Battle of the Sheps is now on FanFiction!

The Collector Base mission had gone off without a hitch. The Normandy had taken a lot of damage, but the advanced systems that had recently been installed held. There were some unexpected threats and some tense moments in the base, but they pulled through. Shepard was happy for the most part. Thanks to good planning and preparation, they hadn't lost anyone. After passing through the Omega 4 Relay for a second time, the Normandy proceeded at a leisurely pace towards Omega.

Commander Jane Shepard was about to take off her armour and relax when the ship shuddered. The lights flickered and EDI said something about a subspace anomaly. Sighing, Shepard headed down to the CIC, purposely using the maintenance shaft instead of the elevator. She landed heavily when the ship shuddered again. Picking herself up, Shepard dashed through the CIC into the cockpit.

"Joker, what's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know!" the pilot replied. "I've lost control of the ship and Mom here says that half our systems are down."

"Well what's attacking us?" Shepard asked.

"We are not being attacked," the AI explained. "We are experiencing a subspace disturbance." Almost on cue, the ship shook again. A console exploded in the CIC as a hull breach opened up two decks below.

"Can we ride it out?" the Commander queried.

"It's not like we have much of a damn choice," Joker said, fighting with the controls.

Shepard keyed the intercom. "This is Commander Shepard speaking. We are experiencing a spacial anomaly. Please secure yourself and brace for impact."

Another wave of energy slammed into the Normandy, then another and another. When it finally stopped, most of the lights were out and the ship had several hull breaches. Shepard was glad she was still wearing her armor, complete with helmet. "Status report, EDI."

"Main reactor is offline. Kinetic barriers are down. Life support is at minimum capacity. Element Zero core is destabilizing. Recommend immediate evacuation."

"Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me the ship is going to explode?" Joker asked.

"Yes."

"Is there anything we can do about it?" Shepard asked.

"No."

Shepard keyed the intercom. "All hands, abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon ship. This is not a drill."

"Commander," EDI added. "The escape pods will not escape the blast radius of the Normandy. However the Normandy could be manoeuvred to a safe distance."

"Damn it," Shepard said, and made the decision in an instant. "Joker, get to the escape pod. I'm staying."

"Commander, if I was linked into the-" EDI was cut off.

"No," Shepard said. She keyed the intercom again. "Legion, please grab EDI's bluebox on your way out."

"Commander-" Joker began.

"Get the hell out of here!" Shepard roared. Moments later, Joker was in the escape pod. Shepard watched as it ejected, leaving her alone on the dying ship. The light were flickering red, various alarms beeping. There was still air in the cockpit, but not in the main CIC a few meters aft.

Commander Shepard wasted no time getting on the controls. As she steered the Normandy toward oblivion, she wondered what would become of her crew. Wondered if they'd care to bring her back again- if they could bring her back again. Wondered if there was a heaven or hell. Wondered if she would be with Kaidan soon. But mostly, wondered how the hell Joker flew the thing.

Without warning, the ship shuddered again, hit by an unseen force. The energy was enough to finish the uncontrollable reactor overload, tearing the ship to pieces in a fiery explosion. Shepard felt herself get thrown against a bulkhead.

Then the world went black.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me, Rodney!" Colonel John Sheppard shouted at Dr. McKay. They were deep inside a Wraith ship, hurtling uncontrollably towards a black hole. They were cut off from their Puddle Jumper, surrounded by Wraith drones on all sides. The Daedalus had arrived, but they couldn't contact them. "Can't you reverse our course?"

"No!" Rodney McKay squeaked, hammering on his tablet. Beside him, Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla fired their weapons into the advancing crowds of life-sucking aliens.

"What about beaming us out?" Sheppard asked, slamming a fresh magazine onto his P90. "Can you contact the Daedalus?"

"Maybe," the scientist said. A moment later, he had jury-rigged a communications link. "Got it."

"Daedalus, this is Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" John asked as he gunned down another Wraith. They just kept coming. Throwing their leader off the top of a building really pissed them off. "Request immediate beam out."

"This is Daedalus, we read you loud and clear," Colonel Caldwell's voice crackled. "However the singularity is interfering with our transporters. You're going to have to get closer to the outside of the ship."

"You have got to be kidding me!" Sheppard yelled. "To the dart bay, move!"

Rodney hurriedly disconnected his tablet, drawing an M9 pistol. The group dashed out the least-congested exit, running to the dart bay by sheer dead reckoning. They gunned down any Wraith they saw, narrowly missing several stunner blasts. Mere metres from the dart bay, their luck ran out. A stunner hit Sheppard in the leg, dropping him stone cold.

"Sheppard!" McKay shouted, turning back to get his friend.

Teyla stopped him. "We have to leave him."

"Can you beam them out yet?" Colonel Caldwell asked. They were getting precariously close to the black hole. Past a certain point, they wouldn't be able to escape the gravity well. To make matters worse, the Wraith ship was firing at them, causing even more strain on the Daedalus' shields.

"I can get three of them," Major Marks replied. "The fourth one is iffy, sir."

"We can't wait any longer, beam them out now," Caldwell ordered.

"Yes, sir." In a flash of light, Ronon, Teyla and Rodney appeared safely on the bridge of the Daedalus. "Having trouble with the fourth contact... damn it to hell!"

"Do you have him?" Caldwell asked, concerned.

Marks shook his head. "Colonel Sheppard is gone, sir," he said sadly. As the Earth ship pulled away from the black hole, the Wraith hive-ship continued onwards. The gravity tore the ship- and all its occupants- to pieces long before it hit the event horizon.

Corporal Adrian Shephard woke up in the middle of... nothingness. It was totally black as far as the eye could see, except for a man a mere arm's length away from him. The man was creepy in a word, with a square face, pale skin, green eyes and a perfectly tailored suit.

Shephard had seen the man a few times before, all in the Black Mesa facility- or what was left of it. Shephard was a Marine, assigned to a special Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, equipped with the latest equipment and the best training. They were sent in to clean up the mess that was Black Mesa- but they weren't prepared and most of them were wiped out. After they decided to pull out and nuke the place, Shephard was left behind. He fought through hoards aliens from not one but two alternate dimensions, finally confronting their big boss and successfully defeating it. Then the man in the suit showed up and whisked him away.

"Corporal Shephard," the suit began in his strange lispy voice. "I have other business to attend to so I will make this quick. I trust your rest was peaceful. I do not wish to allow you to leave, however my... superiors have made that decision for me. I do not know where you are going, but rest assured you are needed for a good reason."

Adrian didn't have time to say a word before the world went black again.

Lieutenant General Shepherd sighed. Thirty thousand men dead in the Middle East. Another ten thousand so far in the war against Ultranationalist Russia. It was his war, of course, but not for the first time he wondered if it was the right thing to do. He was commander of the entire US military now. With that power, he could make the United States the most powerful nation in the world. Of course it was worth it.

Task Force 141 was the cutting edge of his blade, the most elite forces in the world. The comparison was apt- Shepherd thought of them as tools. Tools to be used and disposed of when necessary.

"General Shepherd, it's ready. Just waiting on your order, sir." The "it" the aide was referring to was a massive energy pulse weapon. Built in absolute secrecy, it was located in the heart of Washington, D.C., deep underground and safe from the war above. The device had cost five hundred billion dollars to develop and build, more than twice the entire US black budget would have been able to provide in the ten year development time. The General didn't know the details, but supposedly it could obliterate any city in the world with pinpoint accuracy. That was scary.

He only learned of it after the crisis had begun.

"Very well. Begin the firing sequence." On his order, massive doors opened in the ceiling of the complex, obliterating several empty husks of buildings. The device was spooled up, all the reactors brought up to full power and electricity dumped into huge supercapacitor banks. Vats of liquid helium poured into the device, keeping the superconductors at their operational temperature. The process was quick, and the device fired before the invading Russians could so much as toss a grenade into the delicate workings.

Unfortunately, another event happened at the same time. In low Earth orbit, a nuclear missile detonated. The blast wave was fairly minor, and the thermal effects nearly nonexistent. The EMP proceeded to knock out every power grid in North America and take out the EMP-hardened electronics of every military vehicle in Washington. The energy pulse also initiated a feedback pulse in the energy weapon. The energy coming in from the reactors was trapped in the device. Before anyone could react, the device exploded with tremendous force, reducing Washington to a smoking crater. Small but highly energetic subatomic particles caused local damage to the fabric of space-time, but the effects were drowned out in the sea of more conventional destruction.

"...accused criminal mysteriously found dead. Federal agents refused to comment on the matter. In other news, a mysterious but harmless stellar anomaly is passing near Earth tonight. The anomaly is-"

NCIS Director Jenny Shepard turned off the TV. Her organization investigated some of the most important case in the world and nobody even knew what NCIS was. Her teams- especially Gibbs' team- had taken down arms dealers, terrorists, and even an occasional foreign agent. They had saved the nation from disaster more than once and never been credited for it. All part of the job.

As she drifted off to sleep, Jenny pondered how Agent Gibbs got his boats out of his basement.