Marxman Effect
The Mass effect franchise belongs to EA and Bioware respectively
Garry's mod belongs to Facepunch Studios and Team Garry
I own nothing but my OC's and this story.
A/N: SPOILER ALERT* The main character's name will be revealed in this chapter.
Chapter 10 – Meet the team
While waiting for the ship to arrive back to Omega, I decided to go check on the NPCs working at the lower deck.
It's interesting how the NPCs almost automatically know how to work on all the various systems of the ship like the weapons and navigation, it's almost like they're robots.
Well, the usual intelligence of the NPCs was pretty primitive in-game compared to real life so of course they would be able to adapt to the various systems a lot faster in reality, they are after all completely AI like in their thinking, they can process stuff faster but they still run completely on logic and programming.
And their programming tells them to follow their creator's lead.
Me.
"ETA to Omega is 15 minutes, sir." Informs the NPC working as the ship's navigator.
"Roger, inform me when we dock, I have to get ready for a meeting." I say as I leave the CIC.
One of the things I should still probably think of is a name for the ship, since from what I remember; Cerberus doesn't exactly name small patrol ships like mine.
Does it really need a name?
I know that I'll get rid of it as my main ship sooner or later to get a bigger ship anyway.
Maybe we can install some special equipment like cloaking to make it work as a scoutship.
We also have to get rid of our dependency on element zero as fuel.
Since the Reapers have driven all of the galaxy's technological advancement to a dead end with eezo dependant technology, effectively ridding all of the scientific advances of any creativity because nobody wants to look for alternate forms of FTL because we have the relays, or find a better form of fuel for ship engines or even weaponry.
And the kinetic barriers are useless against heat based attacks like plasma since they are based on stopping projectiles like the sand grain sized bullets every modern small arms uses in this place.
But what exactly can we use as an alternate fuel for eezo?
Fusion powered engines could be one choice, too bad there are no scientists to actually develop one, maybe in my future nation I could assign some scientist that may or may not come there, to develop alternatives for eezo.
And I'm thinking too far into the future again, damn.
As I'm putting on my armor and readying my weapons once more I hear the Navigator speak through the intercom.
"We have docked onto Omega, sir." The Navigator informs me.
Alright then, show time.
As I step through the airlock and onto Omega's surface, I'm escorted by a group of Aria's men.
And soon enough we arrive to Afterlife, stepping inside I'm once again assaulted by the techno music playing inside.
As we walk up the stairs, I have this feeling that I'll be walking out of this meeting as a very happy man.
My weapons are once again confiscated as I sit on the couch opposite of Aria.
"You've done well with the jobs I asked you to do, one of my lieutenants just informed me that the shipments are all there and in good condition, they are being delivered as we speak." She speaks with gratitude but reverts back to her normal tone when she remembers that she still owes me that favor.
"And yes, I remember you asked me to put a good word in for you in exchange of your services."
"So, was there any specific kind of people you were looking for or is it "anything goes"?" She asks.
"I'm looking for people who are not afraid of high risks, if I'm going to steal an a Council ship, I want a team that is willing to stand with me when I board the thing and steal it for myself." I state with a determined look on my face.
"I want people who are willing to break the galactic law to achieve their goals…" I continue.
"I want people, who are able to handle themselves in battle and who are not afraid of killing…"
"I want people, who are willing to be loyal to the end..."
"I want people, who are willing to trust in me in our darkest hour…"
"I want the best and worst Omega has to offer in the same package…" I say as I finish my little speech.
She has a surprised expression on her face, probably thinking how I was able to pull something like that out.
"Well, I think that can be arranged." She says regaining her posture.
"Good, can you broadcast it live for all of Omega to see or something like that?" I ask her, remembering that ending in Mass Effect 3's Omega DLC where Aria gives a speech to all of Omega after it is liberated from Cerberus occupation.
I see her get up and ready for a little speech/ad for my recruitment.
And soon enough she's in full swing, praising me for the jobs I did for her and at the same time informing about the recruitment for my ship, listing all the things required as she does so.
As she ends her speech, she turns back to me.
"Hope you're satisfied with that." She says.
"Oh I'm not just satisfied, that lil' speech there is going to shoot my recruitment numbers through the fucking roof." I say with appraisal.
She just smiles.
"Glad to hear it, now did you have anything else you wanted to talk about?" She asks returning to her usual cool attitude.
"Not really, that'll be all for now, although you will probably see my face in the future, it just might not be in the way you think." I say with a grin as I stand up from the couch and leave after retrieving my weapons.
As I'm walking towards the exit I can hear some whispering from the tables, possibly talking about me.
I'm not really stopped by anyone as I'm on my way back to the ship, people will probably contact me through my Omni-tool since it's the most oblivious way to get in contact with me.
When I'm back at the ship my Omni-tool suddenly pings with an incoming message.
It's from someone named "Aela'Orzh nar Tonbay".
Huh, must be a Quarian if the name is anything to go by.
"Greetings, I'm Aela'Orzah nar Tonbay. I saw the speech Aria gave about you, I would be interested in joining this "team" you're gathering, I won't require any payment. I'm currently on my pilgrimage (See the linked file for more info) and I'm certain I would be able to find something of value when I'm traveling with you.
Now, you might be thinking what exactly would I have to offer?
I'm a talented pilot and engineer.
I scored top of my class when in fly school and I've learned to repair a lot of things when working in the fleet.
I was not very liked in the fleet because I openly spoke about making peace with the geth and treating them as living beings, not just tools to be discarded.
I wait for your reply, Keelah Se'lai."
There was also a photo of her, attached to the message with the pilgrimage info; she's a female it seems.
Well, with what she has to offer, she's definitely in, there's also the plus of not having to pay salary, but I think I'll give her some money anyway since money isn't really an issue with me.
I quickly write a reply to her, accepting her offer and informing her to come over to my ship and report for duty.
Alright, now that we have a pilot, we're still going to need a heavy hitter, a sniper, possibly a biotic, a medic, and someone with tech skills.
And we'll probably pick up some others that want to come on the ride.
And when the ship gets full?
We get another ship.
And when we have that full?
We build a fleet.
When the fleet is full?
We settle on a planet.
And on the planet we settle, we build our little socialist paradise where government takes care of everyone's needs.
After colonizing a few planets, we declare ourselves an independent power from the rest and when the time goes on, we'll be ready for the Reaper invasion.
Now there's a plan.
I decide to wait for the Aela outside the airlock.
As I'm waiting, I'm browsing through the other people who've sent requests to join my team, there must be atleast a hundred people, but I'm currently going to take along just a few.
Apparently a Ex-Blood Pack merc, a Krogan named Borvlan Gratok has decided to jump into the bandwagon that is my constantly growing team, he says he's decent with any weapon except sniper and is along for the ride just for the fights we are certain to have, kinda reminds me of Wrex.
I inform him to come over to my ship just like I did with Aela.
Next on the list is apparently a Salarian, someone named Salas Arle, says he's a decent sniper and knows his way around tech.
He's apparently in for the loot that will certainly come from all the ship raids we're going to have; it was in the job description after all that we would be stealing both ships and their cargo.
Next, we have an Asari named Irenia Shasia, obiviously her biotic abilities will come in handy but she says she's also talented in the art of healing. Says she's in to see some new places aside from her little private clinic that was established on Omega.
Finally there's a Turian, Tonian Kyril, He was apparently a Spec-ops operative when serving in the Hierarchy but got tired of it and decided to become a freelancer merc. Now he's out of job and looking to join my team for mostly the same reasons that Salas was joining up for, which is loot and profit.
There's a whole bunch of other people, including Batarians, who want to join but I ignore them for now, and inform the chosen ones of my ship's location and tell them that I'll meet them all at the airlock.
After a while of waiting, I can see a group of 5 people in the distance walking towards me.
And soon enough I can hear their talking as they approach me.
"Welcome aboard everyone, I'm the Captain of this ship and your new boss, my name is Matt "Marxman" Nordwall." I say with some enthusiasm.
I just see some of them give me a look that says, "Is this guy for real?"
"Now if you'd please follow me, I'll give you a tour of the ship." I say as we proceed through the airlock.
I then show them around, and as we finish, each of them leaves to do something that will help them kill time.
But as everyone goes to do something else, I'm approached by Tonian.
"Hey cap'n may I ask you about something?"
"Sure, what is it?" I respond.
"When we went through the weapon racks I noticed that the equipment you carry seems to be pretty ancient, I mean, they don't even carry any eezo." He says sounding confused.
"Oh that stuff? It's actually my personal little collection, I like old projectile weapons, and you're right, they're pretty ancient, some of them are over 200 years old by now but they still work pretty decently, there's also the fact that they can't overheat from continued use, even if they have to be cleaned from time to time." I state, defending the only weapons that I know how to use.
"But do they even have the stopping power the modern guns have? Their bullets don't travel at the same speed as eezo powered weapons and they can't be folded up." He says again.
"I haven't yet seen an Eezo powered weapon with an underbarrel shotgun, a scope and a silencer attached to it." I finish with a grin.
He just sighs
"I quess there's no way to change you mind about this?" He says in a tired tone.
"Nope, but I'm not forcing you to use 'em, I'll be sure to buy you guys some weapons next time we go shopping."
He just nods and goes over to a desk to assemble and disassemble his Raptor X assault rifle and some other weapons he has with him.
I check the crew quarters to see Irenia and Salas play some card game that I don't really recognize; I was never much into poker or any other card game for that matter.
And as they play, Gratok observes them since he doesn't seem to have anything else to do.
I proceed to go up the stairs, past the CIC and into the cockpit; I can already see Aela already preparing the ship for departure.
"Excited?" I ask her in a curious tone.
She jumps in her seat a little before turning towards me.
"Oh, it's just you Matt… you scared me a little." She responds in a shy tone.
"Are we ready for departure?" I ask
"Yes, all systems are green and we should be ready to leave, just give the word." She informs in a high-pitched and a little raspy voice that is filtered through the speakers in her helmet.
"Alright then, let's get moving, I want to find our first target soon to see how you guys perform on the field." I say as the ship lifts off from the docking bay.
And soon we're on our way out of Omega and onto some crazy adventures.
For the next few hours we travel back into Council space to start our first raid.
And eventually, we come across a lonely Volus freighter that is travelling at the edge of Council space.
The ship is equipped with some pretty powerful scanners so we are able to detect what the ship is carrying.
Apparently it is carrying some pretty expensive cargo, a whole bunch of valuable minerals like Gold, Thorium and Platinum.
After the scan is finished I turn towards Aela.
"Disable the engines so we can begin boarding actions, also, tell the others to get geared up and ready, we'll meet at the airlock." I say and she nods back.
I then proceed to go down to the lower deck and ready my own armor and gear for the "mission".
As I'm putting on my armor Salas approaches me.
"Rules of engagement?" He asks in that usual quick speech pattern that is iconic to Salarians.
"Don't kill anyone who can't fight back, that means anyone who doesn't have a weapon, or is surrendering, we don't need any innocent blood on our hands." I respond and he nods before proceeding to the airlock.
And soon I finish putting on my Scorpion X light armor.
After that I take my usual loadout of Type 56, AA-12 and Glock 18.
I have done some painting on my assault rifle and the Type 56's metal parts are currently covered in dark red and white stripes that remind me of a candy cane.
After finishing stocking up with enough mags for each weapon, I join the others at the airlock.
After a few moments Aela informs us that the docking tube has been attached to the freighter's airlock and we should be ready to proceed.
And as we proceed to enter the freighter, at first we don't encounter any resistance, just to be safe I order Gratok to take the lead, he just grumbles but proceeds to take the point as we go further into the ship.
And soon enough, a turian pops from behind cover with a pistol, he's only able to shoot only once before his chest is blown open by a shotgun blast from Gratok.
"That was easy." I say as we continue on our way to the bridge.
As we come to a wide hallway, Gratok starts sniffing the air.
"There's something up ahead, possibly an ambush." He informs us.
"Alright, keep your weapons at the ready, we might need them soon." I say as everyone looks around to spot any of the defenders that might be hiding behind some crate, ready to shoot us when our backs are turned.
And soon enough a bunch of the ship's turian defenders stand up from behind a crate formation, armed with assault rifles and pistols as they start shooting at us.
All of us quickly scramble for cover as the bullets start hitting our shields.
I'm staying behind a large shipping crate with Irenia standing next to me with her Banshee assault rifle in hand.
"Irenia, see if you can throw a singularity into their midst so we can have an easier time taking them out." I order her as she nods and readies her biotics.
And with her hands glowing blue, she launches a singularity into the enemy's midst, causing them to be dragged towards the pulsing mass effect field.
We use this as a distraction to return fire, taking them out one at a time.
Salas wasn't kidding when he said he was good with a sniper, he's taking out more of the defenders than all of us combined.
As we finish the last of the opposing group we proceed forward, soon arriving to the cargo bay.
I inform Aela to send in the security team for carrying as many mineral crates as possible back into our ship.
After that we continue on, coming across a patrol that is guarding the outside of what seems to be the crew quarters.
I motion for Salas to take out the officer leading the group as the rest of us ready to charge into the fray.
Just as the Turian officer is about to order his men to get ready to move on, a clean hole is made into his head as he falls to the ground with a heavy thump.
We take that as our mark to move in for the kill, with Gratok leading the charge with his shotgun blowing away the nearest guard who doesn't even have enough time to raise his weapon to retaliate.
As the rest of them raise their weapons, Irenia throws a Shockwave towards them, and in the narrow hallway they don't have enough time to get away before the biotic wave of destruction hits them and throws them to the ground or into the walls in some cases.
When they are attempting to get up, we open fire with our weapons to finish them off, and with all of them dazzled on the ground, it's a pretty easy feat.
Gratok just smiles as he uses his shotgun as a club to finish off a wounded Turian guard who is trying to crawl towards his gun, his attempts are ended with his skull getting bashed in.
I grimace at the sight slightly but turn towards the doors, they're apparently locked so I call Salas over to open them.
And as he gets to work we proceed to check the corpses for any valuables, finding some credits but nothing special.
After a moment Salas informs us that he's finished, so we stack up to the door, and as he opens it I'm the first one to enter, only to find that nobody's firing back, only finding unarmed Volus crewmen inside.
"Please don't hurt us, take our money but just leave us alone!" One of them shouts in between panicked intakes of breath.
"Take any of the credits they have, including the ones on their bank accounts." I order the team as they proceed to do so.
After looting the Volus crewmen, we proceed to head towards the bridge.
As we arrive to the bridge, we can see the Volus captain standing behind his two Turian bodyguards, waiting for us.
"Well if it isn't the pirates that decided it was a good idea to board my ship and steal all my valuable cargo, this shipment was going to the Hierarchy you know, you can be assured that they're going to be pissed when their shipment doesn't arrive on schedule." He says smugly as he just stands there with his bodyguards pointing their weapons at us.
"I have already informed the Turian navy of this attack and they are on their way to our location as we speak, you should probably surrender, they may be merciful." He continues in that same confident and smug tone, probably trying to buy himself and his shipment time to be saved.
"Sorry, but not going to work, the cargo has already been loaded into our ship, we just came here for you." I say, not wanting to reveal that we were actually here for the shipping schedules so we could plan our future raids better.
For some reason, Tonian has been quiet during the whole trip and mostly staying in the back to cover our flanks.
But now, he is the first to raise his assault rifle, quickly shooting a few bursts at the bodyguards, both of whom had light shielding that collapsed with the first few rounds hitting them and the rest hitting them squarely in the chest, easily going through their medium armor and making them fall to the ground, dead.
And all of that happened in a span of about 3 seconds.
What… the… fuck…
But I soon regain my composure and turn towards the Captain who can't really come up with anymore words now that his bodyguards are dead.
"Salas, check the consoles for the shipment schedules." I order him and he soon gets to work.
I then move over to the captain who starts backing towards the console behind him.
I then proceed to use my rifle' wooden stock to knock him unconscious.
"Gratok, grab this walking bowling ball, we'll throw him out of the airlock when we leave, if the Hierarchy navy is really on it's way we better hurry out of here before they can catch us or worse, shoot us down." I say as our resident Krogan grabs the Volus and heists him onto his shoulder.
"Alright I'm done, let's go." Salas informs us and we quickly proceed to run towards the airlock.
As we go through the cargo bay, we see that it has been mostly emptied of any mineral crates.
Finally arriving to the airlock, we proceed to enter our own ship.
And after detaching the docking tube and getting some distance, we proceed to open the airlock again and throw the Volus captain out of it and into the cold vacuum of space.
And we left the ship just in time, 5 Turian navy frigates just arrived into the system through FTL.
Aela is doing her best to avoid the incoming fire, but she is having some difficulty.
Eventually we pick up speed and are able to avoid most of the incoming fire, there's no way we can fight all of the head-on so the best option currently is to flee from the scene.
"We're getting ready for a jump out of the system, we should be able to… INCOMING! Brace for evasive maneuvers!" She suddenly shouts into the intercom as the ship steers to the right hard to avoid the incoming projectiles, this is starting to look bad, but should I do it just yet?
Well if I don't we'll all be done for, well not me really, I have respawn, but I'm not planning to lose my ship and team just yet.
"Aela, open up the airlock! I'm going outside!" I order her and she looks at me like I've lost my mind.
"Why the hell would you want to go outside in the middle of a battle!?" She asks in a disbelieving tone.
"One of the terms of contract was that you trust me in our darkest hour, now's the time to follow that rule." I say as I ready myself for EVA.
"I just hope you know what you're doing…" She says as she opens the other side of the airlock, closing it behind me when I enter and then opening the second door, the vacuum quickly grabs me and I'm almost thrown into space, but I'm able to hold onto the hinge and I take out my tool gun, with the remover option selected I take aim towards the pursuing frigates.
And just like with the Cerberus vessels, I shoot the nearest vessel which once again disappears, much to the surprise of it's crew, and my own who are looking at the display from the cockpit window.
I then aim towards the next vessel, which has stopped when its partner just seemed to disappear into thin air, and after taking aim, I fire and it disappears as well.
The remaining two ships realize what is happening and are turning to flee before I steady my aim and remove them both of the vessels from around their crews, exposing them to the cold and dark environment that is space.
As the fire completely stops, Aela stops the ship to let me back inside.
And after arriving back inside I'm approached by all 5 members of my team.
"We think you have some explaining to do…" Says Tonian as he and the rest look at me with stern expressions.
Well, this is going to be fun to explain…
A/N: And that's another chapter done, It's my longest yet.
Now some might think I betrayed your trust by already designing the new crewmembers myself, but it's not the case since these are just the first of many members that will join the main character's ship, and later fleet.
So how do you think I was able to handle my first chapter with actual teammembers instead of mindless NPCs?
Also if you're wondering about the main characters name, It's actually just my first name with an "i" cut off from the end and a random Swedish surname I found from some website that has a list of for a bunch of both Swedish first names and surnames.
Also, this story has already reached the 2,000 view milestone and I have all of you to thank for it, so thank you very much, you guys are awesome.
This is MarxistFIN, over and out!