Can’t believe I didn’t read this sooner. Great AU, the darker, gritty feel is fun to read and the OCs you added feel like they actually fit. Not just shoehorned in so you can feel more original.

The only critique I would offer is Shepard’s liberal use of fuck. She uses fuck the way most people use um and eh. I do enjoy a good outpouring of profanity, especially in damaged characters, but it did seem repetitive at points.

However in 123 chapters, it only bothered me a handful of times. Mostly, I was just captured by the colorful characters and excellent world building. Crazy great world building, my favorite part of this entire story.

Thank you for all your time and effort. I’m looking forward to the rest of your work.

curious as to the weapon the volus had

I love your attention to detail in this fic. with the fleshed out interspecies relationships and a closer look at the screwed up balance between council races. I really gives the story even more impact than could be achieved in the game.
The only thing that's bugging me in the story is that you always write that Shepard is socially awkward, before she is really empathetic or says exactly the right thing, like referring to the wife of the officer getting shore leave. I think it would bring something to the story (assuming this is actually an important personality aspect of Shepard as I assume from the backstory) that it would help if Shepard would actually mess up some conversations in the beginning of the story through being cold or insensitive and you can make her more proficient later on as part of development.
I of course get that the conversations are also important for the general progress of the story, but it just rubs me the wrong way that you describe her as socially awkward, while being insightful.

while it's a pretty cool intermission giving some background to your Shepard I feel like it's kind of weird to have a report here involving some future relations of Shepard (namely that she mentions her future team in her will or her relationship with Liara)

That one reference alone is enough to ascend this story to god level

Nitpicky also confirmed. Your blurb reflects you with full accuracy.

Also holy shit, what is this level of detail? You're insane, author. It's impressive how insane you are.
(I don't think I'll manage to slog through all those 7 hundred thousand words to the end but I'll keep going for now.)

Edgelord confirmed.

That blurb makes you sound like some kind of nitpicky edgelord, author. In case you never noticed all these years.

I have just completed my second, but first properly engaged, reading of OSaBC.

My first reading came from a recommendation on a long forgotten thread several years ago - by then OSaBC was already finished, along with most of your other supplementary documents. OSaBC drew me in, and I relentlessly devoured it in every free moment. The text was well written, the dialogue was never generic or corny, the characters were 3-diemensional, and the history and background was so much more fleshed out that it all just seemed 'right'.

I did, however, skip over the Shepherd and Liara relationship does. "Urgh, angst", I thought to myself, and skipped entire chunks of text to avoid it. Upon finishing, I moved onto reading the supplementary materials, and gradually the incredibly complex backstories you had weaved supplemented or complement the original game canon in my head; and it's stayed that way for years.

I adored the Volus background in particular for the original depths you were able to take it too with such little original content.

I have followed your updates of And There Were None, circling back to re-read lore and one-shots; apparently I'm a junkie waiting for my next hit of Mass Effect.

A few months ago I decided to re-read OSaBC as an escape from the stresses of my own work. Reading the supporting lore had softened me up to trying out the relationships chapters as I found myself devouring those too - I had missed out on so much in originally giving them a miss.

I'm going to dive into And There Were Done now, thank you for creating this wonderful universe, and to continue working on it - it's certainly enriched my life.

Once I can, I will be paying you back for the many hours of entertainment you have provided via Patreon, not that anything would come close to what you have accomplished.

I've just seen you've posted something new on the Terminus Systems, I need to go and scratch an itch.

Thank you.

Wow. I just finished this story, and I have to say, it was an absolute blast. Above anything else, one of the things this story does exceptionally well is immerse readers into the Mass Effect universe in three particularly impressive ways (beyond just filling in plot holes).

First, characters feel like people: When Tali's section comes up early on in the story, she feels like a teenager in way over her head who's caught somewhere between terror and wonder at the diverse (and unfortunately hostile) wider galaxy. Wrex has this tangible sense of being *old*, like really, really, old - the guy is wise and experienced, but more than anything else he's just tired.

Second, there are actual politics in play: Every race has their own skills and goals, and while the council races are united, it's certainly an uneasy alliance. More than that though, each race isn't just a monolithic bloc of people and they have their own domestic diversity and fractiousness to manage. The entire galaxy is unified by race through the concerted effort of the rulers of each race, it's not just treated as though that is the natural state.

Finally, combat feels real and dangerous. People don't just die, they get injured. The Normandy takes damage and has to be repaired. There feels like there is a real weight to combat, and even knowing (or rather, assuming) that none of the main cast is going to die outright, combat still feels tense because they might get severely injured or some of the OC's we come to know and love throughout the story might die.

There are a number of other things I really liked - The Illusive Cell plays a great balancing act between 'black ops cell gone terrorist' and 'reasonable people Shepard might work with in the future'. The Systems Alliance is likewise a great antagonist. The Shadow Broker is fantastic, riding the line between ally and antagonist. I love the idea of the Thirty, and Asari manipulations in general.

I do however, have a couple of minor gripes/nitpicks about the story.

First off, I think some scenes could have been better expanded on instead of being summarized so quickly. Particularly Tali's hospital scene after Noveria and Liara's final hospital scene. I think those should be expanded on, and I'd like to actually see some of the conversations which were referenced and summarized.

Second, while injuries are certainly described well, on reflection, they don't actually seem to have a ton of impact. I think it would be fantastic if one of the characters we care about (ie. Shepard, her squad, Telanya, or Cole) was injured and forced to miss a mission because of it instead of constantly getting back up and ready for the next fight. For example, Eingana could have been even more tense if Pressly had been forced to stay in the hospital of the Citadel and Shepard either had no XO on board the Normandy to cover her, or was forced to command her squads remotely. Alternatively, just having injuries have consequences in that they make Shepard's performance in combat suffer (and face consequences like having one of her crewmates injured due to her own inability) would also have been great.

But anyway. The story is great, and the minor gripes are just that, minor. And I really look forward to reading the rest of the series!

You desecrated Canon, result is this epic wonderfully woven emotionally deep, and to a very large extent intelligently satisfyingly. the last one is one of the highest and rarest compliment I am able to confer on any narrative. Happy desecration! may everything sacred go into non being.

Hey everyone, the author and the readers, this review will sound strange, because it's not a review at all. I'm asking anyone for help who already finished reading all 123 chapters. Please hear me out, I'll try not to vent too much.

I'm deeply scarred by a different fic I had read not so long ago and I don't want this happen to me ever again, I became paranoid, afraid of reading any new fics, especially when they are related to Liara romance. Somehow I can't stop thinking about things happened in it, like everything about game's canon or even my headcanon was overwritten.

If you finished all 123 chapters and Shepard is with Liara, both alive, loving each other, then message me, so I could start reading this fic. I'm desperate and I need something to headcanon again, something with a happy ending this time. I need a distraction

Amazing story, you’ve really made the ME plot into your own, fixing plot holes and limitations of a video game. I know it’s gonna be years before you can finish the whole trilogy but I really hope you won’t stop writing them and I look forward to reading them

1st time reader. 1st review. Overall review: AWESOME! Not big on the politics, although I know it is necessary to show everyone has their fingers in the pie. Love the pairings: obviously Shep/Liara, Tali/Joker...a robot really!?, Garrus/Telanya, etc etc. Had to speed scan some of the technical stuff to get to the fluff ️! Laugh out loud at Athyta...can hear her voice reading her lines. Very good work! Thank you for the story. Now on to 'and then there were none'.

Well that was a hell of a ride.