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"No. I'm going to end this war on my terms," Shepard said.
"Then you will die knowing that you failed to save everything that you fought for," the Catalyst retorted in its angelic monotone voice.
"I fight for freedom, mine and everyone's. I fight for the right to choose our fate. For all your protestations about being more than just an AI you can't even begin to understand that. All of this" Shepard said, indicating the room around her with her uninjured hand. "These... cycles, these Harvests, it is just the cold logic of a synthetic, no thought, no emotion behind it. Well I won't be your puppet and if I die, I'll die knowing that I stopped you."
"SO BE IT!" The Catalyst screeched it voice changing from an angelic monotone to demonic rage, as it turned and started walk away. "The cycle continues."
"NO!" Shepard shouted back, although it hurt her ribs to do so. She forced herself to stand tall and look directly down on the Catalyst even though that hurt much worse than the shouting. "Your galactic genocide ends here and now, I'm going to destroy you."
"You would doom all organic life to be to be destroyed by synthetics?" The Catalyst said, speaking once again in its angelic monotone voice.
"You don't know that!"
"It is inevitable," it sounded almost bemused.
"You don't know that." Shepard repeated. "Maybe that will be our fate, but maybe we'll find a way to coexist with them. Whatever the outcome we have the right to make that choice for ourselves."
"You disregard mathematical certainty because of ignorance derived from emotion. You are too dangerous to be allowed to live any longer." A beam of electricity shot out from the floor and engulfed Shepard, racking her body with pain as she fell. As she lay on the floor desperately gasping for breath she realised that she wasn't going to last long. Even if she hadn't already been badly injured these beams were mean to kill their targets quickly whilst making them feel excruciating pain.
Two clear shots rang out suddenly above the crackling sound of the beam. The shots smash into the beans control panels, overloading them. The beam spluttered and died. When Shepard looked up the AI program, the Catalyst, was gone. She saw Anderson walking unsteadily toward her, his pistol arm raised. He was holding his right side tightly were the Illusive Man had forced Shepard to shoot him but even so blood was still slowly oozing from around his fingers. Anderson tripped and a was quickly down on his knees supporting himself with his free hand, pistol still gripped firmly in it. Shepard pulled herself to her feet and hurried over to him as fast as she could.
"Sir, your alive!" She exclaimed, using her weight to support his as she helped him up, Anderson's free arm draped over her shoulders.
"Of course Shepard. It'll take more than a scratch to knock me out of this fight," and coughed, blood coming up with the cough. (This is one of the reasons why a maximum EMS score is important. If maximum EMS score
is in place then there is more set up to help Anderson do his job, as a consequence of which he doesn't need to push himself as hard to get what needs to be done, done. That means that when the Illusive Man forces Shepard to shoot him he's more rested and has more energy to hold off death for a little longer. Therefore instead of dying on the control room floor, he merely passes out.)
"So what's our play, Commander?" he said coughing up more blood.
"We destroy the Citadel and the Catalyst along with it. That bastard is responsible for The Reapers, for everything. We destroy it and we can end this." (Although this is the option I am choosing here, I think a dialogue wheel should appear here to let Anderson know which of the ending options you intend to pick.")
"So, how do we go about blowing up a seven billion ton space station?"
"I've got no idea." Shepard said lifting her fingers to her ear to activate her communicator. "Edi, are you there?" Nothing but static played back in Shepard's ear. "Damn it Edi, come on!"
"Shepard," Edi voice, faint and crackly come in over the communicator. "Shepard, I am having trouble receiving you."
"That doesn't matter right now Edi. I need to know how to blow up the Citadel, any suggestions?"
"Maybe... I am reading three independent but massively strong power sources near your location. If they were joined the resulting power surge would destroy enough of the Citadel that it would become unsalvageable. There is a station directly below you which feeds power into the Citadel. This can serve as a junction box for these power sources. However..."
"What is it Edi?"
"However this junction cannot be done remotely. It must be done by hand. Whoever does this would have no chance of survival."
"Got it. Thanks Edi."
"Whatever the hell you're doing in there, do it fast Commander," Jokers voice cut in. "Harbinger's broken off from the main battle and is headed directly towards your location."
"Looks like that's my cue," Anderson said. "The junction box is down there right? I better get going, so should you Commander."
"The hell with that Anderson!" Shepard snapped angrily. "We're getting out of this one together, I'm not going to let you start sacrificing yourself now." Anderson pushed Shepard away from himself. It wasn't a hard push but it was all he could manage whilst trying to keep his insides from falling out.
"Shepard look at me," he said, blood running from his side and down from his mouth but still standing proud. "This isn't a wound that I'm just going to walk off. Even if I get out of here I'm done for. No amount of medi-gel is going to change that. You've already given enough to this War. Damn, you've already died once. It's time you let someone else have some of the fun!" (There should be a paragon/renegade option here to knock Anderson out and drag him to a point where he will be rescued/saved).
Shepard paused to consider this for a while. "Shearing never was one of my strong points," She said eventually with a hollow laugh.
"Mine nether. Now go!" He said giving her another push. "That's an order soldier!" Shepard stood looking momentarily dazed, then raised her hand slowly in a salute.
"Yes sir!" She turn away and began hobbling to the lift that brought her up here. "Joker, I need immediate evac."
"Cortez here ma'am. I've managed to find a Cerberus shuttle and I'm back in the air. They might be biggest evil in the galaxy after The Reapers but they build their shuttle's to last. On my way to your location now."
Anderson stood for a moment watching Shepard go, then turned, still grasping his side as hard as he could to stop the bleeding, and began walking down the ramp that would bring him to the junction box. (Depending on what option you picked whilst you were talking to Anderson about what your play would be, would determine which direction Anderson would walk and what action Anderson would do. So for example if you told Anderson that you were going to pick the Synthesis ending then Anderson would walk to the Synthesis beam and throw himself in.)
Shepard stood slumped over on the control panel in the observation room trying to control her breathing whilst waiting for the Cerberus shuttle. Not too much longer she hoped.
"Shepard." Edi's voice crackled over the communicator. "Something is trying to upload from the Citadel to one of The Reapers on the outskirts of the battle. I think it is an AI but I have never seen one with algorithms this complex"
"Edi whatever you do stop that upload, now!" She shot back into the communicators, standing upright sharply.
"I am not sure I can Shepard. The pattern is too complex, it is bypassing all my..."
"Edi!" Shepard cut across her. "You can do it Edi. I believe in you, now get it done."
There was a pause over the communication channel, then Edi's voice came back in. "Aye, aye, Commander." As Edi's words trailed off Shepard saw the Cerberus shuttle approaching through the window of the observational lounge. Shepard breathed out deeply and prepared herself for pick up. There was dreadful screech as she heard the sound of metal ageist metal and the arms of a Reaper pierced the Citadel walls ripping them back to reveal open space. The defining cry of a Reaper sounded as the air whipped past Shepard and out into the vacuum of space. The forced of it knocked Shepard off her feet but she managed to push herself ageist the consol in such a way that prevented her from being blown out into space along with the air. Harbinger looked down at her with its baleful yellow eyes, and the defining cry sounded again.
Seeing that the situation was desperate and that there was no time for a proper docking, Cortez angled the shuttle directly at the window and fired it's guns. The window burst open and the shuttle swooped through it and into the room as fast as Cortez could get it to go. He spun the shuttle next to the control panel that Shepard was desperately holding onto, in order to give her an easy entry. Harbinger's main weapon port slit open and the giant cannon began to glow red. The shuttle door opened revealing Liara who stretched out her arm indicating that Shepard should take it.
"Shepard, come on!" She yelled through her breathing apparatus. Shepard flung herself from her position next to the control panel, toward Liara. Harbinger fired, destroying the control panel and the floor that it was bolted to. The blast caught up to her just as she caught Liara's outstretched hand. (If you choose to save Anderson then Cortez and Shepard's romantic interest merely pick him up as he is no position to do anything physical and would not survive an attack by Harbinger. If Cortez is Shepard's romance interest then I think Ashley or Kaidan should become the second person on the shuttle by default. This applies to all the other relevant scenes).
Anderson staggered up to the junction box, and used his pistol hand to prop himself ageist the wall. He was panting heavily; the blood running from his mouth was running thicker now. His vision was getting blurry and he knew that he was close to passing out again. If he passed out now this time he would not wake up. Anderson shook his head trying to regain some sense of focus.
Once he regained enough of his composer he took a look at the power station. There were three clear power tubes bolted to the walk with metal rivets running its length. Blue electricity crackled through the tube on the left, green electricity crackled through the tube in the middle and red electricity crackled through the tube on the right.
Anderson took another deep breath and pushed himself off the wall. He aimed his pistol and fired at each of the tubes in turn. The shots ripped through tubes, tearing them unceremoniously from the wall. He let his arm drop to his side and then let his pistol slip from his grasp to clatter, with barley a sound, onto the floor. Then he let his other hand drop to his side, the hand that had been holding pressure to his wound. Not nearly as much blood came from the hole in his side as he thought it would. Anderson knew that this was because he's lost too much blood... that was a very bad sign.
"Move your ass Cortez!" Joker shouted down the comms. "We need to be getting the hell out of here."
"We're docked Lieutenant," Cortez's voice replied from the communication speaker next to the cockpit. "You are good to go."
"'Bout damn time." Joker muttered to himself as he punched furiously at the controls in front of him.
"I have managed to stop the upload from the Citadel," Edi said from the chair next to him. (If you chose to save Anderson or you chose not to encourage Edi to advance beyond her programming, then Edi would not be able to stop the upload, as she needed Shepard to believe in her as more than just a machine).
The Normandy banked hard to port as the red beam of Harbingers massive cannons fired on her, passing over mere meters from her hull.
"That's great hun, but I'm a little busy right now." Joker was using all of his skills to work the controls like the pro he knew that was. The only thing that was slowing him down was the split second it was it took for the menus he needed to pop up so he could impute the right command before sending them to back of the pile of more important menus. That split second was too damned long. The Normandy ducked and weaved and spun as it evaded every shot that Harbinger fired on her.
Down in the shuttle bay Liara and Cortez hurriedly carried Shepard's limp body laid out on a stretcher from the Cerberus shuttle. Dr. Chakwas rushed over to them her omni-tool already activated in order to provide immediate medical aid to her Commander and friend. Shepard felt the warmth of the medi-gel as it pumped into her and around body. She knew it wasn't going to be good enough, she could feel different parts of her body beginning to shut down. She could barely see, words were impossibly out of reach, every breath was laboured and pure agony.
"She's got massive internal injuries," Dr. Chakwas said consulting her omni-tool. "We need to get her to the Med Bay right now!" Liara let a crewman take her end of the stretcher and ran to keep up with the small group as the rushed Shepard to the elevator. Every part of her still ached from where Harbinger's cannon had come dangerously close to vaporising her and she'd only narrowly avoided being hit with the Mako. Still she kept up with the group despite the complaints of her body, there was no way she would let Shepard down now. She took one of Shepard's hand in hers as they ran.
"Hold on Shepard," She said, trying to sound strong, trying not to let her voice crack to the terror that was threatening to swallow her whole. "Hold on!" (If you chose to save Anderson then this scene would play out pretty similarly. The only difference I would think would be that Shepard's romantic interest although would still sound very concerned and very caring, they might not sound as passionate or as desperate. Also they would inquire where Shepard was).
Things was starting to get dark quickly. Anderson knew that at best he had only a few minutes left. It was now or never. With a cry Anderson pushed himself forward and grabbed the tube on the left and on the right and pulled them close together. To late Anderson realised that he didn't have anything to connect the tube in the middle with. Except... except himself. Anderson pushed his chest into the exposed cracking green electricity. The pain was excruciating but he forced himself to push his chest harder into the exposed wiring. He moved both his hands as quickly as he could manage to grasp the exposed ends of the left and right power tubes. Anderson didn't think it was possible but the pain intensified threefold. There was nothing but pain in those seconds that he was holding on to the power tubes. It maddened him beyond breaking point, but he held on.
Then suddenly there was a blinding light that drove the blackness from his vision and replaced everything with a pure white light. There was no pain, just a blissful serenity. Anderson smiled. Then, he was gone.
A blast from Harbinger's cannon clipped the side of the Normandy's starboard propulsion engine. The crew in the Med Bay lost their balance and tried desperately to grab hold of something to prevent themselves from going over. Dr. Chakwas was the first to recover. Finding her feet, she went right back to Shepard's bed side and got back to the desperate process of trying to save her friend's life. Liara was back to Shepard's bedside almost as fast as Dr. Chakwas, holding one of Shepard's hands in both of hers, squeezing tightly.
"Come on Shepard, hold on," she whispered.
Joker forced himself to work faster, bring up menus before he needed them, willing with the full force of his mental acuity for the split second delay to be cut down by the split second that would give him that little bit of an extra edge that he needed. The damage to the propulsion engine was minuscule and easily bypassed, even so Jeff knew that as good as he was, he wouldn't be able to prevent a full impact from Harbinger's weapons for much longer.
All of a sudden the cockpit was filled with a brilliant white light. It was so bright that Joker had to shield his eyes and turn away from the cockpits window as he yelped in pain. The explosion came from the middle of the Citadel, wiping out the centre ring in seconds. It continued to run down the length of the arms, shooting the two on the right off into space, causing the top middle arm to spin violently where it was, shedding massive lumps of debris and the two on the left to crash into each other, causing both to undergo several further smaller explosions along the length of what remained of them.
Just as suddenly as the explosion had come, it abruptly seemed to implode on itself and was gone. All seemed eerily quiet for what seem to Jeff like hours, as the Normandy drifted slowly in space. Then the voice of a junior officer sounded over the fleets communication network.
"Sir The Reapers have ceased their attack. They seem to be behaving, erratically"
"They done it," Admiral Hackett's voice sounded from the fleet's comms. "Now's our chance. All ships target Harbinger. Let's show these bastards just what this galaxy can do."
Joker turned his head to look at Edi in the chair next to him. She smiled and nodded once to him.
"On it," he said, smiling back at her. Joker rolled The Normandy upside down so the bow of the ship instead of facing away from Harbinger was now facing towards it. Joker then levelled the Normandy to its right side up and quickly sped The Normandy to advance on Harbingers position. As soon as they were in range every gun on The Normandy fired.
Things were not going well in the Med Bay. Every time Dr. Chakwas sealed a rupture in Shepard's body and new one open causing new internal bleeding and new problems. Chakwas was working as fast as she could, using every piece of medical knowledge that she was trying to desperately remember but nothing was helping. The sound to Shepard's heart monitor abruptly changed from that of a consistent beep, beep noise to the one note sound of a flatline.
"Shepard!" Liara shouted.
"Cortez pull her back!" Dr. Chakwas ordered. Cortez pulled Liara back as genially as he could and wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture. Liara could no longer fight back the tears and began to cry uncontrollably. (Again if Cortez is the romance interest, then it should be Ashley or Kaidan holding Cortez back and trying to comfort him). Dr. Chakwas was hammering fast on her omni-tool's buttons.
"Paddles charged," she said. "Clear!"
"Shepard," Liara sobbed.
The Normandy's guns fired shot after shot in the hull of Harbinger but it barely made a dent. The Normandy was giving it everything she had but Harbinger seemed to regain control of itself once again. Harbinger turned it baleful yellow eyes, usually cold and impassive, now full of hate and rage, onto the Normandy. The slots of its main weapon slid back and prepared to fire its guns in a final blast that would destroy the Normandy. A stream of fire slammed into the back of Harbinger. The first Reaper turned slowly to meet this new threat. Then another stream of fire slammed into Harbinger on it starboard side. Suddenly there was a stream of fire hitting Harbinger from every direction (this is another reason why you need a maximum EMS score, as Reapers are still tough cookies even without the control of the Catalyst, so they need the entire might of the galaxy in order to be pounded properly). The giant machine roared it defiance but the stream of fire remained constant. Harbinger roared again and slowly began to break apart before exploding completely into a billion fragments.
""Clear!" Shouted Dr. Chakwas. Shepard felt the jolt of electricity run through her body though she was barely aware of it. She could hear Liara crying somewhere in the distance and wished that she could do something to comfort her but she couldn't think how.
"Clear!" Shepard didn't even feel the jolt this time. Everything was too hard, she felt like she needed to drift off. Nothing really mattered anymore. She had done all she could to stop The Reapers. She had stopped them she was sure of that, She and Anderson had destroyed Catalyst, now it was up to the fleet that she's assembled to do their part. And they were strong enough to do it, she'd see to that personally. She was worried for Liara, but Liara was strong she would be alright.
"Clear!" She surrendered to the darkness. The last thing she heard was Liara yelling her name.
"SHEPARD!"
(I feel that the speech that is given before the memorial wall scene should be different from the ones given by Shepard, Edi or Hackett, although the story book images of what your Shepard has managed to achieve should play out in more or less the exact same way. I feel that in this scenario Javik would be the absolute best person to deliver the speech as he has the unique perspective of fighting The Reapers and loosing and then fighting The Reapers and winning.)
"I am the Avatar of Vengeance for a lost people. In my cycle we lost all to The Reapers. Now in this cycle... in this time, my purpose of vengeance has been fulfilled. Though the people of this cycle have not escaped unscathed they will endure. Some of what they have lost can rebuild, though it will take them many years. Some of what they have lost is irrecoverable and will be mourned. But they will endure.
"Rebuild and endure they must as although The Reapers in the Sol System were completely annihilated, many of The Reapers elsewhere in the galaxy managed to flee back into dark space." (This is a consequence of choosing this option as opposed to Destroy option. This option means that The Reapers cannot be fully destroyed and there is a possibility of them organising a counter attack in the very distant future. Also if Edi is unable to stop Catalyst from upload itself into a Reaper from the Citadel, Javik will say "All but one of The Reapers in the Sol System were completely annihilated.") "Despite The Reapers losing their source of control, they are smart enough and evil enough by themselves alone to organise a counter attack, although this may take hundreds if not thousands of years." (If Edi is unable to stop the upload then Javik will just say hundreds of years and not thousands.) "The people of this cycle however, have shown their might as they worked together to put an end to millions of years of galactic genocide. They are worthy successors to the Protheans, my people... and perhaps in some ways, are even a little better. If they can continue to stand together, whilst maintaining everything that makes them individuals, unique and rare, then The Reapers will stand no chance of threatening this galaxy ever again.
"For now these people have earned not just a reprieve but a victory. Worlds can be can be reclaimed, cultures can be reclaimed, a way of life can be reclaimed and these people can move on. But as we move on we will not forget our friends, old and new, who fought with us and died for us and live with us in our thoughts and in our hearts."
The sun shone brightly down on the names attached to the memorial wall. A pair of hands complaisantly brushed the new name plate that would adorn the centre of the it, as they remembered who that person was, and what they did to ensure that hope for tomorrow would live on, for both tomorrow and the day after that too. The owner of the hands strode forward and reverently pinned the name to the wall, to be forever immortalised as the person that gave their lives to give the galaxy a future. "ADM DAVID ANDERSON"
(At this point that epic Mass Effect score should be playing. This one:
Or something very much like this one.)
Shepard stepped back for the last time and saluted her commanding officer, with respect, admiration and sadness. Then she put her arm around Liara and together with her crew, her team, her friends, they walked through the memorial park which had been made in the ruins of London, as it was rebuilt. (Obviously if you save Anderson then he is in Shepard's place and will not put his arm around the romantic interest, except to maybe console them.)
5 Years Later...
Shepard and Liara sat on white sandy beach, wrapped in each other arm. The crystal blue ocean was washing up and down making a pleasantly peaceful sound. A little way up the beach a small blue girl ran up and down the white sand chasing fireflies laughing with the ecstatic jubilance of doing something so simplistic but so fun. Liara and Shepard smiled as their watched their daughter play. Their heads turned to one another and they kissed under the bright light of the stars.
(Sitting on a beach with "little blue children running around" was what Shepard and Liara talked about doing after the war with The Reapers was over within their romantic dialogue. The scene would depict whatever Shepard and the romantic interest talked about during their romantic dialogue. So for another example, if Tali was your Shepard's romantic interest, Tali and Shepard would be together in their house on Rannoch... and Tali would be properly helmless and not a stupid stock photo. Alternatively if you chose to save Anderson then we would see him doing something with his family, Kahlee Sanders and maybe a few kids. Anderson strikes me as the type of guy would likes to do BBQ on his days off, so maybe we see him doing that.)
The End. Roll Credits.... Star Child bit.
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I suppose this ending still isn't exactly prefect and wouldn't make everyone happy. Some people really like the endings as they are and that's fine. I really don't like the endings and it really breaks my heart that a character I became so emotionally invested in went out like that. If you want to see my analysis of the ending then it is here:
http://social.biowar...16131198-1.html
I think that something like this would open up the endings up to a lot more choice and an option that at least from my perspective I would be very happy with. And ultimately wasn't making our own choice in order to shape this university at least in part what this series was about? It would also give people a reason to strive to get the maximum possible EMS score, beyond saving Big Ben, which I really couldn't care less about, next to the life of my Shepard. Obviously I know it won't happen but it is nice to dream and hope, and if Shepard has taught us anything it is that it is important to have hope.
Keelah se'lai
Modifié par buzzNact, 10 mars 2013 - 10:45 .
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