If anyone had told Augustus Shepard he'll be the savior of the galaxy, the hero for the Krogan people, uniter of both Qurians and Geth, and destroyer of Reapers at any point before his mission to Eden Prime.
He wouldn't have believed the person, still could hardly believe it if he hadn't experienced it all himself!
But, this is what fabricated into reality, when a recovery mission of a Prothean beacon on Eden Prime turned into more than he thought with the added Geth presence there. Unfortunately, as he fought through the Geth and Husks, the Prothean beacon was destroyed during the mission with the loss of a Spectre agent, Nihlus Kryik.
'Such a shame for Nihlus to die the way he did...'
This was the catalyst of his journey, his travel to Spectrehood and mission to hunt Saren Arterius, as he figured out why the attack on Eden Prime happened. He learned the existence of an ancient species, a dangerous race of soulless machines with an AI hell-bent on the harvest of all advanced life within the galaxy. Imminent to return and wreak havoc upon the galaxy once again, in a race against time, he traveled to the planet of Ilos after the Reaper known as Sovereign captured the citadel and closed it, leaving only an experimental ground mass relay on Ilos to get inside.
Augustus Shepard managed to defeat Sovereign at the battle of the Citadel, with his victorious fight against the indoctrinated rouge Spectre agent Saren Arterius.
The victory was short-lived, however...
As the SSV Normandy was lured into an ambush, tricked with 'reports' of Geth activity. Which became quickly apparent to be false by the arrival of an unknown vessel, which then resulted in the destruction of the Normandy by its energy weapon fired from its center.
While Shephard hurried to check the wellbeing of his crew, relieved to discover most of the people had managed to board one of the many emergency shuttles in time. Jeff Moreau, better known as Joker, had been more stubborn with the foolish hope he'd be able to save the Normandy. Fortunate for him, or else he'd also perished. Shephard was able to convince Joker that the Normandy was finished, it's been too badly damaged to function. But, just as Shepard had managed to help his friend into the emergency shuttle, an explosion occurred which shockwave shot metal toward his direction that made him unable to board the shuttle as well.
Flung into the darkness of space by the piece of metal, unlucky enough as it is, he's hit with another piece of metal that went right toward the air supply of his. If fate couldn't be crueler to him, with the slight flicker of orange that engulfed his motionless body. His body was dragged into the gravitational pull of a nearby planet his ship had been in close proximity to, resulted in him becoming nothing but a charred remain in the deep of the sea.
But, he eventually came back to life with the help of Cerberus, a pro-human organization bend on safeguarding the interest of humanity reforged his body anew. Having the technology to rebuild him from the ground up, vast pools of monetary resources and manpower put into this goal, as Project Lazarus was a success as Augustus Shepard opened his eyes once more.
Shephard was tasked to discover the reasoning for the mysterious disappearance of human colonists, aboard a newly constructed ship with new and familiar faces on board.
He was successful in discovering who was responsible for the disappearance of the human colonists, vile abominations of flesh.
The Collectors, mindless blobs of flesh, genetically altered Protheans to serve the Reapers who were the ones responsible for the many abductions. They'd harvested humans for their nightmarish project to construct a human-shaped Reaper, with Shephard and his team stumped upon a partial build one inside the Collector base.
Thankfully, or else he wouldn't have been able to save the galaxy.
Shepard and his team managed to survive and destroy the Collector base, despite The Illusive man's protest about how 'short' sighted it would be to destroy it with how 'much' they'll be able to learn from it.
But just six months after that came the invasion of earth, Reapers rained down from the skies with its minions as they brought the carnage of war to beloved Earth. Shepard was present during the invasion on earth, able to witness the initial damage brought by their arrival. As he was initially to be put on trial for the death of 300,000 batarian colonists after the destruction of the Alpha relay in the Bahak system, destroyed to delay the Reaper arrival.
Together with Admiral David Anderson, the only other survivor present during his supposed trial. The two managed to fight through a horde of Reaper minions before the Normandy came to the rescue. But, despite Shepards' best wishes, Anderson remained on earth to organize the resistance against the Reapers.
After a trip to the Martian archives, informed by Admiral Steven Hackett to go there with the discovery of something of importance. Shepard managed to learn about a weapon called the Crucible, a weapon of unimaginable proportion and scope, said to be a super weapon against the Reapers. His new mission now was to unite the galaxy in the struggle against the Reapers, or else they all eventually would perish and become the gooey slush which would fuel the next Reaper invasion.
After a race against time, a mad dash to gain every species support to build the device. Shepard's mission had been a success, with his two feet now placed under the metal floor of the forged weapon.
The Crucible was built and successfully attached to the citadel, with only one thing left to do was to activate it.
Shepard was met with the visual representation of the citadel, somehow being in the shape of a small boy he managed to help to a shuttle before it was shot down.
After Shephard's questions were answered, and an explanation of which route he could take now.
Shepard slugged across the floor, with each step that filled him with an unframeable surge of pain. Despite the pain, as it screamed out for him to stop what he was doing. He arrived at a junction for him to choose which fate shall befall the galaxy, in which way should the trillions out there speak about him when they bring up his name?
In front of him, this humming beam of energy which swirled around itself. His option was to add the energy of his whole being to the crucible, to change the very fabric of their DNA, to fuse organic and synthetic into one. But Shepard was unsure how this future would pan out, having already proven organic and synthetics could live in peace.
It was also what the Reapers wanted,
To his left, informed by the catalyst, he would have the chance to gain control over the reapers. The goal of the Illusive Man, to control the Reaper horde. Unfortunately, while the Illusive Man was right they could be controlled, it would cost his mortal body in the process thought.
Their accumulated information of countless civilizations would catapult them into a golden age of scientific discoveries, but what if it's just a lie from the catalyst to trick him?
Then to his right, as the last option of the three. Was the choice to destroy the Reapers throughout the galaxy, to rid everyone of these harvesters of death once and for all to end the cycle permanently.
This choose felt the easiest for him to pick, the third option, being the sole reason he began his undertaking three years ago. Since the discovery of the Reaper threat, his goal has remained unchanged in the face of all odds. Death shall befall these genocidal abominations for their crimes against the untold trillions, liquified and processed into sludge and forged into new Reapers to continue the cycle.
Shepard limped away to the right, his hand tightened around the pistol grip of his gun. But, while he stood before the pathway down, he remained where he stood with eyes locked onto the power conduit.
'The end of the train is fast approaching, at last, three years of the constant battle for the survival of the galaxy... Anderson, Mordin, Thane, Kaidan, Legion. Your sacrifice will not be in vain!'
He took a glance behind to see the ongoing battle between the United Fleet and Reapers play out, as red beams flashed across the darkness with a quick flash explosion before it vanished into the vacuum of space.
It made Shepard think of his crew aboard the Normandy, good men and women who'd been with him through thick and thin. His wish, after all this, is over. Is for them to survive this whole ordeal, go on and live happily afterward in peace.
'I'd hoped to be present during the construction of the house, watch as your people rebuild their lost heritage anew. You wanted to see me build a house for the two of us with my own two hands, instead of all the destruction we're witnessed together... God. I'm sorry that I won't be able to return, my sweet Tali. Keelah se'lai, my love...'
Shepard thought as mere seconds after he raised his M-6 Carnifex steadily, with each step taken, his index finger slid closer toward the trigger with his aim being the power conduit before him. Shepard pulled the trigger once he managed to get close enough to not miss, with no desire to waste any of his shots to seal the deal of his fate.
Roars echoed out through the barrel in quick succession, with dark red sparks that shot in all directions. Shepard raised both hands to cover his torso and head after the fifth shot, seeing the gush of flame which burst out toward him from the Power Conduit. His body was catapulted back by the shockwave and landed onto the metal floor, as anew pain shoot through his body.
With the faint dizziness which overcame him, a soft warmth crawled up along both legs like a spiders leg. He watched as the light around him changed into a passionate red hue, the image of a white winged unicorn with the image of a sun on its ass flickered past him in the blink of an eye, before everything became dark in front of him and he lost consciousness.