it's not possible?"

One of the aides looked up and saw the three of them approaching. "They're expecting you too Admiral," she said, pointing them through a doorway to one side of the central area.

Anderson marched on ahead as Shepard turned back to Vega. "Good luck in there Shepard," he said with sincerity, holding out his hand.

She shook it gratefully, then cocked her head as a familiar voice came to her.

"Shepard."

She turned and stared in shock at the woman who was now talking to the Admiral. "Ashley?"

It was quite clear that none of them knew quite how to react to her being so informal with them. She was actually enjoying it. If they wanted to take away her commission then they could deal with her calling them by their first names. Ashley twitched a little at it.

"Lieutenant-Commander," Anderson said. "How'd it go in there?"

"I can never tell with them. I'm just waiting for orders now."

Same old Ashley. But something new. "Lieutenant-Commander?"

"You hadn't heard."

"No. I'm a bit out of the loop these days." Once more the bite of sarcasm she couldn't quite disguise. After Ashley had been so cruel to her about being left out of the loop regarding her resurrection.

It was clear the other woman understood the remark, and if possible her spine stiffened even more. "Sorry ma'am, didn't mean to keep you out of the loop."

Oh stop torturing her. "I'm sure you had your reasons."

"Yeah, I guess I did." With a noticeable effort Ashley managed to pull herself back together. "Still, good to see you."

"Admiral," a voice from ahead called.

"Come on."

As she marched away Shepard heard Vega stepping up next to Ashley and speaking to her. Probably neither of them knew that enhanced hearing had been part of the standard upgrades she received.

"You know the Commander?" Vega was asking.

"I used to."

Ouch.

/|\

She didn't recognise any of the brass that assembled before them. She did recognise the looks of fear on their faces though.

"Admiral Anderson. Shepard." She accepted, even enjoyed it, from her ex-comrades and friends. But from these admirals it was only a reminder of what they had taken from her.

"What's the situation?" She asked.

"We were hoping you would tell us."

Someone handed her a datapad and she read it, trying to make sense of the information. She had never even seen half the codes, and the numbers surely couldn't make sense.

"The reports coming in are unlike anything we've seen. Whole colonies have gone dark. We've lost contact with everything beyond the Sol relay."

Her gut tightened. The numbers weren't inaccurate. Six months. How could they have kept her out of the situation for so long? How could they possibly have locked her in a room, offered no information and demanded none from her? How could they act so shocked now?

"Whatever this is, it's incomprehensibly powerful."

"You brought me here to confirm what you already know." She handed the datapad back. "The Reapers are here."

The male admiral at the centre of the table leaned forwards and frowned. "Then how do we stop them?"

"Stop them?" She let the incredulity creep into her voice. She had been used to disbelief and ignorance from her superiors, but this was beyond belief. "This isn't about strategy or tactics. This is about survival. The Reapers are more advanced than we are. More powerful, more intelligent. They don't fear us. And they'll never take pity on us."

"But there must be some way."

"If we're gonna have any chance of surviving this we have to stand together."

"That's it, that's your plan?"

She took a deep breath and prepared herself for another argument when one of the aides cut her off.

"Admiral, we've lost contact with Luna base." Her skin prickled and she stared out of the window at the cold grey sky above them.

Anderson was marching over to the aide, muttering as he went. "With Luna? They couldn't be after us already."

"How'd they get past our defences?" One of the admirals asked.

"Sir, UK headquarters has a visual."

She didn't need to see the viewscreens. She already knew what she would see. She had been watching exactly the same footage for nearly three years now, ever since that first broadcast from Eden Prime. The horrifying screech that scratched at the back of your skull, the fear and panic that was greater than anything you ever thought you could feel.

The signal from the viewscreens cut out as she took a faltering step towards the window, still staring up at the clouds. The viewscreens replaced the military footage with standard news footage showing the sheer scope of it. The gigantic forms of the Reapers, terrifying enough when they had encircled the Citadel, seemed simply too large inside of human cities. Things of that magnitude were meant to remain in space.

The panicked shouting started to filter through to her again. "Why haven't we heard from Admiral Hackett?"

No one seemed to understand. The Reapers hadn't bypassed their defences. There was no clever trick to this. They couldn't contact Admiral Hackett because Admiral Hackett, along with his ship and all the fleets of humanity, didn't exist anymore.

"What do we do?"

"The only thing we can." She was barely aware of the words coming from her own mouth, the conviction of them surprised her. "We fight or we die."

Anderson touched her arm and she turned to meet his eyes. "We should get to the Normandy."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the window lit up with bright red and a laser cut through the clouds above them, lancing into the city across the river and producing a massive flare of light.

"Oh my God."

Shepard's head split open as a booming roar split the sky and a Reaper landed directly in front of the window, the red eye of its laser already pointing in towards them.

"Move!" She shouted, turning and running for the door. "Go! Go! Go!"

Before she could take more than three steps the window exploded and a shockwave crashed against her back, someone screamed and she was knocked forwards as something collided with her shoulder. Everything went slow for a moment and she watched as the admirals' table went by her, and then she was slamming into the far wall.

Her ear filters had closed, and the world was dark after the flash of the laser. She coughed and rolled onto her front, shaking her head to try and clear her senses again. She could hear Anderson shouting at her, still muffled but getting clearer. "Shepard! Shepard!" He grabbed her arm and helped her to stand. "Shepard. Come on get up."

Once she was on her feet he shoved a pistol into her hand and she shook the last of the cotton wool from her brain. "Here take this, we've got to get through."

He moved away, activating his comm. unit. "This is Admiral Anderson, report in anyone." She knelt next to one of the bodies while he sent out his call, but it was too late for most of the people in the room. "Lieutenant Williams is that you? What's your status? I can't raise the Normandy, you'll have to contact them, we'll meet you at the landing zone, Anderson out."

He looked over to Shepard, then nodded to the blaster open window. "Come on Shepard, Ashley's heading to the Normandy, they'll pick us up if we can get to the spaceport. Let's move."

The building had been blasted almost in half by the laser blast, several of the support beams jutting out and providing them a makeshift walkway to get away.

Ahead of them another Reaper flew overhead, its laser flash-boiling the water at their feet and sending a plume of super-heated steam up right past them. Shepard shielded her face, keeping her eyes locked on the Reaper as it soared past them, heading deeper into the city. Anderson was getting back to his feet.

"How do you stop something so powerful?"

She didn't have an answer for him.

As they dropped down off the broken supports and onto more sturdy ground a gunship flew over their heads, pursued closely by three drones of a make Shepard had never seen before. The red blast of a Reaper laser shot from the front of the lead drone and the gunship disintegrated where it had been hit, spiralling out of control and slamming into the side of a building ahead of them. What little defences were left were being torn apart by the Reapers.

There was a ladder ahead that they scaled as quickly as they could, continuing their mad run across the rooftops as all around them the Reapers continued to demolish the city. Anderson was back on the comm, his voice a reassuring counterpoint to the destruction.

"Lieutenant Commander. You read me? I'm patching in Shepard."

Her own ear-bud crackled and Ashley's voice came over the radio. "We're almost to the Normandy, I've got Lieutenant Vega with me, but we're taking heavy fire." The transmission was fading in and out, distorted or jammed she couldn't tell.

"We're about five minutes out, we'll- Husks!"

Ahead of them she saw the distinctive creatures, long-limbed and with the staggering, hunched gait she had become so used to. It was instinct at this moment for her to snap the pistol up and double tap each of them in the head before they could even take one more step towards them.

Anderson looked back at her with an eyebrow raised. "I guess you haven't lost your edge."

In answer she knocked the heat sink free and loaded a new one in before taking point again.

There was another ladder at the end of the roof they were on, and she slid down it to the balcony below, where more husks were crawling up the walls towards her. A detached part of her mind took over, putting her on autopilot to knock each one down, even as the rest of her tried to shy away from the horror of the situation. She was so used to killing these things, across a hundred different worlds in a hundred different ways, but she had never imagined she would ever see them crawling the walls of Earth. Even to this minute it had seemed inconceivable the Reapers could ever be allowed to come so far.

She went to open the door but before she could reach it another Reaper blast cut through the water next to them, the explosive force blasting out half the wall and sending her staggering back. Anderson was at her side again, steadying her and allowing her to stand straight and shake off the momentary confusion.

They raced into the burning building, where the far door was sparking and trying to open. She ran across and slid her fingers into the gap, hauling at it with her enhanced muscles. It sprang open, and all at once her world was filled with screaming as a husk barged into her and screamed down at her, the screech torn over ruined vocal cords.

Her pistol was rising as the door slammed closed again, nearly cutting it in half. It continued to bat for her as she scooted back and got to her feet, keeping her pistol trained on it the whole time. Before she could waste the shot Anderson stepped into her view, his omni-tool activated and sporting what looked like a blade on the end. In one sweep he took the husk's head clean off before turning back to her.

"Nice." Her voice croaked and she coughed to clear the smoke from her lungs. "Where can I get one?"

He managed a faint grin beneath the dirt and grime. "Latest upgrade. They've been trying to keep it quiet."

"Right." It felt good, even for a moment, to discuss something so mundane as upgrading software. But the roar of the battle outside was growing louder than ever. She stepped past to help him slide open the door again, letting the body of the husk drop to the floor. As he headed through, hand back to the comm. unit, she half-heard, half-sensed another presence in the room.

Pistol up she scanned, finding an air vent on the side of the wall that had been knocked loose, and from inside a shadow moved. She crouched down and peered round, but instead of the expected glowing blue eyes she met all too human ones, terrified and young. It was, astonishingly, the young boy she had seen earlier. He was curled up into a ball and staring at her, half-mad from panic.

"Hey," she said, putting her gun away and casting a quick glance to Anderson, who was still talking. She looked back to the boy and tried to smile. "It's ok."

"Everyone's dying." His voice was so soft she almost missed it, and the simple fear in the childlike statement made her heart ache.

"Come here," she said, extending her hand. "I need to get you someplace safe, take my hand."

"You can't help me."

"Shepard." Anderson's voice caught her attention and she turned to see him motioning to her. "In here."

"I've got…" She turned back to see the vent empty. She crawled forwards and half into the vent, but it split into three even in the part she could see. He could have gone anywhere. "Never mind." She stood and jogged into the next room, which was as much a mess as the rest of the city. Anderson was struggling to move a beam out of the way on the other side of the room.

"This is a goddamn mess. Every minute these machines are here thousands of innocent people die. I won't be responsible."

She grabbed the beam and hauled once, shifting it clean out of the way and exposing a small path. Anderson was still talking. "It's hard enough fighting a war, but it's worse knowing no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all."

He moved under the beams, ducking low to the floor. She followed in silence, letting him talk.

"So fast…" He sighed. "I thought we had more time."

"We knew they were coming."

"And they still just cut through our defences. We need to go to the Citadel, talk to the Council."

"The fight's here," she pointed out, though even she could hear the lack of conviction in her words.

"It'll be everywhere soon enough. You said it yourself. The Reapers will destroy everything if we don't stop them. The Council has to help us."

She shook her head as they reached the end of the beams. "You sure about that?"

They were out over a harsh drop now, but there was still enough of the floor left that they could edge along.

"No." She hadn't thought he had heard her. "But you're a Council SPECTRE, that has to count for something."

She almost smiled at the naivety in that statement. Being a SPECTRE hadn't exactly worked out ever since she got the title.

At the end of the drop they stepped out into another open area, and across the water she could at last see the spaceport.

Swarming with Reapers.

"Lieutenant Commander Williams we're inbound to the spaceport. ETA three minutes."

The communications were more garbled than ever. "We've made it… -rmandy… ta-heavy fire." Even over the commline Shepard could hear the rhythmic crack of rifles.

They moved forwards again, but suddenly the world tipped sideways and she was rolling down a sheer drop, gathering speed before slamming hard into the ground. She rolled onto her front and forced herself up, checking for Captain Anderson, who had thankfully had a slightly less abrupt descent. He was on his feet and still on the comm. as she looked up and saw a Reaper soaring away. It must have come down within feet of them, yet somehow still missed crushing them. She felt another charge being made against her bank of luck.

How many more of those do I get?

"Normandy, we're going to reroute, do you copy? Normandy come in?"

There was no response from her comm. unit either. Trying to ignore the cold feeling in her gut she looked around from where they had landed and saw a gunship had come down just ahead of them, and it looked like two crewmembers had survived, though one of them had been pinned by something. She drew her pistol and forced herself on again, dropping off the short ledge to their level.

"You two alright?" Anderson said as he joined them.

"Get down," one of them hissed. "They'll see you."

She frowned, leaning out of cover for one moment to see three enemies a short distance away. They looked like nothing she had fought before, though to her horror she thought she recognised what they had once been. Their faces were distorted and their bodies bulging, but she recognised the distinctive arrangement of the eyes.

Batarians, mutated in that special way only the Reapers knew how. She ducked back under cover and knelt next to the beam that was trapping the other soldier.

"What happened here?" She asked, sliding her fingers under the beam.

"Our gunship was shot down, we barely made it." The other crewman got his hands under the beam as well, thinking she would need the assistance. She was more aware of the noise that moving the beam would make, alerting the husks.

"You have a radio?" Anderson asked. "We're trying to contact our ship."

"No, there's one in the gunship, but it's gonna be crawling with those things."

Shepard looked to Anderson, who nodded and steadied his pistol. With a flex of her arm she lifted the beam easily and the trapped soldier was able to shove him out of the way of the beam.

At once the scream washed over them and she looked over to see the batarian-husks looking towards them and raising their weapons. She dropped the beam and snatched her gun from her belt in a single motion, training it on the nearest enemy and loosing a round that caught it clean in the face.

A third of the husk's head disappeared and it snapped back but didn't drop, catching its balance and turning back to scream at her again. Anderson's pistol was cracking next to her and she saw bullets impacting on one of the other husks, having about as much effect. She aimed again and fired three shots, all of which went right between the eyes of her target, blasting the majority of its head off the neck and finally putting it down.

Anderson's target was down as well, and their combined fire quickly downed the final enemy, leaving them a moment's pause to reload.

"Stay here son," Anderson said to the wounded man. "We'll get you out of here."

The wreckage of the gunship blocked them from getting inside from where they were, forcing them once more out into the open, where Shepard could see out across the whole city and only stare at the devastation the Reapers had already caused. She had lost track of time, but it couldn't have been even ten minutes since the first one had broken the atmosphere, and already the city looked defeated to her eyes.

They crossed quickly past the front of the gunship and dropped down to the other side, where they could see the hull had been ripped apart and bodies piled amongst the twisted metal and sparking circuits. The radio beacon continued to flash though, spilled out onto the decking below.

As Anderson rushed to the radio Shepard snatched one of the assault rifles that had fallen out of the gunship's armoury. It cycled open easily and aside from some charring seemed to be functional. The heat sink was still full and there were dozens more scattered about.

"Normandy this is Anderson, do you read?"

Over the radio came Joker's voice, clear and strong and as much the welcome relief as it had ever been. "Admiral, what's your location?"

"By a downed gunship in the harbour, I'm activating its distress beacon. Send support, we've got movement down here."

Shepard snapped her head up to see where Anderson was looking and watched as yet another drone flew over their heads, crash-landing bare metres away. Out of its carcass poured another half dozen of the swollen batarian husks. She levelled the assault rifle and stitched half the clip across them, dropping two and leaving the others staggered.

Anderson was still shouting into the radio. "Lieutenant! Dammit!" She dropped a third husk as he stood and added his pistol fire to the mix to bring down a fourth. "I've lost the signal. Let's hope that beacon does its job." Another drone was circling overhead, fixing its attention on them before plummeting down behind some cover ahead of them.

As Anderson ducked for cover Shepard stood in place, her legs braced and the assault rifle bucking against her shoulder. Round after round whipped past her but she barely registered them, tracking and firing as fast as her augmented muscles would allow. She lost count of the bodies as they piled up before her, yet still they came, crawling over the mound of the dead only to be put down themselves.

Her rifle went dry and she dropped it, switching to the pistol and emptying sink after sink into them. Anderson was shouting something at her but it was lost among the carnage.

Her vision blurred and heat struck her face as an enormous explosion rocked the dock they were standing on. A gout of fire plumed into the air and the stack of bodies was blasted apart, along with any husks still left standing as out of the smoke the sleek lines of the Normandy appeared. Her radio crackled and something finally made its way through the haze.

"The cavalry has arrived."

"About time!" She shouted back at Joker as he brought the ship into a smooth descent that left the cargo bay doors hanging open towards them. Shepard sprinted for them, seeing Vega and Ashley both in the back, rifles in hand. A single jump brought her next to them and she turned to see Anderson stepping out from cover and walking up to her.

"Come on!" She shouted down, holding out her hand.

Anderson looked back to where the injured soldiers were being helped onto another gunship. "I'm not going." She stared in disbelief as he racked a new sink into his pistol. "You saw those men back there. There's a million more like them, and they need a leader."

"We're in this fight together Anderson."

"It's a fight we can't win, not without help. We need every species, and all their ships, to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers. Talk to the Council, convince them to help us."

She couldn't imagine leaving him on the planet. There wasn't a hope for him down there. "What if they won't listen?"

"Then make them listen. That's an order. Now go."

She stayed right where she was, staring him down. "I don't take any orders from you anymore. Remember?"

He grinned at that, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. "Consider yourself reinstated. Captain." He flung the object and she caught it on instinct, recognising the feel of dog-tags in her hand at once.

"You know what you have to do."

She nodded. "I'll be back for you, and I'll bring every fleet I can. Good luck."

"You too Shepard."

He ran back to the shuttle the soldiers were massing at, jumping onboard just before the door closed.

Ashley had clearly signalled Joker, because as Anderson's shuttle left the Normandy was rising too, up and away from the city. Shepard kept her eyes focused on Anderson's shuttle as it swept over the heads of a group of civilians being helped aboard gunships for evacuation. In the throng of people she saw a small boy in a white hoody and felt her heart soar as she recognised him from the vent. He was pulled aboard and the shuttles took off together.

The cargo bay doors were closing as a Reaper crashed down behind the ships and the laser lanced out once more and her last image of Earth was Anderson's gunship spiralling to the ground as the laser piercing straight through the civilian ship, vaporising it before an explosion sent fragments to the waters below.

The Normandy shivered as it hit atmosphere, and they were gone.

AN:- Wow it's been a while hasn't it?

Hello again! Or if you're new here, hello!

I last wrote this story in January 2015, when I finished the Arrival DLC of Mass Effect 2. Since then lots of things have happened, but the star finally aligned and I've returned. hopefully it won't take two years to write this one.

I'm already nearly 50,000 words in already, so there's going to be a lot of updates for now, but I'm going to try and stagger them so I don't run out.

As always (wow, been a while since I typed that) I have some changes and additions in my version of the story.

The title, Vae Victum, is a corruption of a famous Latin phrase. Vae Victis/Victus, which means 'Woe to the Conquered.' Vae Victum translates to 'Woe to the Conquerors.'

Shepard has been promoted to Captain. It always bugged me that there is no official recognition of Shepard's achievements through the games. Also, the promotion of the Virmire survivor can potentially leave them a higher rank than Shepard, which just struck me as being wrong. So in my story, officially Shepard is a Captain. However, lots of people don't know this/acknowledge this/realise this yet, so she will still be referred to as 'Commander' through the book.

I never quite knew what to make of Vega. I've actually only played Mass Effect 3 all the way through once, and just found his character to be sort of there. However, rereading my old notes for ME1 and 2 I thought the same about Wrex and Jack in the beginning, but by the end found them so much more interesting and wrote them much more than I had anticipated. So maybe the same will happen with Vega this time around.

I want it on the record that I was giving Shepard creepy nightmares and problems with insomnia way before ME3 did it. (also, funnily, I'm sure I made some sort of joke about 'there'll be no saving the galaxy without coffee' back in ME2. Mass Effect Andromeda writers, I'm watching you.)

All the rest goes fairly standard. Gunfights, witty banter, you know the drill.

I desperately wanted to write everything up to the end of the Mars mission in one chapter. Once this one started getting close to 6000 words I realised that was just going to be impossible. So it's all broken up. Mass Effect 3 is probably going to be even longer than Out of the Dark, and that hit 250,000 words!

One last thing. This story will not end with the canon ending. Because I hate the canon ending of Mass Effect 3. It's a poorly written slap in the face of everyone who played the games in all their different ways for all those years. I have my own endings, which I'm not 100% decided on yet, but I know for sure it will not be the game's ending. Just so people know right now at the outset. Don't get into this story if you want or like that ending.