"Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors."
― Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe
Journal entry 8267
"Just finished another "adventure" for my Eldritch patrons, how many have I done now, I've lost count of how many years have gone past, I have lived for so long I am tired all I want is to lie down and finally leave this mortal plane of existence, but I don't think I can even do that now, these "modification" I have received prevent me from doing so, the day I received them was when I was near death, I thought I could finally sleep and end up where ever I deserve to be but no, they brought me from the edge of death, and said we wouldn't want this to happen again, do we, so we are going to help you, with a little bit of Eldritch guidance, this is no guidance this is a curse I don't think I'm even human anymore, I certainly don't look it, as the days go by I seem to change little by little into one of their spawns, that is why I must stay in my Armor unless necessary, I do have my skin changer, however it was a gift from them so the longer I use it the more damage it does to me, hopefully this next universe won't need me to come out of it, but that seems highly doubtful, good thing I became a pessimist before I encountered these "Gods" otherwise this would be depressing.
(line break?)
*Fwoom* Callum steps out of the portal and walks into what can only be described as a sea of ash.
"What the hell has happened here, this looks like a bloody battlefield, I can't really say that it's more like a slaughter house."
As Callum looks around, the only things he can see is smoke, burnt ships, burnt buildings and hills of ash, as he scoops some ash into his hand, one of the AI's in his head speaks."
"Callum, we've just finished analysing this ash, and we have determined it is organic ash these were all once people, and clearly who, after they were fighting has the ability to completely vaporize them, as well as an entire planet I mean look around, there's nothing here apart from death."
It was true as Callum looked around there was no sign of life anywhere, the only thing remaining is the rubble, even that there was very little of it, however, as he was thinking a noise disrupted him, but it was a noise he was very familiar with, it was one he could immediately identify.
BWOOM
"Reapers, so I've reached another mass effect universe now, have I, well this has got so much more interesting," he says with a grin rising on his face, it only grew wider as he looked up and saw one of them heading towards him.
"Anomaly you appeared on my scanners suddenly with no explanation, and you do not identify as one of the native creatures of this planet or one of the species who are feebly trying to resistance their destiny, but you have the mark of the creators, identify yourself which creator do you serve."
"Creators? What does it mean by "one of the creators" did one of the Eldritch create the reapers in this universe, then why am I here then if they are" Callum thinks as he tries to process this information as he does one of the AI's speak.
"From processing what the machine has said, it does seem like one of the Eldritch gods have created them in this universe, why exactly even we have no idea, maybe we were sent here to ensure that the reapers succeed in this universe instead of the games where they lose."
Callum agrees with them as it is the only logical reason, however as he asks a simple question it throws, their logic out of the window, and their confusion begins to rise.
"Before I answer I want to know which god created you was it Yibb-tsll maybe Yog-Sothoth or Cthulhu which one was it then."
As Callum asked the Reapers light to from a bright red to a darker one as if it was angry.
"It was not done by one of the betrayer gods, we were created by the betrayed, since you did not know this, there is a high likelihood you are working with the betrayers for this you must be destroyed."
However, as soon as the Reaper finished, time seemed to freeze, Callum knew this because the Reaper would of immediately began shooting at him but didn't, so that left him with only one possibility.
"I want answers now Nyarlathtep, I've been in plenty of weird situations before and I've been in different mass effect universes be it the Canon Universe or people's own fan-fiction story's Universe and with all of them I've helped the reapers so what makes this one different."
As if he said the magic words Nyarlathtep, comes walking out from behind Callum wearing his trademark grin upon his face and his pristine suit.
"Well, well, well seems like our PUPPET thinks his in charge and is ordering me about now, do you want me to show you who's really in charge again, if I recall correctly, you found it quite agonising, as I brought you to your knees, or would you like to rephrase that."
"I might find it agonising but I'm certainly not going to rephrase it, if I did then it would mean I regret what I said, and I don't do regrets, even if the consequences of it are painful." He says defiantly crossing his arms over his chest.
"Hmm I'll let you off this time as I respect that you don't do regrets, so on to your question the reason you have been brought here is so that you help destroy the Reapers, now I know that might be confusing, however killing them won't be your only objective your also here to kill their creators as we are not allowed."
"Why do I have to kill the reapers and their creators if they are Eldritch themselves, but I assume something must have happened because he said they were betrayed, so I'm basically just here to finish off your dirty work, is that it."
"Yes, you are here, do finish off what we should of done, and the reason for that is because, they created twisted versions of us and try to claim that they were the same as us, the things they created, they like to call them mechanical Eldritch, they believe that they could infuse Eldritch power into machines. Yes, they may of gain sentience, but they were never true Eldritch and so we got rid of this heresy, we didn't kill them because they were so much weaker than us, maybe that's why they made the machines, anyway, we banished them to other universes that we did not occupy, but now they interfere with our plans."
"Right then, how the fuck am I meant to kill one of you, I mean I can kill the reapers no problem, but them, they may be weaker to you, to me they are still gods, so unless you plan on giving me more power to put me on par with them then I won't be able to do it."
"We don't not plan on giving you that much power, YET, our plan is for you is to kill them is during the last battle for this galaxy as they will appear then, and that is when you shall strike, with their own forces, we shall give you the knowledge on how to control the reapers and the reapers minions, so that you can destroy them, because they made a fatal error infusing Eldritch power into them, as we can only kill each other, and the combined powers of the reapers can destroy them."
"What happens after they are destroyed, will I have to destroy the reapers as well, or something else entirely.
"Once their masters are destroyed you can do whatever you like to them, destroy, salvage, keep as your own little personal army, it makes no difference to us what you do with them, think of it as a reward for all that you have done for us."
"Very well ,this seems like a good enough plan, but I still have questions, one. once this is over and time resumes what's going to happen to that bastard up there and two. in what era am I in as I highly doubt this is the Citadel era.
"Once time resumes, the Reaper shall fall under your command think of it as a gift to help you along the way, also this reaper is very special as he is one of the main ones, the Citadel races call him sovereign the vanguard of the Reaper forces, this will make your journey that more interesting, and the era you are currently in, is the Prothean one, more specially near the end of it so you have lots of time to change history before its even started, one final thing the exiled gods know something is here once time resumes they will know it has stopped, so avoid them at all costs as you won't be ready for them yet."
Once he finished, he had disappeared, and time resumed and instead of the normal red colour that comes out of reapers, a purple one had replaced it.
"Are you now under my command sovereign." Callum asks as he looks up at the Reaper just above him.
"Yes, my lord" replies sovereign as he begins to slow down his descent to the planet
"Was there anywhere you were going specially before coming down here"
"yes, my lord I was heading towards a planet that is holding protheans in what you would call Cryo chambers, we have a few agents there that have given me their location I was sent there to kill all who were there."
"What is the planet called then so we can head there as I have plans that might come into fruition if there are."
"In your tongue it would be called the Eden of the Empire."
"Well, let's go there, then I have a hunch on what it will be called in the future." Callum then begins walking towards the Reapers, who he will use for his personal transportation for many years.
47,822 years later
Mission title-Skyllian Blitz Retaliation
Officers leading the attack- mark wit (KIA), Dave Chaplin, Steven Fowler (MIA), Jane Shepard, Emily Grey (KIA).
Current loses-heavy
Reinforcements-unavailable
Mission success- unlikely
"Well, this mission just went FUBAR where the hell are those reinforcements were getting destroyed down here" shouts Jane as she finishes firing 5 bullets towards the batarians on the other, she then ducks behind cover.
"Private get me that radio from over, there mine's busted" she shouts to the private to her right and points to the radio next to the dead Officer
"Yes Ma'am" the private begins running over to the corpse as he reaches it a hail of bullets come towards him, hitting him in the arm and leg, the private ignores the pain and begins to limp towards Shepard, as he reaches her a bullet hits him in the head killing him instantly.
"Shit" says Jane in anger that another soldier has died in this forsaken battlefield, Jane then takes the radio from his hand and calls Command.
"Command where the fuck are those reinforcements that we asked for, we've suffered heavy losses and if we keep losing men at this rate we will lose this battle."
"Who are you, identify yourself"
"I'm officer Jane Shepard, currently in charge of squad 1 as officer mark wit has been killed, we are currently in front of their base."
"Well, officer Jane Shepard we cannot spare any more soldiers we didn't predict this amount of loss, so are recalling all soldiers to the shuttles and leaving this base, we've loss this battle." He says with an apologetic tone
"But if we leave now then we won't get another chance to attack them, and then all the soldiers that sacrificed their lives here was all for nothing then." She shouts back angrily.
"It still doesn't change the fact that we can't spare anymore, but we promise this we will get back at these four eyed bastards, tell your men to retreat and regroup with squad 3 they had some heavy weapons with them, and command doesn't them to be used against us as we retreat."
"Fine then" she says, but before she can order the retreat a missile flies past her and lands behind everyone disorienting them, as everyone is trying to get back up, the batarians attack killing everyone in their path.
As Jane gets some modicum of straight thinking, time seemed to slow down as she saw her entire squad being wiped out in front of her, anger began to rise within her as all the soldier's deaths, commands uselessness as well as her own because she believed she could have saved them, it was all let out in a bloody frenzy and instead of the normal blue colour of biotics it had turned blood red.
"What the fuck is that" shouted one of the batarians, but before any realised what was going on they were all slaughtered and she then made her way towards their base.
Jane spared no one, she ripped and rend anyone that was in her path, no matter what they did to stop her, she would break through, even as they closed their modified door or sacrificed their own men to blow her up nothing could slow her down.
"Sire, what are we going to do, she's torn through our defences and killed our best men, everyone is regrouping here so that they can surrender to her in the hopes they will be spared" said their commanding officer's servant.
"Filthy cowards the lot of them, I'll show them what happens to cowards who refuse to fight." Angrily Said by the leading batarian.
He then walks out from his command centre to the platform overlooking the scared batarians, but before he could threaten their lives, Jane bursts through the door, killing a few in the process, all the batarians get on their knees in surrender, except one.
"Who do you think you are disgusting human, my men might be scared, but not me without your biotics you are nothing but a Snive- "before he could finish his head explodes as he was shot from behind from his servant, who then drops the gun
"Please human spare us, we surrender if you spare our lives we will give you information about the hegemony" he says desperately
Jane was about to kill them when a hand grabs her shoulder and shakes her, as Jane was about to kill who ever touched her she saw the face of Anderson, her adoptive father.
"it's over now, we won thanks to you." Shepard then calms down and the red biotics disappear.
"What are you doing here, I thought you were in the ship" she asks
"I was but I came down with a group of marines, because your video camera was streaming the base battle and thought it was best to send a few people to make sure we win." Jane laughs bitterly
As soon as she finishes, marines come running in.
"What would you like us to do with them, Ma'am" ask one of the marines
"Why are they asking me, you're the higher rank" she asks Anderson.
"The admiralty board believes it's only right that you decide what happens to these men as like I said you did you win us this battle."
As Jane looks around and sees the weeping faces of the batarians all she feels is anger at what they have done to everyone.
"Torture them for information then string them up and announce to everyone that this is what we do to scum like them." As she finishes they all had a look of terror on their face then Anderson puts his hand on her again and says
"This isn't the right thing to do Jane these men have surrendered we must treat them accordingly"
"I am, these scums wouldn't give us the same treatment, all they would do to us is torture us, enslave us or kill us, why do they deserve better treatment when we know we wouldn't receive the same, think about all the children and what these fuckers would do to them." Jane answers back angrily
Anderson looks down for a few seconds, then looks at Shepard again and says, "your right, they wouldn't, I want to say we have to be better than them, but that's a foolish notion, they will never change, do what she says men this is what our families would want."
The marines then began rounding them up and placing them into shuttles so that when they reach alliance ships they can "procure" information from them.
A few years later
"What about Shepard, she's a spacer moved from ship to ship both parents were military, runs in the family" asks Hacket
"But are we sure she's the best candidate, the public named her the butcher of Torfan for god sake" says Udina
"Yes, I believe she is, she may of gain that title, but it sounds worse than it is the public love her for it, they wanted someone who gets the job done and by destroying that base, single handed she saved many marine's life, so she has the respect of the public as well as the men, so yes she is the best candidate" Anderson answers back
"I wasn't trying to take away her accomplishments away from her, or disagree what she did, my concern is that some people may use her title against her, but if you're confident in her then so am I, I'll make the call then." Udina replied back
SSV Normandy
Commander Jane Shepard begins walking to the cockpit of the new ship whilst the pilot announces the preparation for the jump
"The relay is in sight, transmission sequence activated, calculating transit, mass and destination, relay starting up be prepared we about to jump and approach run has begun, jumping soon." Comments the ship's pilot
Boom
"Thrusters check, navigation check, heat emissions check, Dav could you go check compartment 4, its says it's in the green but the jump didn't feel right." Says joker
"Yeah okay on my way."
"Jump time was good, your captain will be pleased" says Nihlus who then walks away
"Jack ass" joker comments silently
"A spectre just gave you a compliment on your skills and you insult him for it, that makes no sense" says kaiden
"I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a pin sized target, that's more than good its fucking excellent, besides spectres are trouble it always seem to follow them so there's more to this trip, call me paranoid" Jane then walks into the room
"You are paranoid the council helped build this ship they have a right to make sure their investment is fine." Kaiden then looks towards the commander and asks
"Commander surely you agree with me and not this nut bag for thinking something else is going on."
"I agree with joker, something else is going on here and not being told about it pisses me off, I would of thought Anderson would tell me something," she replies back with a little bit of anger in her voice."
Kaiden pulls a Shocked face and then asks, "really commander you actually thing somethi-." But before he could finish, the commander gives him a look that says continue with that thought I dare you.
"Sorry, Commander" replies kaiden who's voice is a little bit quieter.
Anderson's voice comes on and asks for a report and to link up with a com buoy and to send Shepard down to the debriefing room, as she begins the walking down there, every time a soldier saw her they gave her a crisp salute and every time they did she would have a small smile on her face. Before she reached the debriefing room, she ran into her good friend Chakwas and the too friendly Corporal, as she finishes talking she gets in the room and sees Anderson and Nihlus.
As they begin talking about why they are here, someone else begins to make their move.
(line break?)
Eden prime
"Callum the SSV Normandy has come out of their jump, they are near the planet now." Says an AI
"Have they received the bitch's transmission yet"
"No, they have not, the commander is walking down to the room now"
"Is it male or Female"
"Female"
"Of course, it is, why would it be anything different" as he is about to rub his eyes, he realises he's still got his helmet on, and feels a bit silly
"Has sovereign and Saren reached the planet yet, they would of most likely send the geth in first."
"Yes, Saren it currently waiting where Nihlus will be where he is normally killed, and sovereign is currently searching for any Gods nearby"
"Okay order any geth in the area to kill the dock worker, he serves no purpose he is merely an annoyance."
"What about Ashley, once she sends the message do we kill her or leave her alive"
"Leave her alive, she might prove useful if she doesn't then we can just turn her into something better than the original, other than that, leave it as it is, if anything else needs to change I'll say." Callum then begins to walk towards a ridge that looks over where Saren is stationed.
10 minutes later
"Where's the rest of your squad are any injured a lot of it was scrambled there was only small parts that we could listen to." Asks Jane looking behind Ashley to see if any more people were hiding
"No Ma'am the rest of them were killed by the Geth, but I have noticed something weird about them, from the few videos and pictures I've seen the Geth have white lights these geth have purple for some reason." Replies Ashley
"Well they haven't been seen for many years, so maybe they've upgraded them, and the light has something to do with it or something to do with the quarian's as they haven't been seen for a couple of years since they all just disappeared, speculation won't help, come with us Williams were going to need all the help we can get."
"Okay commander, but I think I know where the Geth are heading its most likely where the beacon is."
"How do you know about that" Shepard asks with a slight edge to her voice
"The commanding officer at the time briefed the squad leaders on what we found and that we must protect it until the council forces arrives"
Shepard nods her head, as that does seem very likely, after that they start heading towards the space port where they see the body of a dead dock worker but before they could investigate they heard a bang.
Spaceport
"Saren what are you doing here I thought you were busy doing another assignment in the terminus system." Nihlus with slight shock in his voice
"The assignment was put on hold the council thought you might need a little bit of help here, seems like you might need it since there's so many geth." Replies Saren
"Indeed I do, it seems like they sent an entire army here to secure the beacon I was almost killed a few times." He turns to look at the geth ship in the distance, unknown to him Saren turns to face him and brings a gun and points it at him and says
"I wouldn't worry about that my master wants you alive"
"Wha- "but before he could wonder what he meant Saren shot him and he fell to the ground, as a squad of Geth began walking to him to collect Nihlus body Saren turns and sees Shepard and her squad, he then runs before they can shoot him, with a few of the geth covering his escape and the geth collecting the body.
Shepard's POV
"What the hell is Saren doing here and why is the geth not shooting him" asks Kaiden
"Doesn't matter why, his obviously sided with them for some reason shoot him" replies Shepard as she begins shooting at Saren and the geth, she then notices the geth carrying a dead body and realises it Nihlus.
"They have Nihlus body stop them." Shepard's squad begins to slowly lower the number of the geth defending the body carriers, however more came to support them and they got away,
"FUCK, they got away, why the bloody hell would they want his body" shouts Shepard as she gets behind cover,
"I have no idea, but I can only assume they want to perform their fucked-up experiments on him, thankfully his dead." Replies Ashley
After what seemed like ages the squad was able to destroy all geth at the spaceport, then everyone turned to look at the geth ship in the sky that seemed to eclipse any ship in the alliance or citadel fleet.
"How the hell have the geth manage to create a ship that big and there's only one of them so that ship must have transported all these geth." As Shepard finished that sentence Kaiden and Ashley noticed two cloaked figures near Shepard, they then revealed, themselves but before Kaiden and Ashley could warn the commander, two large rounds hit both geth in the head and completely wiped them out.
"What the shit, who fired that." Shepard asks as she turns around to see if it was Kaiden or Ashley, but it wasn't she was confused until she saw a flash of light in the corner of her eye as she turned to see where it came from It had disappeared.
"Let's get moving I want to reach the beacon before Saren and his geth get to it and hopefully our mysterious sniper is friendly" they then all proceeded to the tram station where they took one to the Beacons location.
The Hill
"Damn it took one too many shots there, I guess I'm a little rusty after all these years."
"You took 2 shots and killed 2 targets how does that mean your rusty by most peoples standards that's excellent"
"Yeah but I've been alive for a long time I should have been able kill both with one bullet, but at least its practise all the same, so I know where my combat ability is at." Callum then begins to make his way to his ship where his next destination is the citadel
The Beacons location
"Stop running you coward, fight us like a proper turian" Shepard shouts as she tries hitting Saren as he is running away, but can't since the geth have them pinned down.
"Kaiden, throw an overload at the two geth in front of us then cast reave on the left, Ashley then throw a grenade at the one on the left, it should it the power lines which in turn should hit the remaining geth."
They follow Shepard's orders to the letter, however the power lines didn't hit all the geth so they all focused fire on the few remaining ones, after a few seconds, they were destroyed, and Ashley begins making her way towards the beacon.
"It wasn't like this when we dug it up, something must have caused it to be activated maybe Saren did something" as Ashley is about to touch the beacon fully awakens and begins dragging Ashley closer, however Shepard then pushes her away and takes her place, receiving the prothean knowledge, but something was there that wasn't put there after its initial construction, the squad then carry's her to the Normandy and into the med bay.
Citadel Relay
"Has Shepard reached the med bay yet, and if so how far along in the examination is chalwas."
"yes, she's reached the med bay, chakwas is currently scanning her brain."
"good she should be asleep until they reach the citadel, gives me times to set up a few things, and tell sovereign to begin the transformation process once its complete tell him to report back, I want to see if my cybernetics in Nihlus make him a mindless slave or one with some free thought."
Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to whoever is reading this chapter, I apologies if this seems rushed but I think we all want to get to the more interesting bits of the game, but if you don't want it rushed tell me as I can then change this chapter and know what to do for future chapters. Other than that have a good day.