Present age
Krogan DMZ
Years after the Krogan rebellions, a Demilitarisation zone had been constructed around the Krogan home world of Tuchanka. To prevent further conflict the species had been forbidden from constructing any known military presence in the form of ships or transport craft, but they were allowed to continue their clan tradition upon their home world under close inspection from the rest of the galaxy.
As is keeping with tradition, a Salarian vessel sat in orbit over the Krogan home world. Its hull cloaked from radar by advance stealth technology, not that the Krogans had the technology or infrastructure to do anything about it to begin with.
Sitting back almost lazily in the vessel, several Salarian naval men went about their daily business monitoring activity on the planet below. Taking notes of Krogan activity and clan numbers as well as monitoring the distant relay for any activity. All traffic in and out of the relay was to be monitored, regardless of the vessels intent.
But something was wrong, suddenly the normally blue glow of the relay changed to a deep menacing red glow that instantly caught everyone's attention. That wasn't normal activity, something was seriously wrong.
In response the Salarian vessel left Tuchankas orbit and went to investigate the anomaly, unaware of a tear in the fabric of space and time opening behind their vessel and expelling a dreadnaught class vessel into the system.
Cerberus golden eyes locked onto the retreating vessel, before a flash of pinkish purple flew from the dreadnaughts hull and raced after the Salarian ship. The Salarians never knew what hit them as a bolt of boiling plasma energy slammed into their vessel and ripped through the hull, the small vessel imploded upon itself as atmosphere tore the ship's hull to ribbons as it was sucked into the vacuum of space.
Looking at the destruction, Cerberus flared his wings before diving down to the barren and scared surface of the radioactive dust ball that Krogans call home. Cerberus was late, he was supposed to be here hours ago to meet a particular Krogan battlemaster. Damn political matters made him late in dealing with the other Guardians.
Elsewhere in the Terminus system…
Mass Accelerators howled ferociously in a hailstorm of bullets at raddled interior of the pirate frigate, the rusty walls were being pelted with high velocity projectiles the size of grain of sand that held the kinetic energy to penetrate half an inch of steel.
The four eyed forms of Batarians cursed and spluttered over the roar of their weaponry, all eyes looking down range at the approaching bolts of plasma energy hurling towards them in bright flashes of burning death.
A Batarian cried out as boiling plasma bypassed his kinetic barriers and splattered against his outdated combat armour, the plasma began eating away like acid at metal and flesh. Leaving the poor privateer writhing in agony on the floor until he finally died from thermal shock.
"Pull back!" yelled a Turian in full combat armour, firing a long burst downrange with his assault rifle prompting the enemy to take cover behind a supply crate.
Batarians and Turians alike shuffled backwards with weapons blazing, with everyone trying desperately to get into the next room and out of firing range of the enemy.
Once behind a blast door, the Turian commander slammed a fist on the emergency button causing a 3 inch plate of solid metal to slam over the door way. Cutting the intruders off from the rest of the ship, or so he thought until part of the blast door began to glow.
"Someone vent the atmosphere in that room!" yelled the Turian into his radio, rifle trained on the glowing mass of metal as it began to grow.
"Venting atmosphere" yelled someone in reply over the radio, just as a glowing blade of pinkish purple plasma burst through the glowing metal.
"I'm telling you its RACHNI!" bellowed someone in the room in fear.
"That's not Rachni, Rachni don't use gun!" snarled the Turian in anger before moving back as the glowing blade began to slowly move, slicing through the blast door.
Several troopers abandoned the room and ran away deeper into the ship, leaving half a dozen Batarians and Turians to guard the door.
The enemy had just came out of nowhere, no warning or demand, the captain had only been able to warn the crew to brace for hostiles when their ship had been violently thrown to the side and boarding craft had latched onto the hull.
Comms chatter before the attack was filed with the fearful cries of Rachni, but the Turian Commander knew that was impossible. The Rachni have been extinct for over 2000 years, meaning who ever this was attacking them was likely either a new species or some new special anti-Slaver's task group deployed by the Citadel council.
The Turian commander took a few steps back, swapping his assault rifle for a shotgun in the process. His eyes were locked on the door way, watching the blade of plasma cut through the metal with ease.
Moving to the back of the crowd, the Turian raised his shotgun and keyed in its rocket launcher function. Creating a large slug of heavy metal form in his weapons barrel primed to launch out and kill something.
Suddenly, the blades disappeared leaving the room in anxious silence.
"All units be advised, Rachni presence confir… OPEN FIRE!" yelled a panicked filled voice of a Batarian over the comms before gunfire filled the channel as it went silent.
As the Turian commander heard the news, the blast door ahead of him exploded and in a blinding flash of light, several humanoid Mechs stormed into the room weapons blazing. The defended were outgunned and outclassed by the specialised fighting machines, who easily mowed down the defenders in a hail storm of plasma bolts. As the fighting penetrated deeper into the ships interior, the partly armoured form of a Rachni Brood warrior stepped into the room and surveyed the dead bodies calmly before looking to a Mech.
The Mech gave a sharp Turian like salute before gesturing for the Rachni to follow, raising its rifle in preparation for trouble.
Down in the deck below all the fighting in the cold dark cargo bay, dozens of people sat crammed into a smelly dark room with their limbs shackled with chains and explosive collars secured tightly around their necks. One wrong move on their part, and their captors would activate collars.
Multiple species sat on the floor looking sadden and beaten, there were Asari, Salarians and even a Quarian or two as well as some young looking Turians fresh out of combat school. Everyone was beaten, bloodied and had the same dark and sadden look on their face as they avoided the 4 eyed gaze of the Batarian Slaver standing watch over them.
The Batarian sat at a table, bottle of alcohol in one hand and shotgun in the other which he would occasionally wave at the newest batch of slaves if they stared at him to long. They had an easy haul recently, a few merchant vessels trading to close to the Terminus, a rare Quarian pilgrim digging about in Batarian territory and of course a Turian patrol which was unprepared for a pirate raid on their vessel.
All in all a good haul of nearly 40 new slaves to be sold for a hefty price back home, the Batarian grinned as he thought of all the credits he'll fetch for the Quarians, exotic specimens always caught a hefty price from buyers.
Suddenly the Slaver frowned as his Omni tool notified him of an incoming message, looking annoyed the Batarian lowered his drink and activated the message.
As the orange holographic lights encased his arm, a screen materialised and the crackle of mass accelerators firing like mad filled the air.
"WERE UNDER ATTACK! AGHH!" bellowed a Turian through the communication screen, his eyes wide in terror before something spatted against him and he scream as acid ate away at his body.
"WHAT!" bellowed the Batarian in alarm, standing upright and knocking the table over in the process.
As he stood, the entrance to the room flew open and something bounced into the room. Grabbing a slave, the Batarian used one of the Quarian as a shield as a great bang and blinding flash stunned everyone present. All except the Batarian who had braced for the mild explosion.
Holding his shotgun to his hostages head, the Slaver watched several sleek armoured Mechs storm into the room with unrecognisable weapons.
"GETH!" bellowed the other Quarian slave in the room, followed by panic screams and yells as those still recovering from the stun grenade were greeted by the sight of unrecognizable
"Hostile identified, drop your weapon" chimed a very mechanical like voice from one of the Geth, its flash light like eye transfixed on the Slaver and his hostage.
"In your dreams synthetic" snarled the Batarian shoving his shotgun against the Quarians chin, the Geth shifted about almost nervously and then someone else yelled out in fear as another form entered the room.
"Let prisoner go!" this voice was also synthetic, but unlike the Geth it originated from the organic form of a partly armoured Rachni Brood warrior who marched into the room looking seriously pissed off.
The Batarian was speechless for a moment, and that was all the time the Geth needed. The Slaver suddenly went stiff as a burning sound filled the air, and the Quarian was tackled to the ground by an invisible force as a blade of plasma exploded from the Slavers chest.
The blade was pulled away, allowing the Slavers corpse to collapse limply to the ground and revealing another Geth slowly materialising from thin air with said sword in hand. The blade was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, with a dual blade design and unusual grip piece that looked impractical to some decree, yet to a professional it would make for a dangerous stabbing and slashing weapon.
"Hostiles neutralized, proceeded to extract civilians" chimed the Geth platform as it activated a red Omni tool and waved it towards the rows of shackled slaves.
Distinct beeps filled the air as the collars disarmed and promptly fell from their victim's necks much to everyone's confusion.
Then the Rachni stepped forward, surveying everyone closely before a voice box on its neck crackled to life.
"Safe now, is anyone hurt?" sung a voice filled with concern as the Rachni took in the battered forms of the former slaves.
Stunned silence filled the air as everyone looked at the Geth and Rachni standing in the room, no one was sure what was going on.
Meanwhile on the other side of the galaxy, Liara T'soni twitched and shuddered upon the cold surface of the floor. Her arms and legs were clutched close to her chest and her eyes lids quivered violently, if anyone walk into the room at that moment they would assume the young Asari was dying or something worse.
But the truth was more subtle, deep inside Liara's mind. The young Asari was watching on helplessly as cities were levelled by beams of red energy falling from the sky, humans. Or what she assumed to be humans scattered through the streets crying out in fear as dark shadows fell upon the land.
Suddenly and without any signs of warning, Liara bolted upright, eyes snapping open wide with fear as she gasped for breath.
The young archaeologist slowly rose to her feat, hand pressed against her skull as a pounding migrame made itself know.
Slumping into a chair, Liara groaned softly in pain and didn't notice the door to her room sudden swish open almost silently. Allowing a familiar mechanical figure to enter the room.
"Commander" sounded a synthetic voice, causing Liara to look up in surprise at platform 17333 who stood motionless before her.
"Do you required medical assistance Commander?" asked the Mech, its glass visor of a face shifting to one of childish concern.
"I'm… fine" managed to say Liara quietly, honestly she wasn't fine. Between the pain in her head and the clouded images of horrifying machines and images of war lingered in her mind.
Activating its red version of an Omni tool, the Mech scanned Liara briefly despite her words before typing away momentarily as it analysed the results. After a few minutes of silence and annoyed staring on Liara's part, the Mech stood to attention once more.
"Scans reveal significant brain activity resulting from exposure to a Human data fragment, medical precautions include intake of liquids and bed rest" said 17333 bluntly, resulting in Liara rolling her eyes at the machine standing before her.
"Thanks you… was there any reason you sought me out?" asked Liara slowly, head still throbbing softly with pain that was slowly going away.
"Affirmative, we are 30 minutes away from destination, advise preparation for combat" stated 17333, its childish facial lines turning a rather mechanical seriousness as it spoke.
"Combat?!" Liara sat upright in alarm at those words, that wasn't something she wanted to hear right now in her state.
"Scans indicate STG vessel has docked with derelict Rachni dreadnaught, analysis indicates Salarian specialist likely after retrieval of unborn Rachni queen for unethical experimentation" Liara fell backwards in her chair, minds processing this disturbing and unforeseen obstacle she had encountered.
"Orders Commander?" Liara looked at the machine standing in front of her expectantly, it was such a strange experience being referred to as a Commander, it sounded like she had some form of power of influence over something.
"What does your programming advice 17333?" asked Liara, desperate for some input on this seemingly military matter. She was a partially trained Asari commando, while being taught how to use her biotic potential for combat, she had no real grasp on the tactical side of things nor any first hand battlefield experience.
Platform 17333 tilted its head in an odd manner before activating its Omni tool as it began to speak.
"First jam STG communication, possibly hack enemy systems to avoid naval combat, secondly boarded craft with small and quick team of 3 individuals to retrieve Unborn Rachni from central chamber" as the machine spoke, a red hologram of the sleek Salarian vessel appeared hovering in the air as well as the larger and bulky looking Rachni warship.
Liara watched as a large chamber was highlighted in the centre of the derelict dreadnaught, she suspected that is where they would find the Rachni queen. But the dreadnaught was truly huge, it would take a long time to reach the centre and it was unknown how long the STG had been here investigating the ship.
"Do what you must… But I don't have any combat gear?" stated Liara, 17333 looked to the door in reply.
"This vessel was stocked with the necessary combat equipment for such operations, you shall find supplies in the cargo bay below" with that the Mech saluted her before exiting the room, leaving her in silence once more.
A few minutes later, Liara stood in the cargo bay with her Rachni 'body guards' standing near the entrance elevator while several Engineering platforms went about the room preparing a shuttle of unknown design for transport.
Liara tried to block this all out as she hastily tried to pull on a suit of body armour over her bare skin. It was a strange suit comprised of white and gold material, there were several strands of what she assumed to be synthetic muscle fibre for additional strength but their appeared to be no solid plates ceramic or metal for additional protection.
Fastening the combat suit to her body, Liara activated the suits internal systems and was surprised when several plates of metal hovered into the air and sat hovering above various areas of her body almost like Tech Armour.
"This is, different" she muttered, moving her arm about and watching the armour plates hover an inch above her form, moving slightly to prevent contact with other plates allowing for perfect arcs of movement.
"Commander" Liara jumped slightly as the voice sprang out from behind her, causing her to whirl around to be faced with a Combat platform covered in heavy looking body armour with a large unfamiliar weapon attached to its back.
"Platform 19626 reporting for duty sir" said the Mech with a sharp Turian salute in her direction, Liara wasn't sure she was ever going to get used to being saluted at by machines.
"Umm at ease soldier?" said Liara a little unsure how to reply, surprisingly the Mech assumed a more casual position at her words before holding something out to her.
"Commander your weaponry Sir, standard issue Alliance type 12 plasma pistol" said 19626 holding out a double barrel looking pistol that was slightly larger than a mass accelerator pistol she was trained to use.
Taking the firearm cautiously with her right hand, Liara instantly noticed the weapons weight and moved her other hand to grasp the heavy weapon.
Platform 19626 made an amused face on its smooth glass sphere before the combat visor flicked down leaving only two menacing red slits to glare at her.
"Your weapon Commander is a select fire mode, high velocity energy based assault weapon that can melt through armour and kinetic barriers, the weapon is self-recharging with a 15 round shot capability before the weapon needs to cool down and recharge" informed platform 19626 calmly as it gestured to the weapon in Liara hands.
It was a mouthful, but Liara understood the basis of what the machine was saying. In other words the weapon she was holding was identical in function to a Mass Accelerator but shot bolts of hot energy instead of sand size projectiles of soft metal.
Looking the weapon over to familiarise herself with the frame, she pressed a small button and watched as the firearm compacted itself into half its original size. Lowering the now compact weapon to her hip, she watched with satisfaction as the weapon clipped itself to a magnetic lock on her suit holding it securely in place.
Liara noticed the Mech grab something beside her and looked up to see platform 19626 offering her a fully enclose helmet.
Taking the protective material from the machine, she noticed the light weight and soft material and turned the helmet around in her hands.
"Rachni vessel may be devoid of atmosphere of suffer catastrophic depressurisation, advices wearing helmet to complete vacuum proof suit" informed platform 197626.
Pulling her helmet over her face, Liara was briefly blinded as a heads up display system or HUD activated on the helmets visor filling her vision with statistics and icons of unknown purpose. After a moment of being blind, Liara could once more see the world and instantly notice everything had a funny blue outline around it. Platform 19626 was surrounded in a green outline which she assumed meant friendly while his weapon had a yellowish outline to its frame.
"Commander Liara, we are approaching the Rachni dreadnaught, please prepare to depart via shuttlecraft" Liara's eyes snapped to the image of a navy blue Mech that appeared in a small corner of her vision, she assumed it to be 17333 who would likely be commanding the EVE from the bridge.
"Copy that, try to keep the ship safe while I'm gone" said Liara hoping the suit would automatically send her reply to the machine.
"Affirmative Commander, good luck" with that the communication line was terminated and Liara was left to her own thoughts once more.
Moving towards the shuttle craft with platform 19626 walking along beside her like a body guard, Liara noticed the Rachni warriors had departed and in its place an Engineering platform covered in thin plates of armour had materialised with an odd looking 3 barrelled weapon.
As she drew close to the shuttle, Liara began to appreciate her mother making her take Commando combat lessons as a child. She would be needed every ounce of training she could remember to not die in the next few hours.
"Commander please board the shuttle so we may depart" declared platform 19626 in its dull synthetic voice once more as it gestured for her to climb through an opening into the shuttle.
Taking a deep breath, Liara stepped into the shuttle.
To be continued….
HA CANT KILL ME WRITERS BLOCK!
Honestly, I'm surprised I was able to finish this chapter with the half dozen other stories I'm writing and the various ones I'm perusing to start... Seriously my greatest strength is my most crippling weakness, my own god damn creativity...
I'm not joking, I was sitting on the motor bike mustering sheep on my family farm just the other day, by the time I mustered the sheep into the sheep yards I came up with 3 new story ideas that I eager to experiment with, one I already posted.
If you loved the Indominus rex, well you'll love my latest mass effect story where Humanity can 'accidently' turn into the colossal monster by accident if you make them mad... A bit like the hulk I now realize.
And for you dragon lovers, well dang it I cant find any Mass Effect story where their are proper dragons in it! That is Heresy I say Heresy!
As a Proud dragon member and story writer I cannot let this stand, so in a few weeks... Okay maybe days I will be writing a few chapters on a story where Humanity and Dragons live together in a union.
Best part, if you've read the Inheritance cycle aka Eragon, well I'm applying the same mind reading principle and bond to my fanfic. Oh and the Alliance is a big ass fleet and army that will conquer the galaxy hahahhaha!
But if you want to see Captain Jack Harper and his soul mate Cerberus lead there 1.3km long assault carrier against the Turian Hierarchy, well I hope I don't disappoint you all!
I don't know if this fic has a future anymore sadly, I'm being pulled apart with time management and motivation to write sadly.
But I thank all my followers and reader for their support and dedication, I do hope I made a few people happy to mix up the Mass Effect universe a little.
Also if anyone likes the Story ideas I posted on my bio page, just PM me and I'll put them on the waiting list for stuff to write.
LOVE YOU ALL!
Be safe out their and have fun, this is Red Lightning call sign D608 signing off people! *salute*
Oh and to David maine: I found the pic for this my google searching Reaper Dragon. Or you can look at Mass effect Dragons and you should find the picture that way.