Mass Effect: Tuchanka Reborn

by Ruaranicus

Saren is dead. Sovereign is dead. Shepard is dead. The galaxy thinks the Krogan are dead too - but Urdnot Wrex believes otherwise. Together with an unlikely ally, he will return to Tuchanka, unite his people, and restore the Krogan to their former glory, with guns, guts and one hell of a quad. Rated M for bad words and epic levels of Krogan butt-kicking.

To be a Krogan in this galaxy is to be alone.

So the saying goes.

For the Krogan are the dark, dismissed nightmare of the civilised peoples of the galaxy. Hated for what they once were, feared for what they might become again, and reviled for what they are now, the Krogan are exiles. Outcasts.

Doomed.

Over a thousand years ago, the Krogan saved the beleaguered galaxy from a terrifying enemy – an enemy that only they could match. In doing so, they soared too high, dreaming of a galaxy-spanning Krogan empire forged in blood and battle, and were brought low once more in the most brutal fashion.

The Genophage.

A Salarian virus designed to cripple the Krogan's prodigal reproductive rate, the Genophage ensured that only one Krogan child in one thousand would make it into the world alive. The Krogan were placed onto a path of long, slow extinction, and their society – once a culture of proud warriors – degenerated into a daily battle for survival.

Now the Krogan scrape their way through a pitiful existence on the fringes of the galaxy. They are mercenaries, bounty hunters, or pirates. Make no mistake: fearsome though they might be, the Krogan are a shadow of what they once were. A Krogan has no friends; no true enemies save the slow march of time, and no hope of a family.

To be a Krogan is to be alone.

But not forever.

In the year 2183 CE, a Krogan saved the galaxy once again. Urdnot Wrex – bounty hunter, mercenary and legendary Battlemaster, a living relic of the Krogan Rebellions – helped Commander Shepard defeat Saren Arterius and his Geth army. Together with an asari, a turian and a quarian, a human and a Krogan formed a team that prevented a galactic apocalypse and uncovered secrets lost for 50,000 years. It was a stunning victory, a display of inter-species unity thought nigh-on impossible.

And it gave Urdnot Wrex hope. Hope that the Krogan might once again have a place in the galaxy.

Then Shepard died, and it all came apart. The accomplishments of her team swept aside, the terrible truth of the Reapers drowned in propaganda, and the fact that a Krogan had been a hero once more dismissed and forgotten.

Yet Wrex's eyes were opened to the possibility of a bright future for his people. A future that he could secure – with enough brain and brawn and unyielding determination. And so he turned his eyes from the Citadel and the Council and looked out into the void.

Towards Tuchanka.

This is his story.