I was in a state of shock to say the least. Here I was sat lying down in the middle of what

appeared to be a crater with flaming wreckage scattered around like leaves in the autumn. Some might almost call it peaceful in those opening moments, but all thoughts of that were shattered as my body suddenly woke up screaming in agony.

I tried to scream but no sound came or at least sound that I could hear. Every cell on my body felt like it was on fire, every movement was like someone was standing on whatever part of myself I tried to move. After what seemed like an eternity of lying down trying to get my body to respond to basic commands, I gave up at and just began to think to myself.

Okay think, what the absolute hell is going on? As I lay there thinking, I felt like a bomb had detonated in my head. I threw my arms around my head and screamed again. This time I heard it, and just like that noises began to fill my head. The crackling of the flames was first soft and somewhat welcoming... the next sounds, not so much.

Gunshots!? Or at least what I suspected was gunshots. Okay gotta move now. I thought to myself as I once again willed my body to work. This time it responded. The pain I had once felt was now all but a minor throbbing' still not a pleasant experience but better than the situation I'd found myself in a moment ago.

"Okay, okay. Think, think, think." I said as I for the first time since this great ordeal began I could stand and get a good look at my surroundings. What I saw was somewhat surprising to say the least.

I was indeed in a crater somewhere ten to fifteen meters in diameter. I guessed what caused the crater was scattered around me in a thousand tiny pieces. This revelation was less than comforting as I came to the realization of what'd happened, along with the question: how the hell was I alive in the middle of this mess.?

As I continued sort of stumbling around the crater, I wasn't even sure what I was looking for or hoping to accomplish. Had this been a plane crash? An Old land mine? "What the actual fuck?" I muttered to myself as I finally came to the wall of the crater. "I am going to have a fun time explaining this to whoever comes to investigate," I sighed as I began to climb out.

As I finally crested the edge of the crater, I was greeted with a scene of absolute destruction.

There were bodies scattered around the place: body parts, full bodies, splintered trees, burning grass, and scorched earth. The smells and sights were too much and I felt my gut wrenching in disgust. There were what seemed to be weapons lying around. It looked like something from a war film. My mind was brought back to my current situation.

"Okay, I have got a crater the size of a house and, I have what seems to be a war zone in front of me." I said to myself somewhat surprised that I wasn't completely panicking. "Alright, what have I got to work with.? If this is what I think it is, I can't be standing around here like an idiot." I wasn't

overly sure why I wasn't using my inside voice considering the situation. After looking around trying to find anything I could use to defend myself or at least hide with, I yelled in frustration. "FUCK ME THERE ARE SOLDIERS HERE! DEAD SOLDIERS AND I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING TO USE! WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT!"

Combat situation recognized. Engaging combat protocol. : Enemy analysed. Geth located.

I spun around trying to find the source of the voice I had just heard. I must have looked like a complete idiot as I spun left to right looking for the... women I thought I had heard.

Combat protocol complete.

And with that my body began to flicker.

"What the-?" I didn't even get to finish my sentence as some sort of armour appeared. It looked like it came in separate plates; it was black with a two light blue stripes running parallel down my left side and left arm with two dark red stripes down my right side and right arm, and a singular green stripe running down the centre. Along with the armour, something that I could only describe as some kind of HUD one would see in a video game was brought into my vision. It showed my vitals, shield status, and it brought up some kind of map of the area centred around me.

"Okay... I am seriously out of my mind, but that is really cool." I said while a slight smile developed on my face.

"...Wait a sec. Did this thing just say Geth? As in flashlight robot Geth? As in mass effect Geth?" I suddenly sputtered, brain catching up with my ears, as I found what looked like a pistol on my pocket and assault rifle behind my back.

"Okay I am surely just having a really lucid dream." I said as I pulled the pistol into my hand. "Yep

seems like a perfect fit for mass effect." I decided as I looked over the weapon, feeling the weight. It was obviously collapsible, with no clip system as far as I could tell. I knew I played the games a lot but this amount of detail was truly surprising.

ALERT: ENEMIES WITHIN VISUAL PROXIMITY.

At that I snapped up at and saw what was to my mind at least an impossible sight. Three Geth were standing roughly three hundred meters to my front. "Well shit." I said as they raised their weapons and opened fire. Their rounds seemed to vanish as they impacted with what I could only assume/hope were my shields., Given the situation I didn't really have the time to ask them.

I could only think to do one thing.

RUN.

And just like that I found myself running from three Geth through a wonderfully green landscape.

Well, it was as wonderful as it could have been besides the odd corpse scattered around and impact craters. I didn't have time to feel anything about the scenario; I should have felt something about the death around me or at least fear considering I had three killing machines chasing me, but oddly I felt nothing. My mind was racing thinking of how I was going to get out of this situation.

I can't run forever! I have to form a plan. As far as I know there are three of them behind me,

and at any moment I could run into more. Then it hit me. SHEPARD. How did I not think of this sooner? Whether or not this was a dream I am not willing to find out by taking bullets to the face. Wait do Geth even use bullets? Plasma? Oh who cares, not important. These are Geth and this is a peaceful looking world. Eden Prime? As that thought came to mind my HUD changed.

Confirming your location... Please standby. Location: Eden Prime, Systems, Alliance Space.

Well that's a handy feature,. I thought to myself as the Geth began to gain on me. With their shots impacting occasionally on my shields and on the ground and environment around me. Right, well I have got to go faster. As I continued to run, my mind was running just as fast I was picking out my surroundings talking and taking optimized paths through the undergrowth.

Friendlies located. Analysing.

This thing is great. Okay, it seems to react to my thoughts. This seriously shits all over Apple. Suck on that on Steve Jobs! Master of innovation my ass.

Analysis complete. One friendly located, female, six hundred meters due north east.

Under fire from hostile Geth. Estimation of three Geth engaging friendly.

Okay that is kind of creepy. What kind of computer can figure all that out at this distance.? Well

two on six is better than one on three. It would be nice having someone watching my back and I am sure they would appreciate the same.

With the new information from the computer that seemed to be inside my head, I began heading in the direction of the friendly which I could only assume would be one slightly xenophobic gunnery chief. How it got there is beyond me but I have more pressing concerns such as whether if I was in a dream, coma, or even if I was dead. No, not important survival takes priority.

I ducked behind a rather large boulder and prepared myself to engage the Geth.

"Let's do this,." I let out as I steadied my aim. The first and second Geth ran right past but, before I could celebrate however the third turned and look right at me and raised its weapon.

"Sorry!" I fired my pistol three times. Two of my rounds slammed into its body while the third shattered its head or flashlight or whatever. I took off back the way I came and towards the friendly tagged on my map, while the shots began impacting around me again. "Guess they didn't like me killing their friend,." I muttered to myself as I closed in on hopefully a helping hand and an end to this...interesting experience.

Ashley

"What are these things!?" She yelled as she fired another burst over her shoulder, continuing to run. These things had laid waste to her entire squad and, they hadn't even heard them coming

before the bullets started to fly. She had tried her best to organise her squad but before she could even locate where the attack was coming from half her unit was lost.

She really didn't want to think about it; she had other things to worry about. She wasn't even sure if there was anyone left that could help her. A distress call had been sent but she didn't know if it had been received. Eden Prime was out of the way; even if the distress was picked up by the Alliance it would take time to arrive. Maybe too much time. She was sure in the chaos of the initial ambush she had seen a shuttle or some form of aircraft get shot down but she couldn't be sure. Her first responsibility was to her squad and the people of Eden Prime.

And it seemed to her that she had let them all down. She was the only one left now. she was alone but giving up wasn't in her. she had fought for everything she had. Blacklisted or not, she was going to be a marine and a marine did not surrender when things got tough.

"Come on, I'll show you what a Williams is made of!" She yelled at her attackers as she turned to fire. Her rounds seemed to have no effect as the heavily shielded bodies brought their weapons to bear against her. This is it, she thought as she steeled herself for what was surely to come, focusing all of her efforts into firing her gun at her would be killers again no effect.

"Incoming!" she heard someone shout as one of the attackers fell, white liquid spraying from its midsection. The other attackers turned towards the sound of the voice and as their attention shifted she had her opening. Quickly dropping her assault rifle she pulled up her sniper rifle, realizing she needed more firepower to have a chance of penetrating her attacker's shields. She took aim and fired, this time her shot tore through the shielding and tore the head off the one to her left as another few shots rang out from the right tearing the remaining attacker to pieces.

She was alive. She let out a sigh of relief as her apparent saviour came into view, the person running towards her had pistol in hand and was sprinting towards her occasionally looking over their shoulder.

"Don't relax! Two more behind me!" The person shouted at her and sure enough two more figures emerged from the bushland this person had come from. Ashley took aim once more with her sniper steadying her aim and breathing. Fire was now impacting around the person running towards her, she had to act soon or she would surely be alone again against this living nightmare she found herself in. The friendly dove to the ground seeing what she was preparing to do. A single shot rang out from her gun and once more it tore through the shields and impacted the closest target's midsection virtually tearing it in half. Before she could celebrate she took another breath and fired at the second pursuer as it came to a stop clearly trying to assess the situation it had found itself in, the shot impacted but this time it only tore off an arm, forcing it to drop its weapon two more shots rang out and the person on the floor had put two rounds from their pistol into its legs forcing it to drop to its knees.

She could see now her fellow human clearly, he was heavily armoured he had another weapon on his back and he had curly brown hair. His armour was clearly not alliance. Mercenary she thought to herself as she walked towards him picking up her assault rifle from the floor. She kept her hand on the trigger she didn't know who this person was he could be just as dangerous as these things. As she continued now she watched as he picked himself off the floor and began walking towards the immobile hostile, pistol at his side. As he reached the target he calmly placed his pistol against its head and pulled the trigger, putting an end its life with a brutally cold efficiency, before firing a few more rounds into its chest and doing the same to the others that had been taken out earlier.

"Gotta be sure" she heard him mutter to himself as he holstered his pistol. As he turned around she brought her rifle to her eye and trained it on him.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" She spoke like she demanded an answer. She was demanding an answer.

Mystery Man

As I turned to face who I recognized as Ashley Williams with her rather strange white and pink armour being a dead giveaway I found myself staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" She barked at me. Shit that's a good question. Who am I? Shit shit shit think think think, how can I not know my own name, okay not important she looks pissed I have got to come up with something. Jason Bourne? No fuck that if I have to make up a name I am not stealing a name from a god film, I mean who does that?

"Listen why" I started to say before she cut me off. "No if you value your life you will answer me. Who are you? What are you doing here!?" She ordered a little more forcibly this time.As I stared at her in a semi state of shock her eyes giving away her intention to follow through with her threat if I didn't answer, my HUD once again changed. In the upper left section a new drop box appeared.

ID: Carolus Rex.

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Place of birth: Earth, Southampton, Earth.

God bless this machine, I thought, well that solves my name even if it is a rather odd one at that, It didn't seem very English.

"My name is Carolus Rex" I answered, not willing to stall any further at risk of losing my head. "I was on my way to the colony when my ship came under fire." I quickly added hoping I could talk my way out of this situation.

"What were you coming here for?" She asked again.

"I was just on my way through, I came to buy some supplies before moving on I swear." I replied slowly raising my hands as to try to relax her. "I mean we could spend forever asking twenty questions if you like but I do not think we are very safe here. If more of these things show up we could be in some real trouble, so how about we agree to get along for now?" I asked not taking my eyes away from hers.

"That's good enough for now." She said as she lowered her rifle from my head. Oh thank god. "What is your name?" I asked hoping to get some cement my newly earned and rather flimsy trust.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th" She quickly responded before turning her gaze towards the sky.

"Alright then Gunnery Chief Williams. Where should we go?" Just as I achieved a sense of calm my HUD once again came to ruin my day or dream, or death. I still had no idea if this was real, it felt real but it couldn't be surely?

Hostiles detected location 150 meters due south, Geth estimated force strength calculating

Well fuck me. Before Ashley could answer my previous question I began sprinting away from the newly detected Geth.

"Where are you going?!" She shouted as she began following me gun drawn.

"My radar has picked up more hostiles we have to go now!" I shouted back as once again enemy fire began impacting around us. Myself and Ashley were now running as fast as our legs would take us, I was still aching from my apparent incident earlier in the day, but I was still significantly faster than Ashley, who was clearly struggling for breath after the past few hours of combat. I turned to return some fire from my pistol to try and draw the fire towards me and away from her, it seemed to do the trick as the Geth began returning fire in my direction.

"Take cover over there!" I yelled over the sound of gunfire while pointing at a series of large rocks that we could use as cover. Ashley immediately dove behind cover firing at a couple or drones that flew overhead.

Calculation complete. Geth numbers five units. Threat condition recognised emergency repairs to implants underway.

Implants? The hell, no time to worry about that I have enough to deal myself and Ashley now both took turns popping in and out of cover and firing our assault rifles down towards the Geth trying to stop them from moving any closer my eyesight began to go in and out of focus. One moment I could see everything crystal clear, the next I could only make out faint shapes with no colour. As a result, my aim was all over the shot, I didn't see if Ashley had noticed my now sporadic fire or if she was too busy trying to stay alive.

I felt a tug on my right shoulder as I turned my eyesight still going in and out of focus I saw a Geth had gotten around us. Before I could react it threw me over its head with one hand, sending me hurdling into another large boulder. My eyesight was now almost all but gone, I reached for my pistol and tried to fire at the Geth now working its way towards me. I couldn't' make out what It was reaching for but I knew whatever it was couldn't be good for me, my rounds slammed harmlessly on the various pieces of the environment scattered around, I just couldn't focus. Not like this, come on what is wrong with me.

Emergency repairs complete biotic implants online, cybernetic implants reset, Omnitool rebooted.

As quickly as it had begun my eyesight returned, but this time it felt different, It felt like I had gone from watching a VHS to Blu-ray, colours were so much clearer everything had a crisp feel to it.

"FUCK OFF I AM NOT DYING HERE!" As I said that I threw myself at the Geth who I could see now was holding what seemed to be a shotgun. I punched it as hard as I could in its head and watched as its head flew from its neck and slammed into a nearby tree. A light blue aura was now flowing around my body and a much darker blue around my clenched fist. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the Geth's shotgun and ran back towards the rock I had been behind earlier before I was thrown by the Geth I had just broke like a matchstick. Ashley was still engaging a number of Geth as more had joined the fight, there was a total of eight now I acted on instinct I stood up from behind the rock I was crouched behind and let the blue aura flow through my body and ran towards the Geth. I brought my newly acquired shotgun to bear and blasted a sizeable hole through the closest Geth, while more fire came from behind me I assumed it was Ashley now firing more freely as I had gathered the collective attention of the remaining Geth.

Their rounds were just impacting harmlessly off my protective barrier, A few Geth fell to the fire coming from behind me while I worked my way around firing my shotgun at those that moved to engage me. The next few moments were a blur it was as if I was just a passenger in my own body, I ran up to Geth one at a time either blasting them apart with my shotgun or tearing them apart with my pair hands like tissue paper. My shotgun overheated so I threw it as hard as I could at the last Geth and watched it stumble over, as It did so my body threw itself on top of it and brought my glowing blue hand smashing down into its head and then into its chest over and over again like I was in some primal rage, I was venting everything I had into removing every trace of this thing from existence. I have no idea where these feelings came from, all I knew was that this thing needed to vanish.

"Carolus. Carolus you can stop now." The rage in my body vanished as quickly as it had begun, I stopped my fist halfway through another punch against the now unrecognisable remnants of the Geth. I was breathing heavily, the blue aura around my body had slowly dissipated and I sat down on the ground trying to control my irregular heavy breathing.

"Is he alright?" I heard another voice, another woman asked as she arrived next to Ashley and crouched down to look at me.

As she lowered herself to my level she removed her helmet revealing silver hair that went to her shoulders and had bangs that just covered the majority of her forehead, as striking as the silver hair was it was her dark red eyes that finally got my attention.

"I don't know, one moment we were fighting these things, the next he flipped out started tearing them apart." Ashley added as she looked over at the other man who was now catching up to the two ladies looking at me.

"That was some biotic power, is he a soldier?" He asked Ashley as he began working on his omnitool.

"No, at least I don't think so, he said he was here for supplies then he was going to move on."

"Well that can wait, you said his name was Carolus right?" The red eyed women asked. Ashley nodded in response. "Well Carolus you did quite a number on these guys here. My name is Commander Shepard. Everything is going to be just fine now." She said in a calm voice while offering a warm smile.

"Shepard" I said softly before I lay myself on the ground, my armour was covered in the white "blood" of the Geth, my hands were dripping with it. What just happened?

Author's notes:

Greetings all my name is Castor and I will be bringing you this Mass Effect fan fiction, I hope some of you come to enjoy my work but most importantly I am doing this for fun. I am very much open to feedback and even If only one other person reads this It's mission complete for me.

A special thanks from TREBOR117 who has agreed to proofread my work if you don't already you should read his Mass Effect SI starting with Stuck in a World of Fiction. It's seriously what finally got me off my ass to write this after four or five years of wanting to.

Cya next chapter.