(Author's Note: This is the sequel to the fanfic "Mass Effect: Imperfect Future", and this story, whilst a good standalone piece is best when read after its predecessor. Thanks again for taking the time to read my stuff.)

Chapter One: Grey Horizon

0.124.065.M41 (April 22nd Local Time)

Planet Odyssey VII, Reductus Sector, Segmentum Tempestus

Caldus, a prominent and unique hive world. Home to millions of citizens and guarded by the benevolent and diligent Fate Breakers Space Marines, the world has prospered for nearly two centuries since the world was rescued from the rampant gangs, cults, and a small Tyranid invasion. The Fate Breakers' duty is to see that any world on the brink of total loss is saved and rebuilt, and to make sure it never happens again. This results in a permanent and noticeable Space Marine presence on the world. The Fate Breakers set up a Fortress Monastery at the southern tip of the largest continent, and its soldiers regularly patrol the streets keeping order and helping those in need while at the same time maintaining the defense of the surrounding systems. They rival the Black Templars in numbers and use their ranks more efficiently than them by never straying beyond the borders of the Segmentum.

The people of its capital continent, Aegis city, are thankful for the gifts provided by the Fate Breakers. They are all much more tolerant of each other and live happier lives than the average human living in other parts of the galaxy. This world is one of a kind in this dark and terrible galaxy, slowly plunging into a never ending war, and its story is just beginning.

--

1400 Hours

Four muscular men sat around a small table out on a white balcony overlooking the ocean, its metal frame warm from sitting in the sun high in the cloudless sky, the green tabletop shaded by an umbrella. The four men stared at the cards in their hands and each others' eyes, looking for hints of weakness or the tiniest clue to gain the upper hand in their little game. A slight breeze carried away the cigar smoke that came from their mouths and the single ashtray in the sun. They all wore similar clothing, snow camo pants and black long sleeved or sleeveless shirts. One man sitting at the north end of the table had a brown bushy moustache and evidence of a recently shaved beard, his eyes bright green with traces of cybernetic enhancements. He tossed the two cards in his hand onto the table facedown and tapped the cigar on the ashtray.

"Fold." He stated quickly, taking care to divulge nothing from his actions. The man to his left was about to make his move when a metal automatic door from the room inside screeched open, and heavy footsteps were heard walking towards the men out on the balcony. The man opened one of two doors separating the balcony and the inside room and saluted the four men immediately. When the man at the head of the table nodded to him to be at ease, the man clad in Space Marine armor loosened his stance and spoke.

"Captain there's been an incident, a temporal anomaly on the outskirts of the Loriar District." The Marine cringed waiting for the man's reply, but all he did was let out a deep sigh, blowing smoke all over the table.

"When did it happen?" The Captain asked calmly, tossing the cigar over the balcony.

"About nine this morning."

--

Aprox. 0900 Hours

Shepard knew it was futile to open his eyes, even with his helmet sealing the atmosphere. He could feel and hear an endless wind passing in all directions, surrounding him and Miranda as they floated outside of space-time and drifted through the millennia. He felt Miranda grab him tighter, planting her arm into the soft armor along his back while inching her fingers along the time travel device's container. Shepard finally opened his eyes to try and see Miranda's face, but in the void there was no light or sound, only the harrowing wind. They could only endure, and hope they would end up in a safe place, if only such a thing existed in the 41st millennium.

Shepard thought of the eras that would come to pass long after his passing, and where he would end up they would be long forgotten. He then thought of how he got into this mess. He remembered his service on the SSV Prometheus, and the first encounter with the man he now knew to be Commissar Grissom. He then remembered the wondrous objects he found in the chunk of an Ultramarines Battle Barge that led him on a crusade to use this technology for the betterment of humanity and its allies. With the help of his friends and comrades he used a Boltgun to kill Saren Arterius, and when he returned from this experience he would use the Space Marine power armor to kill the Collectors.

Miranda thought about whether or not it was a good decision to go with Shepard, if their feelings for each other compromised their ability to make the right decisions. But each time she thought about putting the mission before her feelings she shut it down and told herself that she would follow him into hell itself if necessary.

Moments later the black void gave way to a rising sun over a grey horizon, blinding the both of them for several seconds. Shepard noticed they were falling rapidly, so he turned his back to face the ground to protect Miranda. With a huge splash they both landed in a shallow stream, and Shepard was knocked unconscious by the impact. Miranda was still disoriented by the sudden switch from the void to this unknown place, but she noticed her rebreather had shattered, pieces of it lay on Shepard's torso and some flowed down the stream. She ripped off the other pieces from her face and tossed them down the stream.

--

Miranda struggled to pull Shepard onto dry land while he was in the power armor, the only way that seemed to work was pulling him by his arm, but as she inched along she noticed the stream cut through a rundown city. Skyscrapers in varying degrees of disrepair flanked the stream on both sides, and crowds of people peered out of the large windows and at the other end of the stream when they heard the crash.

"Here let me help." A young woman came to Miranda's side and grabbed Shepard's other arm and pulled him onto the gravel covered edge of the stream. Unbeknownst to them both, Shepard was slowly regaining consciousness.

"How did it happen?" The young woman asked Miranda, responding only with a raised brow. "How did the Astartes fall into the river?"

"Oh, um…" Miranda hadn't the slightest clue what she meant by 'Astartes', but she assumed the woman meant Shepard. "I'm not sure really, I heard this crash and there he was."

"It's okay Miranda, I'm fine." Shepard got to his feet and patted her on the shoulder, his voice now intimidating thanks to the Space Marine helmet speaking volumes to the townspeople. He then noticed the woman standing next to Miranda, and analyzed her like Thane did when he recalled any one of his memories. Young woman, no older than twenty-five, tan skin, good figure, purple hair and blue eyes, black lipstick on upper lip, black flame tattoos on torso and arms, scavenged armor on both legs, excluding right thigh. Most likely resident, attire and concealed pistol on waist reveals subject may be hostile given violent tendencies in humans in this time period. He snapped out of his trance a moment later and removed his helmet, making a hissing sound as the pressure equalized.

"What's with all of the commotion Janice?" An old man asked from the back of the crowd, which parted quickly so the man could examine the cause of the incident. He was a pale old man with a cheery face, despite his light wrinkles and a robotic left eye, he walked with a hardwood cane and had a crooked back. He wore a torn crimson monk robe, ornamented with a necklace with a two-headed eagle on it and two wax seals on his belt that served to hold two long and thin pieces of paper under the seals. His voice changed immediately upon seeing Shepard's armor, "I apologize, sir. I meant no disrespect." The old man said nervously.

"I'm sorry to have disturbed you all." Shepard stated to the crowd, "But we are not who you think we are." He patted his armor down, and then noticed the device was gone. He looked to Miranda who had taken a seat on the fallen rubble of a ruined building, wringing out her beautiful black hair and clothing of water. She pulled the device from behind her and handed it to Shepard. After giving a sign of relief he took the device and showed it to the crowd, "This is a time travel device created by Commissar Grissom, he requested aid from my time period, and we have come to fulfill his request."

"A bold claim my boy." The old man replied, "You don't know much about us do you? Because you see, claims like that can get you killed." The tan woman pulled her concealed pistol as if the man's sentence was a command, and pointed the pistol at Shepard.

"A few weeks ago, in my time, my team and I helped to take down a Chaos Warship. We killed every single damned heretic on that ship and then after we took the device we blew it to pieces." Shepard ignored the pistol in the woman's hand and spoke with a bold tone. "For years I have studied your time, and even though we are the same race we live in such different times we could never coexist, but I assure you we stand to rid this galaxy of every last one of these time travel devices and vow to kill all who seek to use them for foul means. Killing me or my partner would leave your galaxy at such a disadvantage any hope of keeping Chaos or the Xenos from this power would be lost!"

The crowd was moved by his speech, Shepard wondered if he simply had a talent for diplomacy, or it was simply because of he was wearing the armor, he could not tell but he was relieved when the tan woman holstered her pistol. "I think we are going to get along just fine." The woman said.

The tan woman, who Shepard came to know as Janice, led both him and Miranda toward a moderately damaged building that reached high into the sky, seeming to be the tallest in the entire area. Inside stood two Kasrkin Stormtroopers wearing light brown armor and grey fatigues, and just like Lance they wore grey cloth masks instead of rebreathers and opaque blue sunglasses. Shepard remembered some of the videos from the Ultramarines logs included some information on the Imperial Guard, and the ever present tension between the two. Shepard had only seen heavily armored Guardsmen in the service of Inquisitors and the main troopers serving as planetary defense forces, Shepard assumed they were the latter.

"Where are we?" Miranda asked Janice, who only replied after a fence door quickly closed behind the three of them.

"This is an elevator." She replied, then a sudden beep startled Miranda and Shepard as the room began to ascend. Miranda was surprised she was on an elevator, noting the ten by ten windowless room was rather large to be an elevator.

"Then where are we going?" Shepard asked.

"This city uses a network of aboveground trains to allow fast travel between the districts. And due to the urgency of your situation it would be better to use the rails to get to the other side of the city."

"How do you know about the time travel device?" Miranda asked, interrupted by a robotic voice stating arrival and departure times, but continued when the voice stopped.

"About twenty terran years ago, Grissom announced his miraculous find to the galaxy. The problem was… its alien technology. Apparently it came from a race we haven't come across yet."

"Should have known." Shepard replied, but allowed her to continue.

"He wanted to reach out to the far past, talk to you guys and keep shit like hating aliens, psykers, and the Horus Heresy from happening. Since then, everyone has spilled blood trying to get the technology, and this Segmentum has been at the heart of the battle."

"We aim to stop any more violence, destroy this time travel device once and for all." Shepard spoke in his bold tone again. The elevator came to a sudden stop and the fence door opened, revealing a small terminal of sorts that led to trains that spread out in every direction except behind the elevator. Shepard looked out of the thin window panels that stretched around the entire room and noticed they were at the tip of a vast city, far larger than anything he had seen before. It dwarfed Los Angeles, Manhattan, London, Tokyo, and perhaps even the Citadel.

"Follow me, we have a ways to go." Janice led them to the train opposite the elevator, ferrying them inside just moments before it departed. The seats on both sides were filled with people with a multitude of appearances. Many of them were leaning over, hiding their faces. The stench of industry and smoke choked the air, and nearly every citizen on the train had some type of cybernetic implants, from robot eyes to prosthetic spines. Shepard quickly could tell the difference between who were the harmless citizens and those who could fight, and it was their skin tone. Everyone was so pale, like the life was sucked out of them, but there were a rare few, including Janice, who had healthy skin and were in good shape. Janice especially looked to be in better shape than some Alliance soldiers he used to know. Miranda looked out the window on the right wall of the cramped train car, staring at the vista below. The sea of grey buildings amazed her, thousands of structures standing high above the trudging citizens below, emitting steam and smoke from power plants and titanic foundries. She could not fathom the amount of people that lived in the slums, in the high-rises, in the apartments and the cathedrals. The grand cathedrals overflowing her senses with awe from the gothic motif touched the sky with sharp spires and pitch black roofing covered in ornaments and paintings degraded by the unhealthy air. But with all of the dread and the sorrow the sun rising behind the train cast a light on the city that cast away such feelings. It was then she finally understood how far away from home she was, separated not only by space but by tens of thousands of years. Only a month ago she would was so loyal to the group that raised her, even though it was a human supremacist group she called the group her family. When she got to know Shepard she slowly changed, finding the error in her ways for believing in such a group. Now, as Miranda was transfixed on how humans went about their daily lives in such a terrible galaxy no more than an era beyond her time, a mixture of emotions clouded her mind, and she became detached from the world for but a moment. The train came to a sudden halt soon after, nearly knocking her off her feet.