Mass Effect Contingent

by BLOCblaster

What should have been a NORMAL fun day out to an art exhibit based of of video games very quickly devolved into chaos, a series of bizarre events results in our sweet protagonist thrown into the universe of Mass Effect with one simple goal, stop the Reapers, save the galaxy and brake the cycle. How hard could that be?

So I've been reading plenty of Mass Effect fanfics and self inserts, so I thought "Why shouldn't I try one?"

After thinking about it a bit longer I thought "Why not put an interesting twist onto it?" this is the result, along with a more "traditional" self Insert I'm going to try to write alongside this one called Mass Effect Outsider.

All else I'm going to say is if you really like Cerberus but think they were a bit too kids cartoon villain by ME3 then hopefully you'll like this.

Enjoy!

"Are you sure we're not lost?"

I groaned after hearing the same questing for the fifth time. Glancing up from the map on my phone to look over to Rob. "For the last time. I have a map, so I know where we are going." I explained through gritted teeth.

Katelyn stopped just behind us, "Why couldn't we just have taken a cab?" she asked looking up at the tall buildings that surrounded us.

I spun on my heel to look at her, "I've lived in London for 24 years. I will not pay those extortionist prices when we could get there on the tube." I argued.

"Well at least in a taxi we wouldn't have to risk getting off on the wrong stop." Rob muttered under his breath whilst rubbing the side of his head, thinking I hadn't heard.

I spun around again, "We did not get off on the wrong stop." I insisted, pointing a finger as if to emphasise my point.

"So how far does the map say it is?" Katelyn asked.

I brought up my phone and looked at the map, tilting my head slightly to try and make out the street names. "Right around that corner." I answered pointing to the turnoff just down the road.

We walked around the corner and saw a line outside one of the buildings, with a couple of people in blue polos, and to top it off a sign that read 'Video game art exhibition'.

"I told you we weren't lost!" I cheered throwing my arms into the air. The two just rolled their eyes while making quiet grumbling notices as we made our way to join the line.

After waiting in line for a few minutes, the three of us moved over to one of the guys in the polos, "Hi there, can I just get your name and tickets?" the man asked with a forced smile, probably because this must be like the hundredth time he had to say that.

"Yeah, Jason Knight." I stated as I handed over the tickets for our group.

He looked over them for a few moments whilst scrolling on a tablet before handing them back, "Thank you, hope you enjoy the gallery."

Entering the display room we broke off on to our own looking at the various pieces of video game inspired art.

I roamed around the 8bit section for a bit, snapping a selfie with the life-size Bowser statue. Before moving on to the next section, which seemed to be focused on RPGs.

In all honesty, I only dragged my friends out here because the website said they had a section on Mass Effect.

Yes, I am a massive Mass Effect fan.

Which is why I had been so excited when I read about art exhibit featuring works based off the games.

After wandering around a bit I finally found an area on the second floor marked with a big N7 banner. I passed the banned and saw a bunch of awesome stuff. From plenty of really cool paintings of locations from the games to a replica of weapons and even Shepard's armour in a glass display case, both male and female variants. I continued to browse the oddly empty area.

Strange I figured it'd busier.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw a dark room with an eerie green glow coming from it.

Not ominous at all. No sir.

Entering the darkroom, it was eerily empty as my eyes glanced around the room, until they came across the glowing pillar in the corner, now fully taken over by curiosity, I moved towards the corner and stood looking at the pillar.

The closer I got the more defined the shape in the darkness became. It was tall and relatively slim, with a green light leading up the side, with strange inscriptions seemingly carved into it.

I had to get within arms reach to it before I realised what it was, a Prothean beacon. Exactly like the one from the first game.

Wow. This looked so cool! Whoever made this, I would love to shake their hand. It looked exactly like you would expect it to, I moved closer a gently rested my hand against the metal side.

It felt as though it was vibrating softly under my touch. The vibrations grew stronger as if the beacon was resonating with some kind of power.

Oh man, this is awesome.

Suddenly my arms and head jerked back and I was pulled a few feet off the ground by an unseen force.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Not awesome! Not awesome at all!

Distorted images were flashing across my mind, all I could make out from it was flashes of orange and black shapes. Oh god! It felt like my brain was being fried from the inside out.

The pain was so intense I couldn't even summon the willpower to scream.

It was easily the single most excruciation moment of my life.

Eventual the images stopped flashing and the pain began to subside, but I was exhausted. I slowly opened my eyes, I was lying on the ground, but I was no longer in the dark room in the exhibit, I was in some kind of empty void.

I'm dead. That's it, I'm dead! Life's over, bye all. I leave everything I own to my dog.

"Greetings Contingent. I am Valiant, an advanced virtual construct."

I bolted up into a sitting position as the sound of the voice, and slowly turned my head to where it had come from. And stood just off to the side was a honest to god PROTHEAN!

Granted it was a green hologram, but STILL!

"What the funk?" I stated without really thinking.

"It is usual for you to be disorientated in this situation." The holo-Prothean said in its emotionless (vaguely Jamaican sounding) voice. "All of the others experienced similar levels of distress. I recommend taking a moment to calm yourself."

This is weird. Is this because of the beacon? "Wait… others?"

"Of course. You are not the only Contingent. And you will likely not be the last."

I briefly internally chuckled as I remembered one of Liara's' lines. "Are all Protheans so grim?" I couldn't help myself.

The Prothean VI didn't respond, it just stared at me with its four eyes. Which felt very wired.

Ok. Calm down, act smart, and do not freak out.

"How'd I get here?"

"You activated our beacon."

Ok, in hindsight, stupid question.

"Why am I here?" I asked.

"You have been selected to act as Contingent for our purpose."

By this time I had pushed myself off of the ground if you could even call it ground, and moved over to stand in front of Valiant. "What purpose?"

"To defeat our enemy." It stated simply.

"The Reapers." I stated, a dark sense of dread, and annoyance fell over me. Of course, this would have to involve the giant Robo-squids from dark space.

"Correct. Just like the Contingents before you, you will be transplanted into the timeline, in order to provide an effective solution to the cycle."

Ok, this wasn't making sense. "What makes you think I can do anything to change the events of the game?"

"You are autonomous. You will be provided with devices of your own design. An avatar will be created for you to fill the role of."

"So what? I'm basically going to create a version of myself in the games universe."

"Correct, you may specify certain aspects and resources you believe will aid you in your goal."

So it's like creating a D&D character. Man Katelyn would be great at this.

Wait. Shit! Katelyn, Rob! "Where are my friends?" I asked spinning around trying in vain to find them within the empty void.

"They still remain within your timeline. They did not encounter the beacon, and therefor remain unaffected."

Oh my god. If I'm here, and they're still at the exhibit then, "What about my family, my friends? What will happen to them? Will they think I'm missing? Will they know what happened?"

"You are dead within your timeline. Once you accessed our beacon, your physical form expired and your consciousness was brought here." The VI stated sounding almost bored.

An image filled my mind, of my body lying in the dark room just in front of the beacon. Oh shit. If I'm dead, that means I'll never see my friends, my family again.

A sense of emptiness fell over me and tears rushed to my eyes as I thought that I'd never get to visit my mum and dad and eat dinner with them again. Never get to drag my friends out around the city again. Never get to spend a night watching Doctor Who and petting my dog again.

And all because of this stupid VI.

"How- how could you do this?!" I shouted "Do you have any idea what this means? I'll never see my family or friends again. Never! They won't even know what happened to me. They'll think I just dropped dead!"

"The concern of one life is unimportant when compared to the extinction of the galactic cycle."

"IT IS TO ME!" I screamed at the VI, my voice wavering slightly. "How many people have you done this to, for how long?"

"You are the 496th Contingent." The VI stated again sounding bored.

"496th? You killed 495 people?!"

"They all activated the beacon, they were all transplanted into the timeline to provide an effective solution to the cycle."

"And what happened to them?" I asked, already dreading the answer.

"Some attempted to inform Commander Shepard of the Reapers, some attempted to guide her actions, some simply allowed the events of the timeline to continue. In all cases they failed, resulting in their death and the continuation of the cycle."

I stood with my mouth open silently.

How could this guy be so callous about all those people? Then I had to remind myself that this wasn't a guy, it was just a fancy computer.

Ok focuses, if I'm dead and I can't go back, then I need to look forward. From what Prothy the Prothean here said it's safe to say that telling Shepard about the games and what would happen was a bad idea.

Little point in going to Eden Prime or the Citidle and joining Shep since that's what most everyone would do and it must not have worked out. So I was going to need to get myself in a position of influence, with access to ships and soldiers being preferable, and a way to hide or playoff my knowledge of the future whilst still using it as much as I can.

"Ok, I've got an idea."

Prothy and I talked for ages, going back and forth working out all the finer details for my avatar. Eventually, we were able to come up with a pretty decent plan, by my standards anyway.

"Are you ready Contingent? Once you are transplanted into the timeline it will be impossible to intervene again." Prothy stated.

I took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

A moment later there was a sudden flash as my vision blurred, and I felt like I was falling. At least there's no pain this time.

A sudden stabbing feeling was felt in my head, as the feeling of falling intensified.

Fuck. Spoke too soon.

Darkness consumed my vision for a few moments before the image in front of me slowly began to clear.

I was stood in the centre of a large dark, mostly empty room. One of the walls was completely transparent allowing me to look over the red dying star. My arm was outstretched and holding a pistol, pointed at the body lying on the floor.

I blinked slowly, taking in the sight of the dead man. The open black suit, the greying hair, the glowing blue eyes. All belonging to one, now deceased man, The Illusive Man.

I lowered the pistol and looked down at myself. I was wearing a suit of jet black Kestrel armour with yellow highlights, and the Cerberus insignia displayed on the chest piece.

I looked back to The Illusive Mans' body, the man who sold humanity out to the Reapers, who brought Shepard back from the dead, who screwed over so many people's lives. Here he was, lying dead at my feet.

Still a better death than in ME3.

I stepped over TIM's body and moved over to the window, and looked over the red star, taking in the way the gasses of the star shifted and twirled, it was like looking at a big ball of red water suspended amongst the stars.

It's one thing seeing it on the screen. It's another thing entirely to see in real life.

I looked up and met my reflections gaze, I looked the same as always, if not a little taller, it seems. My eyes were also of interest, they were blue as opposed to my natural brown, and they seemed to glow dimly in the dark, not to the extent of TIM's but it was noticeable.

"Enjoying the view?" a distinctly Australian accent asked.

I turned around to the door and noticed Miranda Lawson stood there. And HOLY HELL! That jumpsuit! It hugged her body in a way just shy of skin-tight. Oh man, seeing her really stood before you, was so cool. Among other things.

"It's nice, but not the best view here." I answered to my own surprise. I would have thrown my hands over my mouth, would it not look too silly.

I wonder it Prothy gave me some added confidence along with the training and backstory.

A small smirk appeared on her lips as she moved over to me. "Cute." She said, coming to stop just beside me. "The last of The Illusive Man's most loyal supporters have been rounded up. The station's ours."

I glanced back down at TIM's body. I've been in the Mass Effect universe for under 5 minutes and I already run Cerberus. Just like Prothy and I planned.

"Just make sure you hold up your end of the bargain."

I looked back to Miranda, she had a sort of 'not frown' on her face. She wasn't outwardly frowning, but you could tell that she was on the inside.

Bargain? I told Prothy to make sure Miranda was on my side, but he never mentioned a bargain between us.

Ok, let's think through this. What could I offer her? Power, running Cerberus alongside me. That was an option but I doubted it. There was only one thing she might want.

"Don't worry Miranda, I'll make sure your sister is safe." I said, really hoping I'd hit the nail on the head.

She stared at me intently for a moment, before letting out a relieved sigh.

YES! Score one for Jason.

"This was an incredible gamble." She said looking out the window. "I hope it pays off."

"So do I."

After spending a few hours in my new office reading over the files on the closed-off terminal system, which didn't even have a password.

Very sloppy TIM.

One of the most important pieces of information had been the date, 2182.

So one year to go before the events of the first game.

I was now sat in a conference room on one of the upper levels of Cronos station. In the room besides myself were two others, both wearing Cerberus officer uniforms.

One, an older looking man with greying hair and a pale complexion, the other a woman with dark, and I mean almost black dark, red hair and a darker skin town. They had introduced themselves upon entering the conference room.

Though I admit, I immediately forgot.

So I called the Grey and Red, respectively.

We had spent some time discussing Cerberus' assets and resources. I wasn't sure how long since bringing up my Omni-tool to check would probably be rude.

By now the topic had turned to the size of Cerberus' navy and military. A holographic projection appeared in the centre of the table showing a chart with several bars, each helpfully colour coded to represent their respective navy.

"As you can see sir, our navy in its current state is approximately a third the size to that of the Alliance." Grey stated.

According to the hologram graph, he was right. It showed the yellow bar, representing Cerberus, just a third the size of the blue bar, representing the Systems Alliance.

"I see." I stated slowly rubbing my chin if everything went to plan we would need a fleet larger than that. "I want our navy to be at least 3 qauters of the Alliance, if not on equal terms by the end of the physical year."

Both Red and Grey looked taken aback by that.

"Sir? That would be an enormous undertaking. Even with our benefactors and front companies, Cerberus does not have the expertise, manpower or finances to construct a combined fleet that large." Red argued.

I let out a small, almost amused sigh. "Don't worry about the funding, soon the money will take care of itself." I stated. "As for the expertise and manpower? We'll just have to get some help."

"Help from who?" Red asked.

"The people who know the most about building and maintain an enormous fleet." I answered smiling to myself. "But back to the topic of the other projects I want starting."

"I believe that I might be able to help with that."

I turned towards the door at the sound of the vaguely Germanic sounding voice.

Stood just inside the door was a woman, who looked to be about mid-30s-ish, with light brown hair mostly pulled into a neat bun, with her fringe brushed behind her ear. She was wearing a lab coat, a proper one, not those wired one-piece things then everyone in the games wore, with yellow stripes starting at the collar and shoulders and running down the arms, with a Cerberus logo printed on the chest.

"And you are?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

The woman moved over to the table and sitting down at the far end. "Doctor Regina Vale, Sir. I head the research and development division."

"Ok, so?"

Dr Vail opened up her Omni-tool. "I've looked over the projects you requested. The Development of more advanced armour for our troops, whilst including your specifications is already underway, and initial prototypes will be ready for testing within the week."

Wow, Cerberus works faster than I thought.

"As for the stealth frigate project, agents we already have stationed within the Alliance are being reassigned as we speak. Once they begin transmitting data, we will be able to begin designing the ship. Whilst keeping to your specifications, of cource." She continued, after typing on her Omni-tool for a moment.

"Brilliant. The sooner we complete those projects the better." Seeing this as the best opportunity to do so, I checked my Omni-tool for the time before anyone else could start talking, clentching my fist and bringing up my arm automaticly activated the holographic interface, revealing the amount of time that had passed.

3 hours! Ok time to do literally anything else.

"Doctor let me know when you make progress." I stated, whilst messaging Miranda on my Omni-tool, and telling her to get a ship ready.

The ride on the ship Miranda had provided was mostly uneventful, and spent reading up more on the Cerberus network, starting with the active projects and closing down some of the more morally evil ones, the project that had caused Akuze being one, no reason to give the galaxy any more reason to hate Cerberus. I also made a note of all the scientists and their locations, in case I needed to gain the Alliance's or Shepard's trust, handing over the people who killed a unit of Alliance marines might help with that.

The flight was taking 3 days before we arrived at the Thorne System and involved a hand full of relay jumps, so there was little else to do except read, eat and sleep.

The latter of which had been an interesting event.

At the end of the first day, I'd made my way to the captain quarters, which quick side note Cerberus really spared no expense with, the damn thing was almost the size of my apartment back in London and was decorated much nicer, speaking of which I wonder if my apartment is out there on this version of Earth, anyway I'm getting sidetracked.

Once entering the apartment-sized quarters I shed my armour and under-suit down to my boxers ready for bed when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, which made me do a double-take because FUCKING HELL I was ripped. I mean I'd always been rather thin, nor scrawny but slim, with a little bit of a belly, mostly because I like this thing called cake.

But now I had an athletes build, not massive and overly muscular but a decently toned figure that looked like it belonged to someone who did a lot of cardio.

I'm guessing that was something Prothy had changed about me, which made sense since it'd be pretty hard to save the galaxy if you're constantly wheezing because you're out of breath.

Anyway, after 3 days of sitting around the ship finally arrived at the Thorne System, the strong solar winds causing less problems for the cruiser than it seemed to for the Normandy.

I stood on the bridge looking at the derelict Reaper, even with the massive hole blasted through the side it was still an intimidating sight.

I hear Mirander gasp next to me, a quick glance towards her showed that the usual professional image she maintained had been swept away by the fear of seeing a Reaper.

"What the hell is that?"