Author's Note- This is just a concept I had in mind. Let me know what you think, and post any ideas or suggestions to the comments section. Thank you for reading it, and i will add more to it as i work on it! I know everyone plays Shepard differently, but i based this Shepard after mine. He was a paragon, and went after Tali in ME 2 and ME 3.

"Dammit girl, hold it together!" commander Adantis shouted from his command throne.

He could feel the ship's pain through the many connecting wires threading into the base of his skull. He could feel the ship's hull twist and contort. He felt the screaming of the warp drives. The massive imperial barge lurched to one side, the waves of the warp pounded endlessly against its iron skin. Adantis wrapped his fingers around his shaven head, forcing himself to concentrate. His crew watched from their consoles; panic grew on all of their faces.

Alarms blared suddenly. An ensign manning the maintenance console yelled out in alarm, "The astropaths are dead!"

The sound of murmuring and terror spread throughout the command bridge. Outside the ship the purple tides of the warp changed hue; the swirling energies distorted into a dark blue and yellow. All of the systems on board went wild. Nothing was reading accurately. Adantis could feel his temples pounding. He forced himself into a state of meditation in order to preserve his sanity, but with the increasing activity outside the ship, it was becoming much harder to focus.

A loud scream resounded throughout the craft. Many of the bridge crew dropped down to the metal grating of the floor clamping their hands over their ears. Several crewmen wept blood from their eyes, and two ship guard's heads exploded into a cloud of gory mush.

Adantis felt the pounding increase in strength; it took all of his concentration to not shout out in pain. He had never experienced anything like this before in his 256 years of life; 100 of those years were spent commanding his current ship, the Deathwatch space marine battle barge "Black Dragon". He felt as if his career was going to end with his head exploding all over the bridge … not a fitting death, he thought.

All of a sudden, the shaking stopped. The ship lurched forward violently throwing several servitors over onto the floor. Adantis didn't feel the pounding of the warp waves anymore.

After spending several minutes adjusting his robes and rubbing his temples, he pointed to one of his surviving staff, "You... check the scanners! Find out where we are!"

The woman he was pointing at scrambled to her feet and ran over to one of the many radar screens cluttering the ship's bridge. She scratched her head trying to make sense of the data. Everything was wrong. They weren't even close to their destination. She typed in several commands trying to discern the ship's whereabouts. According to the ships records, they were nowhere near imperial space… in fact, she couldn't find any imperial signatures whatsoever.

She reported her findings to the commander. Adantis considered his next course of action. "Send out a distress beacon… if anyone finds it, they'll come looking for us."

Adantis's adjutant, a young man named Oscar, expressed his concern, "But sir, what if our beacon is found by someone else that isn't imperial?"

Adantis wiped the sweat off of his brow and leaned his head slightly to make eye contact with his assistant, "Our warp drive is damaged, and our engines are as good as useless… I can feel it. We might as well display our whereabouts, and pray to the God Emperor it's someone friendly that answers."

The adjutant nodded, but the look of anxiety was still solid on his face. He walked over to the communications console and typed in several commands, "Were transmitting now sir."

Silence filled the ship as soon as the distress call went out.

Meanwile, aboard SSV Normandy SR-2...

Specialist Traynor played her hands over her console. She had been awake for upwards of twenty six hours, but she had enough coffee to keep a small army going for weeks on end. She sorted through the commander's messages, and sifted through the numerous distress signals. She wanted to help them all, and she was sure the Commander did as well, but she knew there wouldn't be enough time to save everyone. She forwarded the high profile targets and major population centers to EDI for processing as she played with the galaxy map, scanning though the Terminus systems.

A blip that wasn't there before lit up like a Christmas tree. She attempted to determine where it was exactly, and from whom. A generic distress call panned across her console's screen. Traynor noted that the words were in Latin; EDI quickly translated it into English. The use of a dead language was her first clue that something wasn't right. Her second clue was that the signal didn't match any known signatures… or coding. It wasn't Alliance, Cerberus, or civilian. She tried to pull up anything she could about the signal, but everything was met with a dead end. She couldn't find anything out about it.

"This should be good." She mumbled quietly to herself. She upgraded the signal to a priority distress call, and sent it to Shepard's console.

Normandy's engineering deck...

Shepard loved Tali deeply, and he was fairly certain that she reciprocated. Shepard was exhausted and spent much of his time catching up with her.

It had been nearly six months since he last saw her and with all of the Quarian Admirals aboard his ship, he could never get her alone. He wanted to hear all of the news. He had just created peace between the Quarians and the Geth, and he desperately needed some time to rest, but that could wait. Tali pointed out to him that his speech was starting to slur slightly, and Shepard confessed that he hadn't slept in nearly four days.

She reached out for his hand and clenched it in hers, "Go to bed Shepard, I can't have you falling asleep during the next fight." Tali said in a rather playful tone.

Shepard rubbed his eyes and laughed gently to himself. He was amazed at how much Tali had come out of her shell since confessing her love for him before the assault of the Collector base, it was like all of the shyness and nervousness had left her system in its entirety. Shepard stared into her faceplate locking with Tali's glowing eyes, and simply nodded. The commander meandered wearily over to the elevator and waved to Tali.

Tali waved back over her shoulder, and continued her work on the Normandy's engines… she noted that they desperately needed cleaning.

Shepard walked out of the elevator onto the CIC deck. He watched Traynor briefly as she worked feverishly on her console. He didn't want to sleep, he didn't want to dream, but he knew he had to. He decided as the elevator was ascending that he would check his console first to make sure there weren't any fires to put out.

A green light flashed repeatedly over the orange screen of his console. He took a step out of the elevator and his foot clanked noisily on the metal grating of the ship's floor. Traynor's ears perked up at the sound.

"You have a new message commander… and it looks rather exciting." She continued her fast paced typing on her console trying to fulfill her duties and daily tasks.

Shepard sighed… he didn't need excitement right now. He took three steps towards his console and activated the screen.

A priority distress call from a ship with unknown identification? Was it Reaper? Shepard thought to himself. No, Traynor would've picked up on that… what could it be?

Shepard tapped the desk of his console and sighed deeply… it was exciting.

"Joker!" the commander spoke sternly into his computer's microphone. A few seconds of silence followed.

"Yeah, what is it commander?" Joker's voice came out through the console's speakers.

"I'm uploading new coordinates… take us there immediately." Shepard tapped off his microphone.

Joker responded, "Alright Shepard, moving out now."

Shepard finished the elevator journey up to his quarters, and reluctantly fell asleep. He dreamt about the boy again, and once more, he woke up in a cold sweat wide awake.

He looked at his alarm clock next to the picture Tali had given him. He had been asleep for just under four hours. He groaned as he turned himself off the side of the bed. He sat silently for several minutes, trying to purge the images of his dream from his mind. Earth filled his thoughts and he felt a surge of energy flow through him when he remembered that Anderson and the resistance were counting on him to win this war.

Shepard stood and walked over to his armor locker. They had to be close to the beacon now.

After putting the finishing touches on his armor, Shepard took the elevator down to the hanger bay where Cortez was waiting patiently. Shepard didn't know what he was walking into, and he wanted his most trusted crewmates at his side. He brought up his omni-tool and flipped through the crew dossiers. He selected Tali and Garrus, and told them to grab their gear quickly.

Shepard leaned against the side of the shuttle playing around with his assault rifle to make sure it was still in working order. He racked the slide, and slapped the thermal clip to make sure it was in properly.

The elevator doors opened, and Tali and Garrus walked out with their weapons in their hands. Garrus always kept his rifle close by, and Tali always had a shotgun within arm's reach. Shepard liked a girl who could handle herself in a firefight.

Garrus spoke up first, "What's this about Shepard?" he was donning his visored helmet so his words became mildly metallic halfway through the question.

"A distress call from a ship with unknown origins, and no ID tags matching anything in our database." Shepard shrugged his shoulder in the direction of the shuttle's door.

The one human, two alien team walked up the ramp and fastened themselves in for the ride. The doors closed, and the thrusters activated. They all felt a momentary feeling of weightlessness as the ship gently floated up. The hangar opened out into the void of space, and Cortez gunned the shuttle into the blackness before him.

Shepard exchanged small talk with his teammates, making friendly wagers, and sharing war stories. They all heard them before, but they liked to share them, and they liked to hear them. The team sat and talked for a good forty minutes discussing what the signal might be before Steve chimed in over the intercom.

"We're approaching the beacon commander… my god, the thing is huge! Shepard, you have to see this!" Steve cut off the mic, and Shepard unbuckled his restraint.

He fumbled up towards the cockpit and stood in utter silence as he took in the scene before him, a ship the size of Omega. The thing was massive and looked like a floating cathedral. Dread began to seep into Shepard, but he pushed it out… he knew what he had to do.

"Open a hailing frequency… ask who they are, what their purpose is." Steve nodded and began to type the message.

Black Dragon's bridge...

Adantis ordered the bridge staff to remove the bodies of the dead and wounded, they would just get in the way. After that he ordered all of his staff to find out just where the hell they were. They all sorted through massive piles of data, but every single trail ended with them none the wiser. Everything met with a dead end.

Adantis commanded the radar operators to cross check their location with analog maps seeing as digital equipment had failed them. Four crewmen came back twenty minutes later carrying dozens of dusty pieces of parchment between them. The sheets were laid out the entire crew gathered around them. Everyone was lost, and they were all desperate to find out where they had stranded themselves.

Something buzzed through one of the feed wires leading to Adantis's skull; someone was responding to the beacon. That was fast… it was only sent out three hours ago. He reached down to the keypad on his armrest and transmitted the message onto the main screen.

The video feed was blurry, but the systems adjusted quickly. "This is Lieutenant Steve Cortez of the SSV Normandy, Alliance Navy. We are responding to your distress call, and want to know what your business is in this sector!"

Adantis's brow furrowed in confusion, "Alliance… just what the hell is that?" the words came through clenched teeth.

The message repeated three times. One of the many crewmen on the bridge walked up to Adantis's command throne. "What do we do sir?"

Adantis considered his options. "Respond to their hails, and tell them we need aid. We will have to watch them very closely… give me a status report on the surviving crew!" Adantis ordered no one in particular.

The woman he had pointed at earlier answered before anyone else, "Numerous casualties sir. We lost all but two of our tech priests, and according to our rosters, only three tech marines survived. As for the Astartes, I'm receiving reports that they suffered minimal losses and are currently standing at ninety-eight percent strength. Before our emergency warp transit, we lost several bulkheads which threw approximately seventy percent of the ship's work force out into the void of space… we can only pray their deaths were quick."

Adantis nodded, the ship did feel oddly empty. The ship had engaged with a Tau patrol fleet on a routine run. The Black Dragon had destroyed three enemy vessels before any shots managed to hit it. An enemy torpedo slammed into the ship's engines, making them utterly useless. He did not like to run, but Adantis did not want to die a pointless death. He authorized an emergency warp jump in hopes of joining up with an imperial fleet and repairing the damage done to the ship.

"Tell them to land in hanger 3-B, and I want a welcoming party arranged. I want as many Astartes and ship guards as we can spare to greet them… show them that we are not to be played with!"

Adantis's adjutant Oscar nodded and keyed the response to come aboard. "What should we tell them of our purpose sir?"

The commander rubbed his sharp chin between his forefinger and thumb. "Tell them nothing."


"We've got permission to land, but no word about why they're here… how do you want to handle this commander?" Steve leaned over his shoulder as he asked the question.

Shepard placed his hands on the back of Cortez's chair and tucked his chin into his chest as he thought out a solution.

"Take the shuttle in slow and steady… and be on your guard. If they are unreceptive, I want you to light up the place!" Shepard released his grip on Steve's chair and went back into the cabin to brief Tali and Garrus.

Cortez faced his command console and smiled to himself; it had been too long since he shot something. He didn't count the Geth tower on Rannoch… that didn't shoot back.

The shuttle skimmed the hull of the colossal ship of unknown origins. Cortez switched on the shuttle's flood lights and took in the scene in front of him. He was in awe at the size of the vessel. It must have taken decades to build something like this. He noted the numerous blast holes and debris fields surrounding the craft. Something devastating blasted through the vessel, Steve could be sure of that at least.

The Kodiak floated towards the hangar as soon as Cortez had located it based on the coordinates sent to him. The shuttle pushed forward at decreasing speed as Steve entered the gap in the ship's plating.

"You could fit cruisers in this thing Shepard!" Cortez spoke a little louder than he meant to.

Shepard could barely believe it himself. Garrus and Tali had joined him up in the cockpit. The strange craft was bathed in darkness, the only light came from the Kodiak's search lights.

Steve panned the shuttle's guns around the empty space, scanning every nook and cranny. Crates and boxes were strewn throughout the hanger; their contents were spilled all over the floor. Steve counted three rather boxy shaped craft were in various stages of disrepair… or maybe they were meant to look like that; he didn't know.

"Set the shuttle down Steve… remember what I told you; keep an eye out for anything." Shepard patted Cortez on the shoulder and turned to face his team.

Steve cut the shuttle's thrusters and let it float to the hangar floor. Shepard turned the light on his Vindicator assault rifle to full power, and signaled Garrus and Tali to do the same with their respective weapons. The shuttle doors lifted like gull wings and the commander took his first steps out onto the unknown ship. He heard the heavy footfalls of Garrus, and the nearly silent footsteps of Tali follow.


Space Marine Sergeant Tantius watched the small vessel land from an observation window high up in the rafters of the hangar. He signaled his team to move into position as soon as its occupants took their first steps into the battle barge. He drew his heavy bolter and took sight.

One of them is definitely a human male… the other looked human enough, but the number of digits on her hands and feet were wrong… perhaps she was a mutant. The last one was an alien, no doubt about it. Tantius sighted in on the alien and played his helmet's crosshairs over the black visor. He eyed the volume control of his helmet's speakers and turned them to the fullest. He moved his hands over to the hanger control panel and pulled one of the many oversized levers down. The hangar doors slammed shut as the blast shields locked into position. This caused the unknown ground party to turn around in alarm.

Tantius took in a deep breath, "Stop right there, or we will open fire!"


Shepard flinched at the sudden loudness and brightness of everything. It felt as if every single light in the universe switched on and focused on his position. The light dampeners in his helmet worked at a maddening pace in order to compensate for the sudden change in illumination.

Garrus cursed as he brought his hand up to his face. Tali simply averted her gaze and stared at the floor.

Shepard played his gun across the hanger; there was someone, or something moving. He couldn't track it. It looked like there was more than one. He saw two, then three. There was definitely more than four he noted.

Garrus had recovered and moved to Shepard's shoulder, panning his Mantis sniper rifle around the luminous hanger. Tali brought her Geth plasma shotgun up to her shoulder and stood by the commander's side, doing the same thing as Garrus.

The floor began to vibrate violently, and they could all hear the whine of something mechanical, and the sudden clap of steel on steel. A massive figure filled his vision. The mechanical being stood at eight feet tall with a face of indifference engraved onto what must have been its head. The figure was clad in sterling silver armor with colossal shoulder plating. The left shoulder was plated with words of unknown meaning to Shepard, and the right shoulder was the color of sun bleached bone. It was rimmed with black, and a single symbol was painted into the center, the silhouette of a raven with a blood red tear drop in the center of its body.

The mechanical man glared menacingly at Shepard. The sound that came out of the things speakers nearly caused Shepard to drop his gun and grab his ears.

"I am Sergeant Maxwell Tantius, a member of the Emperor's holy Adeptus Astartes… be you friend or foe?"

Shepard didn't know what to do, or what to say. Several figures came out of their hiding places. Soon enough, twelve men of equal stature to Tantius stood shoulder to shoulder. Thirteen massive weapons were pointed at him as the mechanical men took aim.

"Are you friend or foe?" Shepard was in shock, what had he led his team into. He took a deep breath and collected his thoughts.

"One last time or we will open fire… Are you a friend, or are you a foe?" The being's voice was growing louder.

Shepard lowered his gun and ordered Garrus and Tali to do the same; they both seemed rather reluctant to do so. Shepard took a step forward.

"We're friends. We heard your distress signal and came as fast as we could." Shepard tried to keep his focus, and not panic.

The gigantic figure before him stared down at the rather small form of the commander. The mechanical man looked at the beings standing next to him and raised his hand. They all lowered their weapons, and Shepard took a deep breath of relief. Shepard glanced over his shoulder and noticed that the shuttle's weapons were focused on the silver clad giant in front of him.

The lights dimmed, and the rest of the giants walked out into the open. All in all Shepard counted about fifty. Twelve of which had rocket launchers trained on the Kodiak.

"Remove your helm!" the mechanical voice grated against Shepard's ear drums. He brought his free hand up to his N7 helmet and released the clamps; his HUD said there was oxygen aboard. He slowly raised his helmet, and the feeling of cold recycled air rushed his face.

"You too alien!" The mechanical man nodded his massive head which seemed rather small for his body at Garrus and Tali.

Garrus reluctantly removed his helmet after receiving the okay from Shepard, and held it in his free hand. Tali stood still.

"Remove your helm!" The man's voice was growing louder; Shepard remarked that he sounded rather angry.

"She can't." Shepard stood in front of Tali to block her from the being's gaze.

"I do not trust anything that hides behind a mask!" The figures voice grew quieter, but Shepard could still feel the menace in its speech.

"How can you tell us to take off our helmets if you won't take off yours?" Shepard quipped back. The man reached up to his sneering helmet and removed it.

The figure that stood before Shepard was definitely human. The man standing in front of him had short cropped brown hair with a slight peak in the front. His eyes were a bright shining green, and his skin looked pale from being inside the suit for too long. He had a chiseled jaw line, and thin lips; several scars traced along his forehead and left cheek. One of his ears looked mechanical, and in desperate need of repair. He nodded to the rest of the mysterious figures, and the ones closest to him removed theirs as well.

"Why is she incapable of removing her mask?" the man asked. His voice sounded almost soothing without the grating speakers of the helmet.

"She's a Quarian. They don't really have the strongest of immune systems which leaves them vulnerable without the suit... mask included." Shepard defended Tali, but he somehow felt as if he had insulted her. She nodded in agreement, eager to finish the conversation and go back to the Normandy.

"Why haven't you destroyed her kind yet… they look weak and inferior?" The man remarked as he scanned Tali's figure.

It was Shepard's turn to feel insulted, "They're our allies and she's my friend! Same as him!" Shepard gestured to Garrus who looked like he was struggling to understand what was happening. His mandibles twitched as his eyes darted back and forth between the massive figures surrounding him.

"Just who and what the hell are you? What's the Adeptus Astartes… and who's the Emperor?" The man took a step back, a look of shock flashed briefly across his face.

"You do not know of the Emperor of Mankind… who are you?"

"I'm Commander John Shepard of the SSV Normandy, and this is a small part of my team, Tali'zorah Vas Normandy, and Garrus Vakarian." Shepard nodded at his friends in turn.

"What exactly are you guys? You're not Alliance, that's for damn sure. You're not Cerberus, and you seemed way too well-defended for a civilian vessel." Shepard cocked his head slightly as he asked the question.

"Answers to such questions will be given in time… first we must take you to speak to our ship's commander." The man nodded once more and four figures surrounded Shepard and his team.

Three giants strode towards the Kodiak and knocked on the closed door, denting it slightly with their rapping. Shepard raised his hand and waved for Steve to exit the craft. The gull wings opened and Steve Cortez cautiously walked past the mechanical giants to join Shepard. "

Follow me Commander Shepard." Tantius began to walk, and the men behind him shoved Shepard along.

"I don't have any say in this do I?" Shepard said without thinking. Tantius walked on in silence ignoring the quip, leading the party through the dark halls of the ship.