They were the last hope of their people. The Reapers had destroyed everything in the Milky Way. The last transmission sent by their brothers and sisters confirmed as much. Their modified ships would have to trek solemnly through the black, carving a path through the murky depths of dark space to a neighbouring galaxy they'd chosen for the rebirth of their civilisation. They would linger in stasis for the duration of the trip, conserving energy reserves for the ships to make it through the nothingness. Meanwhile, the advanced ship systems would keep a watchful eye over them, as well as conducting massive amounts of research, calculating various possibilities, contingency plans, and all manners of things that would help them in the future.

Thus, spending hundreds of years drifting through space would provide more than enough time for all sorts of breakthroughs, making their people more likely to survive any threat. Of course, if the Reapers were already preparing an ambush in the promised land, there would be no future. There would be no rebirth. There would be no them.

Providing that didn't happen, their plan would be to find a quiet planet suitable for their needs, and commence rebuilding. As this was happening, the few stealth frigates that were present in the evacuation fleet, having been designed after the ship of the infamous Commander Shepard, would scout out nearby systems. The presence of mass relays would confirm the existence of the Reapers in the new galaxy, and that there were indeed advanced species around that were being nurtured for the coming harvest. Of course, the absence of relays wouldn't necessarily mean there was nobody around; just that travel would be significantly slower, and that various races might possess radically different technologies from that of the so called "Reaper Legacy" techs.

That being said, the objective would remain the same. Observe any encountered races, rebuild, and once the time was right, make contact. They would unite the people of this galaxy against the Reaper threat, and ensure no more cycles occurred. The methods they'd have to use to achieve this goal were of no concern to them, if they had to make war on someone to make them see the truth, so be it. Survival was at stake, and nobody would get in the way. Every single one of them agreed that the ends justified the means in their unique situation.

- 3444, Exodus Fleet, Unknown System, Unknown Cluster, New Galaxy -

After a seemingly eternal amount of time drifting through dark space, the systems began awakening them from their sleep. One by one, they rose from their slumber. The lights on board the ships flickered and began emanating soft glows, being set on the power conservation setting as the fleet was reportedly low on energy reserves. The crews were already in a flurry, making all sorts of preparations for landfall.

They'd been in the new galaxy for weeks, but it wasn't until now that they found a suitable system. It had a radiant blue-hued gas giant, containing helium-3 in its upper atmosphere, which would act as fuel for the ships' conventional drives, an asteroid belt rich in element zero, several lifeless planets composed of valuable metals, and a tiny garden moon in orbit of one of these barren worlds. The system's sun bathed it in a kind, glowing light whose temperatures were adequate for life. The atmosphere was composed of a standard nitrogen/oxygen mix, much like many of the garden worlds back home. It was a truly idyllic setting.

- A few weeks later -

After a few weeks of setting up important infrastructure, the first of the stealth frigates was repaired, refuelled and retrofitted. There were of course many retrofits still yet to come, seeing as none of the advanced upgrades could be installed until more resources were mined. The frigate, dubbed the "Castamere" was due back in about a few months' time. In the event of an emergency, the Quantum Entanglement Communicator could be used to contact base. Reports would likewise be sent through the QEC, as this galaxy's communication buoy network was far from being set up.

The Castamere was nicknamed such by some gung-ho marine that had served on it for a short period during the Reaper war. The frigate hadn't seen any actual combat (its missions involved the deployment of ground teams only), and thus the lack of scars ensured it had been chosen for the installation of a stealth drive, and the subsequent journey across the universe. The name Castamere had stayed with the ship ever since, even though the crew didn't really understand why it was named such. The long dead marine had once explained, saying something about bad luck, and recounting the Castamere's past missions, where most of the ground teams never made it out alive. The Captain of the ship was appropriately nicknamed the "Lord of Castamere," and it had similarly stayed with him.

The crew of the ship had to hope the its reputation had been given a clean slate, because the Castamere's mission was only just beginning…

- A week later -

They'd been scouting systems for a week without incident. The most interesting thing that happened to the Castamere so far was watching a comet collide with a gas giant; in other words, nothing worth their immediate attention. Until now.

The Castamere was running another one of her routine sensor sweeps on a nearby system when something caught their eye. Sensors showed what appeared to be a garden planet not too far away from the system's sun. But that wasn't the most interesting reading they picked up. There was a faint signal coming from the planet.

"Engage stealth systems, our presence must not be detected," commanded the one known as Lord, the Captain of the ship.

His underlings complied, and soon a read-out appeared on the screen in the CIC with the heat-sink timer. They'd have to vent their heat storage tanks before the timer ran out; else they'd be risking hull integrity and the crew.

This gave the Castamere a limited window of opportunity to approach the planet, conduct necessary scans, and leave before anyone noticed. But seeing as they'd be there only for a few hours tops, the timer shouldn't even be a problem in the slightest.

As they made their approach, the sensors revealed something even more worrying. Thermal imaging identified several chunks of debris in orbit, which were still relatively warm. This was a tell-tale indicator of a very recent shipwreck.

"Send out the recon drones, have them comb the debris for anything worthy of note," ordered Lord once again.

"Understood, sending drones," retorted one of the crew.

They did not want to risk the Castamere in the space junk, seeing as it could contain hidden mines and other similar traps.

After a few minutes, one of the crew members ran up to the Captain, data-pad in hand. "Captain, sir! The drones have found something… something you'll want to see."

He took the pad in his massive hand and regarded it with a stony glare. As the crewman scampered off, the "Lord of Castamere" stood in silence for a moment, processing the data before him.

The first image showed several suited-up bodies floating in space… Human bodies… They'd clearly run out of oxygen, as a subsequent photograph showed one of their faces through the helmet, the dead little eyes locked in a thousand-yard stare.

With growing apprehension, Lord cycled through the rest of the images. Each showed a floating corpse or a piece of the destroyed ship's hull. Expecting to see more of the same in the last recon image, he was shocked when he saw something entirely unexpected.

It was another large piece of white hull, yet by far the most frightening. There were several circular holes in the hull piece, where escape pods had evidently parted with it. But one of these pods never got out. It was jammed by warped metal plates, left to sit in the wreck while its compatriots zoomed away to safety to the garden planet below. On the front of the pod, was the diamond logo of Cerberus…


Lord had assembled his officers in the CIC war room. They were all gathered around the conference table, talking softly to each other. Most of the crew members were the same species, but a few were Alliance Infiltration Units. No doubt the AIUs would be useful for their unique talents, and their technology was a valuable research investment. During the hundreds of years drifting through dark space, the on-board systems of the ships devised new upgrades for the AIUs, allowing them to blend in more easily, move more fluidly, and so much more.

Finally, he stood up, silencing the crew. "Attention crew. As you all know, we have a very serious situation developing here. At 0800 Standard Galactic Time, we received an unintelligible transmission from this planet. Upon closer inspection, we found debris from a shipwreck. This ship belonged to Cerberus," he paused to let the statement sink in, and continued "There may be several escape pods that managed to touch down on this planet's surface, and it is our duty to hunt the Cerberus operatives down."

He paused yet again, taking a long hard look at the attentive faces looking up at him. "Cerberus are traitors to humanity. They may very well be responsible for our defeat in the Milky Way. We cannot allow them to incite the same madness in this galaxy, that is certain. So, after conducting planetary scans, recon sweeps and making a report to Cencom, the following course of action shall be taken."

Lord brought up the tactical hologram of the planet below them, highlighting several areas for his crew to look at. "These," he said, pointing "are the areas where the pods crashed. We have counted two crash sites so far. Our recon drones are continuously sweeping the planet for any further readings. These other areas here are cities belonging to the indigenous population. They have not advanced beyond the "Middle Age" tech period that was seen on Earth. As a matter of fact, the planet's population is human. Our cloaked recon drones show as much." He said, cycling through the displays until he came to an up-close photo of a human settlement.

"This will make the hunt for Cerberus significantly harder, however I believe we'll be able to put our AIUs and other technologies to good use. I have already prepared a squad roster for maximum unit cohesion. You will find all relevant information being transmitted to your omni-tools right now. Gather your squads in the shuttle bay in one hour."

- One hour later -

Sure enough, all squads were present and accounted for in the shuttle bay in exactly one hour. The Lord liked precision. He paced along the neat, organised rows of infiltrators being deployed to the planet below, inspecting their gear. Each infiltrator carried two weapons of choice that were of the old design. The lack of infrastructure and materials to produce the standard thermal clip in reliable quantities ensured that all weapons were downgraded to the ancient overheat mechanism. It increased the likelihood of malfunctions, but then again the weapon didn't need any "reloading."

"Captain Lord, we are ready to go!" one of the infiltrators yelled. The Captain didn't even mind anymore when people used the meaningless nickname on him. It was like calling his ship the Castamere; no significance whatsoever. That wasn't her real name, and neither was Lord his one. If the crew wanted to call them that, fine, let it be.

"Acknowledged, you are clear to commence mission. Ensure Cerberus ends here!" And with that, he exited the shuttle bay.

The troops quickly piled into the shuttlecraft in an orderly fashion, closing the hatches behind them. The hangar doors slid down, revealing the beauty of the planet below. It was deep blue and emerald green, untouched by any industrial civilisation. The gun-metal grey of the Castamere was a stark contrast to the radiant world.


Lord was making his way back to the CIC, his footfalls causing dull thuds on the metal floor, when a crewman holding yet another datapad ran up to him.

"Captain, the drones have made another important discovery," he stated, handing him the datapad.

Lord glanced down at the warm, orange glow of the device, carefully studying the readout. One of the more sensitive recon drones did another pass over the hull with the blocked escape pod, detecting a body inside. It was curled up in the fetal position in the corner, and was supposedly still warm, hence alive. This presented an excellent opportunity to capture and interrogate an enemy prisoner. If handled smartly, the captive might even give up his information willingly.

"Prepare a shuttle. I want a squad of engineers to cut open the hull and retrieve this man. Have them assume the guise of Cerberus personnel, and ensure the prisoner sees only what he wants to see..."


A/N: And here's the mysterious other faction. Who might it be? Stick around and you'll find out...

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