An Anthem x Mass Effect Story

I do not own Anthem or Mass Effect, both are owned by BioWare. The only things I claim in this fanfic are my OCs. This is my first fanfic so any and all criticism will be greatly appreciated. Just a small heads up, both Desolas and Saren will be pretty OOC.

LV = Legion Victorious Era

CE = Citadel Era

First Contact

Desolas sighed as the admiral he was working with, Admiral Justinias if he remembered correctly, prattled on and on about this career. He truly felt sorry for the captains under the admiral's command. When Desolas heard that they were sending an entire fleet through the newly opened up relay, he was surprised to say the least, but both the Council and the Hierarchy were insistent that there was to be no chances taken, as the last time that happened the Rachni were found.

"Are you listening? Maybe getting cold feet, General?" Justinias asked jokingly, catching Desolas off guard for a moment, though hiding it well,

"Of course not, I just feel that it's a waste of resources and manpower to send an entire fleet when we don't even know if there's a hostile contact on the other side." He said, and Justinias seemed to consider that for moment, before getting a smile, "You're right, besides, if there are any hostile contacts on the other side, they'd have no chance in standing up to the Hierarchy's Might" Justinias boasted with pure conviction and confidence in his words.

Turning to the communications officer, Jusitinias says, "Get me Captain Victus and tell him to dock and prepare to receive us, then after that tell 3 more cruisers and 8 frigates to follow in standard patrol formation", surprising Desolas once more, not thinking the overconfident admiral would actually take his advice. As the preparations are made with Captain Adrien Victus giving up command of his ship, the 12 ships slowly head through the relay.

X

It was a normal day for Tadius Ahern, a Freelancer who favored the Colossus, as he oversaw the contract of guarding a small group of Arcanists who were examining the relay. As the day had dragged on, Tadius had hoped and begged for something to happen, and right as he was about to ask again, something did.

"Contacts! 12 total, 4 Cruiser size and 8 Frigate size ships!" One of the sensor officers reported. Startled into action, the bridge became a flurry of movement as Cyphers that had taken a small break rehooked into their amp chairs, while engineers hurried to their places among the guns' innerworkings and FTL drive, preparing for quick repairs with ember and tools. As the ships came into view, he turned to the officer,

"Send them a first contact package, make sure to put emphasis on the language, the last thing we need is to shoot each other over a mistranslation." He said, and the Cypher nodded. Not even 5 minutes later, the ships opened fire, and the lead science vessel was destroyed.

X

Desolas wanted to smack Justinias, but to do so in this situation would surely earn him a court martial, maybe even execution. "Ship is destroyed sir" a weapons officer stated, "Good, now destroy the rest, leave no survivors" Justinias said in a tone filled with cold fury.

Upon entering the system, they had found these newcomers attempting to interact with a Mass Relay. As it's against Citadel law, the crew were preparing to send a message of both language and warning, when another officer reported an attempted message being sent to them.

When the signal was scanned, it revealed something that made Desolas' blood run cold; AI, or at the very least, something very close. To imagine that any race would be stupid enough to do so after the Quarians failures was madness, yet here they were, shooting down a race that had no idea of the Citadel or its laws.

"Ships destroyed sir, moving onto the Cruiser. We're also detecting what we think is a minor colony on the world." the Ensign reported, and he could see Justinias frowned further, "What are you waiting for then soldier, destroy it!" He said, before turning to Desolas, "General, take the marines and armed forces down to that planet and pacify and capture these primitives. The Hierarchy could use a new client species." he said with a sneer, and right as Desolas was going to reply, there was a bright flash outside of the window, making everyone flinch and close their eyes.

"Report! What the hell was that?!" Justinias all but shouted, causing the officer to fumble, "s-sir, the cruiser fired on the Sword of Palaven, the round was too slow for the kinetic barriers to activate and turn it to the side." Justinias was practically frothing at the mouth, "That doesn't explain how the entire bridge was BLOWN APART by such a primitive gun!" he roared, and in the time he was speaking another round flew forward and slammed into another cruiser, destroying a piece of the gun. There was no flash this time, the round instead spreading a green gunk all over the ship's hull, and if Desolas looked closer, he realized that said gunk was eating through it!

His eyes were wide at this, what species is capable of creating ACIDIC spinal mass accelerator rounds. "Sir! Hierarchy's Wrath is requesting immediate aid, their gun has been knocked out!" Shouted another officer as Justinias, with eyes full of hate, ordered the officer, "Tell the remaining cruiser and all frigates to launch missiles, send out all fighters, and fire all spinal cannons! DESTROY THEM ALL!!" He roared as the officers around the bridge scrambled to comply. Before long, all but one vessel was destroyed, with the last having been able to limp away to a massive, ring-like construct on the other end of the system, before vanishing.

Justinias was panting hard, eyes unfocused with rage. That one ship that had escaped had managed to not only destroy 2 cruisers, but 5 frigates before escaping, having launched some kind of torpedo that had an energy explosion. None of the ships even made it into knife fight range, nor had a single torpedo landed. "Get me my dreadnought, and bring the rest of the fleet in, we're going to occupy that world, and make these stupid primitives submit to the might of the Hierarchy!" He said and stormed off, making Desolas sigh, wondering what kind of situation he just got into.

X

Back on planet, preparations were being made. All sentinels had geared up and all peoples and forces outside of the city's walls had been recalled as everyone geared up for war. There were no Paladins on the planet, and only a small number of sentinels. The only troops in any real numbers were the local militia, who didn't even have Javelins, and a small enclave of Freelancers who had just recently been recovering from silencing both a relic and destroying a major Scar base.

Sentinel General Williams was roaming the walls, overseeing the activation of various mines and tripwires down below as more and more sentinels joined him, his armor marking him different from the rest, with his long cloak and mostly blue armor with geometric designs (https/i.redd.it/8irkz5fk5jm21.png) , as opposed to the white of the rest of the sentinels in their standard issue Ranger Mark 1. "Get that gun restocked now! I want this entire wall ready, with every inch outside trapped so heavy they can't even breathe without being blown to bits!" Williams ordered over his comms. The great wall he stood on was 30 ft tall, smaller than he would have liked compared to the 50 ft ones on most settlements, or the 75 of Fort Tarsis and Freemark.

"Sir! Getting reports in now, all Freelancers, civilians, and Arcanists accounted for" the soldier said, not needing to say Engineers, as they tended to never leave their workshops. "Good, get all civilians and arcanists to the shelters, how many Freelancers do we have?" Williams asked. "Not much sir, only 500, 200 of them are Rangers and 200 more are Colossus. There's also 75 interceptors, and 25 Storm Javelins sir." the man reported, and General Williams swore under his breath. If this invasion would be anything like the history books recounting Freemark would be like, the Storms would have been a big turning force.

"Anything else?" The general asked, and the Sentinel got a weird look and gulped, "Yes sir, 10 nuker javelins are in storage, with assurances that they have more than enough people capable of operating them." As those words left the man's mouth, the general immediately understood the hesitation. Nuker javelins were among the most controversial ones developed of the three new ones. Ever since the first one was developed, there have been talks of never making more, due to the sheer environmental hazards they possessed with radioactive rounds and abilities, not to mention their ultimate; massive fusion charges they could plant on something and remotely detonate, or leave as a mine. "Okay, we'll keep those under wraps, but as soon as the enemy shows signs of using WMD's, I want to see all of those things in frontline combat." The general ordered, and the soldier nodded and sprinted off, just in time for another to take his place. "Sir, we're getting reports from Corvus spies, they're saying that Aliens have begun landing in the valley" she reported, making Williams grin, "Idiots, they're about to get a real nasty, Codan welcome" he said.

The valley in question was one of the most Scar infested, shaper relic riddled hellholes on the planet, maybe even comparable to Bastion back on the homeworld. "Well, with the idiots softening themselves up, we shouldn't have much to worry about, but keep your eyes peeled. If these people took after the enemy of our Shapers, then they might have something to counter the relics and scars." He said, and the soldier sprinted off. The General sighed as his faceplate slid back down, and he leaned against the railing, damn, and just when we thought space was going to be SAFER than Coda. What the hell did we get into?

X

"What the hell did we get into?!" Shouted a turian private, currently panting after the firefight his squad had just escaped from. As soon as they landed, there was fire from all sides as strange creatures, insects inhabiting shells of metal and scrap, beset them from every angle. Upon inspection, it was quickly deduced that this couldn't be the race his superiors shot down in space. The insects were even more primitive than the strange, asari-like mammals they managed to pull out of the twisted heaps of metal in the void.

"I don't know, but keep composed soldier. You're a loyal member of the Hierarchy, which means you don't panic in the face of the enemy." His superior officer scolded in a harsh tone. Sergeant Selvia Bellados glared at the private for a moment more before sighing, standing up, "Come on, landing zone is clear, we'll wait up on the hill for reinforcements before moving forward, but I don't like staying out in the open for too long."

The area she and her squad was dropped in seemed perfect for a landing zone. Massive, green fields of long grass were easily flattened, even burned to make it easier for landing craft, yet halfway through the operation strange bipedal creatures started attacking with guns made of scrap metal somehow bypassing their kinetic barriers. Thankfully, part of the standard Turian soldier's kit is proper metal armor, unlike the other races who go for more flexible options; she shuddered to think what would have happened to an Asari or a Salarian would experience when hit by one of the rounds that had been flying around, as direct shots from even the basic ones went through the armor, and hits from the snipers with jetpacks could punch through and into the next 2 soldiers.

When the other dropships had finally landed and offloaded, the sizable force of 3000 of the 8000 turian soldiers aboard the fleet marched forward through the valley, killing a few more of those weird "scrap bugs" as one corporal had named them. It would be an hour before the scouts would report finding the walls, and she decided to join the next group that was to go ahead, putting her second in command in charge as they set up a base of operations. "What am I looking at here?" she asked a soldier that was peering at the walls through their scope. "Major defenses ma'am, auto turrets on nearly every major point, with walls being at 30 ft high, no sign of the enemy though." The soldier sighed, probably frustrated as much as she was at that. They had landed on this planet hoping for an easy victory, yet they hadn't even seen what their enemy even looked like, at least, what they looked like alive and without void exposure. "Keep me updated if something happens, I'll head back to base camp and start setting up an attack."

She just started moving away when something blinked in and out of the corner of her eye. Ducking on instinct, she dodged a knife being thrown her way that embedded into the scout's head behind her, before ducking behind a tree as three shots rang out, putting three more scouts down. Right as she was about to fire back, popping out of cover, she faintly saw whatever was shooting at them sprint off into the trees. Cursing under her breath, she looks around and sighs, four casualties, and not even a good look at the pyjack that got them, spirits this is a fucking mess. With the remaining scout force, all on high alert, they made their way back to the staging area, only to find it in total chaos, every soldier on high alert with guns pointed in every direction. "Corporal Galdas, Report!" She barked out to her second in command, and he snapped a quick salute, "Ma'am! We had started setting up base, but were suddenly ambushed by 10 of the enemy. They hit hard and fast with daggers, pistols, and some kind of acid grenade. They managed to kill 45 of us, and left 68 wounded with a large loss of our ammunition block, water, and rations due to the acid, from both its corrosive and toxic nature." The man rattled off his report with the speed and efficiency his station demanded. She had to bite back another curse. The world they were in was a levo one, so all rations had to be received from the fleet, which had gotten them from other fleets and supply lines. All in all, from hostile wildlife to an elusive enemy that just cut off their supplies and hides behind tall, well defended walls, she can already tell this will not just be another "swift victory for the hierarchy" like her superiors said it would.

Author's note: Hello! I'm updating this chapter in hope that it's easier to read with the spacing I've done, as I've been told that the way I previously wrote it was a bit jumbled. If it was better before, I'll change it back with the next chapter. As for the question about how the bubble around the Codan Alliance's space worked, it worked by essentially suspending a point in time in a thin shell between two areas. If you were to pass through the shell, you'd get caught in the time that the shell was created, so if a citadel ship were to have gone through the barrier, they'd have been transported to 50,000 years prior, back to the end of the last cycle, with the same being true if an Alliance ship had gone through it. Once again, sorry if it was hard to read before, I hope this looks better, and once again I appreciate any and all criticism as this is my first fanfic.