Disclaimer:

I do not own Mass effect or its characters. That's what BioWare is for. So, now that's over, on with the story.

Chapter 1: Life Haul

It's one thing waking up on the floor, after falling off your bed. It's a completely different ball game when you wake up in the distant future of a universe you thought was solely trapped in the realm of video games.

My name is Richard Pierce, though most call me Pierce. I'm 21 year old college dropout, mostly due to heavy addiction; not to drugs, but to the Mass Effect franchise. And after that fail of a hook intro, here's my story:

I put down the phone with my mom. God did she moan. Should have been grateful I actually decided to talk to her after dropping out. Some people are just never grateful.

Well, better get some sleep. I might as well look awake when I go down the job centre.

I collapsed on my sofa, fading out of reality...

I woke up. I noticed that my couch had suddenly got a lot harder and more metallic. I sat up to get off my couch, only to find I was on the floor.

But my floor isn't metal?

My eyes shot open. I realised my problem. I wasn't in my house, or anywhere like it. I was some sort of futuristic hallway, like something out off mass effect. I stood up and got my bearings. I defiantly wasn't in my house. I looked around looking for more clues. Suddenly I heard a quick beeping, coming from a behind what resembled a plant. I looked around it to find a small bag. I opened up the bag to look for the source of the beeping.

Because beeping noises in bags aren't dangerous normally at all.

That was sarcasm in case you didn't guess, but I was desperate in this situation. I found the source. It seemed to be what resembled a Data Pad from Mass Effect. When I touched it the beeping stopped and a frequency wave displayed. A recorded message began to play.

"Hello my friend!"

I'm not your friend.

"Welcome to the Citadel. I sure you're wondering why you're in the universe know as mass effect."

Well, actually, I was wondering how, but hey. Mr Recording; you're the boss.

"It's quite simple. I can't tell you."

Fucking FBI bull shit.

"But I can tell you some basic details about the contents of the bag which should help you get by. Firstly, this is a data pad, as I'm sure you know"

Yep

"But this is pretty much useless to you. But the other contents hopefully will be of more use. Firstly, in a small case at the bottom, is a credit chit. On it there is 100000 credits, which I might add, is a sizeable chunk of my fortune, but it should last you a while, or get you some pretty neat guns"

Yeah, guns. First on my priority list. Wait, maybe bullet proof armour is first...

"Next is an Omni-tool, already fitted with the latest updates. But you will need to update when they roll them out. It contains all the data you should need to run all the kit."

Wait, do they even use bullets in mass effect?

"And most importantly, there's a heavy pistol. Should get you through if you end up in any fights. Just don't get whacked by any c-sec officers."

"The year is 2183, and the Geth have just attacked Eden Prime, for your reference"

Wait, does that mean I can predict the future? Now, did mass effect mention any soccer games results?

"It'd be in both our best interests for you to join Shepherds' team."

Wait, do they even play soccer in the future. Maybe space soccer?

"Oh, and one last thing. To reduce the risk of your position being compromised, this data pads memory is going to be physically wiped. I'd throw this in a lake. In 5, 4...

Pretty sure that's straight up code for 'this devise is going to self destruct in...' so I dropped the pad and dived over the plant. The pad exploded in a small explosion. The plants pot took most of the impact, but the bag which had my gear, incinerated, spilling the contents on the floor.

"Oh shit, shit, shit." I scrambled with the fire rescuing the bundle from the heap before the gear was completely burnt.

I looked at what I had. Looks like the nice man was telling the truth. Inside were several pieces of tech, and some snazzy looking alliance navy blues. Well, this will blend in better than jeans and a hoody! I glanced around to check no one was watching, then striped down and undies, then put on the new gear. Surprisingly it fitted. The man must have done his research well.

I grabbed the chit and the Omni-tool. Now how does this thing go on?

I began walking around the wards. Man these things were huge. The main difference between the game and this was the sheer amount of people walking around. There must have been nearly 500 people from different species walking around the main market in Zakera ward. I looked around. I still hadn't figured out how to operate my Omni-tool, well, mainly turning it on was the problem. I decided to find some tech shop stall and pay the guy a little to give me a little tech lesson. I found what seemed like a suitable Salarian and approached.

"Ahh hello human! Welcome to Tucks Tech shop! Can I interest you in any of my wares!" The Salarian spoke with incredible speed, throwing me off a bit.

"Uhh, sorry not buying today, but, just wondering, can you give me a quick lesson on my Omni-tool?"

"Yes my good sir, let me take a quick look." The Salarian took my arm and looked at the blank display. "Hmm, seems like it's broken."

"Broken? That explains why I couldn't get it to work..." Feeling a bit better for myself.

"Can I interest you in one of our top of the range Omni-tools, jus-"

"Human, don't listen to him." A Quarian butted into my conversation. "Let me take a look, Tuck here is just trying to sell more dodgy Omni-tools."

I looked up at the Salarian and he gave me an unsure grin.

"Their" The Quarian dropped my arm "You just hadn't turned it on"

"Oh... yeah I'm new to this sort of thing... thanks for that"

"I guessed. I'm Tali by the way"

Suddenly I realised who I was talking to.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya?"

"Yes, how did you know that?" Tali questioned my knowledge.
Dammt Pierce you're an idiot. "Oh I just heard about a Quarian around here, on Pilgrimage right? I'm Pierce by the way."

"Pierce?" Tali seemed to trust my answer "Bit off an odd name isn't it? For a human I mean."

"Well, my actual name is Richard Pierce, but everyone just calls me Pierce."

"Interesting. I'm sorry, I do not spend much time around humans, and I'm not used to some of your culture."

"Well, maybe we should hang out some time?" I asked "Have a chat, ya know."

Tali considered the offer. "Yes, that sounds nice Pierce. A 'chat' would be fun as well! I'm busy at the moment doing some business, but I can meet you later."

"Well..." I thought off a plan. It was good speaking to someone I knew a lot about "Maybe I could come with you, unless your under cover with c-sec or some shit?"

Tali laughed. "No, I am not under cover; I simply need to exchange some data with someone. Sure you can come."

"Cool then! Lead the way."

Tali began to walk out of the busy hallway, and I soon followed, leaving a saddened Salarian staring at lost business.

"So..." Tali began to talk "You're from Earth then?"

"Sort of" I reply dodging the question.

"What's it like their? I heard it's an incredible sight!"

"Well," This was going to be tough. For one, the only earth I've seen from Mass Effect was in the Mass Effect 3 demo. Damn stupid release date delays! "I spent a lot of my time on transport ships. My dad was in the navy, ya see."

Nice save.

"Ahh, so you're in the Alliance now?"

"What? Nope, a free runner, that's me." Spreading my hands wide, almost proud of my lack of military connections.

"But you wear Alliance issued clothes?"

"Oh..." Shit I forgot about these. "Yeah, I bought this second hand."

Tali wasn't buying it, but soon she interrupted my thoughts "We're here. You might want to stand out off the way."

We had arrived in a dark, dimly lit red alleyway, which appeared to be one off the e dodgy back streets of the ward. Tali motioned me behind some sort of packing crate.

"Ok, I'm going to patch you into my com channel" She waved her Omni-tool up "If I need anything, I'll give you a call. Ok?"

I nodded. "Ok, be careful."

Tali turned and slowly walked around the corner. I peeked through a crack between my crate and the wall. Tali walked up to a group of what seemed like group of mercs, some human, some Turians. A Turian who seemed to be a leader walked up to Tali.

"Did you bring it?" The Turians voice was picked up by Tali's communicator.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's fist?" Tali replied.

Oh shit, this is happening? Now?

"They'll be here" He started stroking her mask. "Now where's the evidence?"

I had to warn her.

"Tali, it's a trap. Their Sarens men" I panicked "Get out off there."

Now to find out whether my com channel worked.

"No way" Tali spoke to the Turian "The deals off"

Tali started to back away. The Turian gave a small smirk. From a shady corner, two Salarian guards came out in full armour brandishing heavy pistols. Tali reacted quickly and threw a proximity mine at them both, throwing them off balance, giving her time to run behind a crate.

I didn't think, I just reacted. I jumped out from my cover and started firing my own pistol at the Turian. After 5 shots, 3 hit him square in the chest. His kinetic barrier flashed and faded.

I pulled up my pistol to take more shots, and fired. But my pistol gave off a hefty hiss. Dammit, overheated! Why where thermal clips only invented by Mass Effect 2.

The Turian now angered, pulled out his own fire arm. He pointed the gun at me and took aim. I looked for cover, but the crates I originally hid behind were a short sprint away.

Dammit Pierce, you're an idiot.

Suddenly an ear piercing gunshot cut through the air. The Turians head became an expressionless balloon, and fell to the ground deflated. I looked up to see my saviour.

It was Shepherd. Female Shepherd it seemed to be. Now I wonder if she's Paragon or Renegade.

The remaining Salarian assailants were lying on the floor getting up. Shepherd walked up to them, drew his shotgun, and finished the job. The Salarians, one after the other, were thrown back to the wall, with a blood splattering shot.

"Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" Tali jumped out of cover to meet her saviours.

"Were you hurt in the fight?" Shepherd asked with genuine concern. Could be Paragon. Or she could have a similar life outlook to me. Be kind, save everyone you can, until they get in your way; then fuck them up.

"I know how to look after myself. Not that I don't appreciate the help. Especially you Pierce."

I wave from up the stairs awkwardly and walk down to the party to meet Shepherd and her crew. "No problem, just bein' a friend."

"Who are you then?" Tali questioned Shepherd.

"I'm with the Alliance and I'm looking for evidence that Saren is a traitor. We came here to save you"

Tali took in the news "Well, then, I may have a way to repay you."

"We shouldn't do it here" I pointed out. "How about the Alliance office in the Persidium?"

"I agree I don't like these dark alleys. Too many creeps." Kaidan spoke up for the first time in the conversation."

"We can get acquainted on the way, for now then, let's get a taxi." Shepherd said, rounding up the group.

"You're not making my life easy Shepherd. A fire fight in the wards? An all out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" Ambassador Udina stopped mid sentence when he noticed Tali and I. "Who are these Shepherd? You better have a reason for bringing two strangers into my office."

"This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She has the evidence we need linking Saren to the Geth."

Udina was still in shock. "I'm sorry, we don't get many Quarian on the Citadel, why did you leave the Flotilla" It was almost as if he mistrusted her intentions.

Tali began to pace around the office gently "Well, I was on my pilgrimage, as I have recently come off age, when I heard about some extraordinary Geth activity beyond the veil, which hasn't been seen since they exiled us from our home planet."

"Geth again?" Shepherd seemed unhappy with the reminders of Geth activity.

"Yes." Tali continued "I followed one until it was separated from its unit, disabled it and removed it's memory core."

"I thought Geth fried their memory core when they died?" Captain Anderson looked at the group to explain. "Some kind of defence mechanism."

Shepherd ignored the Captain "What did you find out?"

"Most of the core was wiped clean. But I salvaged something from the audio banks" Tali lifted up her Omni-tool, and loaded the necessary file.

"Eden Prime was a major victory. The Beacon has got us one step closer to finding the Conduit"

Anderson looked ecstatic "That's Saren's voice. The council will have to listen to us now!"

"Wait" Tali began to reload the file "There's more. Saren wasn't working alone."

"Eden Prime was a major victory. The Beacon has got us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

But halfway through Saren stopped, and someone else began to speak.

"And one step closer to the return of the reapers."

"I don't recognise that voice, the second." Udina scratched his chin.

I think its bye time I should show my worth to the commander. Maybe it's another legit reason for him to recruit me. It's not like I got anything else to do here, and I might as well make my time worthwhile.

"I recognise it. She's an Asari, a Matriarch. Matriarch Benezia."

If anything, the expression on Unida's looked pleased. Well, that might show up the council later.

"We'll have to check that up with the Asari, but if you're sure..." Anderson seemed to doubt my knowledge.

"The Reapers?" Nice one Shepherd. Nice off you to get back to the point before I have to listen to Udina mumble and groan all day. "Are they some sort of intelligent life?"

"The Reapers are a machine race. They lived like, 50000 years ago, and hunted the Protheans to total extinction." Everyone stared at me "Yeah, don't ask how I know"

Tali was confused "Yes. That's right Pierce. But as soon as they wiped out the Protheans, they themselves vanished. Or at least according to the Geth memory drives"

It was so hard not to shout out details about the Reapers. But I knew the team should probably discover it. Otherwise they'll be like the council and think it's a crackpot theory.

"Sounds a little farfetched" Udina clearly wasn't impressed with this idea.

Idiot

"No" Shepherd began. "The vision on Eden Prime. I understand it now. It was the Reapers."

"Exactly" Tali continued "The Geth see the Reapers as the pinnacle of non-organic life. They worship them"

"The council is going to love this." Udina was getting more disappointed by the minute.

"But anyway" Anderson was far more optimistic "The council will have to believe us about Saren now!"

Udina's spirits were lifted "Yes, we must present this to the council right away."

Ash, who had been standing behind the Commander the whole time, spoke up.

"What about her, the Quarian?"

"My name is Tali"

"Shepherd?" Udina questioned

"She can come with us; I saw your skills. You'll be a valuable asset to the team."

"Thank you" Tali smiled. Well, I'm not sure. She probably did under her mask.

"Uh guys" Had they forgotten me? "What about me. Can I come Shepherd?"

Shepherd turned to me. She eyed me up top to bottom. "I dunno kid, It's could be a dangerous mission."

"I can handle myself" Not entirely lying "And you saw me in the alley, I shot that merc up good"

"Well, also he's already in the Alliance, so getting him transferred to the Normandy would be easy" Anderson spoke up.

"Well, long story, but yeah"

Shepherd pondered on this "Ok kid, you're in. What's your name though?"

"Richard Pierce, but most call me Pierce"

Shepherd nodded "Ok Pierce. This is our crew at the moment. You of course, Ashley Wiliams over here" He pointed to Kaiden "And Tali you already know. Oh and back on Ship is Urdnot Wrex, a Krogan, and Garrus Vakarian, a Turian.

The first thing I noticed was the obvious lack of Kaidan.

"Bit off a small team isn't it?" Trying not to sound to obvious was hard.

"Yeah" Shepherd began, almost looking sad "We had other marines, but they were, well..."

Shepherd grimaced, her face remembering some event. Probably the marines' death on Eden Prime. But wait? Kaidan wasn't meant to die on Eden Prime! Oh shit, what does that mean for the events to follow? What about on Virmire when Shepherd picks between Kaidan and Ash? Will she die as well?

So many questions.

"Ok Shepherd, I hear ya'" I said smiling at my new boss, trying to cheer her up. "Do we have a ship or something I can get a few z's on while you go speak with the council?"

"Sure. Anderson, is it all right If I send my team to the Normandy for a bit?"

Anderson looked at Udina, then spoke to Shepherd "Shepherd, they might want to settle in. They could be on it a while. We'll talk about the details later, but the ship is now yours."

Sweet. Now, I hope the ship is bigger in real life than in the game!

Wow, this ship is bigger. By a massive amount. CIC has pretty much the same amount of consoles as in the game, but the space between the central hub out the walls is much greater. Having a look at the ship details on my Omni-tool, which Tali sent to me, shows that there is the standard briefing room behind CIC, but instead of stairs down, there are two elevators, which lead to 2 other floors. One to the Quarters, like in the game, which unlike the game, has a mess, fitted with a full out kitchen, and a access door to the main gun battery. There are also a few extra rooms, not including the sleeper pods, presumably for the officers, but I wasn't sure. Then there was the traditional med bay, with back room, and that was it for the floor.

Next floor down was Engineering and Storage. Or, the shit hole, as Presley so elegantly put it to me. Down here was the Mako, a bunch of storage lockers, a pile of cases, probably filled with armour and guns, but the rest of the room was pretty bare. Except for one corner which had about 20 massive crates marked FOOD.

Damn, someone must have been hungry when the ordered that.

Ash, who was leading the party, stopped, and opened up the elevator, so we could go to our new Quarters.

"Ok people" She waved her hands to get our attention. "This ship has 5 rooms, and last time I checked, theirs 6 of us, so... someone's going to have to take a sleeper pod."

"Human." Wrex counted heads "There's only 5"

"Krogan" Ash said with spite "I included the Commander, because I assumed she'd want to sleep somewhere."

Wrex grunted.

"So..." I said, not really wanting to be the unlucky individual "Who's it gonna be?"

Tali spoke up. "I'm fine to sleep by the engine. I enjoy engines."

Ash gave Tali a weird look, but then realised the resolution "ok then, I'm guessing Shepherds taking one, since it's biggest, so I'll take 2"

I can see where this is going. Stealing the second largest room eh?

"What was that Pierce?" Ash gave me an evil glare.

Shit did I say that out loud "Oh nothing, but um... yeah"

Garrus laughed and Tali suppressed a giggle.

"Garrus, room 3 ok? And Wrex, you can have 4. Leaving you-" Ash glared at me again "in the last room"

A mumble of agreement sounded.

"So, are we all cool with this? Remember none of this is actually official since this isn't my ship, but I'm sure the commander will be happy with it. She seems like a nice enough person."

"Well, if you don't mind me, I'm going to check my gun." Garrus exited the elevator, giving us all a quick nod before leaving towards room 3.

The others soon mumbled words of agreement and left. The only person left in the elevator with me was Tali.

"Well, aren't you getting off?" I asked.

"Well, the engines are down at the bottom of the ship"

"Oh..." I realised my mistake. I quickly exited the elevator.

"Pierce, I'll catch up with you later." Tali said through the closing gap.

I watched as the light went from green to red, and left for room 5.

Thank you for reading Chapter 1 off my new story. Please review, it really helps when writing, as sometimes I don't notice story mistakes and the like, but generally I'm pretty good. Feel free just to review to tell me how cool I am! New chapter every Friday!