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 warning, this chapter, and any chapter involving tampering with shaper relics and combat, are why this story is rated Mature. The reason for the former being that, Anthem establishes from the start shaper relics can do ANYTHING and most of the time when something does happen, it's never good. Also, to the person who mentioned that wildlife between worlds wouldn't be the exact same, there will be an explanation for that. Final note, I might change the title of this.

Let Me Sing You The Song of My People

Bray Emberson couldn't help but let out a vicious grin as two unlucky aliens were caught underneath his falling Colossus, pulping them, and without missing a beat he whipped out his cloudburst autocannon and let the .85 caliber projectiles mulch anyone in front of him as the 3 colossi landed near him and did the same. The electric blue blood was everywhere now as more bodies joined the ones on the floor, the aliens caught completely off guard by the sudden, overwhelming firepower, and he was so caught up in the moment he didn't even notice the rocket heading his way before a colossus next to him blocked it with their shield.

Nodding in thanks, he spoke up into his team coms, "where's our fifth?" He asked as the gunfire started to get a little quieter, his suit's noise cancellation kicking in as the comms were established.

The same person who saved him from the rocket spoke up, "She took a rocket mid flight. Thankfully her vitals are still up, and her Javelin is still combat capable, so she's probably with another squad."

"Alright, then let's try and link up, get our last member, and then push forward." He says, and his squad starts moving as one, covering each other with shields as the four walking tanks mulch anything caught out in the open, occasionally seeing interceptors dashing further into fire, sowing chaos as Rangers were on all fronts, picking aliens off and unleashing micro missile swarms into large groups and tanks. Speaking of, "Tank's got us lined up!" Before unfurling his riot shield. The tank's shot didn't break it, but the force was enough to send him on one knee, and his shield almost destroyed, the reverse engineered shaper tech already trying to put it back together. "Somebody kill it before it fires again!" he shouts and stands back up, retracting his shield as he knows it'll be useless.

"I got it!" Yells another squadmate as they unleash their firewall mortar, roasting some aliens that were directly on either side of the tank, before it was followed up by a high ex, detonating the effects in a massive, fiery explosion. After that, they finally made it to their missing squadmate, who once they got into proximity, their voice was soon heard of the comms.

"Yeah! Get some!" He yelled, whooping and hollering, causing a few eye rolls and chuckles. He soon saw his team, and after a quick check in, grouped back up and split off from the other group of five Colossi.

"Okay squad, here's the plan; our job is to focus on the infantry, I want flame walls and high ex flying everywhere they group up, got it?" he asked, and once everyone nodded he spoke up again, "perfect, now let's move." and so began the long march through the battlefield, every other minute being firefights.

Soon, after another fight as the aliens were being pushed back, he heard the sounds of gunships, so he quickly moved his squad to cover. When they came into view, he was surprised as right below it, more tanks came out of the treeline, so he quickly hopped onto command comms, "Hello!? This is freelancer Bray Emberson, I need immediate anti air and anti armor support in my position."

There were a few more moments of static before a cypher spoke up, "Heard Freelancer, sending in a ranger and a storm now."

At that, one of his squadmates let out a laugh, "A storm? Isn't that overkill?" Before anyone could say anything back, a ranger flew overhead.

X

Anderson was having the time of his life. He lived for combat, to fight the enemies of humanity and show them they weren't going to go down silently. With a quick thought, he activated his new micro-missile systems, each pod on his back tracking one of the three gunships each, the cypher he was paired with targeting individual weak points, before unleashing a small swarm of death. Normally, ranger missiles were made for anti infantry, primarily being high explosive, but he had switched his out for HESH missiles instead, so as the missiles hit the engines, it shredded the insides and ruined the mechanics, but when they hit the front and underside of the cockpit, both pilot and co-pilot alike were turned into blue slurries from the shrapnel and concussive force. Soon, all three ships were plummeting to the ground, and to his luck, landed on two of the tanks.

Just as he was about to engage the tanks, his backup arrived. The storm hovered midair, covered by a near-impenetrable shield as they rained elemental fury on the tanks below, shredding them with hail, cooking the crews inside with fire and lightning, crushing them with massive pillars of rock, and melting whoever was left with acid, leaving all but 4 of the entire tank force as wrecks, with said last four being mopped up quickly.

He grinned at his fellow squad member, "Geez Jill, one-woman-cataclysm over there, don't you think it's a bit overkill?" He joked, his teammate laughing.

"Then they shouldn't have fucked with our home." Jill Dah said back as they both landed in front of the colossus squad that called for help. "You guys okay?" She asks, and gets nod all round.

"Thanks for that, though I didn't expect them to actually send a Storm for us." Bray said, smiling at the destruction before turning back to them, "you think we'll be able to chase em' down?"

Anderson shook his head, "I'm afraid not, they want us to look purely like we're defending, that way if peace does happen, we can make more demands." he said with a sigh. He really hated politics, they always got in the way of getting things done.

Soon, he started getting more orders from his cypher, "Okay everyone, the enemy's pulling back, so it looks like we will be too, got it?" as he got nods, they all moved out, back into the city walls.

X

Desolas stood stoically as Admiral Justinias ranted and raved in front of him, "You useless idiot! What the hell kind of general in the Turian army does so horribly in combat, that they actually need to pull a full RETREAT?!" he screamed, frothing at the mouth.

Desolas easily replied, "Sir, we had no idea that they had this sort of fire power, for all we knew, they were primitives with chemical propellant weapons, living on a dangerous world, hiding behind a tall wall." Appearing completely calm while on the inside he wanted nothing more than to grab the idiot admiral by the head crest and drag him to the frontlines.

So far, no real progress had been made except scoring a few dents in the wall, and bringing down the shield, though he suspected they'd have it up again by the time he can get a force large enough to attack with again, not to mention their weapons move slow enough with projectiles heavy enough that barriers don't do much, with some even causing the bullet to tumble and make even worse injuries, not to mention the calibers of most human's weapons seem like they'd be more commonly found on mounted turrets and heavy machine guns. Finally, there were those exo suits. He suppressed a shudder at the thought them, the massive ones coming in with overwhelming firepower, the little ones, with similar designs to the hit and run fighters from when they first got there, planting bombs and picking off solo troops, then the ones that stayed back with great rifles picking off the heads of any soldier that didn't find cover, and finally, the ones that could wield the elements themselves. Desolas was one of the few survivors that actually got to see one in combat, and he wished to never go against them again, with how easily they destroyed the armor and infantry alike.

"Well then, what about prisoners? Did you capture any?" Justinias demanded, and Desolas nodded, "Yes sir, we have managed to capture four, one of their soldiers, and three civilians. We've already tried to disassemble the exo-suit that the soldier was wearing, but in response to our efforts, it seems almost everything but the gun was fried, some sort of failsafe to prevent enemy's gathering intel." Desolas had to admire the tactical thinking that showed, though Justinias had other opinions.

"What?! Why would these primitives even need that?! From what we've seen they don't fight amongst each other." he asked incredulously. If Desolas had not seen the bugs, the insane creatures with scrap weapons and tech of their own, he would have agreed. "Fine, interrogate the prisoners, and then report back immediately." he said, and Desolas saluted, "Yes sir." before the comm went off, and he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Well, he seemed a little steamed."

Desolas turned as he saw his brother, Saren walk up to him. He tutted, "That would not be the correct way to talk about a superior, but I agree." He said with a smile, and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "I heard about your Spectre nomination, congratulations," he said, and Saren puffed up a bit at that, before Desolas continued, "don't let it get to your head though, wouldn't want to make it a bigger target." He teased, causing his brother to give a mock gasp, acting hurt, "i would never." he starts to say, but can't help but laugh a bit.

When he stops, he gets back on track to what he was going to say, "The prisoners are ready for interrogation." he says, voice more serious. Desolas nods and follows him outside, "They weren't mistreated were they?" He asks, knowing that for all that Turians are loyal, well trained, and very disciplined, they have very little doctrine on POWs due to most prisoners being pirates and criminals for the past thousand years.

Saren nods, "Yes sir, they've been given what we guess appropriate amount of food and water, though we took food from the planet just in case they were levo-based." Desolas was thankful for that as Saren led him to the prisoners.

When he got there, he noticed the four of them sitting on the floor, talking together, and he's about to talk before he turned to another soldier standing guard, "Do we have a translator yet?"

The guard shakes his head, "No sir, we haven't been able to, and none of us had the authority to ask for an asari from the science team to help." Desolas noticed as they were talking that the creatures were staring at them now, and as he looked back, he realized that out of armor, he could only barely tell which of them was the soldier until they stepped in front of the other three, only for their eyes to go wide and they all backed against the edge of the massive, makeshift cell, and they were shouting something. When Desolas, he saw one of his men, looking at them weird as he held up a device. When they had built camp, Desolas had learned they built it out of a camp previously held by some of the scrapper bugs.

The device the soldier was holding was small, round, and far too smooth to have been made by the scrappers, and was obviously a different metal just from the color and the way it shone. Next to the soldier, where he was walking towards, was a machine with some sort of indentation on the top, possibly for the strange sphere that the soldier held.

As the soldier backed away from the machine, they calmed a little, though Desolas could still see quite a bit of fear in all their eyes as they looked at the machine. Desolas then looked at the machine. He had heard about from the science teams, with theories about it being a prothean artifact due to it sharing a similar age to the them, but just looking at it, Desolas didn't think so, as it didn't have the more rough, pyramidal shapes like the few pictures of prothean ruins that Desolas had seen, and it didn't have any of the flowing, green lines. Instead, the device was a strange, metallic blue, unlike the maroons and greens of the protheans, with geometric angles everywhere with only minor curves, and a strange pool of black liquid under a crystal layer on top of it, surrounding the metal cup-like indent for the ball.

Finally, he turned back to the soldier with the sphere, "Put that somewhere to the side, away from the machine, and get that asari, fast." The soldier nods and put the sphere off to the side on one of the crates, and Desolas can't help but stare at it for a moment, wondering how such a small thing could cause such potent fear.

X

Inest Lorus was ecsatic. She had signed up to be one of the scientists for this expedition, and since she's been here she's seen all sorts of animals and flora that, in some cases, should have been impossible. When the soldiers said they needed someone to translate with one of the prisoners though, she frowned. Melding was supposed to be a calm, peaceful affair, not some means of interrogation, but she realized that if she did this, there could be peace, which would mean less death, and possibly even a new associate race for the citadel! When she saw the prisoners, she had to let out a gasp. They look so much like Asari!, she thought as the makeshift cell, more of a cage really, was opened, soldiers holding their guns, ready to act if something went wrong. The first to step forward was a female from the group, wearing a strange dress with no sleeves, some sort of thick sleeveless jacket with straps over it, and finally a headdress. "Hello, I'm Inest, Asari" She said, keeping it simple as she pointed at herself. The other pointed at themselves, "Lau, Human" She said, and hearing that, the asari smiled and held her hand out. As the Human, if she heard correctly, took her hand, she tried to initiate the meld. As the words 'Embrace Eternity' left her mouth, she gasp and started seizing up, the power of the meld being unlike anything she's felt before, only getting passing bits of things.

It was over in an instant as she was yanked away by some of the soldiers, and the human female known as Lau was pulled away by one of the male humans. The general walked up to her, seeing her on the ground and holding her head, "are you okay doctor?" He asked and helped her up. She stumbled, having to lean against something, "Y-yes, I think so." She says, and seeing this Desolas started to question her, "what did you see? Can you understand them now? What was that convulsing?" She thought about his questions for a moment, before answering, "I was overwhelmed. When I had melded it was like I was suddenly melding with the entire world and even beyond! I think I have a rudimentary understanding of their language, but any big or specialized words would be essentially gibberish to me." She then turned to one of the humans, and spoke.

"Can understand now?" The blue alien asked. Lau turned to her, and nodded, "Your words are a little broken, are you okay?" It took a second for the alien to answer back, but when she did she nodded, seemingly understanding her words. "Yes, sharing cause strain. You connected to world?" The alien asked, and Lau had to think now, wondering what to say, before nodding, and pointing at herself, "Yes, I'm a connected to the anthem, and by extension, the world."

Inest made a confused face at that, "what are they saying?" Desolas asked, and she responded to him, "well, she said she was connected to the world and something about a song, but as for her title, I can't really understand it, so it must be a word unique to them. Desolas sighed, of course the one thing that could explain the strangeness of the meld was blocked off, "Okay, can you ask them why they reacted that way to the podium?" When she did and eventually got a response, she had a more worried look, "She says it's dangerous, and ancient, though apparently two of her friends study them, and would be willing to look at it if you allow them." Desolas paused at that, if this was something prothean related, and even if it wasn't, understanding the thing could provide an immense gain in technology, so he nodded. As the soldiers let the prisoners out, he didn't fail to notice the soldier among them constantly scanning for threats, both from the turians and beyond. When the two humans got close to the podium, his eyes locked there, making Desolas realize that the soldier now thought the greatest threat IS the podium.

Just as things seemed to calm down, and he was about to leave, the Asari scientists, still trying to understand the humans, ran her hand over the indent, causing the machine to pulse with light and for the humans to scramble back, the soldier going on high alert, but before any of the turians or Inest could do anything, they all heard something, like wisps of a song so beautiful that they were all entranced, stuck staring at the podium, meanwhile the soldier was pulling turians away left an right, trying to break the trances as bolts of light were striking the ground around the podium.

Finally, as the only two left were Saren and Desolas, practically right in front of the podium, said podium flashed even brighter, the song becoming a shriek so horrible that it broke the trance. Unable to get them away, the soldier grabbed a massive piece of metal and dove on top of Desolas and his brother, and he realized the man was Shielding him, before a final bolt of light left the podium struck the man and metal alike in a cone of light. As the light cleared, he felt incredible, indescribable pain in his right arm, and gasped, horrified. Saren's left arm and Desolas' right hadn't been covered, so when the light hit them, it looks as if their arms had been melted, fuzing the ground, and when he moved the metal plate, he was met with the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen. The human soldier that protected them was alive, screaming, fuzed to the metal, and that horrifying sight was all Desolas saw before the pain overtook him, and all went black.