Mass Effect 3 Re-Imagined Chapter Four Part Two: Story Time With Tim

Hello again, faithful followers of this blog! I’m Timothy Scott Purvis and this is the next installment of my fan story Mass Effect 3 Re-Imagined written for my wife Christmas 2013. Mostly because of how disappointed we both were with those final fifteen minutes of the game. Of course, it was difficult to rewrite without changing the entire story. Which might be why the developers went with the asinine ending they went with. Even so, I think I came up with something amusing and special. So I’m sharing it here.

No, I didn’t edit it any. Mostly because it IS a fan story and I have other things to do. So, you’ll just have to be content with the unedited insanity that is my rewrite of the game. There are grammatical errors. There are inconsistencies with plot. There are moments that will make you go, ‘What?’ But, in my defense, it’s no worse than what Bioware gave us back in 2012. So take that Triple A developers!

Anyhow, here is chapter four part two of ME3RI.

(PS: Yes, I am copy pasting a lot of these lead ins. Pretty much because there are a lot of chapters to post and I’m doing this waaaayyy ahead of time when they will pop up through scheduling. If you’d like to skip ahead to where the chapter begins, by all means, knock yourself out.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All right! chapter four part two of Mass Effect 3 Re-Imagined!

“Shit. Looks like we’ll have to jump down the plant verandas to the main floor,” Genevieve comments seeing the still intact shelving units where luscious flowering plants had previously grown unscathed.

     “As good a plan as any,” Liara states as she leaps over the balcony onto the first overhang and begins her descent.

     “Let’s go,” Anderson confirms and leaps over as well and steadies himself on the first veranda before jumping to the next one just a few feet lower and diagonally placed along the atrium wall curving down towards the ground floor two levels down.

     One by one the group follows suit and brace themselves as the compound is repeatedly bombarded by reaper fire. Before long they are groundside and rushing out of the garden atrium when they see a massive reaper crossing nearby. The group darts behind a fallen wall as the reaper fires onto the command building and the structure collapses completely filling the air around with white and gray dust and debris. The group coughs and uses the cover to push into another building and cross through the main floor to the opposite exit.

     They are just outside when a cackle comes across Anderson’s comm link, “…Anderson…Admiral are you there!?”

     “Williams!” Anderson responds. “We’re heading towards the Normandy! Have Joker prep her and prepare for launch!”

     “…Normandy’s already prepped, Admi-…Getting intense fire from reaper forces!”

     “Do what you can, lieutenant! We’re approximately ten minutes out!”

     “We’ll be ready to receive you, Ad…”

     “Williams! Williams! Damn it! Comm’s down! We need to get to the spaceport!”

     “Let’s not screw around here, then,” Ghor’ant says eagerly looking around pointing his gun at the periphery.

     “Right. Shepard, you take Liara, Vickers, and Ghor’ant and take point. We’ll cover your flank!”

     “You’re the commanding officer, Anderson,” Genevieve says. “You should take point.”

     “I don’t have the experience with the reapers the way you do, Shepard. I’m an Admiral. It’s your job to protect my ass now!” Anderson says with a wide smile.

     “Yes, sir,” Genevieve grins and moves forward.

     “I’m not exactly a combat professional, Shepard,” Ghor’ant protests.

     “No time like the present to cut your teeth, adjutant,” Liara reassures before Genevieve can even open her mouth.

     The group starts along the alleyway between two buildings when they find a horde of husks heading their way. Amidst the husks are another creature firing in their direction.

     “Incoming!” Genevieve shouts as the group assumes defensive postures and fires at the reaper forces.

     “Is that…” Ghor’ant pauses, sweat beading at his brow. “No, it isn’t possible…those look like batarians.”

     Genevieve stops for a second and takes a good look at the new enemy she’s forced to confront.

     Oh my god…it is, “I’m sorry, Ghor’ant. It’s what the reapers do, take sentient beings and convert them into cannon fodder for their ground forces.”

     “No…NO!!” Ghor’ant screams and leaps from behind cover and starts firing at the creatures bearing his people’s face.

     “Ghor’ant! Get down!” Genevieve orders him as he continues forward.

     “Damnit!” Anderson yells and the group opens up on the incoming reaper minions. Before any time has passed, the creatures are dead on the ground and Ghor’ant is still firing.

     Genevieve comes up beside him and places her hand on his and he slowly stops pulling the trigger. After a moment, he lowers his sidearm and lowers to the ground somberly. He drops his weapon and brings his hands to his face and starts heaving uncontrollably.

     “We don’t have time for this!” one of the Alliance guards hisses.

     Genevieve wraps her arm around Ghor’ant’s shoulders and shoots a glare at the guard who takes a step back looking very much like an admonished child. Anderson sighs and stands up out of cover.

     “At ease, soldier,” Anderson says to him. “You just concentrate on doing your job.”

     “Yes, sir!” the guard salutes sharply as Anderson walks forward to Genevieve and Ghor’ant.

     “Come on. We have to keep moving. Like it or not.”

     “Just…leave me here,” Ghor’ant mumbles and drops his hands and views the fire falling from the skies onto the cityscape around them. “I’ve failed my people. And I’ve failed yours.”

     Genevieve directs his face towards her with her hand, “You haven’t failed anybody. And we’re not done yet. We need you on this. The batarians still out there need you. We’re almost there and I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

     Ghor’ant nods slowly and Genevieve helps him up. They stand for a moment before an alarmed Anderson suddenly screams out as a blast hits a building beside them, “Look out!”

     Anderson pushes them both forward and they collide into a large block of titanium material just as a chunk of scaffolding and metal lands between them and Anderson. The two guards rush forward and latch onto Anderson’s elbows to pull him out of the way. Dust and grit fly through the air as Genevieve rushes forward.

     “Anderson!”

     “I’m alright, Shepard,” he replies from behind the mangled mesh of metal.

     They stand there looking at one another before Anderson frowns, “Get to the Normandy.”

     “I just said I wasn’t leaving anybody behind, Anderson!”

     Anderson grimaces grimly, “Yes, you are. You have to. I was meaning to do this before…”

     Anderson tosses a metal necklace between the opening of the debris and Genevieve catches it. She looks it over and sees it’s her nametags.

     “Anderson…”

     “You’ve just been given your rank back. Congratulations, commander.”

     Genevieve clenches her hand around the nametags, “Admiral, we need to stick together.”

     “Not happening. I wasn’t going to leave anyway,” he begins and taps into his omnitool. “Transferring all authority codes over to you now, commander. You have permission to act on behalf of the Alliance. Forge Alliances, make treaties, get us the soldiers we need to kick these fuckers back off of Earth!”

     “Anderson, I…”

     “You have your orders, commander! Get to the Normandy, get off Earth, and get the council’s goddamn help! Whatever needs to be done, you do it!” Anderson shakes his head and lowers his tone. “We’ve got this. Don’t worry, this won’t be the last you hear from me. I promise.”

     Genevieve purses her lips and places the nametags around her neck, “I have your word, Admiral. And you have mine, we will be back with the galaxy at our backs! We’ll drag them kicking and screaming if we have to!”

     “Good. I’ll hold you to it. Good luck, commander. To all of us,” Anderson says and places his hand on the debris before them in a gesture that all his hopes goes with them. He turns and leads the two guards off into the debris field surrounding the fallen Alliance command offices.

     “Well, looks like shit just got real real fast,” Vickers says quietly to Liara where they stand nearby.

     “Seems like we’re always in the thick of things,” Liara replies evaluating her omnitool. “We can still reach the spaceport in enough time if we hurry, commander. Only a few kilometers in that direction.”

     Genevieve looks down the remainder of the alleyway and walks towards the corpse of one of the fallen batarian reaper creatures. She picks up a weapon one of them was carrying and ensures that it is in combat condition.

     “Okay, then. Let’s get to the Normandy,” she says and starts at a trot down the alley. The group follows close behind keeping a careful eye out on the buildings surrounding them.

     Minutes pass and they all remain silent as they pass several more buildings and into the apartment complexes. More groans and rumblings occur in the distance as buildings are brought down and damage asserted by the massive reaper ships prowling the city. They come to a stop as they hear an even more unsettling sound.

     “By the goddess…” Liara whispers.

     Ghor’ant breathes more heavily than he has been and grunts, “Just as on Kar’shan. The screaming of those we cannot save.”

     “We, we can’t focus on that right now,” Vickers stammers and walks forward with a mission. “We’ve got orders.”

     Genevieve stands for a moment listening, as if she is trying to memorize every sound, every scream for future reference, “Yeah. We do. Destroy the reapers. Move out.”

     They proceed at a quicker pace, pushing themselves as hard as they can towards the awaiting spaceport. Ghor’ant pants unevenly in the effort and Liara stays behind him trying to keep him moving and lending a hand when needed. They only come to a stop when Genevieve suddenly halts in the middle of a court yard to an apartment complex engulfed in flames and black smoke. They hear a reaper moaning methodically nearby casually firing upon anything and everything that moves and dropping buildings with its fire power like a child stomping on sand castles.

     But it isn’t the reaper that has Genevieve’s attention. Rather it is the struggling figure hanging from a window on the twelfth floor. And holding that figure is a woman screaming for help.

     “Amanda!” Genevieve screams rushing forward with her team close behind.

     “Oh shit!” Vickers yells as he looks up and sees the woman holding on to her daughter. “Why didn’t she evacuate!?”

     “To where, Vickers!?” Liara replies angrily.

     “Liara! Can you get a warp field up there or anything to save them!?” Genevieve yells back not stopping her forward momentum.

     The building seems to her an impossible distance away even though it is right before them. Amanda sees them and screams down.

     “Help me, Shepard! I can’t hold on to her! The stairwell is destroyed and the lifts don’t work!” Amanda cries out as her daughter kicks in fear.

     “We’re coming, Amanda!” Genevieve replies. “Just hold on! We’re almost-“

     The blast sends the group flailing to the ground. Genevieve quickly pushes herself back to her feet in time to see the reaper fire tearing through the base of the building and the structure collapsing into the new pit in the surface.

     “No!” Genevieve stands her hands coming to her face as the woman and her child scream and disappear into the cloud of dark smoke.

     The reaper nearby almost seems to smile as it continues to level apartment complexes nearby. It pays them no attention as Genevieve waves her arms at it.

     “You son of a bitch! There will be no mercy for you! None!”

     “Goddess,” Liara mumbles and grabs Genevieve’s shoulders. “There’s nothing we can do now! We have to keep moving!”

     “Goddamnit!” Genevieve screams and shakes loose of Liara’s grip as she pulls her sidearm back out and stands staring at the ground the building has collapsed into for a long moment.

     “Shepard…” Liara starts but doesn’t make a move.

     “…Admiral! Admiral Anderson! Anybody! Damnit!” The voice of Ashley interrupts the group and Genevieve hesitantly initiates her comm link.

     “Lieutenant, this is Shepard. Anderson got separated from us. He transferred his authority codes to me.”

     “Shepard! The spaceport got blasted to shit and we had to vacate! We’re in the air! Tell us where you are and we can extract!”

     “We’re near the apartment complexes and straight across from the ports! But…the complexes have been decimated!” Genevieve looks around. “We need a clear landing site!”

     “…Joker says waterfront in five! Can you make it!?”

     Genevieve looks to Liara who nods, “Affirmative. Waterfront in five! Alright, people…let’s get the hell outta here!”

     “Copy that…”

     The group doubles back and heads down a lesser demolished area of the complex and makes for the waterfront parkways just below the horizon of the treelines burning in great plumes of black smoke.

     As they round the bend marking the end of the apartment complexes and the beginning of the parks, they see a horde of reaper forces tearing through civilians fleeing for safety. The group rushes forward and opens fire on the creatures. All seem numb and energized by raw anger and emotion. Even Ghor’ant fires upon the creatures without further outbursts save for the growling of angst.

     What civilians have survived are fleeing the area via underground transport tunnels and disappear from view. As the reaper creatures diminish in strength, Genevieve and her team push down towards the waterfront never letting up on fire. They’ve just managed to get to the river flowing at the edge of the wide park when shouts of irritation start ringing out.

     “Fuck! I’m out of ammo!” Vickers roars and ducks behind a cement block that had formed the base of some statue that no longer looks like anything.

     Liara casts several biotic charges tossing back encroaching enemy combatants and is starting to look tired herself, “Where is the Normandy!?”

     Genevieve keeps firing, “They’ll be here!”

     Ghor’ant fires steadily at the heads of husks running towards him dropping them one by one until he can no longer fire, “I’m out, commander.”

     Soon, Genevieve is the only one firing with support from Liara’s biotics, “Well, this is a real short rescue!”

     A wave of fire erupts before them burning up the remaining reaper forces and the Normandy zooms by them over head. A wave of relief surges through the group as the Normandy bay doors open and soldiers inside the ship lean out to fire into new reaper reinforcements. The group rushes up the ramp and into the Normandy and within short order the ship ramp is closing and the craft lifting away.

     Ashley runs up to them and looks the ragged team over. Genevieve tosses her empty gun to the floor and forces herself to walk across the shuttle bay.

     “Where is Admiral Anderson, Shepard?” Ashley ask keeping pace beside her.

     “He’s not coming. We’ve been ordered to the Citadel. Joker, this is Shepard. We’re onboard. Get us to the Citadel asap.”

     “Aye aye, commander,” Joker’s voice booms back from the comm speakers over head.

     “Fuck that! We need to get Anderson!” Ashley protests and steps in front of Genevieve. “We’re not leaving without him!”

     “Goddamnit, Ash! Don’t you think I want to stay and fight!? I have my orders!”

     “Bullshit!” Ashley reaches for the comm link when she’s stopped by Vickers.

     “No bullshit, lieutenant. Anderson ordered us to leave Earth and get help. And I for one am NOT disobeying my orders.”

     “Anderson wouldn’t just order us to leave!” Ashley yells at him, the questions brewing behind her eyes.

     “He did, Ashley,” Liara says leaning against a weapons table and rubbing her face with her hand. “We don’t have a choice. We can’t win this alone.”

     “If we can win it at all,” a solemn Ghor’ant says quietly and takes in the shuttle bay from where he stands too sore to move any further.

     “What the hell is a batarian doing here!?”

     Vickers nods towards Ghor’ant and keeps his eyes on Ashley, “Hitching a ride.”

     “Fuck!” Ashley shouts and hurries off towards the lift to the combat information center.

     Genevieve leans against a table and looks down feeling for all the world defeated. After a moment, she slides down the surface to the floor of the shuttle bay and slumps against the table. She lowers her head to her knees and sits letting the horrors of the day wash over her. Her teammates follow suit and soon Alliance personnel are bringing them water and bandaging wounds.

The Normandy flies along close to the surface of the river staying just out of firing range of nearby reapers and evades several shots fired in her direction before finding an opening and zooming almost straight up into the stratosphere above.

     Below the ship, Vancouver burns under assault. Alliance ships are destroyed and blown out of the sky. And streaks of fire race towards the surface in waves of aerial bombardments from the capital ships in orbit around Earth. The Normandy navigates the combat field of Alliance ships fighting the reapers and the fiery debris of destroyed vessels.

     Once cleared of the field of immediate combat, the Normandy enters FTL drive and disappears into extrasolar space.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION STARTS!

I would appreciate if you have Kindle or even if you want some paperback goodies if you’d head on over to my page and maybe show me some love there. I mean, if you’ve been reading a while and see something you like, wouldn’t you like to have it in your personal library? I have some cool short stories available for cheap. Also Tales From A Strange Mind that collects my short stories (there’s also a Kindle edition but, for some reason, Amazon wouldn’t let me link them together) , Tales From A Strange Mind II which collects my old novellas, Red Star Sheriff (Which also has a Kindle edition but Amazon, am I right?) my first novel ever released, though, yes, it does have some grammatical errors and drags on for way too long, sigh. But I still love it and I will be writing a follow up sometime within the next few years. I have a collection of my poems called MisAligned: The Heart Waxes Poetic which collects my old poems but not some of my newer ones included those flash fictions! I’ll probably do that in the future as well. And if you love the perfectly inane, why not check out my Star Cloud scripts presented in book form? Star Cloud The Original Scripts. Another one where Amazon was being difficult with me in connecting the Kindle and PB versions. Still, the paperback they let me sale for cheap and it’s well worth a look if I say so myself. Or, if you don’t want to click on individual links (all of which will take you to my author’s page anyway), just click on my author’s page directly by tapping my name: Timothy S Purvis See for yourself what all I’ve published since I began this venture in 2016.

I mean, if you like my work, of course. No pressure. Just trying to find my way in this world without working menial tasks and suffering physical and mental issues as a result. If only I could merely stay home and write. That would be my most epic fantasy brought to life. Well, if you don’t want to do that, you could also donate to my cause down below after all is said and done. It would help. You know, if you liked what you saw and all. Up to you. I don’t have a lot of reviews on my materials because of low sales. I mean, very, very low sales. In the single digits. Right now, I have to rely on Pubby for reviews and those people only read your synopsis and recap it for a five star review. I want honest opinions. Not mean ones, but honest. So, if you ever find yourself buying some of my work, I’d certainly appreciate some feedback. Again, up to you.

Also, I’m selling my work for cheap over at Smashwords.com! Check out that page here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TSPurvis

End Shameless Self Promotion!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So brings to an end another week of Story Time With Tim! Hope you’re enjoying the work so far and hope you’ll be back for more next week. Until then, read to you soon.

~Timothy S Purvis