Zrocker119: Holy shit everyone! Over 900 followers and 600 favorites with just the first chapter, some of which are new but many more followed over from version of this story. You have NO idea how happy it makes me to receive such support.

Now many reviews have been asking me about how much this version will differ from the first. Hopefully this chapter will answer that question.

-DOOM Effect: V2-

-Chapter 2-

Start

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It was a strange feeling to watch the tear seal up, completely cutting me off from TC's home and, by extension, my birth universe. Both of them. I would never again see my friends and family, and they would believe me to be dead. In a strange sense, I was.

Both Alexander Carter and the Doom Slayer were gone, now only existing as two portions of my psyche.

Rather then shove them aside and forgetting that they existed, I honored them by naming myself after them. Now, I was more than aware that calling myself Alexander Slayer wasn't the most creative option, but it was the best I could come up with on the spot.

Shaking away those thoughts I observed the escape pod that I was now in. "Cramped" was the first word that came to mind, to the point of barely being large enough for me to move about it. It was much smaller than the ones that the crew used to escape the Normandy at the start of Mass Effect 2.

Clearly this pod was designed to hold only a single person. After a thorough search, I discovered that there was enough nutrition blocks and water to sustain me for several months. Why there was so much I had no idea, because not only did my suit protect me from harm, it also kept me in peak condition, took care of waste recycling, and its onboard medical systems even removed the need for sleep.

Upon further searching I stumbled on an Omni-tool. With some help from Vega, I was able to incorporate it into the right arm of the Praetor suit, though I did adjust the coloration so that it was a deep red instead of the orange that it was portrayed as in-game.

After some fiddling around I discovered that it already had an omni-blade function. While I was more than comfortable with my chainsaw and fists as my primary melee weapons, the new tool opened so many doors for experimentation… gore-filled experimentation.

Happy with everything that I had discovered so far I sat in the only available seat and started field-stripping my super shotgun to pass the time while Vega used my omni-tool to sift through information that TC bad been kind enough to archive for me. If the scanner was accurate,we would have to wait some time before the passing ship picked up our distress signal.

About two hours had passed before the ship that TC had told me about finally appeared on the edge of the pod's scanners, closing in at a reasonable speed.

"About damn time," I grumbled. Storing away my weapon I leaned forward to look out the only window for a view of the approaching ship. As they came into view I became aware that I didn't recognize the make or model of the ship.

It wasn't Turian. Their ships bore slight resemblance to birds of prey. This one was more blocky than human ships, and the Asari's tended to incorporate gentle curves in their designs. "Vega, are we picking up any transmissions from that ship?"

"Not as of this moment."

Well they clearly knew that we were there, but something wasn't right. The nearby wreckage painted a pretty clear picture as to what had happened and that I was the only survivor. Why wouldn't they try hailing my pod?

The ship stopped several hundred meters away with the rear of the ship facing the pod. The back then began to open, revealing the cargo hold and disgorging a shuttle. If my internal alarms weren't blaring before, then they sure as hell were now.

Krark Cafnob stood before the galactic map, observing the nearby planets and asteroids for any sign that things weren't as they seemed. He was old by Batarian standards, approaching his 120th birthday in a few weeks. Most slavers would've died long before then, but he didn't operate like most.

Krark didn't take part in huge raiding parties that targeted heavily-populated and fortified worlds. Instead he struck at small colonies on the edge of the Terminus Systems. Sure, the pay was less than what it could be, but at least he and his crew were alive in the end, something that couldn't be said for the young hot shots that went and got themselves killed.

That's why, when one of his crew had picked up a distress signal this far out in Terminus space, Krark was immediately on-guard. The cargo hold was full with fresh product and they were already on their way back to Hegemony-controlled space, but the crew insisted on checking it out.

Normally he would've played the captain card, but the last raid had gone off without a hitch and so, in his particularly good mood, he had allowed them to go off course. That didn't mean that they would charge in blindly.

So, he had sent out a single shuttle to investigate the wreckage of what appeared to be a small frigate, if the size of the debris was anything to go by. Now Krark just had to wait for them to report back.

"This is Shuttle One," speaking of whom, "Doesn't seem to be much here Captain. Scanners are only picking up a single pod."

'Tell me something I don't already know.' Krark thought with a shake of his head. "Start towing it back to the ship, but keep on alert. This could still be a trap."

"Copy, firing tow cable." From the holographic display Krark and the rest of those on the command deck watched as the shuttle latched onto the pod and began towing it back at a deliberately slow pace.

A process that should've only take five to ten standard galactic minutes had been slowed to an hour. If this was a trap, than he wanted whoever had laid it to get anxious and blow the whistle early. Wouldn't have been the first time.

Once the shuttle and pod were on the hold and the main door had been sealed, only then did Krark allow himself, and by extension the crew, to relax. "Alright, I want us back on course. Get a squad down to the hold. I want to know exactly what we went out of our way to pick up."

A few minutes passed before the assembled group of heavily-armed Batarians stepped off the elevator and into the hold of the ship. One of them took point, leading the rest towards the pod and shuttle that sat near the bay doors. The pilots of said shuttle were already working on getting the pod opened.

"What seems to be the hold-up?"

"Not quite sure." The pilot spoke, typing away furiously on his omni-tool. "Can't seem to access the damn thing's system. Might have to open it up manual-what the fuck?" The slaver bent over and stared at the holographic display in confusion as the image of a laughing human skull took up most of the screen. Before he could question it further all of the lights in the hold flickered before going out.

The emergency lights kicked in a moment later, bathing the entire place in an eerie red light. "What the hell just happened?!"

"I'm not sure!" Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by the sound of the pod door getting blasted open, the hunk of metal tearing the pilot's head clean off. Something jumped out of the pod, tackling the next closest Batarian to the ground. Giant hands closed around the alien's head and slowly started squeezing. His screams were silenced as his four-eyed skull was crushed in the thing's grip.

Now that it was out in the open, the remaining slavers were able to get a look at the thing that had already killed two of their comrades as it stood up. It stood at a towering 6ft 6in, dwarfing all others present, and was covered from head to toe in heavy, dark green armor.

One of the slavers raised his gun to fire but the armored being was faster, grabbing the body of its previous victim by the leg and swinging it into him like a club. Blood smeared the side of the pod as both bodies slammed into its armored hull.

A blocky rifle suddenly appeared in its hands, opening fire on the remaining three. Two of them dove for cover behind the shuttle, leaving their friend to be shredded instantly

The leader of the group tried to put out a call for backup but was immediately greeted with static upon opening his coms. "Fuck!" The Batarian leaned out to provide suppressing fire so that they could run for the elevator. That plan was scrapped as an armored hand pulled him out from behind his cover and hurled him across the room to crash into a wall.

Shaking away the dizziness the slaver saw that his remaining ally had fared far worse than himself as the thing pulled out a double barreled shotgun and blew away the entirety of his head and shoulders. When it turned its attention towards him the remaining slaver opened up with his assault rifle alongside the barbaric roar that tore through his throat.

His eyes widened in horror as the thing didn't care and continued to walk headlong into the gunfire, not so much as stumbling from the grain-sized projectiles pelting against it as it ejected the spent shells and loaded in fresh ones.

'This bastard has spirit, I'll give him that much.' I thought as the alien kept firing until his gun overheated. Too bad for him that he was gonna need a much bigger gun to even scratch the paint job of my hell-forged armor.

Snapping my super shotgun closed I reached down and grabbed the Batarian by his chest plate. With hardly any effort I hauled him upwards and pinned his throat against the wall, his feet dangling above the floor. Sure the Batarian kicked and clawed at me but its struggles were in vain.

I let him waste a little more energy, scrabbling at the arm that was slowly cutting off his air little by little. I would have been fine with ending him and going on my merry way, but right now I needed information. I had questions, and he would answer them whether he wanted to or not.

"How many are apart of your crew?" A sizable glob of spit hitting my visor was my answer, followed by the ever intelligent "Fuck you". Gripping his throat even tighter, I flipped him over my shoulder and choke slammed him to the floor, denting the metal and causing the slaver to spit up blood.

On a side note, I completely forgot that these guys bleed the same color as myself.

Seeing him try and sit up, I brought my ham-sized boot down on his leg, pinning him in place with a crunch of shattered bones. "I'm not hearing a number. Better start talking or-" I paused when what sounded like something pounding on metal reached my ears. Glancing around I became aware of the large amount of shipping containers that took up most of the room.

Dragging the crippled Batarian over to the closest one, I gave it a quick look over. Spotting what appeared to be a filter of some sort attached to the side I rapped my knuckles against it and listened. A moment of silence passed before a returning knock sounded.

Throwing the Batarian aside I reached the front of the container and waved my omni-tool over the display panel. With a slight shudder the container began the slow process of opening, too slow for my tastes. I gripped the bottom of the door and pulled upward, breaking the locking mechanism with a metallic crunch.

My fists clenched once I saw what was inside, warping the metal that was still in my grip as I was met by the faces of dozens of humans. Every one of them was huddled towards the back of the container, except for one man that had his hand against the wall. Looks like he was the one that responded to my knock.

Stepping back I went to the next container and repeated the process. With each one I found more and more people, each in various states of dehydration or malnourishment.

Seeing all of these desperate men and women I thought back to all the nutrition blocks and water that currently sat in my escape pod. TC had known about this. While a part of me was pissed about being set up to get nabbed by a slaving ship, another part was more pissed about the fact that shit like this still happened.

Once all the containers had been opened, I turned my attention back to the slaver that I had tossed aside, finding that he had managed to crawl himself to the elevator and was frantically trying to get it working. Unfortunately for him though, it was currently disabled via Vega's earlier hacking.

For an AI of his caliber, scrambling communications and disabling an elevator was childsplay. Taking deliberately loud steps I made my way over to the slaver, who became more and more panicked the closer I got.

Once I reached him took a glance at the crowd that was gathering behind me. Seeing several children amongst the group I opted to have Vega unlock the elevator before throwing the Batarian inside.

"You'll find plenty of food and water in that pod there," I told the man that had caught my attention in the first place. "Is this everyone, or are there others?"

"There was a Quarian with us on the colony," He paused to think."They grabbed her a few days ago. Overheard them saying something about the drive core acting up and needing the 'suit rat' to take a look at it."

Well, it looked like I now knew where I would be heading first.

"I'm gonna need for you all to sit tight. Lock the elevator behind me and wait until I come back. This will all be over soon." Getting a nod I stepped into the elevator and shut the door. Now that I no longer had an audience I once more turned my attention towards the Batarian that was doing his best to meld into the wall.

Me being the good Samaritan that I was, I decided to help the gentleman with his endeavor. Grabbing the Batarian by his ankle he let out one last scream before I swung him against the elevator wall head first, painting the bare metal with brain matter.

Dropping the now very much dead slaver I pulled out my Combat Shotgun and attached the burst mod. "Vega."

"Yes?"

"Take us to engineering."

I had a Quarian that I needed to rescue.

A set of triple-digit hands lurched back when an arc of electricity came closer than their owner was comfortable with. "Damn it," Tali cursed. That was a sixth time this stupid panel had almost zapped her.

'When was the last time these bosh'tets had given this thing a proper examination?' She thought while getting back to work. Some of these parts were either corroding or simply falling off. How this garbage heap that these thugs called a ship was still functioning was beyond her comprehension.

"What's taking so long, suit rat?"

Tali spared the Batarian behind her a glance before continuing her work. "I'm working as fast as I can. Not my fault none of you bosh'tets know anything about engineering." She added quietly, not nearly stupid enough to talk back to her captors in such an aggressive manner. While she wanted to do nothing more than shoot the bastards, she was heavily outnumbered and without a weapon.

While she worked Tali thought back to how she had ended up in this situation. She had been on a remote colony near the edge of the Terminus while on her pilgrimage. It was a new enterprise with the backing of a wealthy benefactor who had gone the extra distance to supply the place with defense towers to ward off any would-be attackers.

The pay that was offered to Tali was more than enough of an incentive to tag along, and despite being the only non-human amongst the population she had managed to make several friends. The younger kids especially liked to be around her whenever she wasn't working.

The nice life that she had managed to build for the time being came to a sudden halt when the slavers attacked, managing to catch the colony off guard during the aftermath of a particularly nasty solar storm. With the defense towers still being repaired, the colony's small security force had stood no chance against their attacks.

The only reason that they hadn't all been sold yet was due to the ship's drive core malfunctioning and that was the reason why Tali was taking so long to repair it. The longer it took them to return to a Hegemony-controlled system then the higher the chance of them getting rescued, no matter how slim it was, rose.

It was at about that time that the lights went out, leaving Tali in complete darkness. Thankfully it only lasted a moment as the emergency lights came on. Her relief was short lived however as she was grabbed by her hood.

"What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!" Her pleas went unheard as she was thrown down, her head smacking off the floor hard enough to disorientate her. "I-I was just running another diagnostic when-" She was cut off by the same Batarian pressing his boot against her chest, holding her in place.

"I'm starting to think that you're going slow on purpose." Placing his weapon on his back, the slaver popped his knuckles, "Maybe if I crack that mask of yours a little you'll get to fixing our ship a bit faster."

Tali could feel her heart trying to claw its way out of her chest. While her suit could isolate most breached areas, she couldn't replace her mask should it get damaged, and in an environment like this she may as well shoot herself and get it over with. It would certainly be faster than dying from whatever diseases or infection that this damn ship would certainly give her.

Just as the Batarian prepared to go through with his threat, the sound of someone pounding at the door interrupted him. Glancing to one of his companions he gestured for them to watch her while he went to go and see who it was.

However just as he approached, the doorway suddenly erupted in flames. Tali's most recent tormenter was thrown back several meters, landing with an audible groan.

"W-what the hell wa-" The batarian was cut off due to his skull getting crushed by a heavily armored boot as the one responsible for the door charged inside, shoulder checking the next slaver into a wall and opening fire on the other with a burst shotgun.

Crawling to a safe spot behind a capacitor bank Tali watched as the armored figure, that she could only assume to be male due to their height and build, gunned down one of the slavers, rapidly depleting their shields and turning them into little more than chunks of meat and bone.

The figure stumbled slightly as a shotgun blast slammed into his shoulder. The figure turned to see that the slaver he had body-slammed into a wall was back on their feet, shotgun in hand. With almost lethargic levels of movement, the stranger ignored the slugs that impacted against his armor and approached the remaining slaver.

Tali watched as the stranger grabbed them by the throat, hoisting them into the air with no difficulty before pulling back his other hand. The shotgun seemed to blink out of existence as a red glow encased his hand before taking on the form that she recognized as an Omni-blade.

With one smooth motion, the figure let go of the Batarian while simultaneously swiping his arm upwards. The slaver's feet hit the ground, standing upright for a second before falling forward and landing on either side of the man, the body having been bifurcated.

Tali almost threw up at the sight but managed to hold down the contents of her stomach. The armored man didn't even spare a glance downward before stepping out of the intestines and starting to move towards her.

She very much wanted to get out of there, but her legs wouldn't move. Fumbling around with her hands, Tali was able to snag a gnarled piece of the door and brandished it in a defensive manner. Sure she had seen his armor shrug off gunfire but should he prove to be hostile then she refused to go out without a fight.

The stranger stopped their advance and stared at her with what Tali could only assume to be an incredulous expression. It was impossible to tell with that helmet. She began going over several scenarios as to how to get away from this unknown but imagine her surprise when he spoke up.

"You have a name?"

Tali blinked. "What?"

"A name. You know? That thing that people call you by." The stranger looked at her, "Cause I sure as hell ain't gonna call you 'Quarian' or 'suit rat' the whole time."

Tali bit back a snarky remark at the all-too-common insult towards her race as she glanced at the remains of the slavers, remembering just how easily he had cut them down. She thought better than to get on his bad side. "My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

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I was very thankful that I was currently wearing a helmet. Because the moment Tali revealed who she was, the cold and calculative demeanor that I had going on momentarily broke. Now that I was able to take a second to look her over, it should've been obvious who she was.

Sure I was more use to her appearance in the 2nd and 3rd games, but I still should've recognized her. She had been amongst my favorite characters in the series after all.

"Alex," The ever calm voice of Vega brought me out of my thoughts. "Ms. nar Rayya is showing symptoms of stress, and your continued silence is not alleviating her of her fears."

Looking over her I realized that Vega was correct. The noticeable shake to the hand that was grasping her makeshift weapon and the rapid rising and falling of her chest were clear signs of panic.

Reaching up, I gave my helmet a slight twist and pulled it off. My nose was immediately assaulted by the visceral stench of the place, no small part due to myself, but I had dealt with much, much worse.

Walking over to my latest kill I shifted through the gore for a moment before finding what I was looking for. Gripping the stock of the Batarian State Arms Executioner shotgun I shook it until it was free of guts before going back to Tali.

Flipping the gun around so that I now held it by the barrel I offered it to her. "Well Tali, you're gonna need more than a twisted piece of metal if you want to defend yourself." She didn't take the offered weapon immediately, instead choosing to stare at my face for several seconds before finally taking the gun and slowly getting to her feet.

"Do you have any injuries?"

She shook her head, "No. Just got thrown around a bit is all." She stole a glance behind me, no doubt still shaken by my brutal display. "I don't remember seeing you on the colony. How did you get on board?"

"Let's just say that they picked up the wrong escape pod and leave it at that." Placing my helmet back on I turned towards the drive core that had miraculously been untouched by stray gunfire. "The other captives informed me that you had been separated from them in order to get this hunk of junk running at full capacity. How close are you to being finished?"

"I-I was getting close but they..." Tali trailed off as her gaze focused on the bodies once more, specifically the one I cut in two.

"Tali," I snapped my fingers in her face, succeeding in bringing her attention back to the matter at hand. "I need you to focus. I can't get this boat floating again but you can. Once you do I can get everyone somewhere safer than the Terminus. Now, how much longer do you think it will take?"

With one last shake of her head Tali seemed to bring herself together. "R-right. I'll only need a few more hours, even less so long as no one interrupts me."

That was all the confirmation that I needed to hear.

Placing my hand on her shoulder I gave it a reassuring squeeze and started heading into the hall when she spoke.

"What are you going to do?"

I paused in the doorway, then glanced back at her for a moment before resuming my stride. "Take out the trash."

Krark sighed as everything fell into chaos. Just seconds after his team had entered the cargo hold, every single form of electronic communication had been cut off. Comms, Extranet, it didn't matter. Whoever was in that pod had shut it all down.

The only thing left untouched was the lifesign scanners build into his crew's omni-tools, but he knew that the culprit had left those untouched on purpose as he and the rest of those on the bridge watched their comrade's vitals flatline one by one.

Whoever was doing all of this wanted them to know that they were coming, to instill a sense of fear and dread into those that remained. And the saddest part...it was working. More than one of his remaining crew had already run for their own escape pods only for their life to be snuffed out a few minutes later.

While that had scared some into staying on the bridge, several more tried going off in one large group in the foolish hope that a larger number would dissuade the intruder. Now only five of his original forty crew remained, with only a single reinforced door between them and whoever had ripped through dozens of hardened pirates.

One of his remaining crew had even gone so far as to fry the controls to the damn thing, locking them all in. For whatever good it would do.

As for Krark himself, the ever cool-headed Captain elected to simply sit in the pilot's seat with a bottle of brandy that he had been saving for a special occasion. Said bottle was now half-empty and the aged slaver just stared out into space.

The sound of something pounding on metal reached his ears. It went on for a few moments before fading. For a single moment Krark thought that maybe it was one of his crew that had managed to survive, but the thought was immediately banished when the sound of tearing steel filled the air followed by the panicked voices of his remaining crew.

With a heavy sigh the aged Captain had the chair turn towards the door, giving him a perfect view of a set of green fingers forcing the mag-locks open. From where he was seated Krark saw the tinted visor of the intruder's helmet for a split-second before the locks gave out and the door was violently wrenched open, allowing the armored being inside.

Krark remained eerily calm as his the remnants of his crew were gunned down and slaughtered in particularly gruesome displays of brutality until he was the only one that remained. Tossing the remains of his crew aside, the armored juggernaut made its way towards him.

Fingering the pistol strapped to his side, Krark decided to humor his soon-to-be-killer and drew his sidearm. The bastard didn't even falter in his stride as the projectiles deflected off of his armor. But Krark kept firing anyway, at least until the thing overheated on him.

The intruder now stood directly before him, towering over the slaver like some sort of colossus. Krark merely raised his bottle and took one last drink while also tilting his head to the left. This being may have destroyed everything that Krark had been building up his whole life, but that didn't mean he couldn't show respect towards the one that had done it single-handedly.

The intruder seemed to understand the meaning behind the gesture, simply nodding before driving their omni-blade through his heart.

I stood completely motionless and waited for the life to leave the Batarian's eyes. Once he had passed I deactivated my weapon, leaving his body completely intact unlike the rest of the crew. Why? The answer was simple, really. Where others would have begged or tried to bargain for their life, this slaver had accepted his fate and decided to die with some dignity.

"Vega, restore communications."

"Already did. Patching you through the ship's PA now."

I shook my head in amusement. Having an A.I. of Vega's abilities was going to make this whole journey so much easier.

"Attention, everyone on board. The ship is now completely cleared of slavers and should be up and running within a few hours." I allowed that to sink in for a moment. "Once this tub is moving again I'll set a course for the nearest Council-controlled world. Until then I request that you all stay in the cargo hold. The worst of it all is over, so rest easy. I'll get you all home soon."

With that said I had Vega cut the connection and started making my way back towards the cargo hold, but not before stopping by the medbay. While they may no longer be stuck in those damn cargo containers, many of the former captives had been in pretty bad shape and were in dire need of medical attention.

While I wouldn't be able to do much, even I was more than capable of dressing a wound properly.

It had taken Tali a total of three hours to finish repairing the drive core. During that time I had found plenty of things to keep myself occupied. After doing what I could for those that were injured I decided to remove the bodies from the room and clean up the blood.

These people, the kids especially, had been through enough trauma as it was and didn't need the smell of corpses adding to it.

By the time that I had blown the last corpse out of the airlock, Vega had informed me that Tali was just finishing up and that we could soon be on our way, but there was a slight problem.

"What do you mean that we have to take an alternate route?" I questioned Tali. Currently the two of us were near the back of the cargo hold to keep the civilians from overhearing us.

Shortly after completing the necessary repairs she had regrouped with me and the others. From there, I showed her the fastest route to get everyone to Council space. After giving it a quick look over Tali had asked to speak with me somewhere private, hence why we were currently behind one of the many cargo containers.

"The route that you want to take brings us too close to Omega," Tali spoke in a hushed tone. "and I hope that I don't need to explain to you why it's a bad idea to transport all these people through the most lawless territory in the known galaxy."

"We don't really have much of a choice here Tali," I glanced around the container and towards the freed colonists. "I've looked at other routes but they'll simply take too much time. Some of these people have a few days at best before they drop, and from what you told me of the state of the core, every hour we shave off counts."

Walking past her I put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll deal with whatever comes our way. You just focus on making sure this hunk of scrap metal can make it through that Relay."

I will get all of these people to safety. Even if I had to carve a bloody path throughout the entire Terminus to do it.

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-End-