In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remnants of an ancient spacefaring civilisation. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.
They called it the greatest discovery in human history.
The civilisations of the galaxy call it...
Mass Effect.
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October 1st, 2176. Only three decades had passed since the discovery of faster-than-light travel, technology that allowed humans to traverse the entire length of the Sol system in the blink of an eye. Three decades since Jon Grissom and his team discovered the Charon mass relay, linking them to an interstellar transport network, beaming them to distant corners of the galaxy almost instantaneously, violating all the laws that governed space and time.
Humanity had now colonies in every corner of the Milky Way galaxy, making contact with many similar spacefaring civilisations. However, their meteoric rise to power had been fraught with challenges, most significant of which was the First Contact War. This conflict with the Turians would have lasted years, if not for the intervention of the Citadel Council, a galactic governing body, forcing both sides to negotiate a truce. The controversial actions undertook by humans in the war only serve to strengthen the notion that humans were agressors. This only compounded the resentment that other races felt towards them, for they took centuries to achieve what the humans had done in mere decades.
Elysium, a human colony in the Petra Nebula, was far removed from this conflict. Numerous races flocked to this alpine paradise, as its favourable climate and close proximity to other worlds transformed it into a hub for commerce and tourism. The human Systems Alliance had withdrawn most of the planets' garrison, as the success of brutal pirate-suppression methods lessened the need for a standing army.
Ashley Williams shivered, her coat offering scant protection from the chill winds. Her father had recently been assigned to a new post on Elysium, and he had brought the whole family with him. Not a great idea, she thought. This place was vastly different from their former home of Sirona, an arid desert somewhere in Ursa Major. She headed towards her home, a small house on the outskirts of the military base. She had just turned 18, and had set her sights on the Grissom University in Arcturus, hoping to pursue a degree in Human Literature there. Anything to escape this miserable existence, she thought, looking after three sisters, juggling schoolwork with household chores. "Perhaps I'll become a famous poet," she muttered, "anything to stop them from complaining about my stews."
It came without warning. The sky went up in flame, ships in orbit exploding before her eyes. Debris rained down on the city, burning up in the atmosphere. Lasers and missiles sailed in from the skies, eviscerating the nearby buildings and destroying the ground-to-air turrets positioned near the base. Ships of unknown origin sailed overhead, launching transports that scrambled to land on the ground. Ashley ducked behind a bench, shielding herself from the blasts.
Armed soldiers crawled out of the transports, their ramshackle armor contrasting sharply with the new assault rifles and shotguns they carried. Most of them were Batarians, four-eyed, bipedal aliens with heads resembling shrivelled tomatoes, their many nostrils accentuated by the folds of thick grey skin that covered them. The rest of them were of different races, from the beastly Vorcha to the short and tubby Volus. There seemed to be a few humans there as well, but Ashley couldn't be sure. A tall Batarian, decked out in blue armor, fired several warning shots into the air.
"Elysium is now ours. Come with us and your life will be spared. We will kill all that resist."
Without warning, several troops rushed out from behind, soldiers who apparently survived the initial bombardment on the military base. They started shooting at the invaders, who immediately got to cover and began shooting back. Out of the corner of her eye, Ashley spotted several more transports landing near the commune near the base. More aliens swarmed out, armed with stun batons, apparently intending to enslave helpless civilians and sell them on the black market. Ashley's thoughts immediately turned to her family, her heart aching at the thought of them in chains, driven like animals and living in misery. No! she thought, I won't let this happen! Bullets ricocheted around her, shards of metal bouncing off walls and sinking into flesh, the gunfight punctuated occasionally by the screams of the wounded. She knew that she would get hurt, even killed in the crossfire if she rose now, but she could not ignore the plight of her family.
She tried to stand up, but someone held her back. The person tugged on her hand furtively, prompting her to turn and face him. A middle-aged, blue-eyed man was crouching beside her, gesturing towards a dark, deserted alley behind them.
"Run!"
Ashley followed reluctantly into the alleyway. The invading forces did not seem to notice the pair, their efforts concentrated on wiping out the defending troops. They reached a safe spot, right next to an art installation of sorts. A dark blue police telephone box stood amongst the grafitti, probably intended to convey some feeling of irony or loathing towards modern culture. Ashley didn't think too much of it, her mind was focused on more pressing matters such as the fate of her family.
"You're safe here. Stay put," commanded the man, looking furtively around for anything that could threaten them. He was decked out in a thin leather jacket, seemingly fine despite the cold. He twiddled a strange metal contraption in his right hand, apparently oblivious of the danger he was in.
"Sir, my family is out there, the slavers-"
"Stay put. You're safe here." he repeated, cutting off Ashley mid-speech. "I'm the Doctor by the way, what's your name?"
"A-ashley," she muttered. "Doctor, I have to save my family, they are-"
She was interrupted by the clanking of boots. A lone Batarian soldier struggled into the alleyway, having heard the pair conversing. His face curled into a twisted smile.
"Tarak will love these two. Strong, unlike the small fry we caught." He raised his stun gun and aimed it at the pair.
Ashley froze on the spot, too scared to move. "You have two choices," he commanded. "You can cooperate and come quietly to the ship, or I can knock you unconscious and haul you up myself. Choose your fate."
The Doctor raised up his tubular contraption, and aimed it directly at the Batarian.
"Option Three," he said calmly.
He pressed on the small machine, emitting a bright blue light and a buzzing sound.
The Batarian howled in pain as his rifle disintegrated in his hands, leaving him holding a twisted lump of molten metal. The Doctor aimed his machine at him once more, and the Batarian's kinetic barriers closed in around him, cutting off his air source and leaving him choking on the floor.
"What is that thing?" Ashley asked, staring at the machine with a mixture of both shock and awe.
"It's a sonic screwdriver. It... sonics things. Look, I'll explain later. I've got a planet to save."
"I'm coming too," Ashley said. "Those bastards took my family. I have to save them."
The Doctor gave a look of disapproval. "Look, girl, I didn't save you just so you could go blundering off and getting yourself killed. Take these keys, stay put. If there's any sign of danger, lock yourself inside the blue box." The Doctor smiled. "Don't worry, it's nice and comfy in there. You'll be safe."
Ashley disregarded his warning, and defiantly strutted towards the battlefield. The Doctor gave a look of exasperation, then sighed. "Alright, you can come along. Stick close, don't get yourself hurt. But before that, something I need to do."
The Doctor rummaged in his pockets, trying desperately to find something. He eventually gave up, and sighed resignedly. "Would you happen to have a spare satellite dish about? I can't seem to find mine."
Ashley looked at him incredulously. "A satellite dish?! How can that fit in your pocket?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Bigger on the inside."
Ashley scanned the environment. Satellite dishes had gone out of style 20 years ago, replaced with high-frequency modulators made out of refined element zero, whose signals could breach the light barrier, and boasted better quality as well. There were some left on Earth, she reckoned, but on a colony like Elysium...
"What do you need it for?" she asked.
"Oh, any opening or edge about 50m in length will do." said the Doctor. He gestured at the smouldering heap of metal in the hands of the dead batarian. "See that? Assault rifle is from Haliat Armory. Cheap knock-off, in fact. Model 3.02. Thing is, these models were recalled due to problems with the heat sink. Specifically, the heat sink goes in reverse when exposed to low frequency radio waves. Heats it up, doesn't cool it down. Now I just need a suitable opening for diffraction so I can spread the waves out. They'll reflect off the atmosphere, and boom! No more weapons!" The Doctor grinned.
"Don't give me that blank look! What, you didn't learn this in physics class? Basic stuff, really." The Doctor dusted off his leather jacket. Ashley bit her lip. She couldn't imagine anywhere with an opening that big. It was getting hard to concentrate with all the bombs dropping overhead, but she knew that if she delayed any longer, millions of lives would be lost. She paced around frantically, trying to recall any place that could hold the solution to their problem.
"Ashley, would you quit making that whirring noise? It's driving me insane!"
"What? I'm not doing anything!"
The sound only seemed to grow louder, drowning out the noise of battle around them. They were plunged into shadow, followed inexplicably by a wave of heat, causing the snow around them to soften, the air bending and warping out of shape. Ashley stared upwards, a look of abject horror on her face. A gigantic cruiser was falling through the air, burning up in the atmosphere, raining large chunks of shrapnel upon the city.
"Quick! In here!"
The Doctor had unlocked the blue telephone box, and pulled Ashley inside. A dull thud followed, the box apparently shielding them from the shrapnel that followed.
The interior was unlike anything Ashley had imagined. It was impossibly large, far from what she would expect the interior of a telephone box to be like. The walls were plastered with many nodes, covered with what seemed like a thick layer of skin. In the centre was a large, circular console, surrounded by a mass of pulsing, seething wires. There were no visible buttons in sight, as alien components whirred noisily on the console, giving off a bright green light in the process. In the middle of the console was a long, vertical tube, seemingly dormant for the time being.
"Told you you'd be safe in here," the Doctor replied, grinning from ear to ear. He pulled out a screen, seemingly salvaged from an old computer monitor, connected to the main console by a tangle of exposed wires and circuitry. "It hit the building next to us. Created a whopping great hole in its roof, but it still seems structurally sound. Human engineering, simply marvellous, don't you think?"
Ashley had no time to admire the scenery, nor had she time to inquire about the origins of this mysterious Doctor. She searched desperately about for a solution to the invasion.
"Doctor?"
"Oh! It's called the T-A-R-D-I-S. Time and Relative-"
"No! Take a look at the viewscreen!"
"Ashley, it's rude to interrupt people when they're talking-"
"DOCTOR!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "I'm listening," he said, muttering something underneath his breath.
"The hole that ship caused... Is it big enough to beam the signal?"
The Doctor squinted at the viewscreen. He started jabbing excitedly on the console. "About... 50.2 meters in diameter. Fantastic!" he exclaimed.
"But that building has to be at least 50 stories high! How are we going to get up there?"
The Doctor smiled. "If you had bothered to listen, we're in the TARDIS, short for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. So, what it means is, we can get up there and come back in time for dinner. Also, you should hold onto something, it's going to be fairly bumpy!"
He raced around the console, seemingly pressing buttons at random, and at one point pulling out a hammer to punish a rogue piece of circuitry. The Doctor then pulled a lever down, causing the lights in the TARDIS to blink on and off. The inner tube started to pulse, going up and down like the action of a diaphragm. The machine appeared to be panting, making the sound of heavy breathing as though it was undergoing some sort of intense physical exertion.
The room rumbled about, shifting and shaking until it finally landed with a jangling crash. The Doctor opened the door, picking apart some of the debri that covered their path.
"Here we are, 50th floor! Don't look down, now!"
Ashley exited the TARDIS. Somehow, they had inexplicably travelled all the way up the building in a matter of seconds, by means of a mysterious blue telephone box. Ashley looked up at the sky. It was now lined with streaks of grey and orange and dotted with occasional explosions, like a twisted fireworks display, Ashley thought. The Doctor had busied himself with the sonic screwdriver, frantically messing around with it and pressing it in many places.
"Mode e to the power of 42. Brilliant!" he proclaimed. "Ashley, keep watch. Make sure no-one interrupts the signal, because I've only got enough battery life in this screwdriver for one shot at this." He gestured towards the staircase. "Oh, and don't mind the sound. Unfortunate side effect, really."
"How can anyone interrupt the signal?" Ashley asked incredulously. "We're up on the 50th floor, they'd take a rather long time to get up here. Besides, all the enemy spacecraft are doing battle with our fleet, I doubt that they can spare the time to swoop down on a destroyed building."
"Well, you never know! They might happen to have a little blue phonebox that can traverse space and time!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Now, bar the staircases, and keep watch. Don't want to get overconfident now, when Elysium hangs in the balance!"
Ashley nodded, and began pushing a ruined desk to bar the staircase. "How long do you need?" she asked. "I don't know, I've never done it before," said the Doctor, with a grin on his face. Ignoring the horrified look on Ashley's face, the Doctor pointed the screwdriver skywards. He gripped it tightly, and pushed the button.
The screwdriver glowed a brilliant blue, vibrating so strongly, like an unfortunate tree in the path of a raging hurricane. The Doctor gripped it tightly with both hands, trying desperately to hold onto it. The screwdriver emitted a loud, modulating sound as it fired the signal into the air, causing the ground beneath them to vibrate. Around them, they could hear the confused screams of the invading aliens, their weapons reduced to mush by the sheer heat that they generated. The Elysium ground forces pushed on, their weaponry unaffected by the powerful signal. They were winning the skirmish, driving back the invaders from whence they came.
"20 seconds!" yelled the Doctor. The invaders appeared to have caught on, and were rushing to the location to disable the signal, with the Elysian military in hot pursuit. Below them, they could hear the remaining enemies running into the house, firing warning shots in the air. They seem to be catching on, thought Ashley. Pity they don't realise that we're up on the 50th floor.
The screwdriver was making a massive din, but Ashley swore she heard something amidst the noise. It was a low humming sound, growing in intensity by the minute. She looked out of the windows. A grey shape seemed to be darting about the horizon, soaring above the buildings of Elysium. It seemed to be growing larger as it approached them, apparently headed on a collision course with them.
The gray object came into focus. It was a large, gray ship with curved wings, with the cockpit mounted prominently in front them. Ashley's heart skipped a beat. It was an A-61 Mantis Gunship, one of the deadliest attack ships invented. Its' arrival did not bode well for them.
"Get out of the way, Doctor!"
"I can't! I have to maintain the signal!"
The Gunship closed in on them. Both machine-gun barrels converged on a single target - the man broadcasting the signal.
The Doctor closed his eyes.
I knew this day would come. Better sooner than later.
The twin machine-guns unleashed a hail of gunfire on the building, shredding the walls and breaking the windows of the 50th floor. The Doctor kept the screwdriver aimed skyward throughout, caring not whether he lived or died.
The gunfire stopped, the machine guns overheating from the strain of continuous fire. The gunship circled about the building, trying to avoid being caught while in such a vulnerable state.
I don't feel anything, thought the Doctor. He was still lucid... but how?
The sonic screwdriver ground to a halt, its power finally run out. The Doctor opened his eyes.
Ashley's limp body was sprawled on the floor, blood gushing out of the open wounds in her flank. She had apparently thrown herself between the Doctor and the gunship, shielding him from the gunfire. Her face was twisted in a grimace..
"Don't bother about me... get away while there's still time.." came her weak voice.
"Why... why?! It should have been me!" The Doctor screamed at the top of his voice, unable to accept the events unfolding around him.
"Go... please. Save... my family. Save... sisters. Abby, Lynn, Sarah, mother... please.."
The Doctor clutched her hand, his wrists shaking uncontrollably. Tears streamed down his face. He couldn't stop this from happening. He could never have stopped it. All his life, he had been living with this guilt, forever tormented by his failure to protect the lives of those he valued most. He would not allow it to happen again.
"I'll save them. I swear. Don't worry."
Ashley's wrist went limp, her body cold. The Doctor rose, and wiped away his tears. He would do it, for her sake. He would make the raiders pay for every life that they had taken on Elysium. Only then could he atone for his sins.
Only then could he justify his continued existence.