"Whoa!" the Normandy's one-of-a-kind pilot, Jeffery 'Joker' Moreau exclaimed.

"Something wrong?" Shepard, the famous spectre and commander of the Normandy asked curiously, entering the bridge.

"Yeah," Joker replied. "The sensors for... everything just went insane for a moment."

"Any idea what caused it?"

"Not a clue," the pilot answered. "Even a solar flare doesn't mess them up that bad. It was almost like the ship was in two places at once."

"I'm pretty sure the Normandy's temporal distortion device is still a work in progress," the spectre said jokingly. "Just keep an eye on the sensors. I'll go down and check with engineering, see if they did something while installing those upgrades. If anything out of the ordinary happens, contact me immediately."

"Sure thing Commander," Joker acknowledged. "But are you sure your visit to engineering doesn't have to do with something, or someone, else?"

Shepard gave a tired groan in response as he exited the the bridge, completely unaware of the firestorm the Normandy would soon sail into.

/\\/\

\/\\/

In an area not so far away, the G.F.S. Shadowlurker experienced similar readings. The Shadowlurker, or "Shadow" as it's crew affectionately called her, was a Federation stealth frigate, shadow class. The frigate was small by Federation standards, only 400 meters long, and lacked the firepower of its more combat oriented sister ship, the Griffin. What it lacked in firepower and size however, it more than made up for with cutting edge distortion technology. Shadow could remain permanently cloaked, and had the capability to distort enemy sensors of all types, effectively rendering the ship invisible.

It also had the interesting ability to distort a small area nearby it. Any target smaller than the Shadow herself could also be made invisible, subjected to the same stealth that the she herself employed. Though the devices military use was rather limited, as the only ships small enough to be affected by the device were Phoenix class transports, Arhur class patrol ships, and various fighter craft, it was perfect for disguising civilian ships that found themselves to close to a space pirate frigate.

Due to this combination of factors, shadow class stealth frigates were not employed in direct combat. Instead, they were used for what what essentially amounted to guerrilla warfare... in space. Because of the ships near impervious stealth system, shadow class frigates could get in quick, disable several ships, and then alert all nearby G.F. reinforcements to the enemy location. By the time the enemy ships could return fire, the frigate would already be gone, soon replaced with an entire federation fleet.

So when an ensign detected incoming ships on her sensors, the crew was well rehearsed. They moved to their stations, ready to disrupt whatever activities the space pirates might be up to now. This time however, something was different. More and more signatures were detected, hundreds of ships of all sizes announcing their presence to the advanced detection arrays mounted on the Shadows bow. This was no patrol group. This, was an entire space pirate fleet, of a size never before seen.

Onboard the ship, the captain was in the process of alerting the Olympus fleet, the only one capable of intercepting the pirates in time. In just one hours time, a battle unlike any seen in this galaxy would be fought, and one unknown and unlucky frigate, no more than 200 meters long, would be witness to it all.

/\\/\

\/\\/

Samus' eyes snapped open, quickly taking in her surroundings. Wherever she was, it wasn't Aether. In fact, she seemed to be in some sort of metropolis. But what planet is th - Samus started suddenly, interrupting her own thoughts. In front of her was a myriad of different races, each species unknown to her scanners. She could tell from the shocked, terrified, and otherwise dumbfounded looks she herself was receiving, that these aliens had a similar train of thought.

For this reason, it really didn't surprise her when a large troop of what appeared to be police officers approached, looking nervously at the heavily armoured figure in front of them. They were all members of what seemed to be the areas most common race, blue skinned aliens who looked strikingly similar to humans with the exception of a collection of tendril-like formations that intertwined at the top of their heads, but their language was completely unknown. Where am I?, Samus asked herself as the officers approached. How did I even get here? One of the aliens stepped our from the group, obviously the leader. This won't end well. The man? woman? in charge opened her mouth, obviously beginning to speak.

"Attention unknown... thing," the blue skinned alien demanded, unable to tell whether the armoured figure in front of her was an actual living creature or just some form of mech. "We have you surrounded. There are snipers on the rooftops above you. I don't know what kind of armour that is, but it won't do you any good when you have that many weapons trained on you."

Samus was only half listening, she couldn't understand the language, so it wouldn't have done much good anyway. Instead, she was currently in the process of scanning the aliens weapons, as well as the holographic devices they seemed to use for data storage and communications. What she found shocked her greatly. The weapons were primitive ballistic devices. They used a material unknown to her scanners to launch tiny shards at velocities many times the speed of sound. It would take many minutes of sustained fire to inflict any noticeable damage to her suits energy reserves.

The holo-tools were much more interesting. Her scanner easily broke through their basic firewalls and she was able to extract, among other things, a file called the codex which had information on all the species, technologies, history, and politics of these unknown races. Apparently, the race she was dealing with now was called the asari. They lived for up to 1000 years, were mono-gendered, and reproduced through some sort of mind meld, which could be done with any sapient species. They were natural biotics, though what a biotic was Samus did not yet know. She was also able to use this codex to create an impromptu translating program for the asari language. Meanwhile, the asari police officer was still speaking.

"You will remove your armour and weapons, and you will accompany us to the station where you will tell us exactly how you arrived here and what your purpose is. Will you comply?"

Now able to understand the language, Samus felt the strange urge to laugh inside her helmet. From one hostile world to another. At least the hostility here is justified... and the air's not toxic.

Reiterating her question, the asari asked one more, "will you comply with our wishes?

Making a few quick adjustments, Samus modified her impromptu translator to allow it to translate her own language to that of the asari. As it turns out, luminoth translators make that a much easier process.

"My name is Samus Aran," she proudly stated. "Bounty hunter for the Galactic Federation. I don't know how I got here, I don't know where here is, but I will not comply with your demands."

Her statement, projected by a very human like voice and translated to halting Thessian caught the asari officers by surprise, so much so that it took them a moment to realize the implications of what the armour clad figure before them was saying. Galactic Federation? Was there another collection of races that the council was unaware of? The fact that the subject didn't know where it was seemed to emphasize that point, if it was telling the truth of course. Then the last part registered. The asari captain in charge had to admire the subjects tenacity. There were no less than 12 officers in front of her, and more were on rooftops above, yet she didn't hesitate in refusing the captains orders. Of course this made the captains job much harder.

"You know that if you don't comply, we will be forced to take possibly lethal measures to incapacitate you?" the captain warned.

"I'd rather not be forced into injuring an upholder of the law," Samus said calmly. "But I will not relinquish my armour and weapons."

"There are 12 officers here. More on the rooftops! How do you expect to..." the asari captain stopped speaking, her eyes drawn to what appeared to be a glowing ball of energy charging on the tip of what seemed to be... an arm cannon? Was that even possible? Suddenly, a flare of energy lit the plaza, and a large projectile streaked up towards the wall of a nearby building. It impacted the structure in a devastating explosion, the kinetic force of the impact showering debris on the asari police team below. The stunned officers watched, firing their weapons randomly, as a band of energy shot out from an attachment on the bounty hunters left arm and latched onto the ledge of a low to the ground rooftop. The bounty hunter was shooting strange balls of yellow energy out of its arm cannon as it swung itself up onto the roof of the building above.

The captain could easily tell that this creature possessed technology far beyond that of any of the citadel races, but strangely, none of her troops had been hit yet. At first she attributed this to a lack of aiming on her foes part, but then she realized, the bounty hunter was deliberately trying not tohit them. It didn't want her team dead. That was enough of an excuse for her, and the asari captain quickly ordered her troops to stand down. The military could deal with the hunter, if it even needed to be dealt with. Cops weren't meant to deal with alien supersoldiers.

/\\/\

\/\\/

No longer under fire from the asari police team, Samus took the time to open up her map, which she had downloaded from one of the officers 'omni-tools' as she had learned they were called. It didn't take long to find a nearby spaceport. Though she did not like it, it appeared as though she would need to hijack a vessel. Her gunship was gone, she had no idea what type of currency they used here, and staying on this planet after the commotion she had just caused was likely a bad idea. She was about to make her way to the port when another idea hit her. This looked to be a major planet, and major planets always had criminal organizations. If she was going to steal a ship...

/\\/\

\/\\/

"Uh... Commander! We got a problem!"

"What is it Joker?" Shepard was currently taking the elevator up from engineering, and as such, couldn't see what was going on above.

"We've got a bunch of unknown ships up here," The pilot warned him nervously. "and they're uh... really strange. You better get up here immediately."

"I'm on my way up Joker," the spectre informed him. "Just keep the Normandy out of site until we figure out what's going on."

"Yeah, uh... right. I'll try and do that."

It took a full 15 seconds for the elevator to finish its ascent to the CIC, something Shepard definitely needed to fix, after which Shepard quickly dashed to the helm.

"What's the situation?" he asked hurriedly.

"The scanners picked up these four ships here, and I don't think they belong to any races we know of," the pilot answered, still apprehensive.

"How can you-" Joker cut him off, already anticipating the question.

"First off, they match no known design patterns. In fact, I've never seen anything remotely close to them. Secondly, whatever weapons we can detect, the databases have no knowledge of. Lastly, and this is definitely the most interesting, there isn't a single trace of element zero on any of those ships."

No element zero? Shepard thought incredulously. "That's-"

"Impossible?" Joker finished. "Apparently not. Whoever these guys are, they figured how to go FTL without it. But you didn't let me finish. The way those ships are moving... they're clearing the area. I think there might be more ships incom-" Suddenly Joker went silent, staring out into space with an expression of awe.

Following the pilots gaze, Shepard looked out the forward window, just in time to see a sight that both shocked and terrified him. All throughout space, purple rifts were opening, and out of them poured hundreds of ships, some the size of the Alliances largest dreadnoughts. The process continued for about 30 seconds, emptying one of the biggest space armada's Shepard had ever seen into the once quiet section of space. Then just when it seemed to be over, three more shapes emerged. These new ships were massive, each one appearing almost two kilometers in length.

"Commander?" Joker quietly stated. "I don't think this is a 'new' race."

/\\/\

\/\\/

Samus stood outside an Eclipse space yard, in which there were several combat shuttles, two frigates, and a single cruiser docked. Her target was a brand new, top of the line, attack shuttle. Though it was worse than obsolete by federation standards, it was supposedly the best of it's kind on this planet. It would do until she found the resources to build her own.

She moved silently, the shining light suit given to her by the luminoth doing a surprisingly good job blending in with the similarly coloured buildings of the asari planet. As she approached the entry to the space dock, she noticed the two guards stationed outside, neither very alert. Raising her arm cannon, Samus fired a trio of power beam shots at each guard. Her aim was true, and both guards were struck dead, their bodies slumping to the floor.

With both guards permanently incapacitated, Samus sprinted forward. Crossing the remaining distance between her and the space yard at an incredible pace, she quickly reached the compounds entrance, and was shocked by the lack of security present. Security for the "high security Eclipse shipyard" consisted of a gate with a slot for some sort of keycard. It was laughable.

Using her grapple beam, Samus ripped the gate right off its hinges. Unfortunately, this had the nasty side effect of alerting the entire yard to her presence... Not that it would pose much of a problem. If the weapons used by police officers was any indication, than her amour was all but impervious to any armaments the mercenaries may have procured. Striding forward with purpose, Samus entered the Eclipse complex, her map easily guiding her to her destination.

It took Samus a few minutes to navigate the twisting hallways of the Eclipse buildings and reach the dockyards. So far she was surprised by the lack of resistance. She had encountered nothing but a few crude mechs, and those had been easily disposed of. The mercenaries were obviously sending all available reinforcements to the spaceport, where the troops would all have room to fire at once.

Turning another corner, Samus found herself behind a massive door, probably locked down in an attempt to stop her from progressing any further. A pointless pursuit at best. Switching to her scan visor, she easily broke through the devices pathetic firewalls and the door slid right open, revealing a rather amusing sight.

Seventy Eclipse mercenaries, all stumbling backwards at the site of the armoured bounty hunter in front of them. Their ranks were composed of several different species, and their weapons ranged from pistols to heavy rocket launchers.

With a start, Samus realized that some of these mercs were human, and that they used the same ballistic weapons as the others. The meaning of this was not lost on her. It seemed as though she had just discovered a completely different race of humans in the universe, and that wasn't exactly a common scenario. She did not allow this to distract her though. Within a few seconds of intense tactical planning, the fates of 70 different mercenaries would be set in stone. Unfortunately for the mercs, Samus' definition of set in stone was a synonym for an untimely demise.

Oblivious to the danger before her and her small war band, an asari stepped forward, probably the leader. "I am Captain Waseia," she announced boldly. "I don't know what the hell you are, but you've destroyed Eclipse property. We do not take kindly to that offence. You will lay down your armour and weapons and, if you're lucky, you will only be sold to indentured servitude." The asari stood smugly, obviously confident that anyone would back down against such overwhelming odds.

Samus just smiled inside her helmet. "I'm afraid I can't do that Waseia," the bounty hunter calmly stated. "Now if you would be so kind as to surrender that shuttle over there," she pointed at her target, "we might be able to avoid..." Samus paused, holding out a hand and mockingly doing some calculations on her fingers. "About seventy unnecessary deaths."

/\\/\

\/\\/

It actually took effort for Waseia to keep her mouth from hanging open. She had whatever this thing was surrounded and it not only refused to surrender, but made demands of Eclipse? It was calmer than Waseia herself and the asari was the one with 70 troops behind her. Could it be some sort of advanced geth model? She had heard the rumors of geth infiltrators, but she had never actually believed them. But what else could this be, other than some advanced type of artificial intelligence? It didn't matter. It would die, or shut down, or do whatever AI's did after being filled with accelerator rounds.

The rest of her troops seemed to think the same thing, as they opened fire immediately. The air was filled with gun shots, so many that Waseia had trouble seeing the target. A few seconds later, thermal clips ran dry and the fire stopped. The sight in front of her was terrifying. The thing stood, not so much as a scratch evident on its luminous silver armour. What was even more terrifying was the globe of dark purple energy building on the end of the thing's right arm, which was shaped into a cannon-like appendage. As she watched, tendrils of the dark material materialized along the sides of the weapon.

Waseia had no idea what kind of weapon this was. The only thing certain was that it was years beyond anything her mercs had. Than an engineer shouted something.

"That thing is creating dark energy!" the engineer cried in a voice laced with terror. "And more than I've ever seen in one place!"

If Waseia's blue skin had the capability of turning white, that statement would've caused it to do so. A weapon that created large quantities of dark matter was far beyond anything any citadel race had ever developed. She was about to give the order to fire again when a globe of purple energy shot forth. It shot towards a cluster of heavy troops, and before they could react, created a swirling vortex of dark energy in their midst. It resembled the biotic singularity Waseia herself could summon, except, when this faded, everything that had been in the area was just... gone. As if it had been erased from the universe.

All semblance of order disappeared in an instant. Mass accelerator weapons spewed bullets, their rounds having little to no effect on the construct in front of them. Out of the corner of her eye, Waseia saw another group of her mercs frozen by the same dark weapon, and then shattered by some sort of concussive blast. In front of her, an engineer was incinerated by a penetrating blast of some sort of fiery substance, his heavy shields not even slowing the burst. Anger filled her veins. She cared not for the troops, but training cost money. Lots of it. Gathering her energy, Waseia began glowing blue, biotic energy flowing within her. She let it build, reveling in the feeling of power it provided. Then, when she reached her peak, Waseia unleashed it all, the biotic energy taking the form of a powerful shockwave. Blue bursts of energy ripped through the ground, heading straight towards the armoured hunter.

The biotic attack hit the thing dead on, and Waseia smiled grimly. Nothing short of a heavy mech could withstand that force. But the smile quickly faded.

To her horror, the attack did absolutely nothing, passing right through the unstoppable fiend. Her biotics ineffective, Waseia frantically looked around for something, anything, that could be used to put a stop to the hunters advance. Beside her, she noticed the engineer that had detected the dark energy was working furiously on his omni-tool. "What the hell are you waiting for?" Waseia demanded. "Hack that thing!"

"I can't!" the engineer shot back. "I've tried, but it's not a mech! It's some sort of advanced armour suit, imbued with properties I can't even comprehend. It's almost entirely resistant to dark energy, and has some sort of morphing capabilities. The weapons it uses do things modern science states are impossible. It's harnessing and directing dark energy, as well as light energy and even sonic energy!"

"Are you saying that there's a person inside there?" Waseia spluttered in disbelief.

"Assuredly," the engineer nervously answered.

And with that one word, Waseia's entire world came crashing down. Eclipse prided itself on being the most advanced merc group in the galaxy, relying on technology to achieve what manpower couldn't. But armour like that... Eclipse didn't have a chance in hell of replicating that level of tech.

Waseia looked to the human engineer beside her. He worked quick, and kept his head cool as others were slaughtered around her, something that was very rare among merc groups. He could help her get started.

"C'mon," she said to the engineer. "We're leaving. That thing is unstoppable, and I'm not about to die to prove it's point. We'll go into the private merc business, recruit a few other people as well." She glanced at the carnage around her. "Competent people."

The engineer looked back at the armoured figure, which was making short work of whatever Eclipse were still alive. It only took one glance. He shrugged, before sprinting away beside the asari captain. Being a private merc paid better anyways.

/\\/\

\/\\/

Councilor Tevos stood with her three counterparts, the turian councilor Velarn, the salarian councilor Remos, and the newly appointed human councilor, Anderson.

All three were agitated, much like she was. Strange reports had flown in from all sides of the galaxy. Dozens of distress signals had been sent out from various ships, all announcing the presence of ships with new and devastating weaponry. At first she had suspected geth, but one damaged freighter had escape with stories of a strange new alien species that killed people with air and commanded the power of light. Though she did not believe the tales of magic weapons, the idea of a new and advanced alien species was entirely possible, especially after the incident with Sovereign. Much of the galaxy was still unknown, blocked off by the citadel laws preventing exploration.

It was only then that Tevos realized how dangerous those laws really were. There could be any number of advanced species hiding in unexplored space, just waiting for a chance to strike. And if they were to strike now... she shuddered. Suddenly, Anderson spoke up.

"I assume you've all been getting the same strange reports I have?" the human asked.

Councilor Velarn growled. "Yes. An entire fleet of ours just disappeared, not a single distress beacon. Several colonies have gone silent, and quite a few people have been reported vanishing from their homes."

"We have received similar reports," Anderson informed him.

"As have we," Tevos concurred. "And I imagine that all the citadel races have suffered similar losses."

"Could it be the reapers?" Remos asked quietly.

"No," Anderson quickly answered. "If they could enter the galaxy this fast, and with out us detecting them then they would not have needed Sovereign to activate the Citadel."

"Are we still talking about the reapers?" Velarn asked, exasperatedly. "You can't still believe that a fleet of sentient machines is just lurking in dark space with the sole intent of exterminating all life in the galaxy. They don't exist! We don't have proof that they ever existed!"

"We don't have proof that denies theeir existence either," Tevos reprimanded. "Besides, the existence of the reapers is not the subject of this discussion. The subject, is the sudden disappearance of over 20 worlds, both major and minor, from the territories of every race in known citadel space."

"We don't know if they've disappeared," Anderson corrected. "It's actually quite common for solar flares to temporarily disrupt communications."

"That is true," Remos agreed. "But so many at once cannot be coincidence. Besides, I am currently more interested in reports of weaponry that are far superior to our own. The STG recently received reports from Illium of a heavily armoured individual in possession of what appeared to be handheld directed energy weapons."

"And how many witnesses to this do we have?" Velarn asked doubtfully.

"Over eighty," Remos answered, undeterred by the sarcastic tone of his counterparts voice. "Each report was almost exactly the same. "The individual appeared in a market area from what appeared to be thin air, told law enforcements that it was a bounty hunter for a 'galactic federation', then proceeded to keep the officers pinned down with some type of beam weapon while it made its escape."

"Galactic federation?" Tevos asked nervously. "Is it possible that there is another federation of species in space that we have not encountered?"

"Much of the galaxy has yet to be explored," Remos explained. "It is quite possible that other species developed in these unexplor-" A loud beep from Andersons omni-tool interrupted the salarian councilor. All eyes were drawn to the human councilor, who now wore a look of shock on his face. After a few seconds, he looked up to them and spoke.

"The alliance just received a transmission from the Normandy. An entire armada of unknown vessels jumped into space all around it. They couldn't count exact numbers, but they estimate the fleets numbers at..." Anderson paused, as he started at the message incredulously. "At almost 500 ships, some as large as the Destiny Ascension. It also says that their scanners detected... no traces of element zero?"

"No element zero?" Tevos gasped. "How is that possible?" All ships needed element zero. It powered their weapons, their shields, their FTL drives... it powered just about everything. Those ships surely could not operate without it...

"I don't see why we should worry about this," Velarn protested. "No element zero? How much of a threat are ships with no barriers, inefficient weapons, and the inability to even reach FTL? The Normandy alone could destroy them."

Anderson wasn't so easily convinced. "I don't know about weapons and barriers, but according to Shepard, as well as several other members of the command team, FTL capabilities were made very apparent. If they found different means to go FTL, I imagine that they would have developed their own forms of weaponry and shielding as well."

"No doubt inferior to our own," Velarn quickly interrupted. "Even if they have them, they still don't use element zero. Any of our fleets could make short work of these newcomers."

"I would not be so quick to judge..." Anderson said cautiously. "With a species that doesn't use element zero... the size of the ships alone is formidable, and we have no idea what to expect from them. They are a complete unknown."

"They could be responsible for our disappearing colonies," Remos suggested.

"Doubtful," Anderson replied. Receiving what he inferred to be a quizzical look, he explained. "These colonies vanished from all over the galaxy, no rhyme nor reason to the disappearances. No unknown fleets have been reported either. We don't even have confirmation that the colonies are missing! This does bring up the question though, of whether or not we want to initiate first contact, or let them contact us."

"With a species so unknown, I believe it would be wise to contact them as soon as possible," Remos stated.

"Very true," Tevos agreed. "We must learn about this non-element zero based technology as soon as possible. In addition, it would be wise to discern their intentions before they arrive and discover our own worlds. Even if they're ships are weaker than our own," she glanced pointedly at Velarn. "A fleet of that size could wreck untold amounts of havok."

"I suppose it is for the best," Velarn finished. "We can have a first-contact team in the area within a week an-"

Interrupting him, Tevos made a suggestion that shocked all in the room. "I suggest that we allow the Normandy to take this action."

Velarn objected vociferously. "But it's an Alliance vessel, and-"

"And it has members of many major races of citadel on board," Tevos explained, cutting him off once more.

"Besides, we don't know how long this fleet will stay in the area," Anderson added. "But I can assure you that it won't sit there for a week."

"And Shepard did save the citadel," Remos reminded them. "He deserves the honor."

"And it may be a good idea," Tevos added, "to have a soldier communicate with what is obvious a militaristic race. He will be talking to the head of the fleet most likely, and not a diplomat."

There was a brief period of silence before Velarn threw up his arms in surrender, and said, "Fine. It's obvious I've been outvoted. But if this causes war..." he left the statement hanging as he glared at his fellow councilors.

/\\/\

\/\\/

They had miscalculated... badly. Half the reaper fleet was now gone, sucked into another universe, and the reality merging device had overloaded from strain. It would take many millennia to repair. The reapers did not have that time. Not any more.

During the split second that the two realities had merged, the reapers had detected ships. Ships that were far superior to those made by the races of this galaxy. Ships that were a threat. If the citadel races could adopt this technology... Victory was no longer certain. For the first time in its existence, the remnants of the reaper fleet felt fear.

They would have to capture these vessels, adapt to their technology and better themselves. Once they did... the universe would shake like never before.

But even as the reapers plotted, another force was at play, one as ancient as the reapers themselves. A foe met by few and thought to have been vanquished. After countless millennia in exile, they had returned to claim their rightful territory once more.

Far away, a strange anomaly shot towards the surface of the planet Ilos. In this galaxy, they could spread. Spread and conquer. The laws once set down by the ancient beings of light would bind them no more.

The universe would indeed shake, but in the end... In the end, even the reapers would perish.

They, after billions of years, would reign supreme once more.


Well... what'd you guys think? Be sure to tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, and leave any other comments you might have. They always help.

Thank you for reading. Next update should be in 7 - 10 days.

Thank you to LawrenceSnake, for taking the time to beta-read this chapter. I know I've said it a lot recently, but you're awesome. If you guys like this story, you should go check out his. It's very good.