A/N: Italics indicate internal thought.

Bold indicates Reaper speech

Bold Italics indicate Reaper internal speech

Please comment and review

This is my first attempt at a story, so I am open to constructive criticism. Also If anyone has suggestions for the story feel free to give them.

Sending a Message

Location: Earth, Vila Militar, Rio de Janeiro

Date: 28th June

Time: 0030

John was slouched in a chair. It had been just under two weeks since he'd arrived at the infamous 'Vila Militar' and stared the brutal N7 training regime. The rest of his class were in their beds, passed out from exhaustion from the twenty hours of intense training they had undergone the day before.

However, John just sat in the common area barely showing any signs of fatigue.

He let out a deep sigh. During the first training session, the drill sergeant had called him out in front of the entire class, belittling his accomplishments on Elysium, mocking him and essentially doing everything else in his job description.

That wasn't what was troubling Shepard. He knew this place produced the greatest human soldiers, and that was only because they were pushed the hardest.

What troubled him was what he saw in the other hopefuls.

They spend every day….. pushing themselves beyond human limits…. pushing themselves to be better with every fibre of their being…..and I'm just breezing through this whole thing.

The training had only just started and it was already evident that John was a peg above the others. He barely seemed to show any exhaustion, he always scored the highest in the combat tests. He was already setting records, but John knew that was because he was different from the others, and he couldn't help feeling guilty about it.

Come on my parents both went through this…and they didn't have any powers.

John was roused from his musings when his omni-tool flashed. He was receiving a message…on the ghost bandwidth.

"Shepard we've got a situation," Miranda's voice was laced with concern.

"What is it Miranda?" he asked.

"One of our probes detected several slaver ships. Their movements have them heading towards the colony of Canaan," she replied.

"The probes work as we designed them to then," he said, grinning at the small triumph. His face turned grim as he realised that Miranda was not her usual collected self, "what aren't you telling me Miranda?" he asked.

"I'm afraid it wasn't one of the early warning probes that detected them, it was a closer one. They will be entering the system very soon," she responded, her tone grim.

"What?" Shepard almost yelled, realising his error he quickly glanced round to make sure he hadn't alerted anyone, "how did this happen? How did they get so close without any of the early warning probes detecting them?"

"The most likely scenario is that the slavers didn't enter human territory directly from the Terminus systems. I believe they must have taken a detour….. through Turian space."

"Dammit," John growled under his breath, "how quickly can we send forces to intercept?"

"They're already too close John. We won't be able to intercept them before they reach the colony," Miranda replied.

We can't stop them from attacking the colony….. We can't save them…..

What did you think would happen John…that you could be the hero again and swoop in, Shepard looked up to see the face of Reaper reflected in the window, it is as I said Jonathan…..this galaxy does not need heroes…..it needs MONSTERS!

Monsters to burn away this corruption….and the civilisations infested with it.

John clenched his fists, Miranda could hear his seething through her omni-tool, "John get your head together."

She was met with silence, sighing she explained, "we always knew the probes weren't a full proof solution John. Even if we know about every slaver attack before it commences, sending forces to stop them before they've attacked is impossible. Even with our new advanced ships."

Miranda paused for a second, "But that shouldn't matter," she continued with a powerful resolve, "We knew that this would be an uphill battle. So maybe we can't save every single person. We should try our damn hardest to save everyone that we can," Shepard's eyes widened in realisation at Miranda's statement.

She's…she's right. Untold human lives have already been lost…. and more…more will be lost before this ends. But I can't let that weaken my resolve… if we stop then no one will be saved.

"The Normandy is the fastest ship in the galaxy, we're on our way to pick you up, then we will head for Canaan," She said.

"Got it Miranda," he paused for second before saying, "and Miranda…. Thanks."

"Don't mention John," she said with a light chuckle, "keeping you on track is what I'm here for."

000

Location: Normandy, Canaan orbit.

Date: 28th June

John stood wearing a skin-tight black shirt and leggings, in front of a platform made up of several panels. Suddenly the panels began to move and several machines rose out of the floor.

The first thing to appear was several robotic arms supporting the boots of Shepard's armour. They opened up and he stepped into them. More robotic arms rose out of the ground carrying other pieces of his armour, they fitted the parts covering his shins and thighs, connecting the components of the suit together while they did. Two more arms rose up, each holding one of his clawed gauntlets. John stuck his arms out slipping, his hands into each of them, as the arms fitted them, he flexed his fingers and activated the claws experimentally. As the arms began to fit the upper arm components of the suit, the back and torso parts of the suit were brought up and fitted. When the two components were connected the circle in the centre of the chest began to glow a deep electric red. One last arm reached up from behind him and placed the skull painted helmet on his head. For the final touch Shepard raised his arms as his sleeveless hooded black trench coat was put on him. John raised the hood over his head, the eyes glowing red beneath it.

Shepard made his way to the cargo bay door, "boss, we've entered the atmosphere. We're just over the colony now," Joker said over the intercom.

"Good Joker. Tell Kaidan to take a boarding party to the slaver ship in orbit. Orders are to kill any crew, rescue any prisoners and seize any data."

"Roger that," Joker confirmed, "hey why aren't you heading towards the shuttles?"

"No time for that Jeff. Open the cargo bay doors."

"Seriously?!" Joker asked, incredulously.

"I'm going for shock factor again. Tell the rest of the troops I'll meet them on the ground."

Shepard made his way to the end of the cargo bay, as the doors opened. He stood at the end of the ramp, the unrelenting gale blowing against him, and he dived off.

John felt the wind rush past him as he descended. His HUD locked onto to the ideal landing site and the jump jets in his boots activated to put him on the right trajectory.

000

Canaan was a prime demonstration of the negative effects that the Citadel's trade restrictions had on humanity. Unable to afford the transportation of more modern materials, the colonists resorted to building their homes out of bricks and cement and other out of date construction methods. Overall it gave the appearance of a town from a century before humanity had become spacefaring.

Of course now, much of the colony lay in ruins.

Dozens of humans ran through a street of ruined and crumbling buildings, screaming in fear and panic. Several miles away, several loud explosions could be heard as the slavers used rocket launchers to demolish buildings.

In a small plaza, a large Batarian broke down the door, let off a few rounds with his assault rifle and then proceeded to drag a screaming young woman out of the building.

A few feet away a couple of Turians destroyed a door with a grenade, before forcing out the three humans taking shelter inside.

The slavers had gathered the captured humans in the centre of the plaza, where a gnarly Batarian was directing the other slavers, "Get any able-bodied ones over there!" he barked, gesturing to a nearby wall.

The invaders began forcibly separating their captives into two groups. The younger and healthier ones were forced away from the young children and elderly.

In the mists of the chaos a young man clung tightly to his wife, son and daughter as the slavers slowly walked amongst the captives. A Turian noticing this, slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of the man's head knocking him to the ground.

The Turian grabbed the human by the scruff of his neck and began to drag him away, meanwhile a Krogan began pushing the three remaining members of his family towards the other group.

The boy, no more than seven, ducked under the Krogan's arm and ran towards his father. In desperation, the man broke free of the Turian's hold on him and ran towards his son. The boy latched onto his father crying, while his father, with tears also streaming down his face, tried to pry his son off him and begged him to go with his mother and sister.

"What the fuck is this?!" The lead Batarian roared, walking up to the two. He yanked the boy away and threw him to the ground. He then delivered a right hook to the man's face, sending him face first into the dirt. The Batarian then unleashed a flurry of kicks into the downed man's chest, yelling profanities while he did so. He turned to the Turian, "shoot this ape!" he yelled.

The Turian pulled the man into a kneeling position and aimed his rifle at his head. Behind him his wife and two children began crying and pleading, praying to any deity that existed for something to save them.

None of them expected their prayers to be answered.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the sound of what seemed to be jet engines coming from the air. The Turian holding the man at gunpoint look directly up…..

Just in time to see the metal behemoth crash right on top of him.

Everyone present, colonist and slave, stared at the figure kneeling in the middle of a small impact crater, still standing on the pulverised remains of the Turian. They all recognised the figure.

The one they called Reaper.

Reaper merely stared at all of them, one Batarian decided to open fire, but the shots did nothing to him. Reaper responded by delivering a punch which sent the slaver flying and smashing into a wall. The black armoured figure then swung out with his claws, slicing the throat of a nearby Turian. He back handed another Batarian with enough force to send him smashing into a wall leaving a bloody smear.

A Krogan then roared and charged at him, in response Reaper remained completely motionless, but when the Krogan got close enough, he delivered right hook with such speed that hardly anybody could keep track of his movement. The blow caved in the Krogan's skull and pulverised his brain matter. The body fell limply to the side.

At this point the remaining slavers had regained their senses and all began to open fire on him, but a red barrier neutralised the shots. Reaper drew one of his guns and fired off two shots to his right, hitting a couple of slavers, and sending the bodies crashing against a nearby wall. He pulled out his other weapon, spun round and gunned down three more attackers. Reaper quickly turned again to face the remaining four, he aimed both his guns and let loose a barrage quickly cutting them down.

He lowered his weapons for a second, I counted two more slavers, he thought.

"Don't move!" He heard a voice shout out from behind him. Turning, Reaper saw that one of the surviving slavers had grabbed a young woman and was using her as a human shield while pointing his pistol to her head. It wasn't this act of cowardice that made him seethe in anger though, it was the fact this slaver was human.

"You're gonna let me go, all right, or I'll kill this bitch!" the slaver yelled.

Reaper holstered both his weapons, keeping his gaze fixed on the hostage taker, then he slowly began to walk forward.

"Didn't you hear what I said. I'll… I'll kill her!" The slaver tried to shout but his voice became shaky and sweat began to pour down his face, the red glare of the monster in front of him striking terror into his entire being. Reaper merely continued to walk forward slowly.

"St…stay…..stay away from me!" in a panic, the slaver aimed his gun at Reaper and opened fire. The high velocity slugs bounced harmlessly off the skull themed helmet. Reaper's hand shot out and grabbed the slaver's hand, still holding his gun, and squeezed. The man screamed as his fingers were crushed, and shards of bone burst through his flesh. The woman he was using as a hostage quickly pulled away from him.

Reaper glared into the tear stained eyes of the human slaver.

"Traitor," he said simply. He raised his other hand and grabbed the slaver by his face. The man screamed as red energy surged around him and his body withered.

A deafening silence washed over the area as all the rescued colonists simply stared at their saviour. Until the young boy from before ran over to his father. Both of them hugged each other tightly.

Hiding behind a partially damaged wall the lead Batarian was in the process of hyperventilating, he had just seen all of his men cut down like nothing. He quickly activated his omni-tool. But his call was interrupted as a metal gauntlet punch through the wall a few inches to his right. His shocked expression only lasted until the arm reached around and pulled him through the wall.

Reaper threw the last slaver at the feet of the colonists, before proceeding to walk away, "he's all yours,"

The Batarian could only scream as the last thing he saw was one of the colonists with a metal bar raised above his head.

000

Meanwhile, the slaver frigate remained just outside the planet's orbit, completely unaware of what was happening to their comrades on the surface.

"What's the status of our acquisitions?" the ship's captain, another Batarian asked his Salarian communications officer.

"They've set up a landing site and are ready to start sending them up to the ship. However, we seem to have lost contact with some of them in the outskirts of the colony."

The Batarian grunted, "piece of shit comms…." he mumbled to himself, "tell them to hurry the fuck up, we've got a narrow window here."

Before the message could be relayed, several explosions rocked the hull of the ship, many of the crew members were knocked to the ground by the force.

"What the hell just happened?!" The captain roared.

A Turian looked at a screen, "enemy fire. Several shots impacted the hull….. but…but our systems aren't detecting an enemy ship," he said, in a tone that grew increasingly more worried.

"Shit, what's the damage?" the captain asked.

After looking back at the screen for a few seconds the Turian responded, "severe damage to the thrusters, we can't get the ship moving."

000

A few miles away from the Slaver ship, the Normandy hovered, completely invisible.

Three small cylindrical objects, about the same size as KODIAK shuttles, jettisoned from the larger ship. Thrusters on one end of the cylinders activated, propelling them towards the slave ship, as they got closer several rings of serrated teeth on the other end of the cylinders, began to rapidly rotate.

They impacted the side of the ship where the teeth proceeded to tunnel through the hull. As the head of the boarding craft emerged inside the ship, several devices on the outside dispensed some kind of gel to create a vacuum seal. Within the teeth rings was an iris door.

It opened as three figures stepped out.

All three were wearing armour similar to Reaper, but they lacked the spikes, hooded coat and painted skull face. The armour was also primarily metallic blue with silver colouring on the thighs and upper arms and the glowing circles in the centre of their chests, were light blue instead of red.

Two figures were holding assault rifles, while the third, who had more of a navy-blue coloured armour, was holding a submachine-gun and what seem to be a katana sheathed on his back.

The other two boarding pods likewise opened, and six more armoured figures with assault rifles stepped out.

The faceplate of the sword carrying figure opened up to reveal Kaidan Alenko. He addressed the members of the assembled squad, "all right, four of you secure the engine room and deactivate the drive core. The rest secure the cargo bay, check for any prisoners. I'll take the CIC."

"Are you sure you can take it by yourself sir?" one of the soldiers asked.

Kaidan grinned, "any one of us could take the CIC by themselves," with that the squad split up, heading towards their targets.

Kaidan headed towards the CIC, as he turned a corner, he saw two crewmembers, a Batarian and a Turian. They both jumped in shock at seeing him and made to grab their weapons. Without stopping he fired two bursts with his submachine-gun, he gunned them down but he heard the footsteps of others headed towards his location.

As he continued his walk, a Batarian emerged in the hallway behind him, he slowly began to walk up behind Kaidan, hoping to catch him by surprise. Kaidan reached up with his right hand and gripped the hilt of the high-frequency blade on its back and unsheathed it a few millimetres, the blade began to let out a quiet humming as he did so.

Once the Batarian was close enough, Kaidan quickly spun around and fully unsheathed his sword. In one rapid slash, he sliced right through the armour and chest of the Batarian, who could only stand there shocked, before choking on his own blood.

As the body began to fall a Turian ran into the hallway. Seeing the situation, he tried to pull out his pistol, but Kaidan was faster. In one swipe he severed the Turian's gun arm, and as he held his severed limbs screaming in pain, Kaidan fired a burst into his head to put him out of his misery.

Finally reaching the door to the CIC, Kaidan was promptly forced take cover in an adjoining hallway as a squad of six slavers opened fire on him. As he waited for the barrage to subside Kaidan looked down at his sword as it became enveloped in an ethereal blue energy. Once the assembled slavers stopped firing, Kaidan leapt out of cover and slashed the air with his now glowing sword.

The slash released a wave of blue energy that flew down the hallway towards the enemy squad. It exploded in a sphere of blue energy which had the unexpected effect of making the slavers float around helplessly.

Kaidan quickly ran forward brandishing his sword, with several rapid slashes, he sliced through the floating forms as he ran past. He stopped after emerging behind the squad and turned around to watch as the biotic energy vanished and the six bodies fell to the ground, blood beginning to pour out of the deep lacerations.

He looked down at his sword for a minute, this thing is really growing on me, he thought before turning his attention back to the door.

In the CIC the captain was about to lose his mind. On the screen in front of him was one of his subordinates down in the cargo bay, "were getting slaughtered here! we need help now!" the unfortunate Turian shouted before being gunned down in a hail of high velocity slugs and the line went dead.

The captain slammed his fist into the consul, "damn it, we were promised no interference from the Alliance!" he roared.

"I don't think this is the Alliance," one of his crewmates responded, "this looks like-"

They were cut off as they saw what appeared to be a sword slicing through the door to the CIC. The Batarian would have laughed at how ridiculous that was, if it were not for the fact that the blade was somehow slicing through the metal door as if it were paper.

As the door crumbled like cardboard, the armoured figure of Kaidan stepped through and gave the four individuals a once over. The four slavers had no time to react as he gunned three of them down with quick bursts from his submachine-gun. Kaidan turned his aim on the captain but his weapon ejected its thermal clip.

Seeing the opportunity, the captain tried to draw his weapon. Kaidan holstered his gun, grabbed his sword with both hands and held it outwards. He then activated a biotic charge.

He reappeared behind the captain in a flash of blue, his sword still outwards. For a few moments neither of them moved until Kaidan stood back up and began to re-sheath his sword. Just as he finished a thin cut began to appear along the throat of the Batarian and blood began to drip from it. Next the head completely detached from the neck and fell to the ground with a thud, the decapitated body following soon after.

Kaidan activated his omni-tool, "CIC secured. Team one and team two what is your status?"

"This is team one, drive core secured."

"This is team two, cargo bay also secured, no sign of any prisoners."

"Alright contact the Normandy to send a shuttle for us," Kaidan approached the main computer in the CIC, "EDI, see if there's anything useful here."

000

[BGM start: 'Citizen Soldier' by three doors down]

A group of slavers had cornered another large group of colonists in another part of the town. Most of them were being kept in line at gunpoint, but a Turian was in the process of trying to tear a young girl from her mother. The Turian gave a powerful kick to the woman's face knocking her to the ground and forcing her to let go. She began to sob on the ground until the imposing figure of Reaper walked past her, making a beeline for the Turian.

The slaver was so shocked by the infamous terrorist's sudden appearance that he let go of the girl's arm, she promptly ran past Reaper to embrace her mother. The Turian tried to draw his weapon but Reaper pulled out one of his own guns and shot the slaver straight in the chest. At this point the other slavers finally realised what was happening and about two dozen assault rifles were aimed at the armoured figure.

Gunshots rang out. Several of the slavers fell to the ground, as more than a dozen humans wearing similar armour to Reaper began to fire on the invaders from the top of several nearby buildings. The remaining slavers tried to return fire, but their weapons were ineffectual and it wasn't long before they were all cut down.

The armoured humans jumped down to the ground, the squad leader approached Reaper, "all squads have landed sir, we've already received reports that the scum are all falling back."

"Excellent. Leave three men to take these people to the safe zone we've designated. The rest of you, keep driving these vermin back!"

"yes sir!" all the soldiers echoed.

Reaper continued his trek, two soldiers accompanied him, while the rest disbanded. It wasn't long before they encountered more slavers, who were in full retreat. Reaper continued to walk forward at a steady pace shrugging off the barrage of high velocity slugs hitting his armour like rain. He gripped both his weapons and began his own onslaught of return fire. Two Batarians fell with burning holes in their chests, a Turian was taken down with a headshot, a Vorcha had two red bolts go through his chest and many other slavers suffered similar fates. The two soldiers accompanying Reaper also opened fire, gunning down several of the fleeing slavers themselves.

Suddenly all three humans were engulfed in a massive explosion, sending up a huge amount of dust and completely obscuring them, courtesy of a slaver tank moving down the street. It paused, hoping to confirm the kill but as the dust cleared it revealed a red barrier encompassing the three humans. The two soldiers staring at the power of Reaper's barrier in awe.

Reaper aimed one of his guns of the tank and charged up a shot. A glowing red sphere went flying towards the tank, obliterating it in a large explosion.

This scene was repeating all around the colony. More armoured figures were appearing, rescuing the colonists and driving the slavers back. The slavers tried to return fire but found it a futile gesture against the armoured monsters.

[BGM end]

000

Barley an hour later, Reaper was standing in front of twenty slavers. They were all kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their heads. The burning remained of their shuttles nearby, courtesy of a Normandy airstrike.

Kaidan, who had come down to the colony, approached the black hooded figure. "Hey Reaper, heard you had things pretty easy down here," he said.

Reaper turned to him, "first sign of heavier resistance, they tried to run. How'd things go your end? Everything okay?"

"Boarding pods worked perfectly, and no problems arose from the Ironman suits."

"They worked great on the ground too. It may take a while to train soldiers to properly use the suits, but it is definitely worth it."

Kaidan then drew his sword and gave it a few practice swings, "also, this thing was amazing, you did an incredible job with it," he said as he re-sheathed it.

"Did you find any useful intel from the ship?" Reaper asked.

"No," Kaidan responded with a small scowl, "someone just sent them a designated time when they would be able to attack the colony with no Alliance or Hierarchy interference."

Reaper clenched his first, "we should have expected that we wouldn't get anything useful from low-level thugs like them."

"Still we succeeded, we saved the colony," Kaidan said, with a slightly more upbeat tone, "not enough of it Kaidan," Reaper responded looking at the bodies of several colonists, victims of the initial slavers attack.

"It's not enough to fight them off, we need to discourage them from attacking. We need to make them scared," his red eyes turned to the surrendered slavers.

000

Just as it had over three weeks previously, all over the galaxy everyone found their screens, personal and public being co-opted. The image reappeared to show the terrifying form of Reaper once again, this time staring directly at the camera. Behind him were a dozen other figures wearing similar armour, one in particular was wielding what looked like a sword. They were all standing over the forms of several kneeling aliens.

"This colony was attacked, we came to this colony's aid and annihilated these vermin," Reaper stated in a calm tone before pausing for a second.

"My question is, why did you attack these people? They have never harmed anyone. The answer: because all of you other species see us as weak and inferior. You think you can simply take what you want from us, our friends, our families, our identities and there will be no consequence for you," he paused again.

"That may have been true once, but that is no longer the case. So, allow me to deliver this message. If you attack human worlds this is all that will await you vermin."

At those words the other humans began to brutally execute the captured slavers. Two humans brutally ripped off a Batarian's arms. Another was knocked to the ground and his head crushed under a metal boot. A Turian's head was crushed by the metallic gauntlets of another armoured human. The human armed with a sword bisected a Salarian in a single stroke. They rest of the prisoners were executed in similarly brutal fashions. Reaper gave one last look into the camera before the broadcast ended.