Renegade (fanfic): Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

Archived story thread on Spacebattles can be found [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?p=7319274 here], and Fanfiction.net version available [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5851454/1/Renegade here].

Has an official prequel in the form of ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6965762/1/Eagles_Fall Eagle's Fall]'' by Charnobyl, which covers the Shanxi War between GDI and the Turian Hierarchy.

 

 

{{examples|Examples of tropes in this fanfic:}}

** 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....}}

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Firestorm barriers, per [[Word of God]]. Their power draw is enormous and they only go in one direction, and the projectors are still vulnerable to enemy fire, making them only really useful as a surface defense system with the projectors armored and buried underground. The Firestorm can be angled to create a pyramid-shaped defensive dome, but this won't work on spacecraft because they can be attacked from any angle, and the shield would draw about three times as much power as the rest of the ship's systems put together.

* [[Badass Minds Think Alike]]: In Chapter 8, Admiral Havoc & Garrus plan to assault a warehouse full of mercs by [[Stuff Blowing Up|blasting open the door]] and [[Dynamic Entry|charging in]] with [[Mini-Mecha|Wolverines]] and [[No Kill Like Overkill|sixty soldiers]], [[More Dakka|guns blazing]]. Shepherd manages to convince them to [[Stealth Based Mission|sneak in with a small team]]. {{spoiler|Zaeed's plan for assaulting the warehouse is the ''exact same plan'', adjusted for being a [[One-Man Army]]}}.

* [[Beam Spam]]: GDI's approach to space combat appears to take this as its central doctrine.

* [[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.

** Played straight when it comes to {{spoiler|Corporal Jenkins}}, but see below.

** Well, zig-zagged with {{spoiler|Jenkins}}, who makes it much further through {{spoiler|the Eden Prime mission}} than he ought to.

** 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]]:

** 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.

** To quote Shepard: "Most little girls had dolls. I had a datapad with ''[[The Prince]].''"

** Kane references ''[[Star Wars]]'' while talking to Saracino, saying that "Director, I find your lack of faith disturbing." He's grinning the whole time, so it's quite clear he ''knows'' what he's referencing. {{spoiler|Jacob}} even lampshades it.

** 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....

* [[Take That]]: Chapter Three's Codex entry has a jab at the canceled ''Tiberium'' game when referencing the GD-10, saying the original product was canceled for "failing to meet quality standards."

** There's also the obligatory shot at Mass Effect 1's elevators, including a reference to the Elcor Hamlet ad.

* [[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.]]

* [[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.

** Or sometimes telling a [[From a Certain Point of View|very specific version of the truth,]] like when he remarked that Kane will not be appearing in chapter 5. {{spoiler|Kane does appear.}} The last line of his post is

{{quote| "I said there was no Kane in this chapter, and look. [[Exact Words|Not one instance of the word "Kane" anywhere in this chapter]]."}}

** [[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."

* [[X Meets Y]]:

** The story is essentially ''[[Tiberium Wars (Fanfic)|Tiberium Wars]]'' meeting ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5453047/1/Graveyard_Shift Graveyard Shift]''.

*** He calls what Garrus becomes in canon Mass Effect 2 "Sniper [[Batman]]."

 

{{reflist}}