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Renegade (fanfic): Difference between revisions
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Take Earth from the ''[[Command
The year is 2183. The Global Defense Initiative, having formed a unified global hegemony on Earth, discovers Prothean ruins on Mars, which jumpstarts their already-advanced technology and allows them to escape [[Death World|the ecological hellhole that Earth has become]] thanks to [[Green Rocks|Tiberium]]. Making their way into the stars, they run afoul of the Turian Hierarchy and the rest of the Citadel species. With their advanced technology and the economic power of Tiberium, GDI becomes a major independent player in galactic politics, presenting an ally for disaffected species like the krogan and Quarian Migrant Fleet. However, things aren't all rosy, as GDI finds itself locked in a drawn-out war with the Batarian Hegemony, and in the shadows, the Brotherhood of Nod is emerging, manipulating events from behind the scenes....
The story opens with then-Lieutenant Shepard, a biotic GDI Commando who finds herself forced to accept the assistance of the Brotherhood of Nod when slavers attack Elysium, and as a result is catapulted into heroism and fame. Seven years later, on the way to the GDI colony world of Eden Prime alongside a Council Spectre, she discovers an old enemy has emerged and attacked the human colony: the alien Scrin, working alongside the synthetic geth and a mysterious alien dreadnought.
Written by the same author behind ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'' and ''[[Forward]].'' Notable for the level of depth involved in depicting the effect that a GDI-led humanity would have on the galaxy. It is indicated that this universe's Earth is set after the "good" ending to ''Tiberium Wars'' where the Liquid Tiberium Bomb was not used. The story also draws a great deal of inspiration from the canceled ''Tiberium'' game, using various designs, weapons, and uniforms from the game, such as the Integrated Combat Suit and a variant of the GD-10 weapon.
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** There are a number of smaller, aesthetic differences too, i.e. the Normandy's interior lighting is cold blue-gray and their haptic interfaces are blue instead of orange.
* [[Author Appeal]]: [[Word of God|In the author's own words]], {{spoiler|1="Miranda + Black Nod Catsuit = '''Victory!'''"}}
* [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant]]:
** The Batarian Hegemony did this when they [[Bullying a Dragon|kept supporting raids on human space.]]
** Speculation (partially supported by [[Word of God]]) is that {{spoiler|the Scrin are hiding specifically to avoid doing this to the Reapers.}} And unfortunately, {{spoiler|they seeded the wrong world with tiberium....}}
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* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Garrus, which is lampshaded, as the chapter in which he first showcases his overly aggressive tendencies is titled "Cowboys."
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: {{spoiler|Sovereign vs. Ion Array EP-4.}}
* [[Death World]]: The general perception of Earth is that it's an even deadlier world then Tuchancka with one of the key differences being that when presented with the possibility of getting off the planet like the krogan a large portion of the human population chose to stay put. Which of course lends itself to the perception of humanity as a species of crazy BAMFs by the rest of the galaxy.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Standing GDI military doctrine calls for overwhelming force in response to any attack, up to and including launching a full-scale war on one of the major galactic powers like the Batarian Hegemony.
* [[Doomed by Canon]]: Subverted - {{spoiler|Nihlus}} is still alive.
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* [[Enemy Mine]]: Shepard working with Nod in the prologue to rescue the captives from Elysium. Of note is that Shepard is pretty much forced to do this; she's been stripped of her weapons and gear and is on a Nod ship, and they make it clear that she can either go along with them or bad things will happen.
** Zaeed pulls this with Jacob and the GDI Marines in Chapter 9, while storming the warehouse. Both Shepherd and Jacob [[Genre Savvy|are alert for him to doublecross them]]. {{spoiler|He does, but is foiled by Alenko.}}
* [[For Want of a Nail]]:
** Garrus' shift from a somewhat impetuous [[Cowboy Cop]] to "[[24|Jack Bauer]] meets the [[There Was a Door|Kool-Aid Man]]" appears to be a direct result of GDI's presence in the timeline. Thanks to GDI aggressiveness, the Council expanded the number of Spectres, and he was given an opportunity to join. He made the choice to become a Spectre, and as a result never got the instilled restraint he would have otherwise received as a police officer. The result is a Spectre who is overly aggressive.
** To a much lesser degree, there's Jacob Taylor. In the traditional ME timeline, he joined the Corsairs because he thought it would cut down on the red tape that the SA puts on its military, and left to join Cerberus when even Corsairs proved little better than the Marines. In the ''Renegade'' timeline, the GDI's time honored tradition of "Step 1: identify problem. Step 2: apply military force. Step 3: repeat Step 2 until problem ceases to be problematic," seems to have prevented Jacob from ever wanting to leave the standard military.
** Zaeed's presence on the Citadel is apparently as a result of this. Due to GDI's friendliness with the krogan, Wrex got a job on Eden Prime as a bodyguard. As a result, Zaeed was the one hired by the Shadow Broker to deal with Fist.
** {{spoiler|Tali has already completed her pilgrimage when the story starts, which means rather than a sole Quarian on the run from Saren, she had a team of Migrant Fleet Marines with her, of which Kal'Reegar is the only survivor. This also explains the larger merc presence.}}
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Nod laser weapons are particularly devastating as everyone uses kinetic barriers, which don't block them. Also, {{spoiler|Tali packs a Nod laser weapon.}}
* [[Gambit Pileup]]: The Reapers are plotting something. Kane is ''also'' plotting something. The author has hinted that other plots are in motion.The Shadow Broker got involved when sending Zaeed after the mercenaries, and now there's hints that a group called "Pheonix" is involved (with [[Word of God]] hinting that they may be this universe's equivalent of Cerberus).
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Both Shepherd and Jacob cooperate with Zaeed's rampage - or at least stay out of his way - but anticipate he'll turn on him when the [[Enemy Mine]] is over. {{spoiler|He does, and is also [[Genre Savvy]] enough to backstab Shepherd when Jacob's Marine platoon is too far away to intercede. Until Alenko showed up...}}
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: The author has made it quite clear that neither GDI nor Nod are complete good guys or villains. In fact, Nod seems to get more positive points than negative ones in this timeline, though in [[Word of God|his commentary]] the author notes that both the Brotherhood and GDI are different entities than they were in the ''[[Command
** In one of the author's own comments, he said that (paraphrased) "Neither side is right. However, both sides are wrong on certain points."
* [[Gunship Rescue]]: The Orcas at the end of the fourth chapter.
* [[Jerkass]]: Councilor Velarn.
{{quote|'''Velarn''': ''No Citadel species has been so incompetently self-destructive as to let its homeworld be consumed by a mindless crystal.''}}
** Not a huge surprise: Velarn is, in canon, most known for being Air-Quote Turian.
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* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: {{spoiler|Kane}}. When you're {{spoiler|the head of an infamous terrorist/criminal/fanatical religious organization}} who manages to steal {{spoiler|the Tacitus}}, one of the most valuable artifacts to both the Citadel and GDI, then turn around and negotiate a compromise between the two to make yourself look like the reasonable and level-headed one, you're a definite case of this.
** [[Word of God]] is that Councilor Velarn is a [[Jerkass]] to humans [[I Shall Taunt You|deliberately, so that angry humans won't think clearly.]]
** Shepard is implied to be one of these. She is very good at manipulating others and knowing how to keep negative personality traits (such as Garrus' and Admiral Parker's tendency for overkill) under control.
* [[Mathematician's Answer]]: A lot of Peptuck's responses to questions.
* [[Mighty Glacier]]: The appropriately named ''Glacier''-class dreadnoughts fielded by GDI, which are described as having an almost impractical amount of firepower.
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* [[Patchwork Fic]]: Based on the outline of the first ''ME'', but incorporates characters and elements from the second.
* [[Running Gag]]: Garrus raids a series of warehouses by crashing through the wall of each one in a "borrowed" car. The flashback to each is recounted identically, until Shepard catches on and tells him to just skip the rest.
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: GDI does ''not'' take the Batarian Hegemony's funding of pirates and slavers lightly.
* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Shepard's face is severely scarred as a result of her experiences on Akuze {{spoiler|apparently due to a close encounter with Scrin buzzers.}}
** Partially subverted: Shepard was offered the chance to have her scars removed, but chose to keep them as a reminder.
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** Chapter Three:
{{quote|“That big walker,” she ordered. “We’re going to [[Firefly|kill it with our brains.]]”}}
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** Three in Chapter 8: {{spoiler|Tali}}'s stealth systems have a certain [[Crysis (series)|mechanical voice announcing when they activate]], there's a [[F.E.A.R.|REV]] [[Mini-Mecha]], and one of the mercenaries mentions getting [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|"biology lessons" on a quarian prisoner]] from a guy named [[Battle: Los Angeles|Nantz]].
** When Jacob and Zaeed are talking in Chapter 9, mention is made of a "maxim" that "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy." Which is [[Schlock Mercenary|Maxim Twenty-Nine]].
* [[Space Cold War]]: Between GDI and the Citadel. There ''was'' a cold war between GDI and the Batarian Hegemony, but GDI didn't take those slaver raids very well....
* [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]: [[Word of God]] has laid out that the different navies of both GDI and Nod have distinct compositions and doctrines. GDI's fleet primarily consists of carriers and lighter ships, with an emphasis on base-hopping and resource and convoy interdiction, with enormous, heavily-armed fleets for destroying hardened targets and "super-heavy carriers" based on MCV technology that are designed to supply cluster-wide operations. Nod, on the other hand, uses larger numbers of lighter cruisers, complete with long-range fighters and light carriers, with an emphasis on destroying enemy supplies and support and avoiding a decisive engagement, causing the enemy to waste resources and spread himself thin defending against constant attacks. Both navies make use of MCV/Crawler technology to let them operate deep in enemy territory.
* [[Stealth in Space]]: Both Nod and GDI appear to have one-upped the original timeline's stealth systems; GDI has finally cracked Nod's stealth tech to develop a working optical cloak, used in conjunction with the thermal cloaking the original Normandy had. Complete with an early throwaway line about SIS being "impossible".
* [[Superweapon Surprise]]:
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** There's also the obligatory shot at Mass Effect 1's elevators, including a reference to the Elcor Hamlet ad.
** [[[[Die Hard]] “You hit him with the cargo hauler while he was airborne?” she guessed, and he scoffed.<br />“Of course not,” he said.]]
* [[Tank Goodness]]:
** GDI is still driving around "house sized masses of fuck you." (While they have not yet been described with the full phrase, the standard description ''is'' still "house-sized". Make of this what you will.)
** Garrus hijacks a tank to capture an unarmed, injured mercenary. [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|Make of that what you will.]]
* [[Teasing Creator]]: Peptuck seems to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in doing this in the discussion thread. One of his favorite non-answers is to post a picture of [[Gargoyles|David Xanatos]] with a smile on his face and [[Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive|his hands clasped before him.]]
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: GDI's approach to warfare is pure, unrelenting firepower coupled with [[Disproportionate Retribution]]. For comparison to the original timeline, the assault on Torfan was a costly ground attack through the pirates' tunnels. In this timeline, Torfan's base was orbitally obliterated by an ion cannon barrage that destroyed the complex and everything within fifty kilometers of the base. GDI, furthermore, has ''twenty'' defense platforms surrounding the Charon relay, each with six dreadnought-grade ion cannons on it. They're very serious about possible invasion.
** Interestingly, this is pretty much the opposite of the System Alliance's doctrine, which emphasized flexibility and mobility.
** Garrus has... ''markedly less restraint'' than in canon.
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** [[Word of God]] is actually [[Shrug of God]] when it comes to Shepard's appearance; with the exception of being female, severely scarred, and a biotic, all other details are left ambiguous so the reader can insert whatever appearance they think is appropriate.
*** When asked about how fast GDI's build times were, Peptuck's response was "Fast but not too fast. And no, I'm not going to be any more specific than that."
** Peptuck has confirmed that {{spoiler|Kal'Reegar will join Shepherd's crew alongside Tali.}}
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Nod taking the Tacitus from Eden Prime}}, causing conflict between GDI and the Citadel that allows {{spoiler|Kane to walk in and negotiate a compromise}}, thereby coming off as the reasonable and diplomatic one to interstellar politics. {{spoiler|Kane}} even outright admits this to Shepard, who is forced to acknowledge that she can't act on the information because it make her look bad or ruin the compromise.
* [[X Meets Y]]:
** The story is essentially ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'' meeting ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5453047/1/Graveyard_Shift Graveyard Shift]''.
** Garrus is, per [[Word of God]], "the fusion of [[24|Jack Bauer]] and the [[There Was a Door|Kool-Aid Man.]]"
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