So I decided to focus on fanfic as extension of canon work. Given the way BioWare treated how the ending of Mass Effect 3 would play into Andromeda’s storyline, and how greatly impacted the Andromeda Initiative would be with And since they are not releasing any downloadable content or continuing the Andromeda’s story, it means the fate of the Ryders, the Tempest, and all of Andromeda and the Milky Way is up to the fans through fiction.
The silence was oppressive. Sally sat in her private cabin, staring at the metal box like object that rested on the table. Holograms hovered about it. Revealing schematics for things her mind could not pick up. She felt numb—profoundly so. It was much more poignant than how she felt on Habitat 7. It was a crushing, overwhelming sense of mourning.
If you are receiving this; then it is likely our cycle is lost. Harvested by the Reapers. The avatar of Doctor Liara T’Soni repeated. A capsule sent to pass this information to the stars. An SOS found six hundred years too late.
Sally thought of Earth, the few, scant times Alec had been able to take the family to visit. Gone. They had all accepted that they would never see it again, but there was a comfort knowing life went on without them. But that was not the case. Everyone that was in Andromeda …was all that was left of their civilization as they know it. This knowledge imparted had now made every stasis pod in every Ark precious, every colonist the last of their kind…and little room for failure for the Pathfinders. This would shake the very core of the Initiative. She thought of Scott and how he had react, Liam’s car, Suvi’s family…the scale of an entire galaxy gone was unfathomable.
Her shoulders sank, grief finally reaching its limits. She had died and come back twice, saw her people exalted into abominations, made first contact with the local race. But this had been the point of no return. She choked, and then broke down in body shaking sobs.
This was Sally. Fearless, bold, unshakable, Sally. Laughs at danger Sally, who jumped into the Pathfinder role with little hesitation, took on challenges with a shit eating grin. Alec Ryder’s daughter through and through. To see her is such a state of abject despair was wholly shocking and unlike her. When the tears finally stopped the hollow numbness returned, looking at her brother in some small form of shame. This was not how she handled things. She always had an idea and in true Ryder fashion, could improvise on the fly. Right now she was totally lost. Pulled in many directions in which to handle this.
“What do we do?” She finally, conscious of how much she sounded like a child seeking the security of an adult with the next action. “SAM?”
I am sorry, Pathfinder. This affects the initiative deeply, and is not my decision to make.
Sally blinked, knowing the answer before the AI spoke. The pit of her stomach churned over and over as the thoughts continued to sink in. The silence in the cabin was quickly returning. Her body was shaking, threatening to lose it again.
Breathe, she thought, trying to follow her directions. Only when she felt she was in as much control as she could muster at the moment and called back out to SAM.
“I’m going to the head.” She began. “Get Tann, Addison, and the other Pathfinders on the vidcom when I get out.”
She rose to her feet, feeling sluggish, leaden. Every step feeling like the Tempest’s artificial gravity was turned way up. It was then she added.
“And the crew too,” she added as she made it the threshold. “They deserve to know too.”