Jason Rayes said:
Since the ending for Mass Effect 3 was disappointing to many, how about we just make up our own.
Already did - and all of Mass Effect 3 to go with it.
I was running a table top version of Mass Effect for my spouse (who had not played the games previously). The original plan was to just run ME1, but my spouse and I were having such fun that I went on and ran ME2 as well. And then ME3, almost a year before it's actual release. I read spoiler pages to get some info, but since the Crucible was never mentioned, I didn't know about that. Instead I knew some locations, some crew members, and that was pretty much it.
So I reviewed the information on Reaper invasions in the first game (shut down citadel, shut down Mass Relays, invade a single star system, kill/convert everything, move on to next star system) and then compared this to the early trailers (Earth getting attacked) and said "okay, so apparently Sol system is up first.
Oh - almost forgot. My spouse's Shepard decided to make peace between the Geth and Quarians after meeting Leigon and BEFORE going through the Omega 4 Relay. So... yeah, that was already taken care of.
Anyway...
Part 1) Earth Invasion - fairly similar to the game
No Mars mission, cause I didn't know about the Crucible. On to the Citadel.
Shepard meets with Admiral Hacket. Shepard calls in the Geth and Quarians for aid. The Geth fleet heads to Earth to harry the Reapers and delay their efforts there, sacrificing them to buy time. The Quarian fleet, meanwhile, joins the Earth fleet and begins work retrofitting as many earth ships as possible with the Weapon, Armor, and Shield upgrades from ME2. Primary attention is given to the new SR fleet - 20 SR ships with the same specs as the Normandy.
Part 2) The Citadel - in addition to Earth, the homeworlds of the four Citadel races were all off line and without communication. That being the case, the Council refused to help Earth until each of their homeworlds was helped first.
Shepard leaves Tali and Legion on the Citadel to attempt to figure out how to use it to turn the Relays on and off. If things go bad on Earth, Shepard considers trapping the Reaper fleet in the Sol System using their own tactics against them. Shepard also considers blowing up the Sol relay to destroy the Reaper fleet, but only if Earth cannot be saved.
Part 3) Curing the Genophage - I thought the lab in the video was on a different planet, so this wasn't Sur-Kesh (sp?) but rather some other location. Cerberus shoots up lab, Shep saves Female Krogan, just as in game. Drops off Genophage cure on Krogan homeworld without any difficulties (unlike game). Krogan cured - Krogan send troops to Shepard's war effort.
Part 4) Pavelan - Shepard headed to the Turian homeworld first. First, Shepard learned that their Relay had been deactivated (it could receive ships, but not send them). Secondly, Indoctrinated Reaper agents had assassinated the Primarch and there was a dispute over who should become the next Primarch. First, Shepard had to choose a candidate to support. Having done so, Shepard investigated the other candidates and learned that one of them was Indoctrinated and working for the Reapers. One dead candidate later, Shepard headed to a mining facility near the Relay where reaper forces were building up their forces. Some dead husks later, Shepard fought and destroyed the Reaper scout that shut down the Relay, thus bringing it back online. The thankful new Primarch sent the Turian fleets to aid Shepard's war efforts.
Part 5) Before heading to the next homeworld, Shepard got a distress call from the Rachnai Queen, requesting aid. Her new nest was being attacked by Cerberus. Shepard answered her call, killed some Cerberus troops and some husk-i-fied rachnai, and saved the Rachnai Queen again. She sent Rachnai ships to support Shepard's war efforts.
Part 6) Thesia - again, one Reaper scout, some husk ground forces, and some indoctrinated minions messing with the government, attempting to cause chaos. Shepard shoots them to death, kills the Reaper scout, and reactivates the Relay. Asari join war effort.
Part 7) Cerberus Attack on the Citadel! - again, this one is weirdly similar to the original game, except that A) Tali is injured (rather than Thrane) and survives, and B) the goal was to capture a life Prothean in the depths of the Citadel - one of the scientists who created the Conduit. He provides massive tactical intel on the Reapers. He is sent to help with the fleet retrofits while Tali is given several implants to stabilize her condition. These implants have the secondary benefit of stabilizing her immune system so she can walk around on the Normandy without her helmet.
Part 7) Sur-Kesh. Reaper Forces have landed near the breeding grounds and are calling for surrender. Shepard drops into area, kills husks, kills reaper scout. Breeding grounds saved, relay reactived, Salarians join war effort.
Part 8) Loose Ends. Wrapping everything up before heading to Earth.
Part 9) Earth. Shepard had to choose which fleets to send where. I rated different fleets best at certain tasks. Meanwhile, Shepard went on a missing to attack the Reaper facility where humans were being turned into another Human Reaper. The goal was to blow the place up (from within) to attract many reapers to a single point, and then hit hard with all the remaining forces. This strategy was based on the surviving Prothean's knowledge of Reaper tactics. However, when Shep arrived at the base, he found it guarded by Cerberus and the Illusive Man (who had Saren style upgrades). The Illusive Man acted as the Reaper mouth-piece, discussing how the Reapers wanted to save all life - by turning it into Reapers, so that all societies could exist forever. Shepard replied by killing the Illusive Man. A lot.
The reapers responded as predicted, gathering at this point. Shepard (having escaped on the Normandy after setting the explosives) ordered the SR fleet and all remaining fleets to attack. Massive battle, huge firefight. Fortunately, because the Reapers had gathered so close (due to the attack on the breeding facility), one reaper exploding would damage the reapers next to it. This caused a chain reaction, destroying most of the Reapers (and part of Shepard's fleet, as well as killing billions on Earth) but leaving the Reaper forces devastated. Shepard's fleet continued their attack, taking losses, but destroying 95% of the Reapers. The remaining Reapers fled the Sol system, defeated.
Thus did Shepard win the war without McGuffins, just good intel and strategy. Earth took heavy losses, but still stands, even in the maps will need some rewriting in the wake of the devastation. The Reapers, while still a threat, have so few numbers that they will never again be able to "reap" the galaxy, and the races will continue to hunt them down, hopefully eliminating them for good.
Shepard retired from active duty and took a position as the human ambassador to the Quarians - and was thus able to settle down on Rannock with Tali.
The End.
