Hello there,
If you enjoy my stories you can read advanced chapters in my patreon page: patreon.com/Samael61
Her Eternal Excellency, a Genshin Impact and ASOIAF crossover, Raiden Ei Reborn as Argella Durrandon, is 15 chapters ahead
DCU:Blacklist, a Raymond Reddington inspired OC SI using his knowledge for his own advantage, as well as the rest of the world, is 15 chapters ahead,
Geek's Guide to Thriving in a Low End Fantasy World, a Robert Baratheon OC SI in an AU, is 15 chapters ahead,
Commander Shepard, The Greatest to Ever Live, a Mass Effect story where Shepard is greater than ever, is 15 chapters ahead,
Loki: The God of Magic , an OC-SI into Loki who is not aware of the MCU, is 4 chapters ahead.
By supporting me, you can read advanced and special chapters, as well as vote on how you want the fanfiction to proceed.
Note: Apple store payments will be refunded, because of the company's 75 day hold policy.
—
"Commander Shepard once threw a grenade into a room and killed twenty pirates. Then the grenade exploded"
Kite's Nest
Harsa System
Khar'shan
Palace of Krudanz
Emergency Bunker
Shepard's first act upon gaining access to the Defense Network was to vacuum all the air out and kill the Batarians to avoid their meddling. He watched as they tried to claw their way out, some trying to reach or their helmets before choking, others trying to reverse what Shepard did to no avail.
Brutal, but he didn't want to be stopped halfway through.
Next were the ships stationed behind the Defensive Network. With the access codes of the Prime Administrator - he really should learn his name, this was getting cumbersome- changing the IFF and painting the ships as the enemy was easy.
Armed with dreadnought and cruiser grade Mass Accelerator Cannons, Guardian Point Defense Systems, Disruptor Torpedoes and Nuclear Warheads both in kiloton and megaton range, along with thick armor and shields, the Batarians did not cheap out on their Defense Network because it was protecting their homeworld.
Shepard had overridden the safety systems of the MAC's and VI's managing the system had opened fire with everything they had.
—
Admiral Morlak tried to reach someone with any knowledge of the Prime Administrator but the eezo dispersed over the remains of the Palace of Krudanz made communication a problem and even if they reached the bunker, no one was returning their hails.
On one hand, if the Prime Administrator lived he would have his head for this failure, on the other hand if he was dead someone would have his head for this failure again. His only option was to ensure the Prime Administrator Oseros' well being.
He lurched forward as the ship shook, but straightened himself.
"What is happening now?!"
"The Defence Network, it is firing on us" his second in command yelled, engaging thrusters to turn the ship around and return fire. Admiral Morlak watched as thousands of Disruptor Torpedoes and MAC rounds that were meant to protect them, were now sailing the void as the harbinger of their destruction.
The ship shook once more as more and more projectiles hit the ship. Dozens of frigates and destroyers had already gone down due to the sheer volume of fire they took.
The Magnificence retaliated as soon as it turned back to face the stations firing at them. Morlak didn't know whether they turned traitor or something else happened, but he would find out.
—
Emergency Bunker
Watching a space battle was like watching a silent movie but with firing trajectories and dots representing the ships instead of people expressing themselves through gestures.
It was going well for Shepard, but not without its problems. One of the dreadnoughts was proving to be too troublesome for the Defense Network, so he decided a nuke was in order.
He didn't want to use one due to the close proximity of the ships and the stations as the EMP would knock out the stations but its not like they were his.
Twelve heavily shielded and armored missiles carrying nuclear warheads headed for the ship and most were shot down as expected, but he needed just one to destroy that ship.
—
Aboard the Magnificence
Marlok watched the battle and didn't like what he saw, not one bit. They had taken horrendous losses due to the unexpected nature of the attack and while they disabled a good amount of the stations, more were still functional.
"Radiological signs detected, twelve missiles with nuclear warheads heading towards us!" Sensors warned, displaying the missiles on the map.
"All point defense guns focus on those missiles!" The Admiral ordered, watching with a bated breath.
He had thought they couldn't be mad enough to use them above Khar'shan, even if they were traitors.
Twelve.
Eleven.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.
Four.
"We can't shoot them all down, run" The second in command panicked, running for the door with the crew after him.
Three.
Marlok closed his eyes.
The missiles were too close.
Two.
The pride and flagship of the Batarian Fleets The Magnificence went down in nuclear fire.
—
Emergency Bunker
Shepard watched as the red dot representing the dreadnought went out, nibbling on the cookies he found.
He had scanned to make sure they were safe for him to eat.
The remaining fleet was trying to disengage, demoralized at seeing their capital ship go down but had no luck, as the stations kept tearing them apart.
But he wouldn't stop here, he still needed to find a way to free the slaves to incite riots all across the Hegemony to knock them out of the board.
Many times Salarians had tried to release a virus to deactivate the chips Batarians used, but they were connected to the Internal Communications Network the Hegemony had and without access to it, their plans did not succeed.
Access he now had. There was no turn off button or a command for the chips, but Shepard was great with tech and programming for a reason, now he would just need to find one of those chips for testing.
After he neutralized the planet of course.
—
All castes of the Batarian Hegemony on Khar'shan stopped what they were doing to watch the skies, watching the remnants of the fleet burn up on re-entry. The slave caste, composed of mostly the Batarians themselves, followed by a large number of Asari due to their beauty, and lesser amounts of Turian, Salarian, Elcor, and Humans with the occasional Krogan and Quarian, all had different thoughts.
Batarian slaves hoped that the rebellion was finally doing something other than small scale attacks.
Council species prayed that it was the Citadel finally coming to free them.
Krogan felt respect towards the ones responsible and wanted to join the battle.
And the Quarians wanted to use this opportunity to escape.
But they could do nothing but hope because of the chips in their skulls.
—
Emergency Bunker
There were chips in the emergency bunker and Shepard brought a dozen of them to the Security Room to work as the stations mopped up the remaining fleet.
The Network was a mess but it had done its job and he still had enough working stations to target the shipyards as well as the military installations on the planet.
So he did.
Firing on a planet with WMDs was against the Citadel Conventions but then again the Batarians had pulled out of the agreement when they closed their embassy, and the MACs didn't enter the category, as they didn't cause any environmental alterations, besides kicking up dust.
Military bases, barracks, ground to space cannons, missile batteries and everything else besides the com network was a free target and Shepard didn't hesitate before firing.
And as the planet was decimated, he worked on a virus to disable the chips.
—
In the orbit of Khar'shan the still functioning space stations had their new targets and opened fire with their MACs. Streaks of 20kg ferroslug heading to the planet at 1 to 1.3 percent of speed of light from the dreadnought class guns as well as the less destructive ones from cruiser class MACs left nothing but craters with mushroom clouds of dust where they hit.
—
His one weakness was how obsessive he could become with whatever he was working on.
It started when he found a broken omni-tool in a trash can, and spent days trying to see how it worked, while living on the streets of Vancouver.
That's why he had a certain program for when to eat, sleep and do other things to not get lost in work.
Now it was time for lunch, and putting his helmet back on to avoid the stench of the bodies, he headed to where the kitchen was while keeping an eye on the Batarians through the cams after connecting his omni-tool to the system.
Batarian dishes didn't exactly look appetizing to him, so he just took some military rations, as they were almost the same, in that they looked like cardboard boxes that tasted like sand.
Taking a couple of containers to feed his prisoners, he quickly returned to the Security Room, and took the Prime Administrator with him.
Tossing the containers to the table he ordered them to eat up.
"You need energy to clean out these bodies" Shepard gestured around the room.
"We are not labourers"
Ahh, how did those idiots even manage to keep their grip on power for this long?
"You either do it, or you can stay in here with rotting corpses. Wonder how long it'll be before you can't stand the smell?"
Batarians looked anxious but no one other than the Administrator opened his mouth.
"Toss them to an empty room and then lock it, and don't forget I am keeping an eye on you at all times, so don't try to act smart"
They just ate their food in silence, glaring at each other while Shepard went back to work.
—
Three Days Later
Three days of work had brought Shepard nothing but annoyance. The chips only had a receiver that triggered the internal parts to light up the nervous system of the lifeform they were implanted to and didn't have an off button.
He changed his approach then, instead developing something that would change the frequency of the activation signal to something random every few minutes to avoid activation.
Right now he was busy testing the virus and the results were promising.
Which brought him to the question of how to get out of the Batarian territory.
He checked the system, searching for exits. The one he came from was surrounded by Batarian forces at the end, trying to access the bunker after Shepard shut it down. Another one headed away from the city and into a military base he annihilated and the last one showed the route but there were no active cameras.
It took a bit of digging but he managed to activate the cameras, which also turned on the lights. It was a train station, heading away at least a hundred kilometers to an underground landing pad with a frigate sized ship.
Figures they would have an escape route in mind in case something happened and the bunker was under attack.
Uploading the virus through the Batarian ICN, Shepard sent the activation signal for the chip, which did nothing, confirming it had worked.
And with the ICN connected to every system the Batarians held, all he needed to do was to send the virus buried within a message and with the proper access codes, there would be no scans for any malware and the virus could infect all of the Batarian territory as fast as the comms network could carry the message. And with Batarian penchant for broadcasting propaganda speeches, they all would see this.
"This is Commander Jonathan Shepard, I have uploaded a virus through the Batarian ICN to deactivate the slave chips implanted in you. Now they have no control over you, and with Khar'shan decimated, there will be no support coming for those worlds. Today is the day you have the chance to fight for your freedom. Rise up, break your chains and strike down your oppressors" Shepard shouted towards the end to inspire the slaves into a revolt.
He considered not saying his name, but he wanted the Batarians to know who was responsible for bringing them down, so if they ever tried anything they would remember him.
Shepard sent the message to every planet and left one final order for the Defense Network before leaving to collect his prisoners.
—
"Come on, we are leaving" Shepard said, putting on his helmet and pointing towards the secret exit with his Carnifex.
"Where?" One of the ministers asked, and Shepard rolled his eyes inside the helmet.
"What did I say about asking questions? Now move your dumbasses, I am leaving the planet and you lot are coming with me" The Batarians scrambled in panic when he activated his omni-tool.
—
Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Interview by The Citadel News Network
"Well, it is like flying around with a weapon of mass destruction that has a sense of humour and cool comebacks. He is fair, really intelligent, and looks at things different than we do. I mean if you see a wall before you, Shepard sees something that you can drop on your enemies to crush them, or you see a cruiser and think you are dead but he just sees a ship that could be taken like a walk in the park. Its like he has plot armor of a superhero. And besides all that he is a really great boss to have. I mean have you seen the Normandy crews retirement plans? Let me tell you, he pays us extra from whatever loot he finds out there depending on our jobs aboard, and I could retire right now and never have to worry about working ever again"
His answer to the question of "What is it like being in Commander Shepard's crew, especially as its pilot?"