Author's Note: This is gonna be the first chapter of a Mass Effect AU where versions of SHIELD seasons 1-4 happened but Daisy is reassigned to rooting out corruption in the Alliance under the guise of "giving Humanity the hero it needs" after Season 4. Also the ME games never gave specific dates for the events of the games; just the years so I'm gonna date them on my own. Also I don't think I did a good job of describing the Batarians so here's an image of one: . /masseffect/images/0/0e/Codex_ME_-_Batarians_%28after_BDTS% /revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20140820044603.

FFN/AO3 NOTE: Final scene has been extended with new dialogue not present on the original Tumblr post.

REQUIEM, SYSTEMS ALLIANCE BASE, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, MARCH 8, 2183: As Systems Alliance Lieutenant Commander, decorated N7, superhero, and undercover SHIELD agent Daisy Johnson, more commonly known by her codename, Quake, her Alliance nickname Shepard (which came to be after the then Serviceman 1st class showed excellent leadership skills during the Skyllian Blitz), or "Commander Quake" as some have taken to calling her after her promotion the previous year, stepped onto the SSV Normandy SR1 (a white Frigate (a starship "weight" mostly used as escort or scouting ships) with black accents and red stripes) she felt like she was part of something notable. While the Alliance Navy tended to name Frigates after major battles from throughout human history; naming the first ship designed by the Alliance in conjunction with the Turians (a militaristic species with bird like faces, humanoid bodies, and tribal tattoos (a turian without tattoos on their face is considered in their culture to be untrustworthy)) after a battle so (in)famous and notable that its first day came to called "D-Day" is rather appropriate. It was also the first of the new "Normandy Class" of Alliance vessels. The Normandy was a sign of improving relations between humans and turians and, (hopefully) by extension, the Citadel Council (a 3 person committee made up of the Asari (a race purely made up of humanoid blue skinned women with solid "crests" instead of hair with a penchant for Biotics), the Salarians (a species bearing a startling resemblance to the aliens seen in the alien invasion stories of the 20th century), and the Turians) that rules a good chunk of the galaxy). These improving relations are good considering that 30 years prior, humanity and the turians had been fighting against each other in the First Contact War. They remained distrusting for a couple decades after the war ended. But the Chitauri and Loki's attempted invasion of Earth in the Battle of New York 8 years ago and an encounter with Thor and the Destroyer a year prior forced the Alliance to attempt to improve relations with the Council and for SHIELD to figure out new ways to keep up as while Earth has heroes like the Avengers (who aren't in good shape themselves) to protect it, if another cosmic threat comes about, Humans and Inhumans alike will need all the help they can get. When Daisy arrived at her bunk on the Normandy she stared out the window, reflecting on key events in her life.

LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, JANUARY 25, 2176: As the then 21 year old Daisy (then thinking she was 20) (going by the name "Skye" at the time) was going about her day, doing voice over for a Rising Tide video she was going to post to their extranet site, she heard the van door open and saw who she'd come to know as agents Phil Coulson and Grant Ward (the now 28 year old Johnson felt disgust when she saw Ward in her memory after what he'd done, Coulson chose to spare Ward on Maveth, she'd wished he killed him that day, it's not like Hive was in need of a body as Hive had managed to overpower Fitz). They then preceded to black bag her. The bag was taken off what Skye presumed was a half hour later. Skye found herself handcuffed in what Skye presumed was an interrogation room but the walls, ceiling, and floor had a honeycomb pattern that made Skye think otherwise. Coulson and Ward were both in the room with her. Skye decided to make herself sound important. "You guys have made a big mistake," she said to her captors with a hint of snark. Ward responded with "Really? You don't look that big." 'Well T-1000 over here either doesn't have a sense of humor or he's onto me,' Skye thought to herself. Coulson pulled out what looked like an Omni-Tool (an orange hologram-like cylinder that summoned around his left arm), "Look, we know you've been in contact with someone of our interest. A certain hero," Coulson said to Skye. He then laid out her options there and then: "The way I see it, you want to help this guy just as much as we do and I want to help you; so you can either work with us, or we'll let you go and let you go back to your fellow hackers and your gang friends you clearly want to escape."

SSV NORMANDY, ALLIANCE FRIGATE, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, MARCH 8, 2183: Daisy remembered her first encounter with Coulson fondly, she was glad she'd taken his offer. As the Normandy began preparations to take off, Daisy started to recall what happened to Lincoln and how he- 'NO, don't go there' Daisy thought. She instead reflected on the Skyllian Blitz and her heroic actions during it:

ELYSIUM, VETUS SYSTEM, JULY 3, 2180: The then Serviceman 1st Class Johnson was on much needed shore leave at Elysium for her birthday (which was the previous day). She was in her hotel room, just having recovered from a massive hangover from the previous night when she heard gunfire. When she got outside she saw two Batarian pirates (the Batarians being a race with four eyes, human/asari type body structure, bunches of hairs on their face and cartilage formed lines on their faces) rounding up the people. Happening to have a Kessler pistol (a grey pistol that looked like a mix between a Star Trek phaser and a regular gun; it used Mass Effect fields like any other modern weapon) on her, she fired at them. She managed to cap one but the other got away. She picked up the M7 Avenger assault rifle beside his body and chased after him. After a few minutes she caught up, and fired a controlled burst (so the rifle would hit its target). It did and she saved the colonists he rounded up. Daisy decided to give them a rousing speech; "Look, I know things aren't looking bright and that people you love may have died. But that doesn't mean we can't fight back and stop this attack!"

SSV NORMANDY, ALLIANCE FRIGATE, VANCOUVER, BC, MARCH 8, 2183: Daisy was taken out of her memory as she heard the PA announcement that the Normandy was about to take off. She looked out the window as the ship took off, on its way to the Charon Relay (this being one of many Mass Relays; tuning fork shaped (except for the sphere in the middle that makes the relays possible) mass transit devices used for travel between systems (as not even FTL Travel alone was fast enough for that); it's believed that an ancient, extinct race called the Protheans built the relays, scattered their beacons across the galaxy, and left knowledge of their tech for future species to find, as humans did on Mars). She looked out the window at Earth, in all its beauty.

"What about Shepard," Ambassador Donnel Udina, (a white, aging man with graying hair, and brown eyes) suggested in an audio call with two others.

"No! He's too much a loose canon! They don't call him 'the Butcher of Torfan' for nothing," Captain David Anderson (a middle aged black man with black hair and brown eyes) responded.

"Well, What about Johnson? Not much is known of her childhood," Udina then suggested, his number one candidate having been shot down, he went for who he knew was Anderson's.

"You beat me to it. She grew up an orphan, went from home to home until she was coerced into a gang at age 13 and got out and joined the Rising Tide 3 years later," Anderson explained.

"She's the only reason why Elysium is still standing," Admiral Steven Hackett (an aging white man with grey hair and blue eyes) added.

"The Alliance needs Attilan to be in our corner with the amount of Inhumans on Alliance worlds, and Johnson is best one we have in our armed forces."

"I'll make the call," Udina said before cutting the chat before calling Nihlus, a Spectre that owed Udina a favor (Spectres being agents of the Citadel Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance who are considered to be above galactic law).

"Nihlus, I think I have that candidate to become the first huma- I mean Inhuman, Spectre," Udina said.

"Send me the file," Nihlus simply said.

CODEX ENTRY I: Systems Alliance:

The Systems Alliance is an independent supranational government representing the collective interests of humanity as a whole. The Alliance is responsible for the governance and defense of all extra-solar colonies and stations.

The Alliance grew of the various space programs as a matter of practicality. Sol's planets had been explored and exploited through piecemeal nation efforts. The expense of colonizing entire new solar systems couldn't be met by any one country. With humans knowing that alien contact was inevitable, there was enough political will to jointly fund an international effort.

Still, the Alliance was often disregarded by those on Earth until either the First Contact War and/or the Battle of New York 17 years later (depending on who you ask). While the national governments dithered and bickered during the former over who should lead the effort to liberate Shanxi, the Alliance fleet struck decisively; and during the latter only the Alliance military could effectively aid the Avengers in quelling the invasion. Post New York public approval gave the Alliance credibility to establish its own Parliament and by then had become the galactic face of humanity.

Relations between the Inhuman city of Attilan and the Alliance have been bitter, despite the best efforts of Alliance based Inhumans like Daisy Johnson, better known to most as Quake.