The Bureau of Multiverse Affairs

Chapter 1 A Most Unorthodox Recruitment

Galactic Core, 2185

An almighty boom roared through the air and Commander Shepard woke, feeling the floor beneath him shake violently. Sections of the Collector base's wall were breaking apart all around and crashing down, throwing out lethal jets of flame and gigantic shards of metal. The place was falling apart, and the bomb they had planted at its core would blow at any minute.

All the more reason he would not leave until he had found his squad mates. The last thing he remembered was that they had destroyed the Collector's effort at creating a human Reaper, only for the abomination to smash the platform they had been standing on. Scrambling to his feet, Shepard realised he had been knocked out, but landed safely on a ledge. He looked around, but could not see the rest of his team. He had known attacking the Collector base was likely going to be a suicide mission, but that did not mean he was going to let it become one without a fight.

"Garrus! Tali!!" he yelled out, trying to make himself heard over the noise of the dying space station. "Where are you!"
For a few seconds there was nothing but agonising silence, then Shepard heard a groan of pain close by. Peering through the haze of dust, he spotted an armoured hand waving to him. Almost crying with relief, Shepard rushed forward, finding his friend Garrus pinned under a support beam.

"Garrus! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"With you shouting like that I'd be surprised if the spirits didn't hear you," the heavily armoured Turian replied.
"Come on, we've gotta get outta here!" said Shepard, levering the beam off Garrus, "Have you seen Tali?"
"No, I must have lost consciousness when that platform hit us," he replied, gingerly getting to his feet.
"Goddamnit! Tali! TALI WHERE ARE YOU!"
She could not be gone, she could not leave him, not now.
"TALI!"
"John!" a small voice answered, "John!"
"Over there!"

Following the sound of the voice, Shepard ran along the ledge until a slender form appeared out of the haze. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, his friend and lover, was lying in a crumpled heap. For a fearful moment he thought her envirosuit had been damaged, but quickly realised it was only dust smeared over her visor.
"Tali? Are you hurt? Can you walk?" he asked.
"I... think so..." she wheezed in reply, "I just need... need help getting up."

Looping an arm around her, Shepard pulled Tali upright. She was steadying herself, when the commander's radio crackled into life.
"Shepard? Shepard come in!" came Joker's voice, filled with an unfamiliar panic. "Come on commander, don't leave me hanging!"
"I'm here!" Shepard coughed in reply, "Did the rest of the squad make it to the Normandy?"
"They're all here, so are the crew. You and your squad are the only ones we're waiting on."
"Right, we're heading your way. Garrus, take point."

"Got it Shepard," replied the former C-Sec officer, readying his assault rifle.
Following the map on their omni-tools, the trio hurried away from the ledge and down a long hallway. By now the air was thick with smoke, making it almost impossible to breathe, while explosions rocked the station more and more violently. Tali gathered enough of her strength that she was able to run as Shepard supported her.

"How much further?" he called to Garrus.
"Just around this corner, but we've only got two minutes before that bomb goes off."
"We really need to stop cutting these things so fine," said Tali.
"Ah, but Miss Normandy, that would-"
The rest of Garrus's reply was lost as a storm of mass effect rounds thundered down around them. Looking up, Shepard saw more than a dozen of the insect-like Collectors on a platform above, all firing their strange weapons.
"GET TO COVER!"

With rounds flying all around, the three managed to dive behind a set of large pipes.
"What the hell do we do?" said Garrus, "There's no way we can fight through them to the Normandy in time."
"Then let's take a few of them with us," hissed Tali, firing her shotgun around the pipes.
Shepard replied with a long furious burst of fire from his M-76 Revenant. At least this way they would go down fighting.

He ducked back into cover and ejected a thermal clip, when a flash of blueish light appeared in front of him. At first, he thought it was a flashbang grenade, but soon saw that it was something far stranger.
Hanging in mid-air was what could only be described as a rip in reality, the image of a large empty room within it, flickering and fuzzy, like a badly tuned hologram. The edge of the rip moved in an endless wave, crackling with blue electricity.

"What in the galaxy is that?" exclaimed Garrus, his jaw hanging open.
"It must be a portal of some kind," replied Tali.
A fresh wave of mass effect rounds hammered against the pipes. They had only seconds before the bomb exploded. An insane idea came to the commander, but it was the only choice open to them.

"Joker!" he yelled into his radio, "We're cut off. Get the Normandy out of here!"
"NO!" the pilot cried out, "I'M NOT LEAVING YOU AGAIN!"
"You've got to get the others to safety. Don't worry, we've got another escape route."
"But?"
"Just go Joker! GO NOW!"

He turned to Garrus and Tali.
"On the count of three, we run for that portal."
"What!?" said Garrus, looking confused.
"John, we don't even know what it is," replied Tali, sounding just as confused.
"It's our only chance! One!
"But-"
"Two, THREE!"
Before they could argue any more, Shepard grabbed both of his friends and ran toward the portal, bullets storming all around.