I'd like to ask you a question if I may? What would you do if you found yourself in a world that you knew only existed in a video game? Would you find a way to put yourself into the events and try to affect the outcome? Would you do something different and try to live a normal life in this new place or maybe even try to find your way back home?
I ask you this because it happened to me and although I don't regret my decision it certainly hasn't been an easy road. Now I know what you're thinking. "If you wound up in a game which you'd already played then it should be easy, after all you know what's going to happen." Right? Don't worry I wouldn't blame you, after all I thought the same thing, the only problem was that not everything that I knew would happen did happen…My name is Robert Kane and this is my story…
Chapter One: In at the deep end
January 15th 2012
New York City, New York; Earth
"Come on Shepard you idiot get behind the damn crate!" I cursed at my PC monitor as the Alliance Marine's barrier got whittled down by Geth bullets. I managed to eventually get Shepard behind the crate and used a throw to toss the machines back while Garrus and Ashley took them out with a combination of assault and sniper rifle fire.
I was currently on Feros making my way back from the Geth ship, towards the encounter with the Thorian in Mass Effect 1, having decided to do a play through of the two games so that I would have a good save game to carry over to Mass Effect 3 which was releasing in a few months. It certainly was an entertaining series with great characters, although there were a few things that bugged me like most games but overall it's definitely one of the top five.
It was about 1 am when I decided to turn off the computer and grab some sleep, leaving Shepard and the galaxy to wait until morning to be saved. The following morning I woke up and had some breakfast and did the other daily routines like checking e-mails and what not before continuing with Mass Effect. I quickly finished off Feros and headed off to Noveria for a showdown with Liara's mother Benezia, when a knock at my door drew me away.
"Delivery for a…Robert Kane?" the UPS guy said.
"I'm not expecting anything." I said as I glanced at the rather large box in his hand.
The UPS guy looked at the package and showed me the address "This is the correct address." He said, which I agreed "And you are Mr Kane?" Again I nodded "Well then this package is for you sir."
With a shrug I signed for the package and thanked the delivery guy, after all it wasn't his fault and whatever was in the package must have been sent by mistake and a quick phone call to the company who sent it would sort it all out or so I thought.
I took the package into the kitchen and placed it on the table before retrieving the knife and opening cutting along the tape that kept the outer box sealed. Contained within the outer packaging was a silver box, square in shape and looked like a money box or something. However when I took the box out of the packaging and examined it there were no slots or compartments anywhere. Even more surprising was that there was no documentation with the package, not even a receipt.
"Great somebody sent me a paperweight." I muttered as I wondered who would send me something like this. With a shrug I put the box down on the table and turned away since there was little I could do.
As I started walking away I felt my skin begin to tingle as if the air was suddenly charged with electricity. I turned around in time to see that the box seemed to be shining a bright white light, which only seemed to get brighter and expand throughout the room. Deciding that the best course of action was to run like hell I darted past it towards the door but just as I reached for the handle the entire room was engulfed in the white light, myself included and everything went dark.
I don't know how long I was out before I came round again but when I did I found myself in a dark room with metallic blue plating covering the walls and the floor, which was definitely not my apartment, my head was pounding and every nerve felt as though they were on fire.
"What the hell?" I muttered as I glanced around the room. Besides a door in the north east corner of the room it was completely bare. I cautiously walked over to it and reached out with my hand to touch it, gliding my fingers over its cool, smooth surface, it definitely felt real. Unfortunately it didn't look like there was any way to open the door from this side, which probably wasn't good news for me.
I spent the next few minutes searching the room, trying to find a hidden panel or switch to free me from the room, I didn't know where I was or how I got it and I'll be honest I was starting to freak out big time but there was nothing to be found.
At least the pain I was feeling was starting to ease off which was a plus, with the exception of a dull ache in the back of my neck. I tilted my neck in either direction, hearing the bones crack before I rolled my shoulders and run a hand across the back of my neck only to freeze when I felt a rather long and very fresh scar running about a third of the way down the back of my neck in a horizontal line.
"What the fuck?" I muttered with barely contained fear. I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard a noise behind me and spun on my heel in time to see the door open and felt my entire body tense as I waited for someone to enter, however after several minutes nobody did. I tried to walk towards the door but my body refused to move.
I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath to calm myself down and tried again, almost sighing in relief when my body obeyed and I moved, albeit slowly towards the door until I made it to the opening. With my back pressed against the wall I willed my body to stop trembling as I peeked my head around the opening, expecting to see someone there, however there was no one.
I stepped through the doorway into a corridor, whose walls and floor were made of a reflective metal that echoed my reflection, which itself caused me a fright since instead of wearing the t-shirt and jeans I had been wearing in my apartment I was now wearing a powder blue hospital gown. Add to that, where I once had a thick head of dark brownish/blonde spiked hair I now had very short hair where somebody had shaved it. I studied the rest of myself in the reflected wall and sighed when nothing else had appeared to have been changed, although that combined with the fresh scar on the back of my neck didn't say much.
All I wanted to do was to scream, cry and run but I whoever did this to me was probably waiting for me somewhere and running into them might be a bad idea. I slowly made my way down the corridor noting that there were no other doors in this corridor. The corridor made several left and right turns and each time I turned one I expected to see someone and yet each time there was nobody.
After rounding the final bend I could see what at first appeared to be a dead end, but that couldn't have been true since I hadn't passed any other doorways or passages. As I neared the end the 'dead end' wall slid open into a pitch black room. Maybe this is a dream? I wondered as I stopped at the end of the blackness. I frowned as I stared into the darkness, trying to make something out to no avail.
With a deep breath I mustered as much courage as I could and stepped carefully into the blackness, an action that I immediately regretted when the door slid shut behind me. I spun around to see if I could open in when the room suddenly lit up, causing me to spin around on my heel again and froze at what I saw.
The room, like the one I had woken in and the corridor was seemingly made with the same metallic reflective surface, which wasn't anything particularly terrifying, what was terrifying however was the lone object in the centre of the room. It was a long metallic table, at least 7 feet in length possibly longer. The base of the table had appeared to be a mechanical pivot of some kind, allowing the table to be rotated, most likely between a horizontal and vertical position, it was raised high enough off the ground to have enough ground clearance to do so.
However what made this table so horrifying to me was that attached to one end of the table was a large block with various blades, saws and other what I can only assume were medical instruments on it, the majority of which was caked in dried blood, the sight causing my hand to instinctively reach up to the scar on the back of my neck.
"I need to get the fuck out of here." I whispered to myself as I carefully made my way past the table, almost jumping out of my skin when another seemingly hidden door in the wall slid open when I approached it, leading to yet another long reflective hallway, although this one was much smaller in length to the previous one, even better though was that it appeared to have a clearly visible door.
As I approached it however I frowned when I saw the very familiar holographic door panels from the Mass Effect games. I couldn't help but laugh since this explained it all, I was dreaming! Granted it's a very strange and creepy dream but still a dream none the less.
It's funny how the mind works and how quickly fear can be conquered since with that realisation I was no longer scared, it was all a dream and as such I'm not really in any danger. When the dream ends I'll simply wake up and that will be that.
Feeling a lot more confident I pushed the holographic panel to open the door and stepped through it into a larger storage area full of crates and other boxes, which based on the layout of places in Mass Effect, would have been obvious places to take cover in the event of a fire fight, although hopefully that wouldn't be the case with me since I didn't have a gun, not that it would have mattered even if I did since I've only ever used a handgun a few times in my life.
Luckily some of the boxes were only about waist high providing me with a clear view of the rest of the room. Along each wall were doors unfortunately all of the holographic displays were red meaning they were locked.
As I glanced around the room in an attempt to find a way out I heard a beeping noise and noticed one of the door's holopad's turn green. Not wanting to take a chance I ducked behind one of the boxes and peeked round in time to see six heavily armoured men enter the room.
"Alright fan out, he got out of his room and is roaming around according to the security footage." One of them said, no doubt referring to me. Now even though I was pretty certain this was a dream, I did have a few doubts considering how real this all seemed so I wasn't going to take any chances and do anything stupid. I knew I shouldn't have compared these crates to cover like in the game I thought as I carefully crept along the cover and dashed across to another one, all the while trying to maintain an awareness of where the men were.
They had split into 3 teams of 2, each of them taking a section of the open area, two of them taking the left side of the room, two going down the middle and two on the right, they definitely had their bases covered, although given the layout of some of the crates there were a few that were placed at an angle to provide some additional cover while others were stacked on top of the other, which had come in handy when I hid round the corner to avoid the two in the middle without being seen by the two on the right.
My plan had been to try to make it to the door the group had entered through since it was still unlocked, assuming that it would be the way out and had made it about halfway across the room when I heard something that almost froze me on the spot.
"There he is!" a voice said causing me to glance over my shoulder. One of the guards pointed at me and raised his weapon, which to me looked like a Vindicator assault rifle.
"Oh shit." I cursed as I sprung up and decided to run for it. Now I'd done a bit of parkour/freerunning back home which made leaping over some of the crates easier but it was the first time I had ever done it while being shot at. Even worse was that while ducking to avoid getting shot I had found myself in an area where all the crates were stacked on top of the other and obscuring my view so now I didn't know where any of the men after me were. I turned a corner and saw two of them round a few crates in front of me and ducked behind a crate when they saw me.
I knew the door was too the north but I didn't know its exact location; still my direction was clear as I darted in, out and over crates, cursing when a few bullets impacted the crates next to me. I vaulted over another stack of crates and spotted the door. Looking back on it now I should have been more careful but back then that door was my way to safety, at least I hoped it was anyway and made a blind run for it, which had been a mistake.
I ran towards the door and hit the panel to open it only to feel a searing pain tear through my shoulder which dropped me to my knees. I didn't have to look back at my shoulder to know I had been shot since the round had gone clean through, leaving an impact hole in the wall in front of me as well as some blood.
The pain was the worst thing I had ever felt but I forced myself to my feet and ran through the door, relieved to see that this room was empty and only had one door at the other end. I stumbled towards it and made it about half way when I heard a voice from behind me.
"Don't move kid." It said, freezing me in place. "Now turn around slowly." It ordered.
I did as I was told and turned on my heel to see the six men standing just inside the doorway, each of them with assault rifles and pistols I had recognised from Mass Effect pointing at me. The leader was in his mid-forties with a scar going down his cheek and green eyes with grey hair cut in a buzz cut.
"Well that was rather disappointing." The man said "I was told you would give us a good fight." He added as he glanced at his men and back at me "Oh well. Kill him."
The other men smiled as they started pulling the trigger; to me it was like time had slowed down in that moment. Come on I thought Now is the time to wake up…wake up Rob come on, come on…but as I wasn't, it was then that my brain seemed to banish the whole dream theory, which in itself terrified me, I was going to die.
All I could do was scream no as I held out my hands, as if that was going to stop the bullets flying my way, however something happened that both took me by surprise and scared the hell out of me as I watched my hands in front of me as they seemed to shimmer slightly before a dark blue hue formed around the outline of my hands and the next thing I knew the six men were sent flying back and into the wall!
My body seemed to be on autopilot as it turned around and started running towards the door at the other end of the room. I was so terrified with everything that had happened that I don't know how long I ran through wherever it was I was until I reached a door which turned out to be an exit. It lead out into what appeared to be a dock of some kind, although nobody was around.
Still in a daze I staggered around until I found another door which turned out to be an elevator. I don't know what button I pushed but I leant back against the wall as it started to rise before dropping to my knees and throwing up as a million thoughts flashed through my mind such as where was I? Who were those guys, what the fuck had happened to me, what was I going to do now? And were those Biotics I used? All the while another part of me was trying to convince myself that it wasn't real.
I felt the elevator starting to slow and struggled to pull myself to my feet, my right hand pressing tightly against my wounded left shoulder. I sprinted through the doors the second they opened and emerged into a crowd full of people, some of whom I think gasped in shock, either at the fact I was bleeding and no doubt looked like crap or what I don't know, nor did I care since I wasn't really thinking that much, besides get the fuck away from here.
I darted in and out of people not really paying attention to where I was going or even consciously registering that some of those people were defiantly not human, at least I didn't until I bumped into a someone a good foot taller than my 5'7 frame.
"Easy there, it's alright." A two-toned voice said, which sounded all too familiar. Looking up I almost screamed in fear again at the sight of what was clearly a Turian, the only thing that stopped me was that this Turian looked eerily familiar.
The Turian looked down at me before glancing around as if looking for whoever it was I had been running from "Looks like you need some help, you at least need medical attention." He said.
I tensed and tried to back away (yes it was stupid I know, considering the guy was trying to help but I was terrified remember.) something the not-supposed-to-be-real Turian seemed to realise as he held up his talons in an attempt to calm me down while others watched.
"It's alright, my name is Garrus Vakarian, I work for C-Sec." he said.
Now I don't know if it was a combination of everything that had happened, the gunshot wound and lack of blood or just that very statement, possible a combination of all of them but whatever it was had been the last thing I could take at the moment as the world and he started to blur and spin before everything went black again.