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Description
Wonderfully done commission by Avionetca! twitter.com/AvionetcaArt

Newly promoted (and engaged) Commodore Aki Shepard, Commander Ashley Williams, and Lieutenant Samantha Traynor wearing MY version of Alliance Navy dress uniforms, post Reaper War!

To all fellow Star Wars fanatics: Yes! I know that is a Nebulon-B Frigate in the background. That was my fault, a miscommunication between me and the artist. The women are the primary focus so I call this a brilliant piece regardless! Looking back, it would have been cool to get Tali in there but she wouldn't have fit in with the theme I think.

FemShep and Ash are both Marines so they would of course wear berets, pants and dress shoes. Traynor is a regular Naval officer and (ironically) the most girly of the three so she would wear the kind of women's Naval cap that's still pretty common today in the U.S. and British Royal Navies as well as choose the optional skirt and heels.

The following reflects my own personal head canon (i.e. fanfiction) for the Mass Effect storyline post Reaper War. Beware of spoilers for the whole Mass Effect Trilogy.

Please note that several fan designed Alliance warships are mentioned that are the creation of Euderion. Anyone looking for sexy 3D renders of the various space ships from your favorite Sci Fi franchises should give his page a look!
euderion.deviantart.com/

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise and it's characters are of course the property of Bioware. I make no legal claim to them whatsoever.

The Reaper War

Eight and a half months of bloody slaughter that left nearly half of the Galaxy's population dead and it's infrastructure in shambles. Eight and a half months of Galaxy wide carnage, with at least ten hard years of recovery projected by even the most optimistic experts. Even then, nothing will ever be the same again.

What exactly happened when then Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson traveled up from the ruins of London to the hidden chambers of the Citadel during the Battle of Earth (now known as Ascension Day or A-Day for short) is still not entirely clear to the Galaxy at large. Even Shepard's own public recounts have been vague to say the least. All that is known for sure is that they encountered Cerberus leader Jack Harper (a.k.a. "The Illusive Man") who had apparently piloted the Citadel to Earth from the Serpent Nebula for reasons unknown. The Admiral and Harper were both killed in a brief but deadly firefight and the Commander somehow managed to activate the Crucible once it had connected with the station.

Moments later a massive energy pulse erupted from the Citadel, effectively shutting down all electronics within the Sol system, including the Reapers, and spreading through the mass relays across the entire known Galaxy. The pulse became far less devastating after passing through the first few relays but it's effects on the Reapers themselves were no less final. The War was over. The Cycle was over.

The suffering and death would continue for a bit longer though. The pulse had been detected as it was warming up by the Allied forces over Earth and Admiral Hackett ordered all ships to make an emergency FTL jump. Many vessels however were crippled or too badly damaged to power up their FTLs in time. While not technically a shockwave, the pulse caused catastrophic damage to the Allied ships still near Earth when it went out, killing hundreds who otherwise could have been saved. Reaper Dreadnaughts still in atmosphere on Earth and other worlds would fall to ground, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians who had only moments before thought their nightmare finally over.

The mass relays throughout the Galaxy were dangerously overcome with supercharged energy for three long weeks before they stabilized and were declared safe to use again. With nothing else to do while they waited, the various non human military forces either helped comb the flaming hulks orbiting Earth or the planetside ruins for any sign of survivors and aided in getting as much of the world's or the Citadel's (whose life support systems were thankfully not affected) power restored as possible.

While the chamber she'd been in had collapsed, Shepard managed to crawl out from the ruble with just a broken arm, three cracked ribs and a concussion and was able to heal relatively quickly thanks to her genetic enhancements. It took nearly a week for search crews to find what was left of Anderson and Harper's pulverized bodies.

Flight Lt. Jeff Moreau hesitated when the order to jump was first given, not wanting to abandon Shepard and the rest of the ground team. The pulse hit the SSV Normandy 2 just as it jumped. The jump was successful but severe damage caused the frigate to crash land on the Jungle world of Kolm in a nearby star system. They were rescued within a few days but several crew members including Chief Engineer Lt. Cmd. Greg Adams and Ship's Doctor CPO Karen Chakwas were killed in the crash. Lt. Moreau suffered grave wounds, compounded by his pre existing medical condition and he was medically (and honorably) discharged form the Alliance Navy. Unless medical science advances considerably, he will never be able walk under his own power again.

Eighteen months have passed since A-Day. The Normandy has been repaired with now Commodore Shepard back in command, Special Operative Garrus Vakarian and now Commander Ashley Williams once again by her side. The also newly promoted Lt. Cmd. Steve Cortez now at the Normandy's helm and Quarian Captain Tali'Zora "vas Normandy" as acting Chief Engineer. Of course the benevolent (and somewhat perverted) AI EDI continues to watch over their every move... at every minute... of every day... while occasionally making terrible jokes. Dr. Liara T'Soni hasn't been seen in months. There are many wild conspiracies about her, some even claiming that she's the Shadow Broker.

Shepard and Tali are now engaged to be married, as are Cmd. Williams and now Lt. Samantha Traynor, though wedding dates are not yet set. They all still lead quite busy lives, doing what they can for the people of the Galaxy and occasionally going on "peacekeeping" missions under orders from the new Council. The old council resigned after the War but still remain today as advisors on the Citadel.

Despite continuous rampant issues with infrastructure with many colonies and even parts of their homeworlds still in complete disarray, each race has regardless allocated most of its scarcely limited resources into rebuilding their respective militaries, much to the irritation of much of their civilian populations. The Alliance Navy for example has just unveiled a fleet of their brand new Anderson class destroyers, a powerful but fast lovechild between a frigate and a cruiser designed specifically for policing their outer colonies. They have also begun development of the heavier Leonidas-class destroyer, the Siracusa and Megiddo class artillery cruisers and have three new Denali class Super Dreadnoughts and a Sagan class Super Carrier currently under construction. When completed, they may just be the most powerful warships the Galaxy has ever seen.

With help from the ancient Prothean VI the Allied forces were able to develop Indoctrination detection equipment and successfully disassemble the various Reaper tech scattered across the Galaxy. Some of this tech is now being adapted for Alliance and Allied use though many are understandably quite hesitant about this. Just to be safe, Geth will often be in charge of handling physical Reaper hardware while organic scientists handle any software (while using non networked computers of course).

All is still not well however. Cerberus remains an active threat to Galactic peace, especially after General Oleg Petrovski was sprung from Alliance custody. Plus, many surviving humans from Earth and other colonies feel betrayed and abandoned by the Alliance, making them easy prey for Cerberus propaganda. Many organics still distrust the Geth and resent the fact that they have a seat on the new Council, despite all the help they've provided over the last year and a half. Finally, in spite of Urdnot Wrex's iron fisted leadership, several old school Krogan warlords are making serious attempts to overthrow him and bring back "the good old days" of fighting and conquering. At the moment these warlords and their followers spend more time fighting each other than Clan Urdnot, but the situation is being closely monitored by the rest of the Galaxy.

Sorry for the exposition dump. In short, the Galaxy is still pretty messed up and the only things that can keep it together are a few good women!

Good women like:

Commodore Aki Shepard
The "Savior of the Galaxy" was born on Earth and orphaned at an early age. Finding her only companionship in the mean streets of Vancouver among the street gang "The 10th Street Reds" she admittedly participated in a number of robberies and assaults and though she never killed anyone, she did come close a few times. Eventually Shepard and a few of her friends grew tired of the life and opted to join an off world work force (one desperate enough not to ask too many questions) assigned to the backwater colony of Mindoir. She spent the next several months getting attached to the local settlers only for tragedy to strike. A large scale Batarian slaver raiding party hit and overran the lightly defended colony, murdering or abducting nearly everyone (including her friends from the Reds). Shepard herself managed to kill several slavers (her first recorded kills) in defense and then hid long enough to be among the very few to be rescued. The detachment of Marines who responded were under the command of then Lt. Cmd. David Anderson and Shepard enlisted in the Alliance Marines a week later. She was 18 years old.

Shepard passed through basic training with flying colors and eventually applied for the N7 Program which she of course also passed. She went on to serve with distinction during the mopping up on Elysium and the Assault on Torfan until her unit was assigned to respond to a distress signal from the tiny colony on Akuse. The entire population had been consumed by Thresher Maws which preceded to ambush and wipe out the marines just minutes after they made landfall. This was later discovered to be a Cerberus "experiment" and Shepard was thought to be the sole survivor until years later.

She was later assigned as the XO aboard the then brand new frigate SSV Normandy for it's shakedown cruise only to discover that it was all just a cover to retrieve a Prothean Beacon unearthed on the colony of Eden Prime. The rest as they say... is history!

Currently Shepard holds the rank of Commodore, the highest rank below an Admiral in the Alliance Navy, and is still in command of the Normandy. Just about any controversy about her tenure working with Cerberus has disappeared since A-Day. She is also still trying to bring down the Exogeni Corporation for the atrocities it committed in the past. No small task considering how much it's business has boomed in the post War Galaxy.

There was talk of naming the Sagan Carriers after her at first but she fought the Alliance brass on it until they relented.

Commander Ashley Williams
Ashley Madeline Williams, the second human SPECTRE, is a true born and bred spacer. She enlisted in the Alliance Marines as soon as she was old enough like her Father and Grandfather before her and spent years trying to get out from under her Grandfather's shadow (who of course was the commander of the Shanxi garrison during the First Contact War). Williams's unit was stationed on Eden Prime after the Prothean Beacon was discovered and she was it's only survivor when the rogue indoctrinated SPECTRE Saren and his Reaper worshiping band of Geth attacked. She was later transferred to the Normandy and... yeah... you know the rest.

Now a commander and SPECTRE, Ashley is officially Shepard's number 2, though some say that role in truth unofficially falls onto Operative Vakarian. She is currently engaged to Lt. Traynor. While this is a direct violation of Alliance regulations, her SPECTRE status combined with her long list of accomplishments since Eden Prime are more than enough for the brass to look the other way.

Shepard is currently trying to get Williams an N7 certification, believing with good reason that she's more than earned it at this point.

Lieutenant Samantha Traynor
The strategy game loving communications specialist and expert was born and raised on the Human colony of Horizon. She enlisted in the Alliance Navy purely for the educational benefits but later chose to stay in, enjoying her time in the R&D labs. When Traynor witnessed an opportunity to help work on the refit for the SSV Normandy 2, she jumped at it... and you know the rest.

She is now a commissioned Lieutenant and Communications Chief on the Normandy.

Description
Wonderfully done commission by Avionetca! twitter.com/AvionetcaArt

Newly promoted (and engaged) Commodore Aki Shepard, Commander Ashley Williams, and Lieutenant Samantha Traynor wearing MY version of Alliance Navy dress uniforms, post Reaper War!

To all fellow Star Wars fanatics: Yes! I know that is a Nebulon-B Frigate in the background. That was my fault, a miscommunication between me and the artist. The women are the primary focus so I call this a brilliant piece regardless! Looking back, it would have been cool to get Tali in there but she wouldn't have fit in with the theme I think.

FemShep and Ash are both Marines so they would of course wear berets, pants and dress shoes. Traynor is a regular Naval officer and (ironically) the most girly of the three so she would wear the kind of women's Naval cap that's still pretty common today in the U.S. and British Royal Navies as well as choose the optional skirt and heels.

The following reflects my own personal head canon (i.e. fanfiction) for the Mass Effect storyline post Reaper War. Beware of spoilers for the whole Mass Effect Trilogy.

Please note that several fan designed Alliance warships are mentioned that are the creation of Euderion. Anyone looking for sexy 3D renders of the various space ships from your favorite Sci Fi franchises should give his page a look!
euderion.deviantart.com/

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise and it's characters are of course the property of Bioware. I make no legal claim to them whatsoever.

The Reaper War

Eight and a half months of bloody slaughter that left nearly half of the Galaxy's population dead and it's infrastructure in shambles. Eight and a half months of Galaxy wide carnage, with at least ten hard years of recovery projected by even the most optimistic experts. Even then, nothing will ever be the same again.

What exactly happened when then Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson traveled up from the ruins of London to the hidden chambers of the Citadel during the Battle of Earth (now known as Ascension Day or A-Day for short) is still not entirely clear to the Galaxy at large. Even Shepard's own public recounts have been vague to say the least. All that is known for sure is that they encountered Cerberus leader Jack Harper (a.k.a. "The Illusive Man") who had apparently piloted the Citadel to Earth from the Serpent Nebula for reasons unknown. The Admiral and Harper were both killed in a brief but deadly firefight and the Commander somehow managed to activate the Crucible once it had connected with the station.

Moments later a massive energy pulse erupted from the Citadel, effectively shutting down all electronics within the Sol system, including the Reapers, and spreading through the mass relays across the entire known Galaxy. The pulse became far less devastating after passing through the first few relays but it's effects on the Reapers themselves were no less final. The War was over. The Cycle was over.

The suffering and death would continue for a bit longer though. The pulse had been detected as it was warming up by the Allied forces over Earth and Admiral Hackett ordered all ships to make an emergency FTL jump. Many vessels however were crippled or too badly damaged to power up their FTLs in time. While not technically a shockwave, the pulse caused catastrophic damage to the Allied ships still near Earth when it went out, killing hundreds who otherwise could have been saved. Reaper Dreadnaughts still in atmosphere on Earth and other worlds would fall to ground, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians who had only moments before thought their nightmare finally over.

The mass relays throughout the Galaxy were dangerously overcome with supercharged energy for three long weeks before they stabilized and were declared safe to use again. With nothing else to do while they waited, the various non human military forces either helped comb the flaming hulks orbiting Earth or the planetside ruins for any sign of survivors and aided in getting as much of the world's or the Citadel's (whose life support systems were thankfully not affected) power restored as possible.

While the chamber she'd been in had collapsed, Shepard managed to crawl out from the ruble with just a broken arm, three cracked ribs and a concussion and was able to heal relatively quickly thanks to her genetic enhancements. It took nearly a week for search crews to find what was left of Anderson and Harper's pulverized bodies.

Flight Lt. Jeff Moreau hesitated when the order to jump was first given, not wanting to abandon Shepard and the rest of the ground team. The pulse hit the SSV Normandy 2 just as it jumped. The jump was successful but severe damage caused the frigate to crash land on the Jungle world of Kolm in a nearby star system. They were rescued within a few days but several crew members including Chief Engineer Lt. Cmd. Greg Adams and Ship's Doctor CPO Karen Chakwas were killed in the crash. Lt. Moreau suffered grave wounds, compounded by his pre existing medical condition and he was medically (and honorably) discharged form the Alliance Navy. Unless medical science advances considerably, he will never be able walk under his own power again.

Eighteen months have passed since A-Day. The Normandy has been repaired with now Commodore Shepard back in command, Special Operative Garrus Vakarian and now Commander Ashley Williams once again by her side. The also newly promoted Lt. Cmd. Steve Cortez now at the Normandy's helm and Quarian Captain Tali'Zora "vas Normandy" as acting Chief Engineer. Of course the benevolent (and somewhat perverted) AI EDI continues to watch over their every move... at every minute... of every day... while occasionally making terrible jokes. Dr. Liara T'Soni hasn't been seen in months. There are many wild conspiracies about her, some even claiming that she's the Shadow Broker.

Shepard and Tali are now engaged to be married, as are Cmd. Williams and now Lt. Samantha Traynor, though wedding dates are not yet set. They all still lead quite busy lives, doing what they can for the people of the Galaxy and occasionally going on "peacekeeping" missions under orders from the new Council. The old council resigned after the War but still remain today as advisors on the Citadel.

Despite continuous rampant issues with infrastructure with many colonies and even parts of their homeworlds still in complete disarray, each race has regardless allocated most of its scarcely limited resources into rebuilding their respective militaries, much to the irritation of much of their civilian populations. The Alliance Navy for example has just unveiled a fleet of their brand new Anderson class destroyers, a powerful but fast lovechild between a frigate and a cruiser designed specifically for policing their outer colonies. They have also begun development of the heavier Leonidas-class destroyer, the Siracusa and Megiddo class artillery cruisers and have three new Denali class Super Dreadnoughts and a Sagan class Super Carrier currently under construction. When completed, they may just be the most powerful warships the Galaxy has ever seen.

With help from the ancient Prothean VI the Allied forces were able to develop Indoctrination detection equipment and successfully disassemble the various Reaper tech scattered across the Galaxy. Some of this tech is now being adapted for Alliance and Allied use though many are understandably quite hesitant about this. Just to be safe, Geth will often be in charge of handling physical Reaper hardware while organic scientists handle any software (while using non networked computers of course).

All is still not well however. Cerberus remains an active threat to Galactic peace, especially after General Oleg Petrovski was sprung from Alliance custody. Plus, many surviving humans from Earth and other colonies feel betrayed and abandoned by the Alliance, making them easy prey for Cerberus propaganda. Many organics still distrust the Geth and resent the fact that they have a seat on the new Council, despite all the help they've provided over the last year and a half. Finally, in spite of Urdnot Wrex's iron fisted leadership, several old school Krogan warlords are making serious attempts to overthrow him and bring back "the good old days" of fighting and conquering. At the moment these warlords and their followers spend more time fighting each other than Clan Urdnot, but the situation is being closely monitored by the rest of the Galaxy.

Sorry for the exposition dump. In short, the Galaxy is still pretty messed up and the only things that can keep it together are a few good women!

Good women like:

Commodore Aki Shepard
The "Savior of the Galaxy" was born on Earth and orphaned at an early age. Finding her only companionship in the mean streets of Vancouver among the street gang "The 10th Street Reds" she admittedly participated in a number of robberies and assaults and though she never killed anyone, she did come close a few times. Eventually Shepard and a few of her friends grew tired of the life and opted to join an off world work force (one desperate enough not to ask too many questions) assigned to the backwater colony of Mindoir. She spent the next several months getting attached to the local settlers only for tragedy to strike. A large scale Batarian slaver raiding party hit and overran the lightly defended colony, murdering or abducting nearly everyone (including her friends from the Reds). Shepard herself managed to kill several slavers (her first recorded kills) in defense and then hid long enough to be among the very few to be rescued. The detachment of Marines who responded were under the command of then Lt. Cmd. David Anderson and Shepard enlisted in the Alliance Marines a week later. She was 18 years old.

Shepard passed through basic training with flying colors and eventually applied for the N7 Program which she of course also passed. She went on to serve with distinction during the mopping up on Elysium and the Assault on Torfan until her unit was assigned to respond to a distress signal from the tiny colony on Akuse. The entire population had been consumed by Thresher Maws which preceded to ambush and wipe out the marines just minutes after they made landfall. This was later discovered to be a Cerberus "experiment" and Shepard was thought to be the sole survivor until years later.

She was later assigned as the XO aboard the then brand new frigate SSV Normandy for it's shakedown cruise only to discover that it was all just a cover to retrieve a Prothean Beacon unearthed on the colony of Eden Prime. The rest as they say... is history!

Currently Shepard holds the rank of Commodore, the highest rank below an Admiral in the Alliance Navy, and is still in command of the Normandy. Just about any controversy about her tenure working with Cerberus has disappeared since A-Day. She is also still trying to bring down the Exogeni Corporation for the atrocities it committed in the past. No small task considering how much it's business has boomed in the post War Galaxy.

There was talk of naming the Sagan Carriers after her at first but she fought the Alliance brass on it until they relented.

Commander Ashley Williams
Ashley Madeline Williams, the second human SPECTRE, is a true born and bred spacer. She enlisted in the Alliance Marines as soon as she was old enough like her Father and Grandfather before her and spent years trying to get out from under her Grandfather's shadow (who of course was the commander of the Shanxi garrison during the First Contact War). Williams's unit was stationed on Eden Prime after the Prothean Beacon was discovered and she was it's only survivor when the rogue indoctrinated SPECTRE Saren and his Reaper worshiping band of Geth attacked. She was later transferred to the Normandy and... yeah... you know the rest.

Now a commander and SPECTRE, Ashley is officially Shepard's number 2, though some say that role in truth unofficially falls onto Operative Vakarian. She is currently engaged to Lt. Traynor. While this is a direct violation of Alliance regulations, her SPECTRE status combined with her long list of accomplishments since Eden Prime are more than enough for the brass to look the other way.

Shepard is currently trying to get Williams an N7 certification, believing with good reason that she's more than earned it at this point.

Lieutenant Samantha Traynor
The strategy game loving communications specialist and expert was born and raised on the Human colony of Horizon. She enlisted in the Alliance Navy purely for the educational benefits but later chose to stay in, enjoying her time in the R&D labs. When Traynor witnessed an opportunity to help work on the refit for the SSV Normandy 2, she jumped at it... and you know the rest.

She is now a commissioned Lieutenant and Communications Chief on the Normandy.