Let me know what you think so far! Enjoy the next chapter!
Mid rim territories: Malastare, Dustig Sector, 0400 Hours, Coruscant Time, 19 BBY;
5 Minutes before activation of the Mass relay on Talaria in the Mass Effect Galaxy…
The pit in the middle of Malastare where the Zillo Beast once resided serves as a grim reminder to the Dugs of Malastare. In fact, The Dug Council had ordered the massive beast's former resting place completely filled and marked as a safety hazard. Several Dug workers were digging and filling hole, still filled with EMP-dismantled battle droids from the massive battle that took place over a year ago. Workers inside the pit tossed the various parts and pieces of battle droids into an incinerator droid, while others used hover-excavators to fill in the pit. One of the workers inside the pit grabbed a piece of metal with the limb on his torso. Only, this piece of metal, was attached to something massive.
"Hey! I've got something here. Maybe left behind by the beast?" He said to the foreman. The foreman brushed it off as more of a nuisance than a discovery.
"Scrap it with the rest! We have no time for separatist technology," he said, not even looking up from his manifest. The worker dug scratched his head with a free limb.
"Well, um. Sir, that is the issue. Whatever this scrap metal is, it's too large to pick out by hand. It will take hours- - maybe days, to excavate and scrap. Whatever it is. Sir,"
"What do you- -" Suddenly, it seemed as if the entire planet began to shake as the pit shined with a blinding blue light.
"Poodoo!," The foreman cursed in Huttese. "What did you?!" All of the workers in the pit scrambled to get out of the now crumbling hole.
"I don't know sir! It just started glowing!" The worker said, backing away from the edge of the pit.
"Everyone! Fall back to the worker barracks before—" The Foreman couldn't get his last sentence out before the relay fully activated sending literal planet-shattering shockwaves across Malastare.
The Dugs watched, and screamed, in horror as dozens of squid-like black ships shot upward out of the pit; now completely gone, save for the relay, as Malastare itself split in half, effectively wiping the Dugs from the face of the galaxy. The reapers have claimed their first victims in the Star Wars Galaxy…
Perseus Veil, SSV Normandy 1230 hours, 2186: Citadel Time
Commander Shepard breathed a sigh of relief. The first one in a long time since this whole fight with the reapers began. He could still hardly believe they managed to take down a reaper on Rannoch, let alone brokering peace between the Geth and the Quarians. It seemed like the first good thing that's happened since Shepard, Mordin, and Wrex cured the Genophage. A glimmer of hope in a seemingly hopeless war. His thoughts were interrupted by the quiet beeping of his ear piece. Specialist Traynor's voice came through Shepard's right ear.
"Commander, Admiral Hackett would like to speak with you on vidcom. From the sounds of it, it's Urgent,"
"Copy Traynor. Thanks," Shepard said, already on his way to the War room from his private quarters. As he got off the ship's elevator into the CIC, he couldn't help but think that the Normandy had been through a lot too. The reaper on Rannoch had taken a few pot shots at the ship from the ground, barely missing a few times.
As Shepard pressed a button on the QEC console, Admiral Hackett's image quickly materialized. He wasted no time in getting to business.
"Shepard. Once again, good work on Rannoch. We hit the reapers more every day," he said standing at attention with his arms behind his back.
"Thank you sir, but I assume this isn't a social call?" Shepard asked, as respectfully as he could. Hackett nodded and scratched his chin before speaking.
"You're right commander. I didn't call just to chat. We've got a big problem," Shepard's blood ran cold. There were so many things that could go wrong these days. Did they lose support for the war or did the reapers finally, completely take earth? He wasn't sure which was worse.
"Sir? Did something happen with the crucible?" Shepard asked. Hackett shook his head.
"Thankfully, no. But we have lost contact with a priority patrol vessel. The USV Portland. They were investigating an anomaly in the Hades Nexus and we lost contact with them almost 12 hours ago. I think we can assume what happened to them, but the importance of their investigation is one of our top priorities at the moment," he explained, putting his hands behind his back.
"What exactly were they looking for?" Shepard asked. Hackett was silent for a moment before speaking.
"A new Mass Relay. That we thought was dormant. But it activated shortly after we lost contact with the Portland. I need you to investigate whether the Portland or the reapers used the relay. Either way, the discovery of a new mass relay could be a huge win for us,"
"Or for the reapers. With respect, sir, do we even know where it goes? The last time humanity found a relay we went to war with the Turians," Shepard said.
"Fair point, Shepard. But I would still like you to investigate,"
"Yes sir. Did any of the Portland's crew make it? Maybe they can tell us something," Shepard asked, leaning on the console. Hackett shook his head.
"Nothing yet, but we're keeping our channels open. Commander, head to Talaria as soon as possible,"
"Yes sir. I'll keep in touch," Shepard said backing away from the Console.
"Hackett out." Shepard headed back to the galaxy map in the main deck of the CIC where Traynor was typing indiscriminately on her monitor.
"Everyone, gear up. We're heading to the Hades Nexus. We've got a new relay to find,"
—
Mid Rim territories: Naboo, Chommell Sector, 0900 hours, Coruscant Time; 19 BBY
On a normal day on Naboo, the skies would be bright blue, with birds singing and the occasional N-1 Starfighter making its daily patrol for separatist spy droids. But today, was not a normal day. It was far from it. And the skies were not blue today. They were gray, and red with the air of destruction. The reapers invaded Naboo barely 90 minutes after the mass relay that destroyed Malastare activated. When they entered the upper atmosphere, Naboo security quickly ushered the Chancellor and the other senators to safety in an underground bunker. Similar to the one used during the blue shadow virus crisis. Jedi Master Jacob Bishopp barely had enough time to mobilize the 199th before the reapers started opening fire on Theed. Commander Blackout ran to his general, dual DC-17s in hand.
"General! Are you alright sir?" The commander asked. Jacob dusted off debris from his robes.
"I'm alright, commander. Don't know if I can say the same about Naboo. What even are these things? They look like trident fighters but…bigger," he said, looking up through his macro-binoculars. He handed them to the commander.
"They don't look like any seppie ships I've ever seen sir. Our walkers can't even pierce their armor. And that red laser beam is tearing our fighters apart!" Blackout said with defeat in his voice.
"We're going to need to reinforcements fast. Not sure how much longer we can hold out. Have you been able to get any transmissions out?" Jacob asked as he watched one of the trident-like ships blow apart an LAAT.
"Not yet sir, but we've got a team working on it back at the mobile command center! What're your orders sir?" Blackout asked.
Before Jacob could answer him, three large meteorites crashed a few hundred meters away from them, and several dozen grotesque looking humanoid figures started rushing towards them. Among these figures were bloated, four eyed monstrosities that wielded some sort of cannon attached to their arms. They were commanded by several other troopers that had spiky heads and spoke in some unknown language, seemingly giving rudimentary orders to the rest of the ground troops. Jacob ignited his lightsabers to try to deflect their blasts, but the shots disintegrated when they touched the searing blade of each of his weapons.
"Slugthrowers?! What in the hell are these things!?" He said, ducking to cover next to Blackout behind some rubble. Blackout fired several shots back, taking down a few of the humanoid looking creatures.
"I don't know sir! But they sure are ugly! What do we do general?" Blackout asked, firing off a few more shots and ducking to cover. Jacob pondered for a moment.
"We need to get back to the command center immediately! Hopefully we can get some communication through. And see if the chancellor survived the initial attack,"
"Copy that, sir. We had to relocate when these things entered the upper atmosphere. The new Command center is hidden in the forest near the entrance to the Gungan Village!" Blackout said over the deafening explosions caused by the reapers.
"Which Village? Otoh Gunga?" Jacob asked, force pushing a boulder at two of the bloated creatures.
"That's the one, sir!" Blackout said.
"Ok! I'll distract them while you make a break for it. With any luck, I'll be right behind you," Jacob said. Blackout shook his head.
"All do respect, general, I'm not leaving you here! You go and I'll hold them off! Your sabers are no good here anyway, sir!" Jacob also shook his head.
"No, commander! I have a better idea! Hand me one of your blasters, and a droid popper," Jacob asked, holding out his hand. Blackout tossed both a blaster and an EMP grenade to his General without hesitation.
"Got a plan, sir?" He asked. Jacob couldn't see it, but underneath his helmet blackout had quite the smirk on his face.
"Watch and learn, Commander," Jacob threw the droid popper up in the air and gave it force push, lined up his shot with the blaster pistol, and sent out a shockwave that knocked the ground troops flat and immobilized them. Still, Jacob had a stunned look on his face.
"I was just hoping to disable their weapons, but that works too. Come on commander!"
"Yes sir!" Blackout nodded.
"By the way, mind if I hold on to this pistol for now? My lightsabers clearly aren't doing much good here," Jacob said, as the two of them ran through the ruins of Theed and into the forest.
"Of course, sir. Not a bad shot, general," Blackout said, holstering his remaining pistol. After a few minutes of evading more of the ground troops and trudging through the forest, Jacob and Blackout eventually made it to the command center. They were both relieved to find it standing. One of the 199th soldiers spotted them and ran up to Jacob.
"Good to see you both in one piece, General," ARC-2388 said.
"Likewise Soren. Good work getting this command center out of enemy territory. Has there been any word from the chancellor?" Jacob asked.
"Or anyone?" Blackout added. Soren took his helmet off, revealing his buzz cut orange hair and goatee.
"As a matter of fact," he said. "Gearhead was able to get a transmission out to Generals Skywalker and Kenobi. We think. The message went through, but we haven't heard anything from them yet sir," Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. The first one all day.
"Good work Soren, Gearhead. What about the Chancellor, and the other senators?" He asked. CT-4501, the 199th's lead Clone Technician, chimed in.
"Unfortunately, after we got the message out to General Kenobi and Skywalker, all of our communications were cut off. Whatever these things are, they know we're looking for help," Gearhead said, falling back in his chair in defeat. Suddenly, two Clones ran inside the main compound of the Mobile command center.
"Sir! We've got movement two clicks west of the command center,"
"Gearhead, stay here and see if you can break through their jamming. Blackout, Soren, with me!" Jacob said, unholstering one of his lightsabers, and the blaster that Blackout gave him. Both clones gave an affirmative in unison and followed Jacob out of the command center with their guns drawn. Jacob stopped the two elite clones, and the other dozen or so troops following him and looked through his macro binoculars. There were close to 100 of the enemy's ground troops advancing on their location. Jacob put down the binoculars and looked up to the dreary Naboo Sky.
"Let's hope Anakin and Obi-Wan got the message,"
End of Chapter 2…
Hey everyone! Thanks for reading so far! I've read some of your concerns about the vast technology differences between star wars and mass effect, particularly with the reapers. These are all valid points and I will be addressing them in time, but just know that the reapers have gotten an upgrade or two upon arriving to the star wars galaxy. What is it? You'll have to wait and see ;) And no this isn't me being lazy and not actually knowing what it is yet, I have an actual plan, but it didn't really fit with this chapter lol. As for the 199th, they are an Elite Ops battalion, hence why they were sent to guard the chancellor on Naboo. Their armor is mostly black, or even like a dull gray, as well as their armor having heightened senses capabilities (This is a real thing in star wars too. Special Ops troopers have armor that matches their stealth/recon missions). Anyway, enough with the technical stuff. Let me know what you guys think! The Normandy crew will be coming to the star wars galaxy next chapter, so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
~JPfan