First some backgroung info: Shepard is a Sentinel, Spacer, Sole survivor, romanced Tali in ME2&3, Liara in ME, Genophage is cured with Wrex and Eve at the lead of the Krogan. Peace between Quarians and Geth and Geth heretics deleted. Collector base destroyed. Council and Rachni spared. All squadmates except Mordin, Thane, Legion, and Ashley are alive (excluding Kasumi and Zaeed as I never recruited them, but I did get Javik) Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival completed in ME2. No ME DLC.
"Shepard do you read me, Anderson do you copy? This is Major Coates. Repeat do you read me?" "Sir theres no sign of them." We've scoured the wreckage theres no sign of him or Anderson."
"Keep searching."
"Sir? I can't imagine they survived that, I think its time that -"
"Absolutley not, keep looking."
"Theres no reason to believe they are still there. We should start regrouping with the rest of the fleets, and -"
"In case you forgot Major, the relays were just deactivated. We cant meet up with most of Sword or shield. We lost contact with the 1st and the 4th fleets right after the jump. We can't even raise most of the Asari 6th or the Salarian 3rd. And we're getting nothing from the Geth...... The only ships we have right now in Sol are the 5th, about half of the 3rd, whats left of the hanar fleet, and the Turian 79th flotilla. Until the relays are back up and running we are stuck here."
"Roger that."
"So keep looking"
-Hackett looks away from the commmunicator and heads towards the data center. He immediately starts feeling the effects of what has just happened. "The war is over" he mutters under his breath. that word stuck to him like some kind of glue 'over'. Well, the worst was over. He still needed to raise the rest of the fleets and start organizing the relief effort for Earth. But he thought to himself again 'over'.
Back on Earth the newly promoted Rear Admial Marcus Hawthorne regrouped the rest of Hammer team about 3 kilometers from the Citadel beam (now a blackened pillar). Only about 15% of hammer was sill functioning. Mostly Salarian STG, Krogan, and Alliance marines. Hawthorne reviewed the casualty lists. Almost all of the Turians had been wiped out (they had been sent to bolster the collapsing right flank) by the reapers that had joined the fight to stop hammer. The asari fared little better, they were the ones who had needed the help on the right flank. The alliance soldiers who had punched through the middle with Shepard were gone, 100% dead. The vorcha and mechs that had been dropped to continue the fight in the middle had also been effectively wiped out. The Krogn had fared better on the left because they had faced lighter resistence.
Right now Hawthorne could hear the Krogan leader Urdnot Wrex speaking to his troops about they magnitude of the victory they had won. 'Victory?' Hawthorne thought. Victory, was not what he would have called it. Billions dead, relys deactivated, and now he was hearing that Shepard himself was missing. He sat there and looked out at the devastation that he knew the covered the entire world.
Major Coates walked up to the Rear Admiral stood at attention and delivered the new orders from Hackett. "Sir, we are to begin immediate reconaissance. And we need to be prepared to deal with survivors both friendly and hostile."
Hawthorne sighed and asked "What could possibly still be alive out there?" The blackened ground stretched before all of them in nearly every dircection. Rubble and black. Nothing.
Coates looked at him like he agreed but then said "We still have to look."
"Can't we give them a moment for pity's sake?"
"An hour, at most."
".................. Fine."
"In the meantime get all the surviving brass and get them to HQ. We will plan what comes next"
Hawthorne walked into the dimly lit room and strained to see who had made it through. He saw Primarch Victus solemnly looking out over the balcony toward the Citade Beam. Urdnot Wrex was barking orders to his subordinates. A Salarian operative wearing an Eclipse uniform was tinkering with the holographic display of London. Another Salarian was reading data on his omni-tool. A few Alliance officers were gathered in the corner talking amoungst themselves. Hawthorne didn't see any Asari officers or Geth platforms. He stood at the front of the room and began "....I know you must all be exremely busy and tired. But I have recieved word from Admiral Hackett that we are to begin search and rescue operations for any survivors in the city. I need volunteers to fan out and look for any."
Primarch Victur turned and looked at him and said "We stand ready to begin reconaissance of the area, but we are too few to search the whole area."
Hawthorne looke at him and said "I appreciate your offer but your men need to rest."
The Salarian officer then spoke up "We will initiate the recon operations. However we also lack numbers to search over such a large area."
Wrex looked up and said "Alright alright we'll do the hard work, again."
H: "Exellant, when can you start"
W: "Give us some time to gwth the clans sorted, we'll move out in an hour"
H: "Alright, after you search this are (points to the hologram) the salarians and turians will take over and search this sector. Then the Alliance over here, and then ......."
PV" "Who wil take over then? How about the Asari?"
H: "We havent contacted any in Asari command. They may have been wiped out."
Pv: "What about the Geth?"
H: "We haven't recieved any word from them either."
PV: "Is there no one else?"
H: "It looks that way."
W: "Weell there's no sense standing around like this." (Exits)
H: "Anything else? We then you are all dismissed."
Admiral Hackett is sitting on the observation deck of his ship looking out over the remnents of the Reaper and Allied ships. He gazes from one colossal mass to another, all the while he is hoping that the call he has been waiting for will come. Privately some part of him agrees with Major Coates. Anderson and Shepard are most likely dead, and their bodies will be lost to the vastness of space. But he knows he must press on and keep looking. He had already lost contact with the Normandy after they had fled the crucible's beam. He was trying to hail them but they did not answer. He suspected they had lost power or the QEC had been damaged.
He gets up and pulls up a map of the debris field. He initiatesa program to match each piece of debris to a ship thus identifying what debris goe with what ship. it will allow for an accurate casulaty loist to be compiled and it will also identify missiong ships. Knowing it will take time, Hackett sits down and slowly drifts off to sleep. The firdt rest he has had in God knows how long.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. Hackett wakes up suddenly. he wonders what the noise is. He then remembers the program he launched. He pulls up the findings from the battle.
Most of the Alliance 4th fleet was gone. The Quarian Heavy fleet had also taken many casualties. The Turian Fleets all had taken damage but they lost fewer ships than the others. The Elcor Flotilla seemed to be largely intact as only a few destroyed ships match Elcor designs. The batarians also seemed to have gotten off lightly. Something isnt quite right about the geth casualties. Then Hackett realizes the entire Geth Armada has been reported as destroyed even though many of their ships appear undamaged.
He is perplexed by this but not entirely saddened. he never trusted the geth and is not sad they are gone. After thinking about he believes the Crucible must have destroyed them as well, because of the reaper upgrades they still possessed. He needed more proof but he decided to worry about that later. Right now he wanted to find Shepard.
He pulled up the Citadel's readout and was astonished to see the entire Presidium tower and 1/3 of the Presidium ring was gone. Hackett was astounded, he immediately contacted the hammer recon teams. He desperately wanted to tell them where to narrow their search. But he could't get through. He just hoped that they would find him before it was too late.
An Alliance squad was picking their way through the destroyed remnants of the Presidium tower. It had crashed into Earth nearly 20 kilometers from the Citadel beam and was a absolutel destroyed. Charred by its descent into Earth's atmosphere it was as black as the land it was engulfed by. Fires still raged on the tower and the surrounding countryside.
The squad was picking through debris and scanning all frequencies, they were sending out the all clear signal to try and find survivors. They had been at this for hours and were all exhausted. They wondered were thir families were, where their friends were, they did not care about finding survivors. They just wanted out. They were getting ready to head back to their base, when their tech heard a barely audible noise, just loud enough to escape the background rumble of thunder and fire. The tech was puzzled by this anomaly. He amplified the signal and realizing what it was began a trace on the sound. He hurried and gathered the rest of his squad and guided them to the sound's origin. In a patch of rubble where the tower had landed on an office building they found a capsule. It looked like the Collecter capsules they ahd all been briefed on. The capsule had been broken open and was burned to a crisp. They prepared to move on when they all heard the unmistakeable sound of a man gasping for air. They turned and through the rubble and smoke and dust, they saw a barely visible isignia, N7.
Will write the next part soon!
Please send me constructive criticism if you think you can help. I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
Modifié par Steelcan, 09 août 2012 - 03:30 .
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