Humanity is dead.

The year is 2184 in the human calendar. The total human population of the galaxy, including their scant independent colonies in the Terminus systems and their extra-governmental organisations number in the .5 trillion individuals. They are the undisputed rulers of the Orion arm, travelling the stars in Alcubierre drives of immense speed, with medical technology that extends the life of every single human being to ten times longer than before. The species rules hundreds of worlds, thousands of orbital habitats, is made up of dozens of governments and combined these governments control the second largest navy in the galaxy.

But rest assured, humanity is dead. They have been for sixty years. Ever since their first contact with a sapient species that was not their own. Not the turians, or any on the council or known to the council. No, for even becoming a client state for the Turians would be better than what actually happened. Instead, they contacted a little known and fairly small population race inside the Orion arm of the galaxy.

By galactic measurements, this species wasn't very advanced. Ruling over only dozen of worlds, having a strict caste system, with slow ships and weak ships. They seemed dumb, with shattered minds and almost mentally deficient entirely. The reason why was far worst.

In the year 2124, humanity came into contact with a Reaper. Dying, injured thing on the homeworld of the Keplerians, the species they were fighting, none the less this single, unable to fly Reaper destroyed two fleets. One, with fire. Once, with its mind.

An entire fleet was indoctrinated, forced into terrible acts aboard their ships. Cannibalism, ritualistic suicide, orgies of blood and death, the greatest atrocities imaginable. Only a single man retained something of his mind, forced into a fifty year long coma. The rest were destroyed by their own governments, fearful of the threat they represented.

And fearful they remained. At first only the intelligence services of the numerous governments, the Sol Protectorate and the Alliance of Free stars chief amongst them. Aware that no matter what they did, what they became. No matter what great monuments they built to glorify their selves, or what kind of world they would build for their children, they knew it was all going to end.

This state of mind at first remained in the government. Resigning themselves to fate. But with every passing year more and more people became aware that mankind's days were numbered, no matter what they did. This seeped into the collective conciousness. Humanity, perhaps truly for the first time in their existence, were without hope. They were all too aware that nothing they could possibly do might allow them to survive what they knew was coming.

And so, the same atrocities once committed by those utterly without their own minds, forced into it as their brains decay thanks to a god signal were soon committed by the public, too apathetic to care. In a galaxy all too devoid of purpose, with time running out humanity has decided to roll over and wait for death. Convinced that at this point their extinction would be a mercy.

Humanity is dead. Stuck repeating their own perfect memories over and over again, unburdened with morality, purpose and hope, humanity are a cesspool of culture, art, history and technology.

But this does not have to remain so.

After awaking from his fifty year old coma, the same mind that lost his own aboard the midnight city thanks to the siren song of a Reaper returned. Driven mad, without hope himself, still he found himself coming to the last place the Reaper still lived. On a colony of stone and storms, ruled by a cult worshipping his divine reaper form, he died. And was reborn.

Reborn with purpose. Reborn with hope. Reborn with guilt and fear. Rare commodities of any human in the 22nd century.

Arthur James Hargreave destroyed the last remaining parts of the carcass of the Reaper Azmorethran. And has gathered others around him. Convinced to hold back the shadows. The Dark stars.

He is not alone. As Turian and Human colonies begin to grow dark in the Terminus Systems, Council Spectre Saren Arterius has been sent to investigate. An Asari justicar, hunting down her own mistake travels to these lawless lands. A tortured woman lashes out against the world entire. A man of the law tests the limits his constraints. Dozens of others knowingly or unaware of their part in the galaxy gather around the man that died three times, the only people desperate enough to fight against the end of all things.

But not even Arthur Hargreave, or as he was known, Captain Joshua Grahm, knew his place in the war to come. These are the closing days of the last cycle, and the final hours of humanity.

Alcubierre: COLLECTOR
Chapter one: At the edge of man

I love you.

She said this. She was long gone by now. Not dead, but hundreds of light years away. Long having abandoned her. She had lied. She didn't really love her, else she wouldn't have ran off like she did.

But here, within the comfort of the grey box she could pretend. Remember and pretend. One perfect day. Over. And over. And over again. Never changing, not having to try to recreate the feeling within the waking world. She could hold on to her, and never have to let go. Even long after she had slipped through her fingers.

This wasn't quite true she knew. Dawn was coming, and she'd need to earn her pay for the day. She'd need to eat and drink. Stay alive in order to fall within this memory again.

And so, with a heavy heart and mind Carlya dragged herself from the prefect grey and into the waking world. The waking world, where she was alone and tired all the time. Where she felt hunger and pain and thirst. Where she had to worry about work and staying alive. A reality that so oftenly disappointed her.

Maybe she didn't have to. She knew that there were worst grey addicts out there. Those that spent their entire lives inside their minds, feed by tubes, relieved with catheters. She was better than them surely? But maybe just for a month she could stay in the hospital and spend that entire month within her perfect single day. Free of doubt and fear and pain.

Groggily, tearfully, she shook her own head as she snapped herself out of her standing sleep and made her way to the door. She had been like that all night. The dark rings around her eyes a reminder that she had spent every free moment within the grey. It was probably good enough to count as sleep, even as her mind and body complained. She didn't bother to wash or brush her teeth. What was the point after all? She wouldn't talk to anyone today. Content and brain dead behind her extranet terminal she could do her code monkey work for the Colonies VI and... Exist.

The red sky yawned above. The wind coming in from the east. It would be a long day without the grey.

"This is your friendly reminder from Hyades that tomorrow is Stony shore's founding day!" The colony VI said cheerfully from a flying drone that followed her for a few moments. "Please remember to eat today [Colonist Carlya Stanfris]."

She almost slapped the annoying machine out of the air. She would do as she will. Unlike that damn machine, she wasn't programmed. Her life was to be lived as she pleased. She had infinite possibility. The machine could only do what she and a hundred others remembered to code into it.

She breathed and carried onto work. She did however, have to earn money.

Sparing a brief glance to the sky, more of a mistake of her neck muscles than genuine curiosity at the alien sky she saw a streaming light. No doubt a ship entering the atmosphere. She paid it no mind. Hyades got the odd ship. Sometimes pirates hiding out, sometimes food and supplies, sometimes slavers from the Batarian front. All were welcome here after all.

"This is your friendly reminder from Hyades..." The flying drone said again as it flew to hover over her shoulder. "That the colony is now on Amber alert. An unidentified vessel has entered atmosphere without clearence with possible hostile intent."

Caryla scoffed. No doubt some idiot she worked with still hadn't bug fixed the VI properly and it was giving out amber alerts for every single ship.

She was soon disabused of this motion when she heard a sonic boom. A sound so loud it threw her off her feet. Even the drone was slightly thrown by the sound, before righting itself.

"Friendly reminder from Hyades that you should immediately seek shelter and wait for the all clear. The alert status has been raised to red. Thank you." The drone prattled.

She about a mile from anyone else, walking away from the colony centre towards the remote office building she usually worked at. She was on an empty grass plain, walking down a beaten path. There was nothing to hide behind.

She looked towards the colony as she got herself back onto her feet, and could only gasp in horror.

The colony was not an advanced one, being in the Terminus after all. It lacked any arcologies or enormous skyscrapers. The tallest building was the original enormous nano factory that printed out most of the buildings here, standing at about three hundred metres tall.

Whereas this usually dominated the skyline it did not now. Beside it, it's engines roaring as it slowly landed, was the largest ship she had ever seen. And certainly the largest in atmosphere. It landed vertically, and must have been about 3km tall. It looked...Strange. Bulbous brown/orange almost organic lumps sticking or growing out of dark metal. Its engine was huge, about 200 metres wide and roaring with a deafening scream. Around it hundreds of defence drones from the colony were flying about, but as they approached the enormous vessel they dropped out of the sky.

She could only watch in horror as finally the engines cooled and the roar slowly died.

For a few moments nothing happened. The ship seemed to groan in a metallic voice she could not fully comprehend, as if she knew there were sounds beneath this noise she would never hear, much less understand.

Then, as if their mere presence within sight of this monster of a ship had kicked the hive, a great swarm of... things spewed forth. She could barely tell it was a swarm and not some floating liquid dripping from the ship until it kept dividing within itself. And kept doing so. And kept doing so. She could only watch in horror as these swarms of unknown objects slammed and crashed through every single building within the shadow of the enormous ship. Knowing that this was no Batarian slave raid she ran. Turned away from the monster that dominated the skyline and ran as fast as she could.

A great shadow passed over the sun, and she was plunged into utter darkness, the streetlights of the city flickering as the noticed the dark.

She turned, and wished she hadn't. A great orange swarm of what looked like four legged insects rang behind her. Even the mere flapping of their wings was deafening. She screamed. And as she did so the first monsterous bug landed on her. It seemed to vibrate and hesitate for a few seconds. A few more of the great swarm landed on here whilst overs flew past and almost through her to continue on. And then, that first one raised its stinger, and plunged it into her skin.

She didn't fall. She didn't die.

For a few moments she couldn't even tell that it did anything. She could see. Think. Move her eyes.

But then she tried to swat the bug off. And found she couldn't. She couldn't move an inch. Within a few seconds she had been completely paralysed. Trapped within her own body. Her greybox tried to turn on, to abate her fears, but she shut it down. This was... Too horrifying to allow herself to fall into the grey. Eventually her frozen body could not stay upright and she fell into the grass.

She couldn't blink. Swallow. She could only breathe through her nose, and not her still open mouth. She had a mouth, but could not scream.

She stayed like this for an hour. Her eyes screaming about their dryness. The few bugs crawling and scratching across her skin with their stingers and probosci and legs. She felt everything. The hard dirt, the cut on her forehead from where she had fallen badly, the heat of the rising sun cooking her skin. But she could do nothing to stop it.

A figure approached her, its movements cutting a swath through the grass. She wanted to shout that she was here, alive. For help. For relief.

Then she wanted to scream. For the figure became clear through her dry eyes, and its shape was not human nor any alien she knew of. A monsterous large head encased in brown/orange chitin, large orange compound eyes. It had no mouth, nothing to suggest it might eat or breathe or speak.

It its hands was what she at first mistook for one of its limbs, lined with foul sharp teeth, but she soon realised it was some gun. The abomination noticed her. It didn't react. It didn't flinch or blink or do anything but slightly divert its walking path to reach her. She tried with all of her might to kick, to scream, to punch, to fight. But her body denied her any of this. Instead the abomination grabbed her ankles and dragged her through the grass. She knew where. Towards the ship.

She wasn't facing where she was going however, instead looking to the side. Through the grass she could see other things moving through it. Some were great four legged monsters that lumbered and screamed with every step, wearing shiny dark blue metal armour. Others were...

Once men. She knew from her histories what they were. The Thralls of the Keplerians. They shambled, arms dragging, their mouths opened in silent screams as their metallic organs beat within their chests. As she continue her journey she could make out other abominations dragging their prey through the grass. People. People she recognised. They too were stuck in silent, unending screams. Some even glanced towards her.

Desperately she hoped to lose conciousness, once again trying to fall into the grey comfort of her memories. But instead of the comfort of her lover she saw only dark.

She was stood in complete darkness. Only she was visible, despite this void being utterly devoid of light. There was nothing. No sound. No light. No heat.

She tried to shut down her greybox. And found she could not. She waited. And waited.

Eternity passed her by without sensation, without disparity. There was nothing. She felt every aching second of it. At first her mind broke. Alone for what felt like years. Somewhere in that dark it reform to deny her even the comfort of losing herself and forcing her to be aware of nothing. Then she turned to darker things. She heard a scattering of whispers at the back of mind that she could not quite hear. They scratched at clawed at her brain, drilling out of her skull.

But even this sensation past eventually, and she wished she at least had the pain again. For at least the pain was something. Once again, she was alone in the void. There were no voices this time. She couldn't even hear herself in that darkness.

Caryla shut down her greybox, only to find herself in a grass field, unable to move, being dragged by an insect abomination. She recognised where she was. Not even a minute had past within that eternity trapped within her mind.

She had no choice. She could either take the void and be broken, or concious through whatever these things did to her.

She tried, one last time, to scream.