Mass Effect: Interregnum

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"I've spent all my life in service to one law or another. Academy law. Hierarchy law. Citadel law. And I always thought it held me back. But when you're out here in the wilds, when you don't have a law to turn to, what makes you better than them when you put them down?"

Mass Effect: Interregnum is a fanfic written by The Naked Pen and set in the period between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. It follows Garrus Vakarian, who is now on Omega trying make a difference.

He has come in possession of codes for a devastating weapon and is being held by Blood Pack mercenaries when two mysterious individuals rescue him. From there on the story follows him as he builds his team and fights Omega's underworld.

Without a doubt one of the best Mass Effect fanfics, with some readers even saying that it's better then the official novels and comics. A must for any fan of Mass Effect and especially of Garrus.

Also features a one-shot in the same universe called Omega Noire, narrated by Garrus as he investigates a murder.

Tropes used in Mass Effect: Interregnum include:
  • Anti-Villain: Thralog Mirki'it: red sand dealer, gang leader and newly-minted orphan.
  • Arc Words: Nothing's ever easy...
    • "It's a start." Especially prominent in Alpha and Omega, though it continues to pop up in later story arcs.
  • Badass Crew: Garrus and his team, of course. They've got...
    • A Squad Nickname: Archangel (although it's also used to refer specifically to Garrus)
    • A Friendly Sniper: Garrus, for the most part (unless he's in Archangel mode, in which case he becomes a very Cold Sniper)
    • The Smart Guy: Sensat and Butler are locked in a never-ending struggle to see which of them deserves this title more. Sensat is also The Engineer.
    • The Big Guy: Weaver punched out a krogan on two separate occasions. Also Melanis, despite being a volus.
    • Mad Bomber: Erash's love for all things kablooie mean he veers close to this on occasion.
    • Squishy Wizard: Monteague. Their first biotic and definitely their most squishy one.
    • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ripper has shades of this.
  • Blood Knight: Garrus veers into this every now and again.

Garrus's internal monologue: Outnumbered ten to one by people trying to kill you, in the most corrupt, evil hellhole in the galaxy, knowing you'll be lucky if you make it through the night... it doesn't get any better than this.

Sidonis: Your grasp of the obvious is a fucking inspiration to our children.

  • Chase Scene: With flying cars, both on Omega and Deinech. Both include a lot of shooting and explosions. Better yet, they were written before Lair of the Shadow Broker's chase scene!
  • City Noir: Omega in the one-shot story Omega Noire is this, only being a giant space station instead of a city.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Pretty much every time Sidonis opens his mouth, but exemplified by this:

The whine in Garrus's ears began to fade a little, and he realised Sidonis was still saying something.
"-ck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" he was shouting.

  • The Comically Serious: Ripper
  • Continuity Nod: Obviously, seeing as it's set in the Mass Effect universe with a major character from the games. But there are some more subtle references to certain aspects of the games. One example is when Erash tells his story about cheating in a casino being found out by a Spectre:

"You'd be surprised how much time they spend in casinos."
"...no, I don't think I would," Garrus said.

    • There are also mentions of a fast-talking salarian doctor working somewhere on Omega. He appears in person in the Leviathan arc, where he is confirmed to be Mordin Solus. This appearance also states that Erash worked with Mordin on the genophage modification project mentioned extensively in Mass Effect 2.
  • Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: Deinech is a planet with futuristic cities under almost constant rain.
  • Cyborg: Melenis is a cyborg volus.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Mostly Ripper and Monteague. On a less extreme level, Weaver was a criminal on Earth, Sidonis was part of an amoral black-ops merc squad and Butler murdered his wife's stalker in cold blood to protect her and has been haunted by it ever since. There's also Erash's hang-ups about being a part of Firebreak, the genophage modification project.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Just about everyone, though Garrus and Erash are probably the frontrunners.
  • Happily Married: Mike and Nalah Butler.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
  • Local Hangout: The crew tends to spend a lot of time in the Spider Bar, a human-run establishment with cross-species appeal (and, much to everyone's dismay, elcor karaoke), despite the fact that none of them seem to actually like the place. Well, maybe Erash does. And Sensat apparently doesn't mind the elcor karaoke.
  • The McCoy: Butler.
  • More Criminals Than Targets: Garrus often jokes about Omega being this... until Golf runs the numbers and deduces that it's probably true. And decides to kill everyone on Omega because of it.
  • Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: The music that plays in the Afterlife club is described as "prog-dancecore" in a brief aside in chapter 5.
  • Our Doors Are Different: In contrast to the game, regular hinged doors are mentioned several times. Being set mostly in run down and poor areas this is justified.
  • Precision F-Strike: Garrus, in Endgame Part Two.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: One of Garrus' favorite pastimes.

Deus: I can't die! Not now! You don't have the right! I'm Deus! I am a god-
Garrus: Yeah, well, I'm an atheist.
*blam*

  • The Quiet One: Mierin seems set to be this for the team, although there was already Melenis in more or less the same role.
  • Recycled in Space: Fanon usually depicts Garrus as Space Batman, but in this he's more like Space Punisher. Except when he's being Space Philip Marlowe.
  • Retool: Undergoes one about halfway through. The first two arcs make up a long story about Garrus gathering the beginnings of his team and fighting an insane Hitler-esque turian, while the next three are him and his team fighting crime on Omega.
    • Character names in early chapters were retroactively changed as well, after Lair of the Shadow Broker came out and revealed the full list of names on Garrus' team. This also (possibly) changed the makeup of the team, as the Lair of the Shadow Broker names more or less confirmed no asari or quarians were involved or any women (aside from Butler's wife). At the very least, it's possible the asari Vunas was going to join up before Lot SB came out.
  • Single Biome Planet: Deinech is completely covered by an ocean. Its inhabitants live on artificial islands.
  • Shout-Out: Oh god. Where to begin?
  • Standard Snippet: The elcor who frequent the Spider Bar really like music from the 1970s and 80s, despite it being 200 years in the future.
  • Weapon of Mass Destruction: The ship Garrus possesses codes for is capable of eradicating all life on a planet in a relatively short time. Which is why everyone wants to get their hands on it.
  • Wham! Episode: Outlived. "Ninety-two" indeed.
    • Also, Endgame Part Two, which ends with a succession of several Wham Lines.
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