Chapter Two: Hypothesis

"Joker, set a course for Earth. We need to make a pickup." Shepard ordered his helmsman, making sure to hold on to a console or a wall when they passed through a Mass Relay. After a few seconds of the ship vibrating from the sheer speed of interstellar travel, they exited in the Serpent Nebula.

"What are we picking up, sir?" Joker asked.

"A few things, but to be blunt… a suit of armor, about 420 hours of video logs, and a book."

"May I ask of what purpose do these items serve?" The disembodied voice of EDI (aka Tricia Helfer) asked from the console to Joker's left, her avatar appearing as a simple blue sphere.

"Not yet, but I will explain it soon." Shepard grabbed Joker's chair as they jumped into the next Mass Relay. "EDI, could you please ask for Tali, Professor Solus, Garrus Vakarian, and Ms. Lawson to the Comm. Room, please."

"Yes, sir." The A.I. replied.

"Tell me when we are in orbit, Joker." He answered with a salute without taking his eyes of the helm.

--

By the time Shepard entered the Briefing Room, the others were all accounted for. Miranda and Garrus stood to the left while Tali and Mordin stood opposite. EDI's avatar appeared in the center of the table, somewhat eager to hear what Shepard had to say.

"First things first." Shepard looked to Miranda, she was still bandaged up from her fight with the Collectors. "Everything you hear in this meeting stays in here. I don't need your boss's input on this at all."

"It depends on what this is about." Miranda smirked while speaking.

"I know what this is about." Garrus leaned forward and tapped to the gold two-headed eagle on his right forearm, making a slight ping. "You couldn't wait more than a week of being back to start up your little project again."

"Are you really going to show us the stuff this time?" Tali asked in an excited tone. "I know we are going to your home world for some reason and you always said--" Shepard nodded to her, making Tali chuckle softly while cracking her knuckles.

"Turian and Quarian reactions suggest they have already been debriefed. But Quarian here only two days and Vakarian four, perhaps this transpired on the Normandy SR-1." Mordin talked aloud trying to decipher the situation.

"That's right Mordin, they were involved two years ago. But the project never got off the ground."

"Are you gonna fill us in?" Miranda asked with impatience in her voice.

"Fine…" Shepard activated the hologram interface console on the far side of the table and fed in a red isolinear chip. The room went dark as the image of the Normandy was replaced with a floating cube made up of television screens. One by one they played footage from the exterior of a small Alliance vessel, and others showed footage of unknown origin. They could make out men in large suits of blue armor fighting on a multitude of worlds, from jungle to volcanic, from gothic cities to arid deserts. "Six years ago, I served as the Security Officer on an Alliance exploration vessel called the SSV Prometheus. We were sent on a two year mission to explore the Maroon Sea cluster, but three weeks in something happened that changed our lives forever." Shepard switched all of the screens on the cube to show the exterior and interior footage of what happened next. "A temporal rift thirty-six kilometers in diameter opened right in front of us, linking our space-time to the same point only 38,000 years in the future. It was deliberately opened by a man we only know as 'The Commissar' as a warning to us." Shepard then played the message of the man in the green uniform, surrounding the image with a frame of smaller screens of the six ships battling at 'knife fight' range. Miranda was in awe of it all, humanity in such a state when people look like the man on the screen. Mordin was silent, quickly taking in all of the information with his brilliant, calculating mind. Then the 'Ultramarines' intervened, causing the wreckage to go through the rift, the footage stopped after that. The lights went back on, and a separate set of holograms appeared. "I took my team to inspect the wreckage of the aft section, and there were no people in that section when it went through. But, we found a suit of armor that was meant to fit an 8-ft tall man, a book, and a few hours of video."

"Eight feet, you're kidding right?" Miranda was hesitant to believe what Shepard said.

"These are not normal humans, but super soldiers called Space Marines. I can't go into too many details without confusing you, because it's all linked. Basically…" Shepard thought hard about how to word it. "Humanity in the 41st millennium is run on a religion, an unwavering obedience to a man called the Emperor. Ten thousand years before this message was sent, this Emperor created the Space Marines. They were so superior to humans that they could save us from utter destruction at the hands of armies of evil aliens. All we know is that just as they were about to succeed, the Emperor's trusted advisor fell to the 'Chaos Gods' and took half of the Space Marines as his followers. This war had been going on since, and humanity then stood surrounded by traitors, anarchists, and all types of aliens."

"Not to be offensive, Commander, but are any of the Council races in this conflict?" Mordin asked quickly.

"There's where it gets strange. No signs of the asari, batarians, geth, turians, salarians, volus, elcor, quarians, or even any evidence of the Mass Relays or the Citadel at all." Shepard replied.

"38,000 years is a long time, unfortunately that bears ill news for non-humans." Garrus added.

"And where did you get all of this information?" Miranda crossed her arms, grimacing when she lifted her left arm.

"We found 420 hours of footage, some of it was taken from the HUDs of frontline troopers, some news footage from around the galaxy, some were personal logs, and some served as video tutorials for constructing weapons and armor." Shepard turned off all of the holograms and removed the red chip.

"Commander we are in orbit of Earth. Anything further, sir?" Joker asked over the intercom.

"Not yet, Joker, but I'll keep you posted."

"Anyway, I need a new suit, and reverse engineering this Space Marine Power Armor is my best armor. We could also use plenty of tech against the Collectors: weapons, improved shields and powers, for six years I've been fighting red tape for a chance at this. We were close to a breakthrough when I took down Saren, and now in the face of a larger threat I swear I will make this happen."

"As always, you lead I follow." Garrus stood tall as he pledged his allegiance in his friend.

"As will I, Commander." Tali added.

"Yes very interested. Will need copies of video files and inspect suit as soon as possible." Mordin quickly stated.

"Fine, I'll help you. I owe you for help me with my sister." Miranda said.