Since its formal establishment up till the outbreak of the Reaper Wars, the Star of Terra had been awarded a total of forty-two times. The truly exceptional feats that earned their respective bearers their honors range from the outright superhuman to the truly miraculous. Not once however had anyone ever been awarded the medal more than once, that is not until one Evangeline Shepard. The first award was earned when then Major Shepard confronted the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius at the climax of the Battle of the Citadel, slaying him and preventing the turian from opening up the way to dark space and allowing in the Reapers to commence the cycle of extinction anew. This feat nearly saw the major die in its achievement, and it would be well over a year before the major recovered sufficiently to resume active duties. The second award would however indeed be posthumously earned, and the bar set to such heights that all whom were ever considered for a second Star of Terra have actively declined such an honor. That record, to this day, still holds.

-Ashes of Empire: The Reaper War

Epilogue

Ubi amor, ibi dolor

They were a good crew. Lieutenant-Commander Jonathan Shepard had needed only scant days to arrive at that conclusion after assuming command of HMS Normandy. Now, six months after serving with them, his respect for their skill and competency had only grown. They were also very, very loyal, as evidenced by the fact that even now, while the crew had nothing but respect for him, their allegiance was still to one Major Evangeline Shepard. John had yet to earn that sort of dedication, that would take a bit more time.

"Commander," Pressly greeted as John appeared on the command deck.

"XO," John responded. "What've we got?"

"Faint sensor contact, just above the noise threshold," the navigator responded. "It doesn't match any geth signatures we have on record, but it did trip one of the other filters."

John regarded the projection quizzically. "Artemis?"

"The energy signature held a 20% match with a Vermillion-level filter, Commander," the AI responded. "The briefing accompanying the filter is however locked above the classification levels you hold. Nonetheless, the priority tags associated with the filter stipulate standing orders for its detection to be investigated."

"Wonderful," John said with a sigh. "Alright, we better take a look then. Stealth looking good?"

"Clean as a whistle," Pressly said. "No one's going to be seeing us coming."

"All the same, go to yellow alert," John said. "If we do run into trouble, I want guns ready."

"Aye Commander."

As the lights dimmed, various crew shuffled about to take their appropriate stations. One such crewmember was the fair looking marine sergeant that John had come to know more about since assuming command. Of Shepard's original squad, only Master Sergeant Ashley Williams remained. The rest of that team had moved on, having fulfilled the original objective that saw them join Shepard in the first place. That left Ashley as the only one that could tell John about how his sister had been like while in command, hence the long conversations they ended up holding whenever their downtimes overlapped. Anything further than that would of course have been violating fraternization regulations, even if John found Ashley quite congenial and he was pretty certain the sergeant felt likewise. For now though, the only outward sign of such thoughts was the way John's eyes lingered after Ashley as the sergeant headed to the gunnery station at the head of the cockpit next to Joker.

"Probes away," Pressly announced, pulling John's attention back. "Should be getting returns in a few minutes."

As a newish synchronizer, John was still getting used to the direct link to sensor telemetry that his connection to Artemis provided. Indeed there was still a slight friction in their connection, a consequence of how deeply the AI and his sister had bonded. In Artemis' own words, while John and Jane shared a certain flavor, the nuances of their minds were still possessed of enough subtle differences that it was taking a bit to retrain the AI's network to more smoothly connect with John. That and synchronizing with John was sort of like Artemis was kissing her girlfriend's brother, which the commander could only presume was a stray thought from his sister had left behind.

Still, that connection was working well enough that John was able to pick up on the sensor data coming in at effectively real time. In this case however, the only good that did was allow him to be befuddled a bit earlier than the rest of the crew.

"What in the world?"

"I really am out of shape," Shepard remarked as she massaged her sore legs.

"Considering you've been effectively bedridden for the past six months, little surprise there," the nurse responded. "Perhaps in the future you will think twice before so forcibly exerting yourself while you are still undergoing physical therapy."

Shepard flashed a playful smile at the other woman. "Now that wouldn't make it very physical, would it?"

"No, but the emphasis tends to be on the therapy side," the nurse reposted.

That elicited a chuckle. "I'll keep that in mind."

The sound of the door sliding open could be heard behind the major, meaning it was the nurse that got the first look at whom was entering. At the way she stiffened, Shepard immediately knew the newcomers were not expected. Glancing back, Shepard found her own body go stock still, and her heart seemingly freeze over. Crossing the threshold was one Colonel Alec Ryder, and Father Bartholomew Ignacio, the chaplain assigned to the Imperial Cadre. At the solemn, pained expressions on both men's faces, they could be here for only one reason.

"Major Shepard," Father Ignacio began, "I have been asked to inform you that your brother has been reported deceased while aboard the HMS Normandy during a patrol of the Amada System. The ship came under attack from an as yet unidentified hostile, and Lieutenant-Commander Shepard gave his life saving that of his fellow crew. On behalf of His Majesty, I extend to you my deepest sympathy in your great loss."

Shepard said nothing in response, nor could she have even if she so wished as the major felt all the air being squeezed out of her lungs. Instead she stared blankly at the two men delivering the news, or perhaps entirely past them. Alec and Bartholomew waited patiently for Shepard to stir, ready to lend any help or comfort within their means. Both men felt their hearts ache at having to bear such painful news, especially to one they held so close. For Alec, Shepard was as much a daughter to him as Sara. For Bartholomew, the major was one of his flock, one whose steadfast faith was as much a comfort to him as his firm temperance was a steady foundation for Shepard. As such both uttered no words even as the minute ticked by, until Shepard herself was ready.

"Out."

The single word was a mere whisper, but the alarm it caused in the two men was of far greater magnitude, especially as they saw Shepard's form actually begin shaking.

"Jane-" Alec started.

"OUT!"

There was no softness this time as Shepard roared, but beneath the furious outburst was a sorrow that reverberated deep into one's heart. More than that, as Shepard's entire body seemed to spasm.

"JANE!" Alec cried out in alarm.

The major's emotions were flaring uncontrollably, and with her still regenerating nervous connections the reinstalled implants were actually misfiring as a consequence. This should have been impossible, but here Shepard's exceptionality in her natural synthesis was proving a detriment. Grabbing hold of the woman, Alec found himself actually struggling to hold her down even with the nurse and the chaplain rushing to help. Only after the hastily summoned reinforcements arrived did they finally subdue the flaying Shepard, by which point unconsciousness had mercifully claimed the major. It was however an uneasy reprieve, one marked by the tears that streaked down her cheeks as they escaped her shuttered eyes.

End of Epilogue

And that concludes A Call to Duty. Not a happy ending by any definition of the term. After everything that Shepard has done, after everything she has accomplished, and for all that rides upon her, it is important to remember that Shepard is still human, with all the failings therein. The purpose of this story is not just to try to re-inject a sense of wonder into the scale at which the Reapers operate on, it's also to provide a narrow, focused window into Shepard herself, to observe the impact that all these events have on her as a person. In the game we as players dictated how Shepard responded to the stresses of her duty. Here what happens is not in the control of the reader, but is in my hands as the writer. Hopefully I don't screw it up.

So there's actually a lot to discuss regarding this story now that it's done, including some of the major weaknesses involved. Probably the biggest failing in the story would be how I handled Tali, namely by not giving her enough talking time. It started out okay, I gave Tali what I considered a more sensible entry into Shepard's team, and there were some early conversations that touched upon her uneasiness about AIs and the geth. Unfortunately I didn't show Shepard following up on that enough times, like she did with Garrus, Ashley, Wrex, and even Kaidan. Liara also suffered this problem, but to a much lesser degree since I had to include her for the Benezia arc. So Tali definitely got the short stick in my story, and it wasn't even really intentional. I just literally forgot to include her scenes as I was writing, and I ended up way past the points where they should have been by the time I realized. Which should tell all of you that in the general case I don't actually plan in minute detail the story before I write. I did at least manage to end on a semi-high note for Tali, by basically giving her a ship. That I felt was a much better gift for her Pilgrimage than the weird, 'new' geth code that was done in the game. Let's see, other weaknesses. Joker definitely also didn't get nearly as much screen time as he should have. So things like this are things that I will obviously try to fix in the next arc.

In general, there were also side plots that I dropped or which ended up being resolved much more quickly due to lack of time. The whole Cerberus arc was intended to last a bit longer, and we might have even dealt with Kahoku's death. But I just couldn't figure out a way to sequence it in and still keep the narrative flowing at an appropriate pace. That all being said, there are certainly plot points that I may well revisit in the next arc if and as I find ways of working them in. There's no reason to slavishly include everything Bioware has done, but if an opportunity arises to allow me to use existing elements in interesting ways, I'll take it.

Speaking of the next arc, I originally said that it would be called A Call to Action. Well, that was actually a lie. The title of the next arc is and always has been A Call to Vengeance. Vengeance however might have given away more than I wanted too early, so I, misdirected all of you. It's also why the image at the link below was held back for months after its completion even though the cover image for the third arc was put up way earlier. Indeed I have a few other pictures up my sleeve that will be released as we reach the relevant points in the story, and boy is one of them a doozy. Anyway, I have a general idea of how I want the story to proceed. I will note that the first few chapters will be setup in the interlude between the ME1 and 2 timeframes.

So I've developed a pattern of commissioning works of art to go along with my stories. The one meant to accompany A Call to Vengeance was finished months ago, and I actively withheld it not so much because it would be a spoiler, as spoilers go it's kind of bloody obvious, but because I felt it would be a distraction to the story in Duty. Now that Duty is done and we're moving onto Vengeance, I'm prepared to share it. To view the image, reconstruct the following link.

deviantart com slash z98 slash art slash Lieutenant-Colonel-Evangeline-Shepard-808976973

That all said, I am likely to take at least a short break to work on a few of my other stories before I dive into Vengeance. I've been focusing so heavily on ME, I need to switch gears a little so that I don't end up getting too bored with it and burn out.