A/N: So. Hey. My first story here. Yeah, I don't really know what to say. :D Updates are probably going to come regularly, though sometimes they'll be delayed. I have a life, after all.

For now, I guess, the disclaimer is in order.

I do not own 'Mass Effect', it's characters or settings. They are trademarks of EA Games and Bioware and belong to them. (Honour to you, Bioware, for creating such a great universe.)

Consequently, I will add disclaimers in relevant chapters introducing other characters I do not own.

I will also add claimers for characters I created myself, since I do own those. I will do so at the end of the relevant chapter, rather than in the beginning, for reasons of spoilers.

Again, writing this is my way of showing respect for the great story and world Bioware created.

And now, have fun! :)

Let the Games Begin

Do you know the feeling, that something really, really bad is just about to happen? The one, that immediately tempts you to voice this infamous star wars quote? One day I had that exact feeling from the very moment I got out of bed.

Yet nothing happened. I went to university, got bored as hell and went home afterwards.

Now, if I could have actually made it home, everything would have been alright...

I was walking down the pathway to the train station, when I suddenly felt a detonation. I stumbled backward, repulsed by some kind of... energy wave? I looked around, dumbfounded. If the city hadn't decided to place non-lethal shock mines around its university, this definitely wasn't normal. Which they hadn't.

The ripples going through my surroundings didn't soothe my uneasiness very well either. They did, however, arouse my (morbid) curiosity. What would happen to a human if touched by those waves?

Would he disintegrate, just get dizzy, or would nothing happen at all? Sadly, there weren't any other people around, leaving me with a dire lack of guinea pigs.

…

Ah hell, who cares? I shrugged and walked right into one of the ripples.

Instantly, my vision became blurred and a wave of nausea assaulted me.

Regretting my impulsive behavior, I stepped back, desperately trying to get out of the phenomenon's reach, but it was futile. Instead my vision blacked out completely and I felt a sudden, growing tug in my gut. Uh-oh, that couldn't be good, could it?, I felt that feeling I had since this morning edging into the front of my consciousness. Of course it couldn't. The tug exploded, as if I were accelerating rapidly, and my vision came back... or it didn't, since all I saw was a vortex of impossibly bright colours, underlined by an unidentifiable noise, and don't forget the marvellous rain of lightning surrounding me.

Seriously? What the hell is going on?!Did reality just become unstable?

Reaching new heights of bafflement, my mind frantically tried to find an explanation for what was happening to me – while a small part was wondering why I was still even alive. Before any of them could come to a satisfying solution, though, the tug of acceleration inside my gut started to abate.

With a voluminous "BOOOOOM!" Reality came back into focus around me, just as the Forest beneath me.

What? Confusion formed in my mind, directly followed by one word.

Drek.

Then I hit the ground.

Ouch, that hurt. Damn it. I clenched my fist, feeling the grass underneath my hands, groaning.

Wait a second. Grass? Hadn't the paveway been, well... paved?

And why had I seen a forest prior to my crash?

I slowly got up, and looked around.

Where the fragging hell am I?

The first of all things wrong, was the time of day. It was evening. I had just been on my way home from university courses, it should have been midday, not evening. And the air. The air smelled different, as if I was deep in the forest, untouched by human air pollution. The large trees around me certainly encouraged that theory. Those huge boulders over there didn't exactly seem civilized either...

Hm? The trees and boulders... haven't I seen those before?

I furrowed my brows.I definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore. Hell, it probably wasn't even Earth!

But if this wasn't Earth, then where was I?

I stumbled through the trees, my gut feeling growing worse by the second... Why did all this seem so familiar?

I seemed to be in a valley, I could see mountain walls around me. As well as decidedly futuristic towers in the distance.

For a second, a notion seized hold of me, but it was hazy and disappeared instantly.

Then I saw it. A big...amphibious... something, with Gas Bags all over its body, floating peacefully around.

Drek. I knew that thing. It was a Gas Bag.

But that meant... that I had to be on Eden Prime!

I had a hard time believing it, but Gas Bags only existed on Eden Prime. Granted, Eden Prime should have been part of a game and nothing more, but the sounds of the trees moving in the wind, the smell of the forest and even the gravity, which appeared to be slightly stronger than it should have been on Earth. All that was far too detailed to be a simulation, no matter how far the military has secretly advanced science.

I slapped myself and shook my head. But when I looked again, the Gas Bag was still there, floating through the air, blissfully ignorant of the sheer impossibility of its existence.

Suppressing the desire to touch and poke the Gas Bag, I looked up and saw another marvel hovering by my side. It had a bluish-gray metallic tinge and a streamlined design. Wow, who would have thought I'd ever see a Geth recon drone in real life?

…

Crap, a Geth recon drone!

I panicked and hid behind the nearest tree, adrenalin coursing through my veins. A crazy grin creeping up my face, I couldn't suppress a laugh. Eden Prime! I am on Eden Prime! In the Mass Effect Reality! This is great!

The happiness evaporated as soon as it came, though. Pull yourself together, Phil! I scolded myself. I am on Eden Prime and I just saw a Geth recon drone. That means Saren is currently raiding the excavation site of the Prothean beacon. Shock froze my legs, as I heard a series of shots, followed by dead silence.

This is not good at all. I have to get out of here!

Fear soaked my body and my thoughts were racing. Yes I had to get out of there, if not, I would run into the Geth and they would kill me.

But Saren's presence also meant that Shepard and his team would make an appearance sooner or later. Could I really run away? If I did, the Chances of me teaming up with Shepard would drop close to zero. Did I want that?

I shook my head. No.

I knew what was going on here, probably better than anybody else in the whole universe. I knew that Shepard's chances of even beating Saren were low, not to mention her chances of winning the fight against the Reapers in the long run. If I cowardly ran away I'd have to live with the knowledge of a presumably very abrupt end. If I didn't run away but instead went around, looking for Shepard, I'd probably get killed either now, or later, after joining him. Or her. I didn't know which gender Shepard had in this reality, after all.

Bottom line: I die regardless of what I do.

I sighed deeply. There really wasn't much of a choice. No matter how I might try to justify it, I would never forgive myself for running away. And if I was going to die, I sure as hell wasn't going to go down quietly.

Having made up my mind, I carefully made my way out of the woods, constantly checking my surroundings. After a short time I left the trees behind me, coming upon a clearing where the surrounding walls opened up into a small passage.

Some voice deep inside my head whispered how ideal this place would be for an ambush, but I couldn't make out any sign of Geth.

Of course, that didn't mean anything, as gunshots behind me soundly proved my theory – when suddenly someone shouted: "Get down!"

Before I could react, a body slammed into mine, throwing me down.

I hit the ground – which hurt. Again. – and cursed hoarsely.

The sight of two Geth recon drones getting shot down silenced me promptly, though.

"You okay, kid?", the person beside me asked, still catching her breath.

She got up, looking around frantically, while I still sat there on the ground, mouth agape. It was Ashley. I had just seen Ashley Williams shooting down two recon drones in midair. I had always been impressed by that shot, but actually seeing it was on a completely different level.

"You dumb, or what? Get up, we have to get to cover!"

And she was just as foul-mouthed as ever.

Still at a loss for words, I got up and followed her into the protection of a man-tall boulder just in front of us. Pressing herself against the stone, Ashley cautiously peered behind it, immediately recoiling, putting away her pistol and gripping her assault rifle.

"Damn, what are those things doing to him?" she muttered breathlessly.

Of course. She was talking about one of the colonists the Geth put on the dragon's teeth. I guess I better stay behind cover, getting shot now wouldn't exactly help Shepard. Shouldn't they have noticed us already, though? When I came upon this clearing, I didn't even think about looking for cover. Shrugging, I disregarded that thought. Hopefully Shepard and Kaidan would take care of those Geth units over there soon enough. They should be close by.

Ashley wasn't going to wait for them, however. Even with her whole platoon eradicated she wasn't caving in. Not even close. She peered around the boulder we were ducking against, and fired a volley of rounds into the Geth, alarming them to our presence in the process. Or, to hers, precisely. Which wasn't much better, since I was hiding behind the same cover...

The Geth returned fire and I was getting worried again, when I saw two soldiers ducking behind one of the chest high walls at the edge of the clearing. One of them took aim with what looked like one of the shotgun models they used in Mass Effect, and fired a mini rocket at the Geth while the other made a thrusting gesture and threw a blue energy ball. Exhaling I concluded that the one with the Shotgun had to be Shepard and the other one Kaidan. The sound of an explosion, and a Geth powering down followed suit, taking care of our predicament.

They then started moving towards us, examining us carefully.

Checking for enemies, Ashley came out of cover. Meanwhile I saw that my guess had been right, it was indeed Shepard and Kaidan. A female Shepard and Kaidan, to be precise. From what I saw of Shepard's face through the opening of her helmet she appeared to roughly match the appearance of the default Shepard. The one from Mass Effect 3, I should mention.

After realizing the coast was clear, Ashley turned to Shepard and thanked her. Shepard dismissed it and introduced herself, which had Ashley saluting before she managed to finish her sentence.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, glad you're here! You part of the relief troops, ma'am?"

Shepard nodded.

"In a way. We got your distress call. Are you wounded, Williams?"

"Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and burns," came the pained reply. "The others weren't so lucky…Oh man…" Ashley started pacing around nervously," We were patrolling the perimeter, when the attack hit. We barely managed to get off the distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"Where's the rest of your unit?" Kaidan asked, worriedly.

"We tried to fall back to the beacon, but walked into an ambush...", Ashley looked down, "I don't think any of the others...I think I'm the only one left..." Resignation reverberated in her voice, even if her face stayed remarkably straight.

Looking at Shepard, I saw her eyebrows slightly knit. Was I jumping to conclusions,or was she a sole survivor?

"This isn't your fault, Williams, You couldn't have done anything to save them", she said, her voice throaty. Nope, no jumping, that was the line of the sole survivor.

"Yes, ma'am..."Ashley's reply came out a lot less energetic than in the game, yet she cleared her throat and continued. "We held our position as long as we could. Until the Geth overwhelmed us."

"The Geth haven't been seen outside the Perseus' Veil since over two hundred years. Why are they here now?" Kaidan interrupted quizzically.

Ash shrugged. "They must have come for the beacon, the dig-site is close. Just over that rise. It could still be there"

Shepard looked in the indicated direction pondering something.

"We could use your help Williams."

Ashley saluted grimly, not hesitating for a second. "Aye Aye, ma'am. It's time for payback"

"You're not hurt are you?" Shepard continued after a short nod, suddenly looking at me.

Finally taking note of me, hm? I quickly checked my body.

"Uh... No, doesn't seem like it. I'm fine. Except a major headache, but I'm afraid that's not the Geth."

"You better find some place to hide, it's dangerous out here. You should be fairly safe in between those trees back there. Just look out for drones." She pointed her head in the direction of the woods. With that, she seemed to be finished with me. "We'd better get moving, the Geth aren't going to wait for us."

Ashley gave me a brief, "Watch your back," then followed the commander and Kaidan, readying her rifle, leaving me standing there, dumbfounded yet again.

That's it? You aren't even going to ask where I came from? No weird look at my 21th century clothes? Nothing? Well not with me, Shepard. Not with me. I'm going to follow you, just so you know. Except you don't know since I'm only thinking all this, but hey, tough luck.

Besides, it was probably safest directly in her wake anyways, what with all the Geth in the vicinity concentrating on her and the squad.

So I followed them. Slowly, of course, and carefully.

Staying in cover, I watched them reach the dig site, talk between themselves – they probably got the message from Nihlus – and go up the hill.

I waited before going after them since I knew the Husks would attack and I doubted those things would be scripted to only attack Shepard and her team. It was more likely that they'd try to kill anything that moved, myself included.

When I finally went up the Hill I saw Shepard and her squad companions go down the path leading to the spaceport where they'd find Nihlus.

Getting an idea, I hurried after them, noting the dead corpses of the husks – bloody hell, were they ugly – and was just going to cut the turn ahead, when gunfire made me duck behind cover hastily.

I peered ahead, watching Shepard and her team take out a group of Geth and husks trying to kill them.

Oh look at that! Shepard just used a throw. I guessed that ruled out the soldier class for her profession. The Vanguard is the only class trained in Shotgun usage as well as biotics, after all. Nice, I always liked the Vanguard. My first five playthroughs, or so, had solely been vanguard: in part one as well as part 2. Mass Effect 3 I only played twice: once male, once female. The ending simply sucked so much that I couldn't take it any more often than that.

Speaking of Mass Effect 3, that red glowing hand thingy up in the sky just now, was that Sovereign? Drek, that thing was huge!

An explosion shook me out of my thoughts, followed by silence. I guess someone shot the detonation canisters. Good riddance.

I slowly followed Shepard, as she put her weapon away and checked out the container in which the three farmers hid. She called out to them and they opened the door to talk to them. I waited for her to finish. Then finally, she did.

And she was stopped by the second farmer, telling the one in the front, Cole was his name, I believe, to give Shepard the stuff, they had stored in the containers. Cole struggled with himself a bit, but Shepard eventually got him to hand the pistol over.

Which was exactly my cue.

I stepped out from the crate I was hiding behind and called out:

"Why don't you give me that pistol, Shepard? You do have one already, don't you?"

Everybody turned around fast, pointing their guns at me.

"Hey, hey, don't shoot. Last I checked I was organic, not synthetic." I raised my hands in surrender.

Ashley furrowed her forehead. "You? What are you doing here, didn't the Commander tell you to hide?"

A sly grin crept up my face. "Well, you didn't notice me until now, did you?"

Her dark glare wiped it away instantly.

"I figured, the safest place would be right behind you, in your shadow zone, so to speak"

"That's actually not dumb at all", mumbled Shepard surprised.

Kaidan shook his head. "You could've been hit by a stray bullet or a husk we missed. And why do you want the gun? Have you even used one before?"

I shrugged. "No, but I'm a quick learner, and under the circumstances I think I'll gladly make use of that."

Shepard cut into the conversation.

"Maybe you are, but it won't be necessary. You can hide out with Cole until the attack is over. You're not following us anymore, that's for sure."

Oh no it isn't. I'm not going to stay behind and miss the chance to get onto the Normandy. Not if I can help it.

"I don't think so", I frowned, "Something is going on down there, "– I pointed my head in the starport's direction – "something bad. And I'm not going to just sit around here, waiting for the Geth to find and kill me."

That seemed to anger her. She stepped in close to me, looking me in the eye. With me standing at 1.87m she had to look up, but that didn't stop her from being intimidating.

"You said you've never shot a gun before. Down there Death is going to wait for you. It's going to be a hot zone and neither I nor Williams nor Alenko will have the time to watch out for you. I am not going to be responsible for your death, so stay the hell up here, where it's safe."

Wow. That was impressive. And intimidating, alright.

But if I hadn't been prepared to stand up to Shepard I wouldn't even have followed her to begin with. "If you think you can scare me into backing down, you're mistaken. I'm not going to tuck tail and hide. And if I die, it won't be your responsibility, but mine. So back off" I breathed in slowly, trying to calm myself down. "You have two options: either you give me that gun and let me follow you, or you don't and I'm going to follow you anyway." I stood my ground unfazed by Shepard's aura of command trying to subdue me. I had always been bad at following orders, after all. "Your choice, Commander."

We battled it out in a staring contest, neither of us wanting to back down. That unnerving little voice in my head wanted to know what would happen, if Shepard was more renegade than I expected, but I ignored it.

"The kid got guts, we gotta give him that", Ashley threw in.

The moment passed and Shepard sighed. Shaking her head she pushed the pistol into my hand.

"Do what you want. But I'm not going to watch out for you, you got that? If you get yourself killed it's your own fault."

"Shepard, you can't bring a civilian to a battlefield!", interrupted Kaidan, shocked.

"I'm not. But he's right. It is his own decision whether to stay here or not."

Unable to argue against that, Kaidan let the discussion drop.

Satisfied I checked the pistol, while Shepard asked for the name of the smuggler's contact. Interesting. It's not a Stinger, but a M-5 Phalanx. Nice! The Phalanx had a lot more kick than the Stinger, if I was scaling the weapons from the different games correctly. It also used thermal clips, of which Cole gave me a few additional ones, and was very versatile.

Looking up I saw Shepard throwing me a troubled look, as if she knew, I'd be dead in a few moments. Shaking her head again she turned around and started to move. Kaidan ignored me falling into formation behind her. Ashley followed, but not without reminding me to keep my head down since I didn't have a shield generator.

"People have fought wars before the invention of shield generators and survived it, too," was all I replied, shrugging.

Abruptly, Shepard stopped and turned around again. "What's your name anyway?"

Uh... Good one, Shep, what am I going to call me? Definitely not my real name. At least not the last name. Oh, hey, I know!

"Philipp. Philipp Scades. Phil for short."

Shepard nodded and resumed her lead ahead.

Then followed the discussion with Powell, and the revelation of Nihlus's death. Poor guy. I always liked him. Looking at his dead body, I realized how quick things could have changed, had I met Nihlus and not Shepard. And how fast I could have died in that case. No, no matter how much I liked him, it was better this way. At least for me.

Of course Ashley nearly flipped out when she heard the smuggler's story, -especially when Shepard got him to hand over the grenades,- but the commander managed to calm her down; said he wasn't worth it. I agreed with her. Besides, he'd have a bad conscience the rest of his life, anyway.

Knowing there were going to be Geth shooting at us, by the time Shepard would be finished milking Powell, I positioned myself close to the crates. Indeed, she was interrupted by a gunshot, nearly hitting Kaidan. I immediately ducked down, while the others returned fire, getting into cover themselves. Now, Philipp, take it slow, take it easy. Let Shepard and the others take the brunt of the attack and wait for your chance...

I checked the pistol again, released its safety and peered around the corner of my cover, hoping it was at least roughly as reliable as in the games. I watched, as Ashley brought down the shields of one of the five Geth trying to rush us. Wait, weren't there only two in the game? Whatever, I didn't have time to think about it right then. I brought up my pistol, aiming carefully. Let's see… I pulled the trigger, preparing for the recoil to ruin my aim.

Bang! The shot went nowhere, and my arm hurt. That could have gone better. Well, I kind of figured that, so I shot again, and again, trying to get a feel for the gun in my hands. And then finally, with the fourth shot, I hit a Geth. It took a while, but I now I had rough feel for the gun.

Coincidentally, the one unit I managed to hit was also the last one standing and as he went down, silence surrounded us once again. Shepard and the others advanced carefully, I followed shortly behind them.

As soon as we reached the staircase, the remaining Geth attacked us. Ducking down, we ran to the other side, taking cover behind the guardrail. Thankfully it withstood the hit of a carnage attack by the destroyer defending the way to the transport we had to reach.

"I say the biotics focus on the big one, while Williams and I keep your flanks clear. Soon as it's down we can focus on the smaller units and then advance to the pathway," I commented.

Everybody stared at me.

"What? Just 'cause I've never used a firearm before doesn't mean I don't know my way around a battlefield!"

"Keep your head down and be quiet," Ashley admonished me sternly.

Kaidan measured me with his eyes, then looked at Shepard. "It's not that bad of a plan, Commander. Except the part where we have to trust him to keep our flank clear. But Williams should be able to do that alone."

I probably would have been inclined to think something rude about him, if he hadn't been right.

I was pretty sure it would take me at least a few shots more to get fully used to the Phalanx, shots which could prove fatal to us.

A second carnage, nearly shredding our cover to pieces, ended the argument. That thing had to be taken down. Immediately. Kaidan and Shepard concentrated on the destroyer, keeping him from shooting any more carnages, while Ashley watched the staircase from where the Geth units emerged. And I… watched Ashley, since there didn't seem to be a need for me.

…

No, seriously, I honestly had it quite easy. The area I had to watch was relatively small, meaning I actually had a good chance to hit the enemy. Especially after I got used to the Phalanx recoil. It wasn't all that difficult, and pretty soon I had a decent hit rate. I still had to be careful not to get shot, but somehow I managed even that.

It didn't take long until the destroyer went down and we were able to proceed forward. From that moment on, defeating the remaining Geth was a walk in the park, with all the cover and canisters around.

Having arrived at the transport, Shepard turned around, looking at me sternly, but not as dooming as before. "Are you still determined to follow us?"

I nodded, cracking a wry smile. "Yeah. Although, I guess if you decided to leave me behind now it would take me some time."

For a moment The commander actually seemed to think about it, but luckily dismissed the thought. "It's too late for that. Follow me." Turning around again, she stepped on the tram and activated the controls. I guess I hadn't performed too badly. It seemed as if she had accepted my part in this. Grinning, I stepped on as well, preparing to take on the Geth trying to set up the bombs to destroy platform two.

From then on, everything went more or less according to the game. We arrived at platform two and took out the Geth. I mostly stayed in cover, only occasionally firing my pistol, more often hitting my target than not. When we finally got to the beacon I wasn't even half as out of breath as I'd thought I would be.

While Shepard contacted the Normandy, requesting Evac, Ashley and Kaidan got closer to the beacon and I took a look around.

Damn, what's this crater? Is that where Sovereign landed? My mind couldn't quite grasp the size of the ship that had left a crater bigger than a football field simply to make room for a landing. What was it going to look like when Sovereign actually wanted to cause destruction?

Looking at that huge crater, somehow got me back to my senses. While fighting the Geth, everything else had started to seem weirdly unreal. But I was on Eden Prime, roughly 200 Years in the future of an alternate reality. Drek. The only thing worse I could imagine would have been ending up in the Shadowrun universe. Although, in that case I wouldn't have had to face a synthetic super race pushing civilization to the brink of extinction. Only super capitalistic dragons trying to pump me dry...

Was I going to die trying to stop the Reapers? Because I definitely was going to try. I couldn't just sit around waiting for the end, could I?

…

I shook my head, slapping my cheeks with both hands. No use losing myself in my thoughts now, no matter how dark my future appeared. I had to move on. One step after the other.

"Kaidan!", shouted Shepard behind me. I turned around, to see her throwing Kaidan away from the beacon, just to be targeted by it herself and have the vision implanted into her mind, the significance of which, I knew all too well. The beacon deactivated after the message was relayed. Shepard collapsed unconscious and Kaidan and Ashley ran to her, contacting the Normandy, telling Joker to hurry.

Yeah, that wasn't what I meant with moving on, Shep. I remained still, again painfully reminded of what lay ahead of me and the galaxy I somehow ended up in.