Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Gears of War/Mass Effect crossover.

Thank you so much for the feedback from last chapter. I greatly appreciate it. I'm happy to see that all of you are enjoying this crossover so far.

By the way, if there's something you want to see next, let me know in the reviews. That way I can look at your ideas, and see if they'd be good for inclusion into this crossover. Don't fret if an idea you have isn't accepted or included. I pay close attention to them.

As always, leave a review and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gears of War or Mass Effect franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of BioWare, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Studios, The Coalition, Epic Games, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.

Eden Prime

Near Spaceport

January 15th, 2183

Shepard had to admit, he'd seen many a strange sight in his life, but not one as strange, but oddly familiar, as the one before him. Approaching with a slightly raised rifle, he looked to make sure that Alenko and Ashley were on his left and right. Once that was done, and once he was certain they were ready in case something happened, he proceeded towards the knot of unknown human beings.

All of them were wearing what looked like heavy body armor, though of a design that he wasn't familiar with. The armor was bulky, but it looked like it was able to deflect anything short of the slug the railgun on the Mako was designed to fire. While the colors and design varied from each person, he could see that each set of armor had two hermetic seals on either side of a central chest plate. The design differences, from what he could tell, weren't that far apart, though two of the soldiers weren't wearing armor for the arms. One was even wearing an elaborate helmet that hid his face.

Their faces varied as well. One of the human beings was a dark skinned man, with short wiry hair on his head. Both brown eyes were gazing around alertly, though the relaxed body language meant that the man was quite comfortable with what was going on. The same couldn't be said of his buddy, who had blond colored hair, bright blue eyes and was much more alert and tense.

It was the last human being that had Shepard's full attention out of all of them. That human was wearing some kind of bandanna on his head, hiding most of his hair, though the rest that was visible was a black color. A long ragged scar ran down the right side of his face, and a small black goatee was clearly visible. It was the eyes, however, that had Shepard's attention; both hazel green eyes looked around with the caution that only a veteran had. In addition, he had an aura that seemed to say, 'don't piss me off.' To Shepard, that aura was like a warning buoy at sea, warning ships away from a hazardous place.

Apparently, Kaidan had sensed much the same, as he leaned in to Shepard and whispered, "Might want to watch yourself around that guy, Shepard. Something tells me that, if he were to become hostile, none of us would be able to stop him."

Shepard nodded. Between the man's thick armor, and the way he held himself, it was likely that he'd lose a fight with that person. Looking at his rifle, Shepard guessed that, even with armor piercing rounds, the M-9 Avenger he was armed with almost certainly wouldn't make much more than a scratch on that man's armor. Looking towards Nihlus, he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Nihlus nodded. "These humans saved my life, Shepard. I ran into an old acquaintance that turned out to be an enemy." Realizing that introductions had to be made, he said, "Also, this one is Marcus, the other one is Cole, while these two are Baird and Carmine."

"Nice to meet you," Shepard nodded, looking at Marcus. When he didn't return the reply, Shepard frowned. He could understand the man's reluctance to say hello, as the two of them had little idea as to what was going on, or what was going to happen. In addition, Shepard noticed that each of the men were looking at Nihlus warily, as though they expected him to attack them at any moment. "You can relax," he told Marcus. "Nihlus is a friend."

Marcus frowned. The part of him that had fought the Locust for so long was begging him to shoot the alien. He knew, however, that the 'turian' wasn't a Grub, and as such, he would refrain from firing on it unless it gave him good reason to do so. As such, he lowered the weapon, bringing a smile to Shepard's face. Turning to Nihlus, he asked, "What do you mean by an old acquaintance, though?"

Nihlus was about to reply when a crate fell down a moment later, causing someone back there to give out a cry. Cole, hearing that, pointed his weapon, a large, bulky, but intimidating looking rifle that had what looked like a nasty bayonet, towards the crate and said, "Come on out, asshole! If you an enemy, I promise I'll kill ya quick! The Cole Train's humane, bitch!"

"'The Cole Train?'" Ashley asked, confused.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kaidan frowned.

Just as he said this, the source of the noise made itself, or rather himself, clear. A man wearing the uniform of a dockworker came into view, hands held upwards as he looked at them with wide, frightened eyes. "Wait!" he shouted. "Don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!"

Marcus, who was apparently the leader of the group, lowered his rifle and simply grumbled, "Dipshit."

"Sneaking up like that on us nearly got you killed," Shepard, who'd pulled his own pistol out, growled at the dockworker.

"I-I'm sorry," the dockworker stuttered. "I-I thought there were more of those… things." As the others lowered their weapons, the dockworker said, "My name's Powell. I was hiding behind those crates when the other Turian showed up."

"Other Turian?" Kaidan asked. "Who was he?"

"I know who he is," Nihlus replied. "He was my mentor when I was selected for Spectre training. His name's Saren, Saren Arterius."

"He was your mentor?" Marcus asked Nihlus. When Nihlus nodded, Marcus frowned and said, "That makes sense, but why would he try to kill you? That doesn't many any sense."

"Saren's always had his reasons for why he does things," Nihlus frowned. "As to why he would kill me, I don't know." Looking at the dockworker, he asked, "Where did Saren go?"

"He jumped the rail, after that guy shot him," the dockworker explained, while motioning to the human in question. "Your rescuer shot him right in the leg. I think he broke it, 'cause I heard this scream of agony. My guess is that it's where they took that artifact they found earlier."

Looking at the human being, Nihlus said, "You wounded him. Not bad, especially with the weapon you have."

"My father designed it," Marcus replied. "He did a good job. Saved my life more than I can count."

"Sounds like it," Shepard nodded. Looking at Marcus' armor, he asked, "Where'd you get that?"

"We'll explain that part later," Marcus replied, deflecting the question. "Right now, we need to get out of here, with whatever you came here for."

"Agreed," Nihlus nodded. Looking at the dockworker, he asked, "What else can you tell us about the attack?"

"Yeah. There was this ship that came down. Made this horrible sound. I knew it was trouble the moment I saw it. Then those Geth came out and killed everyone. If I hadn't been behind the crates already, I would've been killed too!"

"Wait," Kaidan asked, confused. "You were behind the crates before the attack?"

"Yes. Sometimes, in order to get through my shift, I hide behind the crates where my supervisor can't find me to grab forty winks."

"You survived because you were lazy?" Ashley asked, surprised.

"Lucky you, dipshit," Marcus remarked.

"I agree," Shepard nodded. "If you hadn't been behind the crates, you'd have been killed as well."

"Yeah," Powell frowned. "I-I really don't want to think about."

That was when Shepard said something that caught everyone's attention. "You're Cole's contact at the docks for the smuggling ring."

"What?" Cole asked. "Hey, I only just got here, and I never got involved in any crimes."

"Not you," Shepard explained. "Another man with your name. According to him, Powell runs a smuggling ring here at the docks."

Powell, hearing that, stammered, "So what if I – oh, you're right. I'm a smuggler, but that's not as bad as what's going on!"

"Anything around here we can use?

"A shipment of grenades came in a few weeks ago. No body notices a few things that go missing from the military orders."

The moment Ashley heard that, she was furious. "You greedy son of a bitch!" she snarled. "We're out here, protecting your asses, and you thank us by fucking ripping us off!"

She was about to charge forwards when Shepard stepped in front of her, cutting her off. "Let him go," he ordered her. "He's not worth it."

Ashley looked as though she was about to protest, then thought better of it. Growling, she said, "You're lucky that the Commander's here to save your ass. Hand over the grenades, now!"

Powell was more than willing to hand over the grenades after seeing how aggressive Ashley was. "T-take them," he stammered. "My smuggling days are over. I swear!"

It was then that Marcus, who was watching that part of the exchange silently, got to see a side of Shepard that few had yet. "A lot of those marines died, Powell," Shepard said to the smuggler. "Those grenades could've come in handy. If I were you, I'd think of some way to make up to them."

Those words apparently had the intended effect, as Powell stopped for a moment. Then he said, "Wait, there's one more thing. Something else came in with the shipment. Could be worth a fortune. Experimental technology. Top-of-the-line." Pulling out a smaller item, he said, "Take it. I don't need it."

"We can prosecute him later," Nihlus said to the others. "We have to get to that Prothean Beacon, now!"

"Then let's go," Shepard decided. As they walked away, he turned towards Marcus and asked, "You and your pals coming?"

"Don't really have a choice," Marcus decided. "Cole, Baird, Carmine, we're heading out. No point staying away from them." As the walked along, he walked over to Shepard and asked, "By the way, I didn't get your name."

"Shepard," was the reply. "John Shepard. With me is Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams. We had another person, Jenkins, but he…" He trailed off at that.

"Who's Jenkins?"

"A recruit that we had aboard the Normandy. He was funny, but honest and eager to serve. The Geth, they... they killed him. Cut him down before he could get into cover."

Marcus, realizing why Shepard spoke the way he did, frowned in sympathy before he said, "I'm sorry to hear that. He sounded like a nice guy."

"He was," Shepard nodded. "He was too young to die, damnit! His career was only just getting started!" Taking a breath to calm himself, he said, "Well, there's no point in crying about what could have been different. All we can do is ensure that his death isn't in vain."

"I think he'd appreciate that." With that, the nine man group began to move out. Moving down the steps, Marcus watched as Cole took the Gnasher from Baird, while handing him a weapon he was familiar with: the Longshot.

It was then that they entered the area where the loading dock was at. The loading dock consisted of a small square part of a walkway, which then continued onward for around a hundred meters, before coming to a stop. Half-walls that were spaced at regular intervals broke up the walkway, with the areas between likely used for holding cargo crates until they could be loaded. Up ahead, Marcus could see what looked like a cargo tram, though the design was so different, he couldn't be certain.

That wasn't the only thing they had to deal with, though. Spotting familiar silhouettes up ahead, he shouted, "TAKE COVER!" before sliding behind one of the half walls. Just as he did, a bullet whipped overhead, missing the other members of the team. "Baird!"

"I'm on it!" Baird shouted. While not as skilled a marksman as Clayton Carmine, he was capable of hitting a target repeatedly at the longer end of the Longshot's range. Pulling out a single 14.2mm round from the pouch Cole had given him, he slid the long cartridge into the bolt of the weapon, before pushing said bolt down and forwards. Taking aim, he centered the crosshairs onto the head of what looked like a larger version of the smaller Geth. Prioritizing that as a target, he squeezed the trigger.

There was a loud KRA-THOOM as the Longshot fired. The 14.2mm round inside of the chamber rocketed down the barrel of the weapon, before zipping out the muzzle at tremendous speed. Traveling faster than the human eye could track, the bullet tore through the air and impacted the larger Geth in the head. The round tore through the armor that the Geth platform used, before ripping into the delicate electronics inside with unmatched savagery. Moments later, it zipped out the back of the platform's head, continuing to fly for a considerable distance.

Nihlus winced as the powerful rifle fired, though the results were not something he could argue with. "Lobotomized!" Baird crowed victoriously, before pulling the bolt handle up and back once he was in cover. A single round was discarded, before the new round was loaded. Baird, though, had been a little too impatient, with the bolt getting partly stuck. "Not again!" he moaned, before smacking the meat of his palm into the bolt. That finally got the bolt to move into position.

In the meantime, Shepard was using his Viper sniper rifle to engage the Geth. Most had barriers strong enough to withstand a shot, allowing them to duck down and recharge. He was about to try something else when a similarly loud shot caught his attention. Looking to the right, he watched as Marcus fired what looked like a revolver of some kind, firing it with precision towards the Geth. Any that were unlucky enough to be hit, had their heads explode.

Ducking down as Shepard and the others fired at range, Marcus slapped the ejector rod with his hand as he pushed the cylinder out and to the side, with the cartridges that were spent falling to the ground. Loading in a new set, he pushed the cylinder in, before spinning the chamber and popping out of cover. Oh, yeah, he thought with satisfaction as he blew another Geth Trooper's head clean off.

Looking to the left, Shepard watched as Carmine loaded the muzzle of an odd looking weapon with a pointed bolt. It was like a regular gun had a pair of retracting arms attached to the top and bottom. He watched as Carmine held down the trigger, with the arms retracting until they were lying almost flush against the weapon. At a certain moment, he popped out of cover and let the trigger go.

The bolt in the weapon zipped forwards at tremendous speed, while Shepard heard a loud THUNK! Moments later, the sound of an explosion, combined with a loud, electronic squeal, filled the air. Once more, Carmine loaded the weapon, before leaning out and firing again. Eventually, after a few minutes of fighting, all of the Geth in the area had been neutralized by the team. Weapons at the ready, they advanced forwards, with Marcus putting down a downed Geth Trooper.

As they advanced, Shepard noted some of the actions that Marcus and the others had done. From the way they fired their weapons, to how they took cover, it was clear that the four of them had been involved with a major conflict, though the only one he could think about was the Skyllian Blitz that he'd participated in. If they'd been around then, I'm sure I'd have heard about those four, he thought. What kind of a fight would justify such weaponry?

Eventually, they reached the cargo tram, with Nihlus heading to work on it. "Spirits!" he snarled. "The Geth locked us out of it!"

"Hang on," Baird remarked. "I've got an idea." Walking over to the console as Nihlus stepped aside, he surprised the Spectre when he roughly kicked a maintenance panel, causing it to fall off. A cluster of wires were exposed on the inside, with Baird yanking a few out, before crossing them.

Apparently, that had the intended effect, as moments later, the tram began to move forwards. "That's smart," Kaidan remarked. "If the console won't work, cross the wires and do a manual override."

"Exactly," Baird beamed. "You should hear some of the tricks I pulled off. As I told Marcus once, I make intelligent use of free resources. It's the reason, he and my other friends are still around to bitch about it." Kaidan nodded sagely as he remembered similar events in his life, even as the cargo tram moved along to it's destination.

. . .

The same couldn't be said about Saren, who was still limping as he moved towards the Prothean beacon. His right leg protested every movement he made, with the bone fragments grating against the bones that were still fully connected to his nervous system. The end result were waves of agony that he could barely withstand. Losing my arm didn't hurt nearly as bad as this, he thought, wincing as his leg sent a fresh wave of agony to his brain stem.

A nearby Geth platform that was modified to provide aid to Saren, had two others hold him still, before it roughly yanked on his leg. Saren let out a roar of agony, before the soothing relief that came from dextro medi-gel flooded his veins. At the same time, he watched as the medical Geth platform attached a high tech medical exoskeleton to his leg before it had the others let go of him. Putting some weight on it, he sighed with relief when the exoskeleton kept the weight off his leg.

With the pain from the injury already subsiding, his mind cleared, allowing him to issue orders. "Set the charges," he told the other Geth. "Destroy everything. Leave no evidence that we were here." As they worked to carry out his orders, he advanced towards the Prothean Beacon, allowing it to lift him off the ground. Soon, after getting what he wanted, he and the others left.

. . .

While he left, a Geth Saboteur was busy setting up the last det-charge that would destroy the nearby fuel line, which would result in a chain of detonations that would destroy much of the colony. Once the bomb was armed, it stood up, before it noticed a sound from afar. Looking down towards the rail, it watched as it transported eight individuals, before coming to a stop. Realizing that the organics had somehow bypassed the hacked console, the Geth moved to prepare for an attack.

Pulling the wires that were allowing the tram to move apart, Baird rapidly changed the configuration of the wires, causing the tram's brakes to engage. "Finished," he beamed as they came to a stop. "What would you do without me?"

"Not much," Marcus truthfully admitted. Looking up and around, he could see Geth moving around on a walkway that was accessible via ramps to the left and right. What had his attention, however, were what appeared to be cylindrical devices that were spread around the place.

Kaidan came to the conclusion of what they were just before Marcus' mind did. "Demolition charges! The Geth must have planted them!"

"Shut them down! Hurry!" Ashley shouted.

"Baird?" Marcus asked.

"I'm on it!" Baird shouted. "Should be just as simple as cutting off the power supply! Cole, keep me covered!"

"You know it, baby!" Cole shouted as he moved to cover Baird. At the same time, Marcus and Carmine, along with Nihlus, Shepard and Ashley, moved to keep Kaidan covered as he too went to work disarming the charges.

The Geth, spotting them, opened fire, their weapons emitting that strange warbling as they opened fire. In response, Marcus and Cole fired their Lancers, forcing the Geth to take cover wherever they could. Curious, Marcus fired at the panel where one of the Geth Troopers were hiding. His curiosity was rewarded when the bullets his rifle fired tore through the thin metal, allowing them to tear through the Geth Tropper hiding behind them like cheese.

"Cole, fire through the metal sheets they're hiding behind!" he shouted. "They're not thick enough to stop our rifle rounds!"

"Got it!" Cole shouted. "Baird, how long?!"

"Got it!" Baird shouted as he pulled the wires leading to the charge's power supply. "Demolition charge disabled!"

"We've got three more to deal with!" Kaidan, who had also finished disarming his bomb, reported. "They're over by where the Geth are at!"

"Move out!" Marcus shouted. Sprinting up the ramp, he charged in towards a lone Geth Trooper. It turned to fire at him, but Marcus was too close. Rather than using his chainsaw bayonet, which would've suffered damage otherwise, Marcus shoulder rammed the Geth Trooper, with the momentum of his charge allowing him to knock the Geth Trooper clean onto it's back. Firing his Lancer twice, he destroyed it.

Turning around, he watched as a Geth Saboteur fired a red-white bolus of energy directly at him. Eyes widening, he hurled himself into cover, barely avoiding the powerful munition. "SON OF A BITCH!" he shouted as he felt the intense heat wash over him. "Now I'm pissed!" Raising the rifle angrily, he fired off a long burst, destroying three Geth Troopers that had been moving to cover.

It wasn't long before the Geth had been neutralized, though during this time, Baird and Kaidan worked to disarm more charges. Pulling the power cables out of another one, Baird ran towards the last bomb. Shit, he thought when he saw that the bomb had just thirty seconds left. Pulling the cover off out of sheer terror and desperation, he forwent using his cable cutters and instead fired his Lancer into the bomb. Sparks flew everywhere as the bullets tore through electronics and cabling, while the detonations from the HE tip sent small bits of shrapnel flying into the machine as well. A moment later, the timer stopped at just 4 seconds.

"I'm good!" Kaidan shouted. "Bomb disarmed. Baird?!"

"I disarmed the last one!" Baird shouted. "Shit! That was way too fucking close! I thought I was gonna be seeing my parents soon."

Seeing the timer stuck at the 4 second mark, Kaidan whistled. Inspecting the interior, he saw the results of Baird's panic-fueled shooting of the bomb's internal components. "Not what I'd have done, but that'll work."

"Thanks," Baird sighed. "Now, can we find this artifact of yours? Preferably without the free, Geth bonus package."

"I couldn't agree more," Shepard, who was also a bit frazzled by how close they'd come to losing their lives, nodded. "Too close, but we got the job done. Let's find that Prothean beacon."

Moving towards a ramp they'd seen earlier, the team began proceeding down a ramp into what appeared to be another cargo storage area. As they did so, Baird saw what looked like spikes, upon which there seemed to be a body. "Um, Shepard?" he asked, "Do spikes with bodies freak you out?"

"Yes," Shepard frowned. Just as he said this, the spikes retracted, with the bodies, much to everyone's horror, getting up and moving around.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Marcus shouted. "Focus fire on the zombies!"

"Oh, hell no!" Cole shouted. "I don't do zombies!" In agreement with his assessment, everyone tore into the zombies, which Marcus later nicknamed Husks. Against the mass accelerator weapons Shepard and his team used, the Husks were quite durable. The same couldn't be said when going against the weapons that Marcus and his team used. The four Gears gunned down the Husks without even having to use their chainsaw bayonets.

"That is fucking sick," Carmine growled, disgust and anger dripping from his voice. "What kind of fucking sick bastard turns people into zombies?!"

"The kind of people that are just like the grubs," Baird frowned, placing a hand on Carmine's armored shoulder. "This kind of fucking sick shit really pisses me off." Angrily, he kicked at the severed arm of a Husk, sending it flying a good fifteen meters.

While the two Gears shared their mutual disgust towards what had happened to the colonists, Marcus found himself looking at the Prothean Beacon from a careful distance. The beacon, to him at least, resembled a finely crafted sculpture, with a base that resembled a isosceles triangle that had the long side curved inward, with a slot that allowed for a long and tall oval cylinder to jut up into the sky. The device was black in color, while the lines glowed an ethereal green color. A kind of mist seemed to emanate from the device, further adding to the otherworldly aura.

"Is this your 'Prothean Beacon?'" Marcus asked Nihlus.

"Yes," Nihlus nodded. "They're responsible for the technology that we have. The Mass Relay, Citadel, our ship drives. It's all based on Prothean technololgy."

Marcus frowned slightly upon hearing that. He'd read more than a few science fiction novels as a young man, to know that copying another person's technology could blind one to alternatives that would work just as well. Certainly applies with weapons tech, he noted. Their rifles barely did any damage to my armor. Still, he didn't like the look of the beacon much, so he kept a good distance away from it.

Seeing that the Beacon was intact, Shepard keyed his COM. "Ground team to Normandy. The Beacon's secure Requesting retrieval and evac."

As he did this, Kaidan and Ashley moved closer, admiring the artifact. "That's amazing!" Kaidan beamed. "Actual working Prothean technology."

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," Ashley remarked. "Something must've activated it."

"Roger, Normandy," Shepard finished. "Standing by." Motioning to Kaidan and Nihlus, Shepard began to talk to them.

Ashley, who was quite curious, began to move closer, but was stopped by Marcus a moment later. "Don't get too close," he said to her. "I'd rather not find out what might happen."

"Yeah. Good idea," Ashley nodded. Heeding Marcus' advice, the two began to step away.

Suddenly, Marcus watched as Ashley fell, before she was dragged away fast enough that he couldn't react. Scrabbling for anything, Ashley dragged her hands against the floor, slowing her down enough for Marcus to shout, "SHEPARD!"

Shepard, having already spotted what was happening, raced forwards and, grabbing Ashley as she was dragged in front of the device, threw her towards Nihlus and the others, before fighting against the field himself. Just as he was about to break free, it lifted him into the air, before dragging him close.

"Shepard!" Ashley shouted. She ran towards him, only for Nihlus and Kaidan to restrain her.

"NO!" Nihlus shouted. "We can't touch him! It's too dangerous!"

All the while, Shepard wasn't having that pleasant of a time. He roared in pain as images flashed through his mind. The images were flashing so fast that he didn't have time to figure out what they meant. On top of that, he felt an intense, rubbing and burning sensation in his head, like someone was taking a belt sander to it. "H-hhelp!" he shouted.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended. There was a brilliant flash of green-white light as the Beacon detonated. Pieces of it were hurled everywhere, while Shepard was thrown backwards into the air, smashing into Baird, who moved too slowly to get out of the way. Both men tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"BAIRD!" Marcus shouted.

"I'm OK!" Baird shouted. "What about Shepard!"

"Let me see him," Nihlus ordered, with Baird quickly complying. While he hadn't studied much into xenobiology, Nihlus had taken a basic first aid course that most Alliance soldiers took. As such, he used his omni-tool to scan Shepard. "Thank the Spirits," he sighed. "Shepard's alive, but he needs medical treatment immediately! Kaidan, get the Normandy to land on the double, NOW!" As Kaidan did so, Nihlus began to utter a prayer to the Turian spirits of healing and fate to save Shepard.

All the while, Marcus looked on. He had never thought this would happen when they jumped through the wormhole at the COG facility, but he now knew that things were quickly ratcheting up. Well, we've put our foot into it, he thought to himself. Don't know what'll happen now, but it sure as hell is getting intense. Welcome to a brave, new and fucked up world.