In 2183 CE, Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy is killed in action when his starship comes under fire from an unidentified vessel in the Terminus Systems. With Cerberus hiring Liara T’Soni, a former comrade of the deceased Systems Alliance commander, they are able to recover his body before the notorious Shadow Broker can acquire him for the Collectors. The Lazarus Project, a multi-billion credit experiment to bring Shepard back to life with new “upgrades” begins, but Cerberus anticipates that it will take at least two years to complete. In 2184 CE, the war that plagued Eden Prime finally comes to an end, with the Geth being driven back to their controlled space by the Systems Alliance. The galaxy seems to finally be at peace… if it weren’t for the disappearing human colonies.

The Illusive Man, the sole leader of the pro-human shadow organization, Cerberus, chooses not to sit and wait while the Collectors – an insectoid race that he believes is working for the Reapers – continues to harvest countless human beings for God knows what. He quickly activates the Omni Cell, enlisting the aid of his four best operatives to take the fight to the Collectors and stall their movements in the galaxy to give the Lazarus Cell enough time to complete their reconstruction of Shepard. Join commanders Titus, Poitvin, Horn, and Prado as they take charge of their state-of-the-art starships and assemble the best teams the galaxy will ever know. Together they must try and either stop the Collectors at all cost, or bring their plans to a crawl.

This story is an advanced collaborative fiction by four authors, being composed at Footsteps of Ghosts, based off of BioWare’s original Mass Effect trilogy.