Sometimes things get in my head and wont leave until i write them down and for the first time in a while i find myself with an abundance of free time, hope you enjoy.
As always, i own nothing of the two series in question, if i did, mass effect Andromeda would never have seen the light of day in its released state.
The life of a police officer exposes one to a large variety of experiences ranging from the most mundane and monotonous routines all the way to the most adrenaline and terror inducing armed shoot-outs, it's no surprise therefore, that officers have developed a three-category rating system to describe their days on the job and if one Officer Davison had to rank his current situation he would give it a 2 for excitement, a 1 for danger and a solid 10 for plain weirdness.
The scene before him had the collective investigation team scratching their heads in confusion, broken concrete and twisted metal littered the ground for almost a mile in every direction, small blue tinged flames burned on what may have once been electronic equipment. All in all, it appeared as if the zone had been the target of a terror attack that had destroyed nearly a city block worth of homes, there was only one problem, the farm owner insisted that this particular cow-paddock has never been graced with such urban development and considering that the nearest place in which a block of apartments would not be out of place was a few miles north in Gloucester, Davison was inclined to believe him.
However, that still left a few metric Tons of unexplained rubble to deal with.
Not for the first time Davison wished that Overwatch was still around, the supernaturally weird was squarely under their domain but alas, the would-be heroes were long disbanded and it was up to fine police officers such as himself to take the reins and fabricate a plausible reason to explain the situation and thus the self-proclaimed intrepid hero began his investigation, which is to say, he joined the rest of the team aimlessly wandering the ruins in search of something resembling normalcy.
It wasn't long until his superior detective skills lead him to a small outcropping of rubble…which he promptly tripped over and fell face first into the dirt, the string of curses died in his mouth as he took notice of the strange cylindrical object almost touching his nose, after a brief look around to make sure no one had noticed his graceful swan-dive he plucked the object from the ground. It wasn't even the length of his hand yet it was surprisingly heavy, its weight shifted slightly as he rotated it indicating its interior was likely liquid, the surface was bright orange and was made of a strange glassy metal he couldn't quite identify.
"Hey Davison!" Came a cry from an approaching officer, almost causing him to drop his find. "What ya got there?"
"Haven't the foggiest mate, makes about as much sense as all this" Davison replied, an arm sweeping out to indicate the rubble strewn field. "Maybe a battery of sorts, got some sort of fluid inside best I can tell".
"Hmm, ya could be right there, gotta be something special if it's painted all orange like that".
"Well, at least its more than metal and concrete, got enough of that already. Anyone else find something?"
"As a matter of fact yeah, had me a little chat with the farmer and he found a few things missing around his place, bunch of food and clothing taken, so there's some muppet running around out there who might have seen what happened here."
"Well that's some good news" Davison began before his face contorted in a frown. "Just how the hell we gonna find em?"
The other officer gave an indifferent shrug. "We're hours behind whoever it is, it'll be someone else's problem soon enough."
As if summoned by his words, a pair of decidedly out of place individuals caught Davison's eye. "Maybe sooner than you'd think" he said as he realized the pair were stalking towards them.
The Two newcomers were obviously not police officers, each dressed in dark suits with equally dark sunglasses, if these men weren't government, Davison would eat his hat. Thankfully, no hat eating would be required as the odd couple arrived and flashed their immaculately polished badges.
"Agents Cole and Brynn, UN Department of Petras Affairs." The one sentence immediately triggering a sense of unease in both officers.
The Department of Petras Affairs was an oddity in the United Nations government having been created specifically to monitor and when necessary, apprehend ex-Overwatch agents, anyone crazy enough to take that job was someone to be avoided, at least in Davison opinion.
"We will be taking over this investigation" The agent continued, "We couldn't help but notice that you two fine officers have found something." His honeyed words completely at odds with his cold tone.
"Uh, yes! Right here!" He Stammered, handing over the orange cylinder, the agents piercing gaze making him more uncomfortable by the second even through. "Possibly a battery of sorts, seems to have fluid of some sort inside."
"I see." Hummed the agent in reply as he examined it with a critical eye.
"Is there anything else?" The second agent finally spoke, his voice strangely high pitched. "Any and all contributions are…greatly appreciated."
"I, um" The second officer tried before clearing his throat and deepening his voice. "I spoke with the landowner, since giving his initial statement he has found various items missing from his house, judging from the landowner's period of absence it's possible, even likely that the thief may have seen what transpired."
This seemed to catch both the Agents off-guard and an uncomfortable silence reigned while the two seemed to communicate in pointed stares.
"Thank-you for your co-operation officers, your assistance is greatly appreciated." The leading agent stated before the two turned to made a bee line towards the Farm house.
It was almost a minute before the officer inclined his head towards Davison. "Bloody hell if those two weren't the creepiest blighters I've ever met."
Davison released a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "No arguing there mate, if I never see those two again it'll be too soon."
July 25th 2073
Aiden could only stare.
He had been in bad situations before, hell, his life could be summed up as a series of bad situations but this, this took the cake. Briefly he considered running a diagnostic on his omni tool one again but quickly discarded the idea, there were simply far too many things that didn't add up, He was somewhere in England if the local accents were anything to go by, however, it resembled nothing of what he knew England to look like even before it was burned to cinders by the Reapers.
Exasperated, Aiden flung his head back to knock against the alley wall he was currently leaning against.
Not for the first time he cursed his decision to follow Commander Shepard into the Citadel, the first had been immediately upon arriving in the Citadel and seeing hundreds, possibly thousands of bodies piles upon on another, the second had been upon finding Admiral Andersons body along with the corpse of some reaperized businessman and the last time had been shortly after waking up in a paddock surrounded by rubble, fire and panicked livestock.
Opening his omni tool once more, he searched for local area networks and to his relief, found dozens within range and within moments was connected to their primitive extra net.
'First order of business' He thought to himself. 'Where am I?' He was pleasantly surprised when his omni tool showed he was only a couple of hours from London in a village called Sanford. With a casual flick of his fingers he scrolled past the numerous articles praising it for its multiple 'Village of the year' awards and quickly found an intercity bus that passed through bound for London. He didn't know what he would do yet but he had a better chance blending in a larger city.
He was about to close his omni tool when he noticed the bus shown in the picture was floating. Sky buses were no new thing to him but he was certain that anti-gravity technology wasn't developed until the discovery of Element Zero in the 22nd century.
With a growing sense of dread his fingers flew across his haptic interface, zero results for Element Zero, nothing about a manned mission to Mars that wasn't posted on conspiracy forums, however it was what he did find that shocked him most.
Hard-light, pioneered by the Vishkar Corporation.
Artificial Intelligence developed by the Omnica Corporation.
The world spanning Ominic-Crisis that claimed hundreds of millions of lives.
Overwatch, the peace-keeping organization that ended the crisis only to fall into corruption and become disbanded barley two decades later.
He wasn't simply out of time, he was out of his world, his reality, his everything.
Once again, his head met the alley wall at an inadvisable speed.
Sighing to himself he unzipped the stolen duffle bag revealing the stacked armour plates of his hardsuit, the iconic red stripe of the N7 adorning various pieces, they along with his Piranha shotgun wouldn't fit under his stolen coat, his Carnifex however remained on his person no matter how uncomfortable it was wedged in his pants. Carefully he picked the chestplate out and brushed his thump across the N7 badge proudly displayed over the heart.
He made an oath when he graduated, as all graduates did, to be Humanity's sword and shield, a defender of the Alliance, Earth and all her colonies and he'd be damned if he let a little thing like inter-universal travel get in his way.
"Hello, the number you have dialled is no longer connected, to talk to an operator plea-" The pre-recorded voice message was cut off as an aggressive thumb punched in a series of digits.
"Sentinel agent Cole confirmed, establishing secure connection"
It was another few seconds until a rasping ice cold voice answered. "Talk". The single word sent shivers down his spine, a sensation of which he was unused to being on the receiving end. He had only heard the voice of the Reaper once before but he had never forgotten it, the fact this incident had drawn his attention surprised him.
Before he could try Reapers infamously short patience he regained composure and began, "Sanford incident investigation is underway, can confirm a class four unexplained phenomenon, no evidence of known Overwatch agents being present".
"Interesting…" The voice replied after a few seconds, "What have we learned about the incident thus far?".
"Precious little, there is an abundance of unidentified materials strewn about but thus far we have been unable to draw any conclusions, however, we have confirmed that the property was burgled around the time the incident occurred, the burglar in question may have witnessed the event-"
"Or have been part of it" Reapers voice cut him off, "Keep me updated on this, we have assets moving into London that can assist should the need arise".
Cole continued to hold the phone to his ear even as the beeping told him the connection had been severed, he had drawn the attention of the Reaper himself, succeeding here could send him shooting up the ranks yet at the same time, failure could very well end with his career…and possibly his life. Reaper was not known for brooking failure.
No pressure
There seem to have been a few errors in publishing this, somehow spacing and horizontal lines were lost between the preview page and the published page, ill try to see it doesn't happen again.