Ex-Forces here and I have to say Shepard comes across as a complete pain in the arse to work with here. Command structure is more rigid when it comes to squaddies but at the levels she's operating at command tends towards join control between the senior servicemen, regardless of rank.

Of course Close isn't as senior as Alenko Wrex or Garrus but considering his training and competence he should be one of the joint-leaders

And then you abandoned this one like a sack of puppies in the rain.

Bro I don’t even know what’s going on anymore

Just when we thought we would see more of this masterpiece, it was dropped like a sack of puppies in the rain

...yes cringe good idea but soo cringe

This is good... but so soooo cringeeeee!

moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooore noooooooooooooooooooooow plzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

shit I giggled like a child throughout this entire chapter.

nice! please write some more soon!

Honestly at this point, it'd probably be better for Close to back off entirely and leave Shepard alone. He can keep track of her easily enough without constantly butting heads with her for not understanding his position relative to hers. If he wants her to be the hero of Humanity he should, after ten years of active preparation, understand that he can't keep stepping on her toes, giving her commands and trying to take the reins of things. The fact that he doesn't recognize that shows a severe lack of attention.

Wow wow wow this is really good in case I didn't favorite this already I'm favoring it now very great story I wish it wasn't dead please bring it back

I realize that this story is pretty much dead, and I understand just loosing interest in continuing story's so I'm not asking for you to do so. I just wanted to say that this is a really fascinating AU idea and I absolutely love it.

Thank you for the fantastic ride of a story.

I find myself unable to keep reading this fanfic and my opinion on it is very distinctly split. On the one hand, it is quite well written, easily read and grammatically correct. The author knows the lore quite well and seems to thrive building a story within its context. Here comes the pain though. On the other hand, I strongly dislike the characters. Practically all of them. I also believe that the modifications to the Canon storyline are contrived and convoluted, and just plain stupid in certain cases, but that ties into the mental deficiencies of certain characters, mainly the OC and fem-Shep. Close has an AI in his head, an AI with centuries of life to ponder how to resolve the reaper problem, and yet all it does is give moderately useful advice at best, which is apparently easily and happily ignored by the OC, and acts as his secretary. The OC has been manipulating the galactic scene for decades... and did not expect people to adapt to his presence or exploit his tech. He is trying to keep things on track, while changing them. You can't expect things to be the same if you change society on a galactic level! New tech, new gear, but the OC, filthy rich and uber-powerful as he is, still joins Shepard's crew on her ship, and he distinctly does not want to be subordinate to her, yet he still bends over backwards whenever she so much as looks at him. For some reason. Somehow. You have a personal version of Cerberus damn you! It makes no sense whatsoever! Why bother being mysterious if you're going to tell her everything anyway?! The OC is effectively a super soldier who can keep up with Shepard, has a spy network to rival the Shadow Broker's and a military strength comparable to Cerberus (at the very least), but he still gets into dick measuring contests with Shepard, who is acting like a mentally challenged 4yo - I do not care how shit your past is or how little you trust someone, you do not try to shoot an individual who is saving your ass from heavy artillery if you have any history in the military. I may not be a member of the military, navy or air force, but I sure as hell know that the cuntiness gets beaten out of you sooner rather than later and that the first thing they teach you about firearms is that you do not point a gun at anything you do not wish to destroy, much less pull the goddamn trigger. Shepard tried to murder the OC for helping her. That is not just fucked up, it's downright retarded, and sent any respect I had for the character out the window, as well as any chance of her being anything other than an antagonist in my eyes. If I had been in the OC's shoes then, considering the resources he has at his disposal, I would have either arranged an accident for her or just left and did my own thing, considering that she is not just a bitch, which while difficult to deal with can be worked around, but unpredictable, murderous and downright dangerous, both to the people around her, as well as the plans against the reapers. Also, I do not know how the alliance is run, but I genuinely have no idea how she made it out of boot camp, much less officer school, nevermind into the highest echelons of special forces. In the games there is an organisation known as CAT6 for people who have been discharged from the Alliance due to phisical or mental disabilities - phisical disabilities are easily solved with prosthetics, so that's fairly rare, which means that most of them are either PTSD sufferers or nutjobs. Based on her behaviour, Shepard should have joined them long ago. The OC's response is even more retarded - telling her everything is not just cringe-worthy to read, but just plain stupid. You are telling an enemy who tried to kill you without provocation everything about you and your organization. WHY?! It's like going to TIM and telling him everything, and then being surprised when he takes over your ops, steals your assets and has you strapped down for testing or arranges an appointment with a firing squad for you. The only reason to join Shepard as a crew member is if you do not have the resources to fight the reapers yourself, or if you specifically need to meet the people on that ship for some reason and can't do that elsewhere or at some other time, and that's if Shepard is mentally stable. Liara in ME2 and a chunk of ME3 stays off the Normandy for the simple reason that she has a network to run and more important things to do than run around with Shepard, and joins him once she is able to move everything onto the ship because she either loves him or is very close friends with him. Or her, I guess, what with having a femshep here. With Cerberus level resources, the oc can do so much more than run around and shoot things while being abused by a CO he hates to obey. Furthermore, the whole problem with the galaxy not preparing for the reapers is based on there not being irrefutable evidence of their existence. You just said he's sitting on a pile of knowledge that could mobilise the whole damn galaxy, yet he does nothing? He can tell the councillors to shut up, but he can't influence them to prepare? You implied that he either is the Shadow Broker or has replaced him, yet he can't persuade anyone to prepare for Thhe reapers? I love your writing style, but your plot and characters, at least in this Fic, are downright abysmal. I'm sorry, but I can't read this anymore. I'm also sorry if I came out as too harsh, but these problems with the Fic are just too glaring and I got very frustrated reading it all. I hope you take my observations under consideration and wish you the best of luck.

This story has become unreadable. Is Close a SI or not? His motivation for being on the Normandy is supposedly access to Shepard's information, which he should already have if he played the games. It sounds like a flimsy excuse of a fanboy to interact with the protagonist.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem except the Shepard in this story is unlikable as hell. Being skilled enough with biotics to outmatch someone with cutting edge technology, inexplicable cold reading abilities, and the ability to charm just about anyone... the Shepard here is a Mary Sue who seems to be pissed at the MC because he's someone she can't charm. Normally Renegade Shepards are bearable if only for how they handle situations. This one is just a bitch.

She litterally try to shot him just because? why? I mean let's be honest the guy has the ressources the knowledge the infrastructure... he could litterally blow up the mini relay in the citadel adn he would be tranquill for most of ME1... then it's just a cop/detective chase to arrest Saren, a bit of dogfight with a big starship (given he had a litterakl decade and a DEUS EX MACHINA in the form of his IA to create a fleet of drones/ship to attack sovereign and years to prepare for the rest)... instead he just accompany shepard (who is basically useless and could be entirely replaced in this story) and let her try to kill him... and he just roll with it?