WITHIN THE CREED, WITHIN THE EFFECT
21th April 2012
AUTHORS NOTES
This is an Assassins Creed/Mass Effect crossover.
'This' means someone is thinking.
Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. Mass Effect Core.
Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...
-X- means a scene change.
Disclaimer; I do not own Assassins Creed, Mass Effect or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.
Mindoir, Attican Traverse, 2170
A misty haze hung over the dark forest, the smells and sounds of the forest filtered back to the hunters who lay silently in a Muraberry patch- the dull coloured alien fruit hiding them from the prey they were stalking.
The hunters were Mark Shepard, 55 year old retired US Marine, veteran of the First contact war and eccentric father of three, the other was Clarice Shepard, 16 year old straight A student of Mindoir 1st High school, daughter of Systems Alliance doctor turned civilian doctor Jenifer Shepard and one of the few who tolerated her father's numerous eccentricities.
Clarice lay in a prone position, focusing on the target she saw through the scope of the M-92 Mantis sniper rifle into the forest lit by the dying afternoon night.
"Movement, your 3 O'clock." Whispered the elder Shepard.
The teen sniper shifted her rifles position noiselessly, located her target- the multispectral lens on the rifle gave her a clear view of the target. The rifles laser range finder and firing solution calculation equipment built in were off- the Shepard patriarch said the gizmos made a soldier lazy and demanded she calculate the variables in her head which as a maths wiz was easy; '157 meters, high wind... doesn't matter with mass accelerator weapons... holding centre mass...'
Clarice gently exhaled and pulled back on the rifles custom modified trigger. A slug of metal- no larger than a grain of sand- flew through the air, tearing into flesh and emerging from the life forms opposite side taking pieces of heart, lungs and a fountain of blood with it.
"Nice shot, kid." Mark smiled at his daughter. They both stood up and stepped out of the fruit patch, pulling their Gillie suit hoods off; Clarice Shepard was a sight to behold; exotically beautiful with red hair, green eyes (both rare in an age of human interracial breeding), tanned skin and an attractive, slightly freckled face. Her father was not so appealing; he was a tall, wiry man with short, dark brown hair, a thick beard, dark brown eyes and deep lines crossing his angular face.
The pair walked (Mark walked, Clarice bounced happily) through the forest to their kill; a Mindoir Speckled Wild Boar. It wasn't a pig actually, not being from Earth and all- but it did look like one except for having reptile like feet instead of hooves and no hair.
"What really mattered," according to her father, "Is that it tastes like pork when cooked and eaten."
Also Speckled Boars merged the appearance of a pig with the attitude of a Wolverine, they could be dangerous, giving the beasts incentive to stay away from the human settlers was only frowned upon by animal first activists- "The damn hippies," as Clarice's father repeatedly called them.
There were no laws forbidding hunting on Mindoir as the human population hadn't risen high enough to seriously threaten wildlife unlike on Earth which had suffered mass extinctions due to human overpopulation, damage from industrial pollution and the third World War.
They reached the corpse (Clarice wasn't bothered by the blood and gore having gone on too many hunting trips). Mark placed the body of the Boar in a special stainproof cover, picked the dead animal up and flung it over his shoulder jovially.
"That's your brother's going away meal taken care of, now all we need is the stripper for his party." He mused aloud.
"Not funny Dad." Clarice responded not shocked by her father's casual crudeness.
"Your mother didn't think it was funny either, why do you think I was sleeping on the coach this morning?"
Clarice laughed as the two of them set off back to town, and home.
-X-
The two made it back to town as the day ended.
Clarice smiled as she walked through the colony; as always, the place was full of life, vivid, diverse, much like the people who adventurously settled on the world two decades earlier.
Her father had gone off with the Boar to a friend's house to prepare it for the upcoming celebrations, leaving Clarice to return home alone.
The Shepard home consisted of three prefab housing units, rectangular in shape for the family of five; one 'box' for the kitchen and living room, one as living space for the parents and storage, and one for living quarters for the three children; first born Dean, middle child Clarice and youngest daughter Fiona. Each prefab unit, constructed from mass produced, lightweight sheets of polymers and ceramics could be modified a near infinite number of ways including partitions (the three children didn't sleep in the same room, likely the reason one of them hadn't been strangled yet). While the Shepard family weren't rich they had everything they needed; shelter, food, family and a TV with Extranet connection and a near infinite number of channels never watched.
Smiling at being home Clarice stepped into the 'Family Box' as her brother called it. The sterile white box was humanised by freshly cut Mindoir Dusk Bloom flowers (her mothers favourite), family pictures and a couple of pictures hanging on magnets.
A form blurred out from seemingly nowhere and caught Clarice in a crushing embrace.
"Gak! Hello mom!" She choked out.
Doctor Jenifer Shepard, a spacer by birth was an attractive woman with red hair and green eyes that she passed on to the daughter she was currently hugging/crushing. Her bone structure was softer than her daughters but she was taller than her daughter, a tool she used to full effect when chastising her (which was often). Formerly a Systems Alliance military doctor on the Cruiser SSV Houston, she retired to a civilian practice and became one of the Mindoir colonies first and most respected medical professionals while raising a family.
"Welcome home, long trip?" The mother released her teenage daughter from her hold.
Clarice adjusted her clothing slightly embarrassed at her mother's outburst. "Yeah, saw some sights and got a feast for Dean's going away party."
Jenifer suddenly looked exasperated. "I don't know why I humour your father. Did he at least carry the corpse this time?"
Clarice smiled at that, since settling on Mindoir, Mark Shepard had made it known that he needed food more natural than genetically modified crops and things that came out of cans. The animal life on Mindoir was edible to one who had grown up or been immunized to the planet's native virology.
"Clarice! Back from the wilderness." Clarice turned around to see the thirteen year old Fiona Shepard; she looked more like her father than Clarice with deep brown eyes, brown hair and a round face. In her petty moments Clarice teased her saying she looked plain.
"So, got a boyfriend yet?" Fiona cheekily chirped.
"Fiona." Her mother chided. The doctor had had a long day and wasn't in the mood for the standard Shepard family verbal jousting.
Clarice was unfazed, used to her sister's inexplicable crude and perverse attitude.
"No. They're intimidated by a strong, smart woman."
"Or they've been watching Asari porn and find you boring." She responded grinning.
Jennifer went white as a sheet then began almost trembling with rage. Clarice spoke slightly disturbed; "How the hell do you know about Asari porn?"
"They can mate with any species, any gender you know..." She continued amused.
"You're too young to be thinking about mating-" Her mother started.
"You know that don't you Dean?" Fiona shouted looking over Clarice's shoulder. Both daughter and mother turned to see the Shepard first born attempting to stealthily escape the area. He had a textbook 'Deer in the headlights' look on his face.
Dean Shepard, Spaceborn on an Alliance medical ship, and who looked like a shorter, teenaged version of his father retaliated with righteous toned spluttering;"Oh, I tell Mom you snuck out of the house last week risking your safety in childish antics and now you make up these horrid lies about me?"
"What lies would those be, Dean?" Jennifer had broken out of her shock and now turned to her son with full-on matriarchal coldness.
"...err..." He stammered.
"What was your favourite vid Dean? Asari Confessions 25? Or... what was that one with the high school student who has that Asari stripper for a personal tutor, or..."
Clarice decided to leave while her brother wished he could sink into the ground and disappear under his mothers gaze.
"... or maybe the one with the sexy detective that goes undercover at a brothel..."
'Forget sink into the floor, Dean's gonna get hammered into the floor...' She smirked meanly at her brother's plight.
-X-
Mindoir Plaza, Elliot family restaurant, the next day...
At several white, quick assemble tables sat the Shepard clan and other citizens of Mindoir, ranging from small children who ran around recklessly without a care in the world, to senior citizens who sat quietly with nostalgic look in their eyes.
The Boar Clarice shot had been roasted and was now being carved up for the feast.
Mark stood up and cleared his throat; "And now for the toast... Clarice?"
Clarice went wide eyed and looked at her father in angry panic. "What! Why do I have to do the speech! I suck at speeches!" She spluttered.
Her father showed no signs of caring about her distress. "Your mother did the last one, my throat is suddenly terribly sore and you're the responsible child here."
She stood up nervously. She hated public speaking.
"I suppose it's best I do this... Dad would encourage Dean's perverse or idiotic behaviour... Mom would bore us to sleep with her paragon of goodness routine..." The table responded to her good natured ribbing with chuckles.
"Dean dreams of being a doctor, despite rubbing everyone the wrong way, despite being an annoying, obnoxious, perverse, loud and generally more annoying than a Salarian Evangelist..."
"Hey!"
"...he genuinely wants to help and alleviate suffering. So we all wish him the very best, and to be safe."
"Yes, very safe." Jenifer cut in with a stern look at her son that said; 'Stay away from blue women'.
"You're all nuts. But you're my family... and I can't imagine being anywhere else but here."
They all raised their glasses, looking across the table with lingering affectionate gazes.
-X-
The next day...
"The Abstergo disaster?"
Clarice nodded. "Basically, on Earth back in 2012, one of the largest megacorporations on the planet of the time was found to have been involved in a list of crimes including supporting global terrorism, murder, rigging elections, even illegal experimentation on humans-"
"Bo-ring. Who cares about something that happened on Earth 150 years ago? Wouldn't it be more relevant to do something on the Genophage, or the Quarians?"
Sophie Landry; Clarice's best friend, blond, blue eyed and as always, dressed in a nauseatingly girly frilly outfit of bright reds and spotless whites chatted away as she did every morning. Clarice continued unfazed by her interruption;
"... Mrs Rosamond wants an essay on the trials of the Abstergo conspirators and the effect it had on world politics afterwards. At least 50,000 words. Here's a copy of my notes, don't copy and paste them this time."
Sophie accepted the datapad. "Is it my fault my body doesn't handle non-Earth environments as well as yours?"
The two teenage girls walked by the Matthias river which ran through the middle of the Mindoir colony on their way to school, the morning was beautiful, the air was warm, the sun was dazzlingly bright, very few people were around, those present travelled by foot, bicycle or electric scooter.
Clarice always took this route to school, the sounds of the river flowing soothed her, the smell of the recently cut grass further improved the feeling.
"Onto revelations that actually matter; Ross finally asked me out! This Friday!" Clarice's best friend at school gushed, showing a smile so wide and girlish it was almost disturbing to look at. Clarice nodded and made a mental note to kill Sophie's paramour if he broke her heart or mistreated her.
Clarice suspected the slightly hyperactive blond dressed and acted excessively girly to compensate for her friends tomboyishness; today for example she wore baggy beige cargo pants, a dark green top and hiking boots. The Shepard girl never wore any stereotype female clothing or makeup.
And she hated the colour pink.
-X-
Clarice was uncomfortable talking about boys so the conversation moved on to talking about the future.
"I want to work in education, you know teaching children. What about you?" Sophie was good with kids and had a passion for the work (which was always good for dealing with those genetically predetermined to hate you).
"...I'm keeping my options open, Soph."
In truth Clarice wasn't sure of her future; she knew she wasn't going to be a doctor like her mother or brother, farming and other colony life bored her. She wasn't sure if her Dad taught her skills he had learnt during his military service (she knew how to fire a handgun, machine gun, sniper rifle before she knew how to handle a bra, knew Marine CQB before she knew about PMS) to subtly nudge her towards the System Alliance military or just to give her tools to survive in a dangerous galaxy.
She had just made it past the colonial defence militia base when Clarice suddenly got a weird feeling; a throbbing warmth originating in her head, then spreading out to become a tingling through her entire body. Her body froze, like an instinct that compelled an animal to stay still to avoid detection by a predator.
'What is this feeling...?'
A noise erupted from the sky.
A building behind Clarice exploded; she turned just in time to be thrown flying by the shockwave. Her schoolbag was wrenched from her grasp and hurled into the river.
Coughing and choking, the dirtied teens struggled to their feet. Twisted wreckage of the colonial militia GARDIAN laser towers and the outlines of flying machines that may have been shuttles or gunships were all Clarice could see besides fire and smoke.
Screams added to further explosions and Clarice turned to see the Mindoir colony- idyllic only a minute ago set ablaze.
The bizarre; familiar, yet unidentifiable grew stronger, though this time it didn't freeze her, it compelled her to look away from the fireballs and into the sky; ships appeared from the clouds. She didn't recognize the type- but knew they weren't Alliance. They fired upon the helpless colony and in a flash Clarice knew what they were; 'Pirates... they... oh God, Mom, Fiona, Dean, Dad...'
"Clarice... what... oh God... oh God..."
Clarice grabbed Sophie by her shoulders snapping her out of her panicked babbling.
"Sophie! The colony has shelters for things like meteor showers right? Go to the nearest one!"
Sophie nodded. "Right... right..." She panicked and gripped hold of Clarice tight when she saw her turn to run off. "Wait! Don't leave me!"
"I'm going after my family! I'll meet you at the shelter!" She shook her arm free and raced off. Hearing Sophie's screams in the distance.
"I'll be back for you!" She shouted as she ran.
She ran into the besieged colony, once almost a paradise, now screaming and gunfire roared deafeningly loud, people ran and hid under furniture or equipment, others stampeded in terror.
An old man went down face first, a puddle of blood seeping out from under him.
A kid frantically pedalling on an ancient looking bicycle was shot in the back as he tried to escape pedalling furiously on the primitive vehicle.
The fields were burning, the crops that made Mindoir self sufficient were burning.
Clarice ignored it all, only wanting to get to her family. Focusing on getting home, that goal was the only way to stop the terror from drowning her.
Things seemed to move in slow motion- even the screams were dragged out.
'How? How did this happen?'
Clarice ran through the 'streets' (gaps between the prefab units really) with tunnel vision. She caught her first glimpse of the invaders; brightly coloured armoured strangers swarming with their faces hidden behind helmets and big guns.
'Cowards!' The thought came to Clarice right before she leapt to one side as a wall exploded sending hot metal, plastic and ceramics flying through the air.
Clarice stared in horror as she saw from a distance her brother stagger clutching his stomach- a fountain of blood behind him flowing from his back, trickles from around his hands in front- for a second, then he fell.
"Dean?" Was all Clarice could dully say.
An armoured figure stepped into view. It turned to look at Clarice snapping her out of her horrified stare. She took off at her greatest speed as the figure opened fire on her exploding earth and the building around her with what Clarice knew was modded rifle fire. 'Incendiary rounds! Fucking incendiary rounds!'
She ran, heart pounding, sweat and tears in her eyes, legs and arms pounding.
Finally she found the white rectangle she called home. Gunshots flashed inside.
"No!"
The door opened. Her father tumbled out, blood leaking from holes in his chest and back. Clarice stared down at him in horror as his body seized and his eyes went blank. Dead.
She looked up from her father's corpse. Inside the prefab home she saw the bodies of her mother and sister on the floor besides a grotesque looking four eyed alien lying against the wall with holes in his torso.
She ran to them, faltering and falling to her knees just in front of them. She grabbed them and hugged them tight, not noticing the still warm blood seeping into her shirt and pants.
"Oh no... no... no... this can't.." She broke down sobbing. Her foot connected with something solid. She looked up from her family's bodies and saw it; her father's Mantis sniper rifle- recently fired, most likely on the dead intruder lying against the wall.
Clarice stared at it for an eternity. She gently placed her dead mother and younger sister down on the blood slick white tiled floor. Wiping away tears she bent down, picked up the rifle, left the room without a look back and stepped over her father's corpse.
She climbed to the top of the rectangular gravesite, settled into a prone position on her ruined homes roof, and looked through the Mantis' scope for targets.
She found one; a grotesque looking, four eyed alien with showing hideous needle like teeth as it grinned at something.
Clarice focused the targeting sight on a point between the lower two eyes. The rifles laser range finder and firing solution calculation equipment built in were off- '114 meters, high wind... doesn't matter with mass accelerator weapons...' Clarice gently exhaled and pulled back on the rifles custom modified trigger...
END CHAPTER 1
AUTHORS NOTES
Shepard is Femshep because the protagonists from the Assassin creed games are all male.
The 'weird feeling' Clarice got when the slavers attacked was Eagle Vision- or at least a variation of it- this isn't a video game so I can't present the Assassin's sixth sense as a visual effect. Shepard has empathic abilities- she can't read minds but can sense emotions and track individuals via psychic resonance to a certain level.
I got the idea for this chapter from Assassins Creed 2 where at the beginning of the game you get to know Ezio's family which makes it more painful when they get killed. The next chapter will skip ahead to Clarice joining the System's Alliance.
The name Clarice comes from Clarice Starling from 'The Silence of the Lambs'.
CODEX
Earth
The homeworld and capital of the humanity is entering a new golden age after the most destructive 200 years in human history. The resource wealth of a dozen settled colonies and a hundred industrial outposts flows back to Earth, fuelling great works of industry, commerce, and art. The great cities are greening as arcology skyscrapers and telecommuting allow more efficient use of land.
Earth is still divided among nation-states, though all are affiliated beneath the overarching banner of the Systems Alliance. While every human enjoys longer and better life than ever, the gap between rich and poor widens daily. Advanced nations have eliminated most genetic disease. Less fortunate regions have not progressed beyond 20th century technology, and are often poisonous, overpopulated slums or radioactive wastes.
Sea levels have risen significantly due to melting of the polar ice caps, and global temperatures have dropped by one degree centigrade due to lingering atmospheric contamination caused by the use of Mass Drivers during the third World War. Certain regions have dangerously high levels of chemical toxins and radioactivity and violent weather is common due to environmental damage inflicted during the late 21st century. Travel beyond Megatropolis' or other controlled environments is not recommended. The past few decades, however, have seen significant improvement in all areas due to recent technological advances.
The Abstergo Disaster
In the year 2012, evidence was leaked to worldwide governments, media and onto the internet of a global conspiracy involving Abstergo Industries, one of the largest and most prominent multinational corporations of the time. The conspiracy accused Abstergo and several front companies of committing countless crimes dating back the company's official founding in 1937, implicating world leaders, religious institutions, captains of industry and countless scientists, businessmen and other people of note of a seemingly endless list of high crimes against humanity.
While many of the more fantastic charges levelled against Abstergo and their associates (such as allegations of research into human mind control and research on extraterrestrial technology) were rejected, numerous powerful figures including Abstergo's upper echelon of employees, former president George W Bush, CEO's and scientists from half a dozen other corporations were convicted of various capital offences including supporting global terrorist organisations, murder, trafficking of weapons and narcotics, illegal experimentation on humans and high treason.
During the trials several horrifying truths came to light, most damaging was the revelation that the 2003 invasion and subsequent war in Iraq was incited and orchestrated by Abstergo; via the corporation first arming and training the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda (It was believed by some that Bin Laden was in fact a low-ranking member of the secret society), rigging the US 2000 election to place George W Bush as president, and profiteering from weapons and oil sales from the Middle East conflict.
These facts were verified by Mr Bush who claimed as part of a plea bargain at his trial that he was indeed a member of a secret society (not unlike the fabled Illuminati) that sought to control the world and create a New world order (his plea bargain was unsuccessful and he, along with his co-conspirators were sentenced to life imprisonment).
The political, social and economic fallout from the trials was catastrophic and became a leading reason for the Global Civil unrest that plagued Earth for decades to come.