Encourage Shepard to go to Kaidan 58%
“Joker, can you pick up Ashley?!” Shepard shouted into the comm at the pilot.
“Negative Commander, there are more geth ships inbound. I can only make one pickup before they reach us and even that is going to be close!” Joker replied, and Shepard cursed again as that option was also taken off the table.
“Commander, we need to make a decision, now!” Garrus urged as they were still standing in the same location. Fluttershy stepped forward, already feeling vile about what she was about to say.
“Shepard, if we go back to Ashley we condemn the STG unit to death as well,” the pegasus said, not outright stating but heavily implying that they should go get Kaidan. Shepard spoke into his mic again as he made his decision.
“Lieutenant, radio Joker to come pick you up at the AA tower. We’ll be there soon,” he ordered, definitely not happy with the decision.
“Commander, I...” Kaidan started his rebuke but didn’t finish what he wanted to say, instead acknowledging the order. “Understood, Kaidan out.”
“I’m sorry, Ashley. I had to make a choice,” Shepard said sadly as he was already moving further away from the bomb site in the direction of the AA tower where Kaidan was held up.
“I understand, Commander. I don’t regret a thing. It was an honor serving with you,” Ashley replied in a final transmission to Shepard. A tear rolled down Fluttershy's cheek as she followed the group to Kaidan’s location, not daring to look back in guilt for her suggestion. They didn’t encounter any more resistance, only destroyed geth platforms, on the way to the elevator that led up to the AA tower, something that the assault team was most likely responsible for.
The sound of gunfire immediately echoed within the elevator as the doors opened to its destination, but luckily for its passengers no geth were waiting for them at the top. Quickly getting out of the confined space, the group took cover behind the geth platforms and sandwiched them between themselves and the assault team. Taking away the ability to take cover proved to be devastating to the geth as they were ripped apart from two sides, but just as they took out the last geth a new enemy showed up.
Fluttershy felt his arrival, the feathers on her wings standing up as they felt a biotic attack coming from somewhere. She tried flapping them to get out of its way but was hit regardless as the biotic blob of energy simply changed directions and flung her into a crate. The pegasus let out a scream as she felt her right wing dislocating from its socket, though that didn’t stop her from dragging herself into cover to avoid getting hit again.
“I applaud you, Shepard. My geth were utterly convinced the salarians were the real threat. An impressive diversion,” the turian who had appeared said, his shield taking various hits from the soldiers that surrounded him. “Of course, it was all for nothing. I can’t let you disrupt what I have accomplished here. You can’t possibly understand what’s really at stake.”
Fluttershy saw Garrus looking over at her as he was one cover over, she shot him a pained look while pointing at her right wing. It looked as if Garrus wanted to jump cover but Fluttershy held out a hoof motioning for him to stay put, though this sent another wave of pain through her body.
I need to fix that wing, otherwise I’m just dead weight.
“Then make me understand! Why the hell would you do something like this?!” Shepard shouted back at the turian. Fluttershy picked up on this and suddenly understood who had just attacked her.
It’s him, Saren! He’s the one who started this! He started all these terrible experiments!
Fluttershy took hold of her dislocated wing and yanked on it hard, the bone slipping back into its socket at the cost of another spike of intense pain.
“You’ve seen the vision from the beacons, Shepard. You, of all people, should understand what the reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped. Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of petty freedoms. The protheans tried to fight, and they were utterly destroyed. Is submission not preferable to extinction?”
“NO!” Fluttershy shouted at the turian who looked surprised to see the pegasus already back on her hooves. “The beauty of life is that we’re all able to make our own decisions. If you take away that choice then we’d just be mindless drones performing atrocities for our masters. Dying is much more preferable than that! We will stop the reapers, starting with YOU!” she shouted in rage. Saren had destroyed too many lives already and would destroy many more if he were allowed to roam free. Her wings lit up and within a split second a blue blob of biotic energy hurtled at Saren.
The attack hit the turian’s shield and dissipated but not without severely weakening it. Saren didn’t take to kindly to this and immediately opened fire on the pegasus, forcing her to duck back behind cover. This didn’t matter as the damage had been done, all hell broke loose as everyone started firing at the turian who gladly returned the favour.
Saren flew around on his hovering platform while firing down at the remaining members of the STG unit and Shepard’s crew but eventually his shields flickered and went out. Seeing that the odds were now seriously against him, Saren released a form of biotic wave that knocked everyone of their feet and dazed them.
In this moment he jumped off his platform, ran over to the Commander, picked him up by the throat, and held him over the edge of the tower. The long fall would certainly be lethal to Shepard if he were to be dropped. Fluttershy felt her muscles burn and her body scream from exhaustion as she got back on her hooves. Her weapons were flung away from her by the biotic explosion, and she was way too tired to use her own biotics on the turian.
No! I’m not letting him hurt anyone else!
1. Distract Saren
2. Attack using omni blades
3. Use the Stare on Saren
Giving hints to the outcome of a vote, saying that the outcome is generally the same for all 3, kind of defeats the purpose of the whole voting concept. Even if the outcome was going to be mostly the same, don't tell us, that would definitely affect the way some people vote. I voted as though I didn't know this, but you can't assume that for everyone.
hehehehe unleash the FULL power of the Stare.
Given Sovereign a taste of a TRUE Stare Master
I'm actually very tempted to have Fluttershy use the Stare. Except... ... her condition is making me second guess it. So...
Shy hasnt got full biotics for going against Reaper Indoctrination, and she can fly.
Slam them both off the roof and try and takes Sarens arm off with the blade. Just needs a lng enough drop to stop Sheppard splatting. Straight attack Id expect Saren to use Shepperd as meat shield.
Unfortunately this fic seems to be one of those crossovers where the addition of a character from one world to another changes literally nothing.
to bad Ashley didn't win I always saved her instead of kaidan
9661744
Yeah, I removed it (almost immediately after your comment) and managed to come up with different consequences to each choice.
I'm going to put that on the 'do not repeat' list and add another stripe to my tally of stupid mistakes
9662241
That’s good then, as long as you learn from your mistakes. I’ll chuck spoiler tags over my comment so it won’t affect as many people.
9662791
**** Starchild! I shot him, multiple times, before they even made that an option.
Edit: And that was just so perfect of an opportunity for shenanigans.
This is the scene where I believe the renegade response is best for the teammate who will die.
Shepard: "Kick ass, soldier!"
After a dislocated shoulder, it takes a good bit of time to rehab the muscles, as they are torn loose. Flight's not gonna happen until she gets fixed up in medical. Also damaged rotator cuff makes flight downright painful.
I think with a recently dislocated wing joint any flying is out of the question.
9664942
i wouldn't be so hastey. After all, Shy' *did* suggest (and even get approval) to take a separate team to go after the doctor.
9664957
*Rereads* Huh. You're right. 9662241 really should have made that more clear. Discontinuing boycott of fic, and resuming reading.
Also, 9664957, please reply in the same chapter as the post you are replying to. I didn't get a notification that you had made this post, and only saw it due to dumb luck.
The Stare may not free him, but it will act as a halfway decent distraction on it's own.
On the other hoof, giving him proof that his brain has been tampered with might convince him not to get the upgrades, and we can skip both phases of his boss fight. Taken to the unlikely extreme, it might be interesting to see Saren under Fluttershy's long term care. Yes, he's trading one master for another, but seeing Fluttershy being awkward about the whole situation for the next two games makes the Renegade part of my heart giggle madly. Granted, I doubt the Author will go that route, but a Paragade can dream.
Also, hijacking a Collector next game. Multiplayer for 3 officially has a sect of them fighting the Reapers, making it both lore friendly, and a way to passively piss off Javik. Win/win.
9669407
It’s understandable given what the story is. CYOA’s are in my opinion the hardest kind of story to write. You have to make it flow like a story, set the right pacing and all that while making sure everything makes sense. But you can’t plan ahead too far, or even know fully which direction the story is going to go because, even with limited choices, anything can happen.
As I said, the pacing is far too fast. But it wasn’t just the pacing. The first chapter was relatively fine, if a bit dry, but the second chapter everything dropped. Everything happened so fast there wasn’t time to really process it, leading to me not knowing what was happening (I wasn’t aware Garrus, Wrex, Shepard or Tali we’re even there until they were named, I didn’t see anything that pointed them out). The emotions put into the story were non-existent, the only real reaction being a result of the choice made in the previous chapter to panic. All the other characters didn’t bat an eye at Fluttershy’s arrival, they didn’t question her appearance nor what she was or where she came from. They immediately knew - or assumed - what she was and seemingly knew instantly that she had been in the Presidium despite that seemingly only having happened like a minute earlier and none of them having access to that information at that speed. Fluttershy herself was dead to the world, again with the only reaction being the choice to panic. Her panic wore off far too fast, even considering how she was calmed, and she didn’t seem to care at all that she was in an unknown place with unknown creatures.
The exposition was also a problem. You gave information freely, but you actually didn’t tell anything. You gave the character’s names and a short note of Fluttershy’s thoughts on them, and then you gave the context in relation to the ME storyline. Yet, you failed to describe any of the characters down to something simple as Shepard’s gender, you failed to describe the locations they were in, etc etc.
And then there’s the problem of how you’re shoving a Fluttershy into the storyline. There’s 0 reason for Shepard to offer to let Fluttershy join them on the Normandy. Yes, she’s a curiosity, but she’s also an unknown creature, she doesn’t know how she came to arrive at the citadel, she’s scared and shy as all hell, etc etc. There’s no reason for Shepard to offer Fluttershy a place on the Normandy. At least, you didn’t provide a good reason. Even the choices weren’t good reasons. On the other end of the spectrum there’s plenty of reason for Fluttershy to stay at the Citadel, to be cared for and interviewed, studied a little bit and for people to figure out how she arrived.
I don’t plan to read further, just saying. The story’s quality so far doesn’t provide a sufficient hook to keep my interest.
Kinda glad people voted for Kaidan, it always puzzled me why all my friends saved Ashley even thou she was such a bitch. They always said because she was a girl...
Well, I saved Kaidan, ofc at one playthrough I saved Ash to see how it changes ME2/3, but I still like Kaidan a lot more.
(Was also kinda funny to discover the Kaidan romance option by accident, especially when you're a gay dude playing as male Shepard )
Ashley forced the Bomb start sooo...
Boom
Saren mind is already weakend... Nr.3 !!!
9661749
O yeah! Give them the same threatment they dish out usualy.
9661962
Yeah... That one is going to run Chakwas overtime...
9662101
Good it only seems that way and is actually very effectiv in changing things.
9662241
Every improvment is welcome.
9663069
Indeed, than again asari can levitate so...
9663255
Flying yes, levitating might work... Asari show that move via Samara and Liara off.
9665421
Damn you have some very good points...
Pissing of Javik... Glorious success to get many fans happy.
10402499
Neat. Never saved Ashley only once to see the difference in story after that i replayed and laughed letting her blowing up herself.
Seeing the comments on the last chapter it doesn't surprise me at all that everyone voted to sacrifice Ashley.
11307014
Ashley was always a terrible character. She was better than Udina because she died for a cause worth dying for. Nothing more...