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. Warning for more blood, battles, and shaper relics.

X

Payback and Warnings

It had been over a week since the successful raid, though Dep Sen'Delor was confident that once they gave this new WMD to the hegemony, that he'd be able to replace the losses quickly. The only real loss to him was the lack of slaves that he got.

Typically, whether a raid was slave focused or not he usually managed to at least get a ship to two's worth. This time, he didn't even get one, the crazy primitives actually going as far as to kill themselves to prevent being taken. Though, said suicides tended to be messy and large, most likely taking out every batarian near them when they did it. Just on the return trip, there was a group of three primitives on one of the cruisers, and the idiot captain couldn't help but drag them up to gloat, despite not understanding each other. What happened was so insane, he didn't even know how to respond at the time, as two of the primitives apparently jumped the captain, grabbed some guns, and nearly slaughtered the whole bridge, before the remaining one tried to take control the ship, and rammed another cruiser while pressing the self destruct on their own.

The result of that was two less cruisers, and 8 lost frigates. Dep quickly made an example of the survivors, though not before giving orders to watch the primitives at all times. That rarely stopped them though, and both they're numbers and his were dwindling so badly, he decided to just go to the nearest major planet, instead of Khar'Shan.

When the Hegemon heard this and was presented the evidence, he surprisingly agreed to send one of his most trusted, Ka'hairal Balak, as well as two fully equipped squads of the Special Interventions Unit, the most brutal special forces in the galaxy. Needless to say Dep was excited, as that much security almost guaranteed a high pay out, not to mention it was the Hegemon himself funding the entire operation. Though he probably wouldn't be happy about losing 700 of the 2000 strong force.

After glancing at the map and quickly changing course after receiving confirmation, his fleet was on its way to Aratoht, no knowledge of the humans on board ever reaching them.

X

Ana sighed as she had lost another game of cards against the fellow interceptor. Their food supplies were still high and the device had been planted, they were just waiting for the right moment to run and activate it. It had been explained to her in a note with their provision that apparently all shaper relics like the Cenotaph and the one in the ship, called the Monolith, were made specifically to be weapons. While it was unknown what the Monolith would do, they were positive it would send enough of a message to get their point across.

They were currently hiding between the walls and crawls spaces, the size of the ship they're in providing plenty, and were probably used when the ship went for maintenance. Just as she was handing over some shard-coins, a hybrid between the two old Bastion currencies that looked like the usual coin but with differing sized shards inlaid denoting different values, one of the shriekers spoke up saying that crew were running around everywhere, getting ready for something as crates and boxes were moved out of the way so several machines could be used to move the relic.

The Monolith itself was, like the Cenotaph, deceptively harmless looking. It was a platform with a device at its center, a layer of crystal over black fluid providing a standing space as the platform itself was flat on the bottom, though seemingly thick enough to house more electronics. It had four more pieces, currently unattached, that were probably what helped it channel even more of the Anthem for whatever purpose it was made for.

When she felt the ship land, she took a look for herself right as the cargo doors were opening up, revealing what looked like a massive dome city just outside, and she could vaguely see another one to the left of equal size, very far away. For a moment, she was hesitant to go through with all this, before the doors opened and revealed hundreds of batarians and what must have been slave workers. That hesitation was removed in an instant, instead replaced only by the guilt of what was to come for the slaves. She sincerely hoped some survived long enough for peace to be established, that way freelancers can roll in and undo the damage, but she highly doubted it.

She noticed an individual, two squads of batarians in similar armor behind them, approaching what must be the captain of the vessel. She smiled, seeing how easy this would be to get out in the chaos of moving, and so her team waited, and crawled, not even making a sound.

X

Ka'hairal Balak smiled at the High-caste captain before him, thanking him quickly for a job well done with acceptable losses when compared to what they grabbed. He was annoyed though by the lack of slaves. Apparently the primitives they captured were problematic enough that they managed to get themselves all killed along the journey, apparently taking a minimum of a ship's worth of men to the afterlife with them. He would tell the Hegemon of this though, and then contingencies would be put into place to better combat the primitives. Afterall, he's captured Krogan, so how hard can these inferior, two-eyed "humans" be?

Returning to the task at hand, he and the two squads of SIU behind him had just handed payment over to the captain, and were currently looking over the WMD they had to guard, "What do you think it does?" One of the SIU asked, and Balak had to bite back a sigh. The amount of times he's had to hear that question today was too many to count, though he knew better than to talk down to an SIU member, even if they were from a lower caste. They weren't known for being the most brutal military force of the hegemony for nothing after all, and per that reputation and general lack of trained restraint, they were in outlier in that they didn't bother caring the about the caste system or slaves, only deigning to listen to their superiors and the Hegemon and to kill everyone in their path. There was one case where a High caste family, just underneath the Hegemon himself, was found strung up by their entrails in the streets after talking down to an SIU member, said batarian actually being from the second LOWEST caste, just above a slave.

"I don't know, but the Hegemon wants it protected at all costs." The leader of the SIU groups stated, and so they did, watching every soldier and slave that got within 5 feet of the device, none noticing the freelancers sneaking across the ceiling towards one of the shuttles. They started up the conversation again, asking what the last one did, and when it reported that it sounded like it melted objects, that made the lower ranking SIU member excited, "Damn, that would be useful, get those fucking Turians out of our territory, and leave behind a total mess for them as a warning." He chuckled, some squad mates of his joining in, and even Balak smiled at the thought.

The Turians have started cracking down harder and harder on the Batarians ever since some pirates had raided two of the Turians newest colonies, and seeing as how the Turians have different biology to Batarians, there were only two things the Batarians were after; people for slaves and tech, both of which the Turians guarded the highest, especially on new, vulnerable colonies. He was broken from thought by one of the other SIU members speaking up, "You think this thing will let us get into the Traverse?"

Now that was a thought to Balak, to plunder the traverse and claim all of what rightly belonged to them. The Hegemony had long placed the Attican Traverse as an area of Batarian interest to the council. It was mostly written off and given to them on a whim to keep them quiet, and it honestly left the Batarians scratching their heads as to why the Council would give such a large space to them so easily. That confusion turned to anger when they found out that they can't even access the traverse, instead having that massive, temporal barrier in the way, and the few things floating outside of it being large, circular rings that they couldn't use for some reason.

Now with this new species and their ability to cross the traverse made them all the more eager to fight and take it, knowing that there wasn't just plenty of garden worlds, but new slaves as well made nearly every business batarian cry with joy at the thought, and made pirates cheer everywhere, all while the government smirked as they had hoped to gain and upperhand against the other races, either securing a council seat, or just outright overthrowing them, putting Batarians as the dominant species.

No one noticed when the occasional shuttle left the city, probably thinking that it was off to another one to meet up with friends and catch up over a drink, but what they did notice was that as the shuttle was flying away, the now put-together relic started to glow.

X

Ana watched with bated breath as she pressed the trigger, so much like a detonator, and saw a small, pin prick of light that was steadily growing brighter, before something happened. The light for a minute flickered, then kept flickering, and red bands of energy started to lash out, scoring red hot marks in the rock as the aliens were flung away from the device, many of them starting to flee, including the important looking one in red armor, while others tried getting closer to see if they could shut it off.

She shook her head at those ones, knowing they'd be the first to die, and sure enough the red bands were joined by others, blue bands, green bands, just about every color was joining as more and more of the area around it and even the ship seemed to be consumed by the relic. Then, the relic opened up a gate, and spat out a titan. It was small, in her opinion. Obviously a lesser, but even a lesser ash titan can do major damage, and sure enough it started its rampage as hundreds of small arms fired and bounced off it's tough exterior.

While they probably should have left by now, they couldn't stuck staring as the lesser titan and relic combined started summoning smaller elementals, before spitting out another titan, this one the bright blue of lightning, and the storm titan did it's species equivalent of a roar as it released a massive beam, cutting a frigate in half. The cataclysm making all the monsters kept it's storming growing as wyverns of every chimeric type soon joined the fray, breathing their deadly elemental payloads on every alien in sight. Then, as if it was some mighty dam that could take no more, the biggest gate she had ever seen opened, and out dropped what could only be the biggest, oldest titan she's ever heard of. It was 200 ft tall, at least, and it's roar, sounding like grinding rocks with sloshing, hissing acid, was heard probably even inside that big domed city as it turned.

The city in the meantime had big, armored doors raised up around the entrances, but they couldn't hope to stand up to the mordant titan's might. The walls started melting, and the dome was soon breached, the batarians constant terraforming attempts the only thing saving so many of them as there was just enough oxygen that the few caught outside of the buildings weren't instantly choking to death. As the elementals streamed in, more and more spawned behind them as more titans rose out of the growing storm, and wyverns of all types rained the Anthem's fury made manifest on all that lived.

Unable to watch anymore, Ana ordered her team to leave, with courses set to take them back to the rendezvous point in the Shanxi system, trying hard to get the screams of those left behind out of her head.

X

Following the attack on the batarian world, there was an immediate, emergency council meeting. Sparatus was currently getting ready, putting the finishing touches on his look while he held calls with the other two councilors on his omni-tool, "The Batarians have really screwed up this time." He said, and while there was a little bit of sympathy in his voice, there wasn't much. STG reports confirmed that the Batarians struck first in the end, so to Sparatus this meeting seemed needless.

Tevos spoke up, "Yes, but what the humans did was needlessly horrible, you've seen the reports." She said, and he had to sigh. She was right in that respect, what happened on Aratoht even he honestly found excessive, but he did understand what the humans were trying to say; 'Don't mess with the new'. She continued on, "The damage to the biosphere alone would be enough to count as a war crime, not to mention…the monsters." She shuddered. Everyone had seen the footage, of the massive bipedal beasts made of rock, of the three legged hordes on the ground, and the flocks of flame, electricity, and acid breathing death.

Valern spoke this time, "Apparently, according to humans, three legged ones known as elementals, flying are called wyverns, and bipeds called titans, the third being the strongest," he kept going, almost seeming to be thinking to himself out loud as he debriefed the other two councilors, "all creatures capable of mass destruction. Elementals swarm in hordes and explode, contaminating environment. Wyverns drive out local fauna, destroying wildlife for nests. Finally, Titans known to humans as," he pauses, and double checks his notes, before reading them, "ehm, 'walking engines of destruction, that only wishes to leave worlds as lifeless husks."

After Valern said that last bit, Tevos looked like she was about to have a heart attack. Unluckily for her, they had a meeting to lead, so as one, they stepped out from their respective areas into the main area, climbing the steps and sitting at their seats, far above everyone else. On one end, there was the Batarian ambassador, angry and practically frothing at the mouth as he glared across the room at the "opponent", which was one of the human prisoners, an arcanis if she remembered correctly, who was glaring back with equal heat. "We are here today to discuss the human's attack on the Batarian world Aratoht, and WHY it happened. As this is dealing with a race not of the Citadel, all races shall be allowed to vote" She put extra emphasis on the word 'why' as she looked at the Batarian ambassador, who didn't even look in her direction, one of their eyes did twitch however when they heard that all species would help decide.

She continued, "We will first hear from the Batarian side. Ambassador, you may state your case." The batarian nodded, cleared his throat, and with an almost pleading voice he started talking, "My fellow ambassadors and honored members of the Citadel council. Yesterday, one of my people's largest worlds, Aratoht, was attacked by these humans, as they released a weapon that warped people's planet. That however, was just a side effect, as the most damaging thing it has done so far, is create monsters." he said and pulled up a holo projector, showing images of the various elemental monsters ripping dome cities to shreds, and attacking people.

Many of the ambassadors in the room, as well as Tevos, looked unsettled by the images, and while some held scraps of it, there was little sympathy in the room for the Batarians, only spite for the four eyed species and sadness at the thought of how many of their own people died in slavery on that world from what they thought was a Human weapon. Not seeing anyone speak up, the Batarian continued, "That's why I believe the right course of action should be for humanity to pay for this mistake with technology, a planet of theirs, the weapon they used, the knowledge of how to give Batarians the power of cyphers, and client status to the Hegemony until their debt is paid."

At that, everyone looked at the Batarian in the room as if he had grown a second head. Sparatus actually had to bite his tongue to not yell at the Batarian, the idiotic slaving bastard, for making such an unjust demand. Thankfully, cooler heads (read:Tevos) prevailed, "And what does the defense say?" She asked, turning her head to the human, who thought for a moment before speaking, "May I ask what prompted our supposed counter attack, honored councilor?" She asked respectfully.

The Batarian looked like he was about to speak up before Valern spoke instead, "My people Special Task Group had several agents in the area who observed, keeping an eye out in case your species, Ms. Tentle decided to invade. While we didn't see that, what we did see is a massive, pirate fleet entering your space with a force of 2000, before leaving with only a force of 700. Our leading guess is that the pirates were slaves looking for 'new product' if you'll mind the term." The Councilor was slowing himself down significantly for the other species, being diplomatic with how he approached this.

Gabriella Tentle was shocked for a second, before a look of pure and utter disgust couldn't help but break through before she spoke, "You allow slavers the chance to live?" She asked, and as those words left her mouth, the Batarian ambassador's face was nothing but rage as he whipped his head around at her, his lips pulled back in what could be a snarl as all of his eyes were glaring at her, but she didn't back down in the slightest.

Barely restraining himself, the ambassador spoke this time as she had gone silent, looking right at him, "Slavering and the caste system is an inherent part of our culture, which our right to is protected by the citadel. Are you saying you have a problem with that?" She didn't even hesitate as she spoke and one of her hands slammed onto the podium, "Of course we do! What civilized species enslaves another?!" She said, just short of shouting, and while externally everyone tried to appear shocked at her outburst, internally they were sighing in relief that they didn't meet another species that supported slavery.

Arcanist Tenetle continued, "Honestly, you should be thankful this wasn't an attack, because if it was, the Paladins would be ripping through your space, exercising their own cultural right, especially given my people's history." Everyone was surprised at that, some for the statement that this wasn't them, others for the open admittance that any attack from them would be more of a war, and everyone was wondering why these 'Paladin's' have a cultural hate for slavers.

The first to speak up from the awkward silence was Sparatus, "what do you mean, 'exercising their own cultural right'? What happened in your people's history to hate criminals so much?" He asked with no judgment in his voice, just curiosity. Not much was known about the Asari's cousins, with the only solid facts being that they never had the Protheans, they have three military sections, and their worlds were much harsher and hostile than any other in Citadel space, save Tuchanka.

Gabriella seemed to slump at that, as if remembering something horrible, before she spoke, "My people don't hate all criminals like that, just slavers." She spit out the word with as much venom as possible, "The reasons behind that though, are that over 578 years ago, my people had been slaves, all of us." that got many gasps from around the room. While it wasn't unheard of for maybe cities or even colonies to be taken slavery, no one had heard of an entire species being slaves.

The Arcanist continued, "Back then, we weren't the only intelligent species on Coda, or our homeworld, for lack of a better term." She paused at the looks she got from that before explaining, "While we have lots of fossil records, we haven't actually seen anything on Coda that could have evolved in us. As far as we know, we were created from a shaper relic." She explained before continuing, "Anyway, the other species were the Urgoth. They were massive creatures, 7.5 to 9 feet tall, matching our current day Javelins in strength and size. They had enslaved us for almost all of our known history in the continents of Bastion, Abrigo, and Kyoten, as Stralheim was too cold to be cost effective for us to help there." She said that last part with a bit of spite.

She looked around, and found even the Batarian staring now, though obviously still angry, waiting for her to to continue, "The first humans to rebel were from Bastion, and under general Helena Tarsis, they were able to build the first Javelins, and from the legion of dawn, driving out the Urgoth, but at the cost of the General's life. In response to this, the legion split, one part forming the Sentinels, another forming the Freelancers, and the last forming under Magna Stral, who hunted the Urgoth all the way to the ice continent, now named after her. As the rest of the world rebuilt, with the Urgoth fleeing human Guerillas in Abrigo, and from the warrior nobility in Kyoten, Stral eventually cornered the last Urgoths. By this point, she had grown old and tired, her rage dying down to an ember. She offered the last, 2000 or so Urgoths a chance to surrender, and to be left in peace. They responded by using one of the last functional weapons in their arsenal, destroying an entire base full of Paladins, including Stral's son, and grandson."

Many in the room at that point saw what was going to happen by now, but when the Batarian heard what happened to Stral's family, the four eyed alien nodded, as if Stral somehow deserved it. While it wasn't seen to the humans, many of the other ambassadors saw it, and were disgusted by him. Continuing on, the Arcanists kept explaining, "Her rage newly lit, she did the one thing you can't take back. She activated the slayer Javelins, brand new and ready to fight, and sent them in, watching as they slaughtered every Urgoth, until none remained." Once she was done, she turned back to the Batarian, "Ever since then, the Paladins have sworn that should we ever find something like the Urgoth again, that they would do the same, and wage total war on their opponent."

She then turned to the councilors, "To answer my earlier statements, about this not being an attack. While it's certainly been talked about, deploying a large shaper relic as a weapon, the delivery system would need to have come from a ship that hasn't even left the drawing board yet. What this most likely was, was that the pirates that raided our people stole this from the nuclear wastes that Admiral Justinias created, and put all the pieces together, activating it. Or maybe it just activated on its own, they tend to do that." She admits, everyone expressing fear at the thought of a terraforming, monster creating weapon just sitting around, capable of activating at any second.

Finally, she turned back to the Batarian, "You should be thankful that your diplomats will probably reach my people before our own council makes a decision, or else the Paladins might have already been here." At that, the Batarian could no longer hold his peace to let his opponent talk. His eyes going wide with rage, he started up, "You stupid, two-eyed, insignificant, descendant of trash! How dare you threaten my people?! Your betters?! You even openly admitted that your people were low-caste slaves. I'll mourn the loss of the Urgoth, at least that species was someone we could have worked with, instead of you stupid, insignificant war mongers!" He ranted, further destroying any chances of this trial going his way.

The Councilors and various ambassadors were in shock at the Batarian ambassador's outburst, before anger started to fester among the crowd. Back to the councilors, Valern was keeping his face blank, Sparatus' mandibles were tight to his head, eyes wide with anger as he tried to remembering how to control his emotions. Then there was Tevos, who was normally the mediator of these conflicts, had a calm, cold look of utter hate and contempt for the arrogant ambassador below her for insulting her cousins like that, and to out right wish for their continued enslavement, "Ambassador Dask! Silence yourself before C-sec or one of our spectres does."

She spoke with the calm but overwhelming power that only a Matriarch could, "Now, for the vote. What do the assembled ambassadors wish for?" She asked, turning to the various species. The Drell ambassador spoke up, "It is the opinion of all gathered ambassadors that the humans should be absolved of the accused crime, as their people seemed to have no part in it. Furthermore, we believe that for attacking the humans and possibly making any future agreements with the humans more difficult, that the Batarians should have increased trade sanctions for all products pertaining to weapons, as well as increased Turians patrols across their space. If the Turians are stretched to thin at the moment, the Hanar have said that they will be willing to assist in the patrols should they need it, picking up slack in the Asari, Salarian, and other such regions in Citadel space." The Drell finished.

Sparatus had to try really hard to suppress a smile at that. It was a well known secret that the Batarian government funded and earned a lot of revenue through their weapons industry, and with the increased patrols there will be even less chance of them earning profits through slavery. Sparatus spoke first, "Those in favor of the council to these terms?" He asked, and signaled his agreement with them, and there wasn't even a second before Tevos and Valern signaled their own, "then it is decided. The sanctions shall go through, and the Hierarchy will begin increased patrols within Batarian space by the end of the week. Thank, ambassadors, for your service today. This meeting is adjourned." He said, and people began leaving quickly, the Batarian ambassador a ball of rage and anger at the results of this as he was led back to his embassy under watch by several c-sec officers and spectre agents.

All in all, Sparatus thought that this trial ended rather well, as he walked to a more secret meeting taking place between the three councilors. When the other two arrived, Sparatus led, "Okay, now that that's taken care of, we need to talk about the humans some more. At this point they've been attacked by two different species, and have been enslaved by one in the past. I know that normally, all new species typically join as an associate rate, but personally I believe that we shouldn't even bother pushing it. We'll make the offer and support, but we talk about how it's tradition and all that nonsense." He cut straight to the chase. Valern nodded his head, seeing the logic behind it.

Tevos felt conflicted, on one hand, if they humans did join then the Asari could really help guide them, it would make it easier to get reparations, and as Sparatus said, it was practically tradition. On the other hand, Sparatus made a good point that pushing the humans would make the seem worse in their opinion. Goddess, if we push that, we might as well look like these 'Urgoth' they've told us about. The last thing Tevos wanted to do was make the Asari seem like slavers and warmongers, so she nodded as well, "Very well then, we'll make the offer, but we won't push it." and with that, the meeting was adjourned.

X

Codex Entry: Shrieker Javelins

The Shrieker javelins were a Corvus project made to be a better stealth javelin than the interceptor, lacking the sheer speed, but trading it for better weapons, nonlethal options, and the ability to manipulate sound, inspired by some of the creatures in Abrigo's deadly jungles.

Their first gear sets include interchangeable "seismic grenades" that release a burst of sound that destroys anything close by, or throwing knives with various elemental effects, or just simply made to kill silently. Their second gear however can be either a "mute charge" which dampens the vibrations in the air, making loud noises sound like a whisper. This can also be changed out for a device called a "shrieker charge", which are plantable charges that emit such a loud and high pitched frequency that it stuns the target, or when turned to the highest frequency, can rupture internal organs and break up scar swarms.

Their passive ability that comes standard to all Shriekers are small Seals on the javelin capable of manipulating sound by amplifying it, "throwing it" to somewhere nearby, or just masking all of it completely. Their ultimate causes all of these Seals to overload on purpose while amplifying it, allowing them to release a shockwave of sound either all around them, or aimed in a general direction.

Author's note: Hello everybody! Thank you so much for the reviews, as well as all the favorites and follows. Also, I took heavy inspiration form COD: Advanced warfare and star wars for the Shrieker's abilities, with the mute charges being a thing in COD's campaign, and the seismic grenades are basically Boba Fett's seismic charges. If you guys would rather see these codex entries as entirely separate, shorter chapters, please tell me, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.