Prologue

25 July 2186

The martian night was cold however one room in the base was colder than the others. Sitting alone surrounded by monitors and haptic interfaces is a single asari. Known to rest of the research team as liara in this room and in the greater galaxy she is the Shadow Broker. Countless sources all streamed information to this room from the elcor ambassador's lunch menu to top secret spending within the Turian Navy. The same name appears again and again in intelligence reports and clandestine budgets; Project Aegis. She has no idea what it is, but the people involved are known to her Admiral Mikhailovich of the system alliance; turian General Sparticus; a member of the Salarian STG reference only as The Doctor and a handful of asari matriarch. The secretive nature of this operation increase massively in the last month, ever since the SSV Orizaba was redirected during her shakedown cruise.

The whole galaxy was on edge everyone was waiting to see if the humans would set a date for the trail of Jennifer Shepard. The once lauded hero had allegedly destroyed the system of Bahak by launching an asteroid into the local relay. All ready the media circus had started with numerous high profile individuals coming out in the specter's defense. Her personal favourite was a quote from Spartacus himself which stated, "Shepard was insubordinate and argumentative, but he had yet to see anything that suggested she would carry out this kind of attack without very good cause." Garrus had sent her that in a letter stating he might have finally got through to top ranking members of the hierarchy that the Reapers had to be taken seriously.

15th August 2186

Mikhailovich sat watching the month old recording. Its subject was one of the individual's captain Shepard had picked up and after a few weeks convinced to work with them. They had been at Arcturus since June and still he was a mystery. Styling himself as an Inquisitor of some Imperium of Man he was still almost impossible to read.

"Sir?" the Yeoman's voice snapped him from his reprieve, "The Minister is here for your meeting . Shall I ask him to wait?"

"No Carter, send him in." Mikhailovich replied shutting down the display and standing to greet his guest. The meeting went the same as the ones before; the minister asking questions to which he wanted answers and the admiral giving the same lies parliament needed to hear. "No Project Aegis is not real, the navy would never hide it's actions from parliament or the council." Left alone once more he reactivated the video to watch as his latest asset the Inquisitor Xanthius started giving interrogation advice to men who were supposed to be conducting an interrogation. Looking through his files Mikhailovich read the report once more. The elder Shepard's writing succinct as always "Unexplained sensor reading from uncolonised garden world. Crash site of unidentified craft found. Six survivors brought on board; four adult humans, one juvenile, and one large domesticated hound" those few dozen words were the first interaction the Alliance navy had with these Imperials. A group who had turned out to be very useful in the last month despite being the biggest headache in the admiral's life.

Author's Note:

So this is a concept that has been bouncing around my head for the better part of two and a half years, so I thought I'd write it and fire it up on here. for those of you expecting Grimdark 40K over running Mass Effect that's not going to happen here. My 40K characters will appear more human than some, but still be the brutal fighters they should be.

I wouldn't say no to extra Betas, and feel free to leave as critical a review as you wish.