1 - 20 of 33 Works in Torfan (Mass Effect)
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Commander Alison Jane (AJ) Shepard has lived through more than most: the batarian raid on Mindoir, the slaughter on Akuze, and the ruthless campaign at Torfan. Now, as the galaxy teeters on the edge of annihilation, she faces not only the Reapers but the weight of her past and the choices that threaten to unmake her. This story is a novelization of Mass Effect, following Shepard’s journey through familiar missions, dialogue, and relationships as seen in the game.
As the weight of her decisions threatens to crush her, Shepard is forced to confront the pieces of herself she thought she’d buried. When she finds a shy, innocent, asari maiden trapped in a stasis bubble surrounded by prothean ruins, she finds herself opening up to someone. Balancing the tension of galactic war with fleeting moments of tenderness, Shepard must navigate the fine line between duty and desire, her past and her future. Along the way, old wounds resurface, friendships deepen, and love grows in the unlikeliest of places. But even in the darkest moments, there’s room for humor, hope, and the stubborn defiance that makes Shepard who she is. It is a story of survival, healing, and the relationships that keep us fighting—against all odds.
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Poker Face by LadyBlackhawkDarksbane
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
16 Jun 2025
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You are duly invited to join Jex Shepard and friends for a few rounds of poker, storytelling and memories.
But fair warning, here there be thresher maws.
Series
- Part 15 of Snapshots
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It's Hard to Dance by TotallyTotoro
Fandoms: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
29 Apr 2025
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A re-telling of the Mass Effect series, beginning on Virmire after Shepard's first communication with Sovereign.
This series will include a slow-burn romance with Garrus, and features a darker, more complex Shepard. Some dialogue is lifted directly from the game and expanded upon, but this story will mostly be filling in the gaps and exploring a struggling Shepard who finds herself now carrying the weight of an entire universe's future on her shoulders.
This story was originally made to be a single, long retelling of the ME series, but I have made the decision to cut each game into its own fic as part of a 3 story series titled Compromise Who I Am. For the purposes of this series, this story serves mostly as prologue. The themes of this work will become considerably darker in the second and third installments, but warnings will be given where needed.
Series
- Part 1 of Compromise Who I Am
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In 2170 Mindoir was raided by batarian slavers, killing or enslaving the entire colony. It was thought that the first human spectre, Commander Shepard, was the sole survivor of the brutal attack. But when evidence that his sister is alive comes to light, his world is turned upside down.
Yet, survival comes at a cost. After all, heroes aren't born from happiness. And this tale delves into a dark, brutal world as we come to know the siblings who had the courage to endure and stand against the tide.
A story of resiliency, determination, and hope in a galaxy of disrepair. This fic will follow our young heroes through the conclusion of the Reaper War. Yet, this is not a simple retelling of the trilogy. The entire war will be rewritten in order to give our galactic villains, the Reapers, the respect they deserve.
* I do NOT consent to this fic being reposted on any site, by human or bot. It is exclusive to AO3. Please let me know if you find it anywhere else.
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Shepard never really knew how she ended up in N-school in the first place. Well, she has a vague idea it had to do with her ridiculously high combat aptitude scores, but since she was still figuring out how military life (and space life in general) worked, she never bothered to find out who recommended her for ICT.
And N-school is a bitch. Somehow she manages to say and do the wrong thing all the time, and it sometimes feels like her existence alone pisses people off. Every designation is harder than the last, and that's without trying to figure out all the people around her. But it's the lessons from N-school, soon followed by the Skyllian Blitz, that form the foundation of who the infamous Commander Shepard turns out to be.
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As vengeance for the Skyllian Blitz, the Alliance anti-piracy campaign comes to Torfan. Their intent is to stifle piracy and slave trafficking in the Verge for years with this blow.
It all goes wrong, and yet somehow succeeds because of something entirely unexpected.
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After the massacre on Torfan, Commander Eric Shepard is dishonorably discharged from the Alliance military. His reputation in shambles and his career destroyed, Eric does what he does best: He starts over.
Years later, he has a new crew, a new ship, and is living his best life in the Traverse, raiding private vessels and small outposts.
Until a simple cash grab turns out to be a galaxy wide threat and Shepard finds himself working with Alliance golden boy and first human Spectre Kaidan Alenko.
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John Shepard had finally come to terms with his existence. When he's sent to Torfan with the Hero of the Blitz, he finds himself drawn to the fiery redhead in a way he hasn't been since his life was turned upside down. Before he can do anything about it, though, they've got to survive this damned moon.
Series
- Part 2 of Before the Dawn
- Part 6 of Seeing Red
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The Mind of a Soldier by MadameDramatics
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
26 Feb 2024
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Shepard's used to handling a bad set of dealt cards. It's all she's ever been given growing up in the sleepless cities of New York, but nothing could've prepared her for where a selfless act with a prothean beacon would take her. Now she's in a race against the clock with an unknown timer while carrying the weight of the galaxy's expectations on her back. Luckily, she has a trusty crew willing to help carry some of those burdens with her. Whether or not she can learn to trust them to do so is another question, especially when a certain turian likes to relentlessly take up free real estate in her head.
-This first work covers ME1-
*The rating is only for like one or two scenes. There won't be any Shakarian smut this go round. I apologize sincerely but we riding strong into ME2.*
Series
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Only Beneficial To The Hanar by MyGorramShip (LoneSurvivor)
Fandoms: Mass Effect Trilogy
19 Feb 2024
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Dealing with the repercussions of being cured of a disease he was content to die from is difficult enough. When that cure comes without his knowledge or consent at the hands of the woman he loved makes it all the more so.
During their few snatched months on the SR2, they’d silently communicated with brief glances and subtle touches, expressing far more than words ever could. But he’d stepped aside for her husband, accepting that one night was all he would have with her, and spent the following months spent locked in tu fira, celebrating every painful, rationed breath as one more chance to glimpse her again.
Even if it were whilst drawing his last.
But when she entered his library, Thane kept his back to her.
Series
- Part 17 of Red Flags and Long Nights
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2181: Torfan.
Kaidan's moved on and is in a steady relationship, living with Jennifer Hackett, the Hero of Elysium when he receives a call from Anderson during hour twenty of the Torfan siege. Wracked with guilt over sending Eris away without the requested help, he packs a bag.
After the horrific events are revealed in full, Kaidan takes her back to the cabin on the edge of the family orchard; the one he renovated and his in after returning from BaAT.
Ch4 is all smut.
She looked like a wisp of smoke about to vanish altogether, and if the fresh scars were anything to go by, she had a hell of a story.
Kaidan slumped into an armchair by the crackling fire and tapped his OmniTool. After just three rings, she answered.
"I love her, Mom. What do I do?"
It was both that simple and that complicated.
Series
- Part 8 of Red Flags and Long Nights
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Acta Non Verba: Deeds, Not Words.
First in my Cosmic Inflation series, in which Nihlus lives.Shepard was charged with a multitude of war crimes after Torfan and detained in a facility above top secret that Cerberus may or may not have a hand in. So when Nihlus Kyrik decides the infamous Butcher of Torfan is the only suitable Spectre candidate, it’s problematic. And it doesn’t get any easier…
Contains the events of Torfan, her struggle to maintain grounded in reality, her history with other characters, Spectre adventures inspired by Firefly, Fringe and real life near misses caused by science fuckery, and her relationship with Nihlus.
COMPLETE. Sequel in the works.
For the Thane fans: Ch16 onwards.
For the filthy amongst us:
SMUT:
Chapter 5.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9 (updated).
Chapter 14 (Past Shenko - light D/S).
Chapter 16. Chase.
Chapter 20. Very brief.
Chapter 21. Public smut.Tags updated as I go.
AU for my HC FemShep.
Tackling this as part of NaNoWriMo 2023, because this story suddenly got a lot bigger in my head last week.
Series
- Part 1 of Cosmic Inflation
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After her last mission, Shepard expected to be court-martialed at best. Instead, she's assigned to the SSV Dublin under the command of Major Kyle and an enigmatic N7. Their mission: Secure the batarian stronghold on the alien moon Torfan and ensure that not one batarian makes it out alive.
Series
- Part 5 of Seeing Red
- Part 3 of Before the Dawn
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Shepards behaviour on Therum becomes more extreme, and when Garrus tries to talk her down on the Normandy later, he discovers just how much of a menace she is.
The fourth time he says, “Right behind you, Shepard,” is when she goes to deal with Major Kyle.
Series
- Part 4 of Are You Kidding? I’m Right Behind You.
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Caitlyn Shepherd has managed to pull herself back together after the loss of her family, friends, and boyfriend, John Shepard, on Mindoir and find a reason to go on. She's a trauma surgeon in the Alliance, dedicated to saving lives to try to make up for the ones she lost. But when ghosts from her past come back to haunt her, the careful world she's crafted is thrown into chaos once more.
John Shepard isn't the boy he used to be. The man is hard, tough, angry. He never thought to see his high school girlfriend again, but she blows back into his life like a hurricane, and all he wants is for the storm to pass.Series
- Part 2 of Your Arms Feel Like Home
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Humanity wants a message written in a language their enemies can understand, so they call for translators who speak the languages of fear and flame and death like a native tongue.
Torfan is to be the canvas on which they paint their rejection of slavery and commitment to it's destruction.
When you want to start a fire, call an arsonist. -
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Torfan is a place only fit for death and misery. Unfortunately for its batarian inhabitants, that's where Shepard thrives.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,299
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Kudos:
- 7
- Hits:
- 142
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Shepard is a PR wet dream, wrapped up in a classically handsome package and carrying the type of weaponry only the galaxy’s elite soldiers get access to. The Hero of the Blitz. The Butcher of Torfan. The Alliance’s sword and shield rolled up into one neat little package. Preloaded with the kind of tragic backstory that should make the top brass think twice before turning him on their enemies, but instead only fuels the relentless machine of human ambition as they fight for their place in the galaxy.
Sixteen. Shepard was sixteen years old on Mindoir. He’s twenty-nine now. No one can deny he’s not made the years in between count for something.
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The Butcher of Torfan. Frankly, Eric Shepard liked the nickname.
Or: This is the guy they picked to represent humanity?
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“Torfan.”Anderson nodded. “Despite everything that happened, you proved yourself on that moon, Shepard. You showed you have fortitude, dedication, and grit. These are the qualities we need to put forth to the council to get one of ours in the Spectres. I think you’re up to it. Do you?”
A laugh escaped Shepard’s mouth before he could stop it. “Sir, I never thought I’d make it to twenty before you and I met.”
Series
- Part 2 of Love and War Games
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The night before the final mission, Shepard visits your quarters.