Well, here's a chapter dealing with Mass Effect Andromeda. Now, I should warn you that I haven't actually played the game myself and most of my knowledge comes from second hand sources, so if I get any details wrong, I can only apologize.
Here's the thing though: considering Andromeda takes place more than six centuries after the main games, I'm not planning on making this canon to the rest of my multiverse, at least not right now.
I have done time displacements before in my stories, but those were mainly for individuals, not an entire galaxy. So, this can be considered to be more of a what-if scenario... again, at least for the moment. I may change my mind about that later. But enough of my rambling, you've waited long enough.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect Andromeda or Halo.
On a nameless moon in the outskirts of the Heleus Cluster, a Kett base was located, hidden from the prying eyes of the Angara and the Andromeda Initiative. In the Kett facility, Exaltation was going smoothly. Though much of their operations in the Heleus Cluster had been disrupted since the death of the Archon, the Kett refused to be defeated after having worked for so long.
The Archon's private expedition for Remnant technology may have cost the Kett, but the Primus planned to ensure that they could recover. Reinforcements had already been called for, though it would take some time for them to arrive.
Now, the Primus' forces had made a new discovery: they had found an alien cryo container of unknown origin, containing several strange squid-like creatures. The Primus was almost tempted to dismiss these things, but considering how old the cryo device was, this was clearly worth investigating.
"Take these creatures to the lab." The Primus ordered. "We shall determine if they are worthy of being exalted."
...
In the laboratory, the Kett science teams began working on opening the cryo chamber, doing what they could to open it without damaging the creatures inside. The process took many hours of hard labor, but eventually they did it, as two Chosen approached the device and carefully opened it.
They had assumed that the creatures would be either dead or docile from having been frozen for so long. What they had not expected was for them to immediately leap forward and latch onto their guards' chests, before burrowing in.
Cancerous green and yellow tumors spread across their bodies as tentacles began sprouting from every orifice. More guards ran into the lab at the commotion, and to their horror, found monstrous abominations in their place.
The creatures turned, their Kett heads twisted in angles that would've been fatal if they were still alive, and let out an earsplitting alien scream and charged. The Kett opened up, but the monsters returned fire with their own weapons until they got into range, scratching and biting the Kett.
In moments, the Flood had been fueled significantly, and began their rampage throughout the facility, gathering more bodies and weapons with every inflicted death and infected corpse.
The Kett were helpless against the Parasite, their Exaltation benefits providing no defense against the ravenous nature of the Flood. The Kett kept fighting anyway, trying to deny the Flood as much as they could, but all they ultimately accomplished was fueling the fire.
The prisoners didn't have any better luck: the Flood infected them all too, not caring for who they were. Among the prisoners were Angara, as well as members of the Andromeda Initiative, all from different walks of life, now all serving in perfect harmony.
Soon, the facility was silent, the Flood having consumed all the prisoners and guards. With thousands of individuals having been present, the Flood began forming a Gravemind, while other forms took control of their ships to spread throughout Andromeda.
When the Parasite came for Heleus, the people within were completely unprepared. The Angara on Havarl were horrified as creatures far worse than the Kett crashed on their world and began infecting everything in sight, spreading spores into the air and converting the native plant life.
The Roekarr rallied and attempted to wipe out the alien menace, but they were unprepared for the Parasite's intelligent and devious nature. Infected plants released spores into the air and poisoned the water supplies, causing the Flood to be spread even faster. The Angara found themselves under attack from the inside, and secure settlements were quickly overrun.
Havarl wasn't the only planet that was going to be hit. Through the inhabitants, the Parasite learned about the Remnant Vaults and how they could terraform the planets. The Remnant machines attempted to halt their progress, but even they quickly fell to the Flood.
With the Vault under control, they began spreading Flood spores through the atmosphere, terraforming the world into a Flood hive. They also recognized the map within, which would lead the Parasite to the heart of the Jardaan's operations; Meridian.
On Eos, the Flood landed in Podromos, leaving the Initiative colonists completely unprepared for the onslaught against them. The Gravemind could appreciate the irony of the colony's name, especially considering who was attacking them*.
August Bradley led the defense, and they all put up a valiant fight, but were easily overrun by the Flood's numbers. Every outpost on the planet quickly followed suit, as did every outpost in the Andromeda Initiative golden worlds.
Escape pods filled with the Parasite crashed into Kadara's port, rampaging through the Exiles with ease. Sloane Kelly's forces and the Collective banded together to fight off the invasion, and lasted longer than the Initiative outpost that was present, but in the end, the outcome was the same.
The New Tuchanka Krogan Colony on Elaaden lasted far longer than everyone else, due to the Krogan's impressive adaptability and warrior pride, but even they couldn't defeat the endless numbers the Flood threw at them.
With knowledge from the Angara, the Flood flew through the path in the Scourge, heading straight for a collision course with Aya's main spaceport. Patrol ships requested clearance codes, which the Flood easily granted. No one assumed that there was a problem until the ship crashed into the city.
With organization from the Resistance, the Angaran people held out with all their might, having resisted the Kett so many times before. But the Kett couldn't immediately replace their losses with each of their enemy's dead, and the Flood attacked with ruthlessness and cunning unknown even to the Archon.
The Angara fought against the overwhelming tide with a fierce heart and strength of will, determined to drive the invaders out of their homeworld. Against any other opponent, this may have worked, but the Flood lived up to their name and overran the Angaran holdouts within hours. With the fall of the Resistance HQ and the infection of its leaders, the Flood had all but rendered the Angara completely extinct.
Voeld and so many other locations were attacked as well, the Flood sparing no mercy for even the outlying colonies and mining facilities. One by one, all worlds and space stations even remotely populated by the Angara, Initiative or Kett were overrun.
Now, with so many worlds becoming infected, the Gravemind turned his attention to the Nexus, having already gained knowledge of its location from many infected colonists. Due to the Flood's speed, the Nexus only got fragmented warnings of what was coming. Of course, it wouldn't matter if they got a full warninig; it wouldn't have changed a thing.
...
Onboard the station, Tann, Kesh and Addison were running operations, baffled and worried by the fact that almost all of their colonies had gone silent. Warnings had been sent out, but no one could understand them, as they only kept speaking of monsters and abominations. Suddenly, a new alert made itself known in Operations.
Several ships arrived in the Nexus' zone, requesting permission to dock. The controllers were suspicious of the sudden arrival, but the codes the new arrivals had given were correct, so they agreed, under the condition that armed guards would greet them when they landed.
"Something about this feels wrong." Kesh said. "This seems far too easy."
"I agree." Addison murmured, looking over display. "All the colonies report attacks and go dark. It feels like the survivors got here far too quickly."
"We will take every available precaution." Tann assured them. "Kandros has his militia on standby; if these ships have been hijacked, they can deal with it."
...
As it turned out, they couldn't. The Flood had landed so innocently at first, leading the responders to believe that these really were scared colonists attempting to escape some sort of monsters. And indeed they were; they just failed to actually escape the monsters.
The moment the ramps opened, the militia was beset upon by a wave of Flood, overwhelming and converting them in mere seconds. More guards further from the site sealed the landing bays in an attempt to quarantine the Parasite, but they simply broke through the vent systems.
Once the guards on the ground had started reporting in, Kandros gave the order to shoot any other ship down. The Flood didn't exactly care about their casualties; instead ramming the Nexus with every ship that took damage. Fighters moved to intercept, but the Flood pilots were too crafty and the Nexus fighter complement wasn't substantial enough.
Soon, the Parasite was all over the station, prioritizing the largest clusters of civilians, life support controls, hydroponics and the main control areas of the Nexus. Spores filtered through the atmosphere, already beginning the process of turning the station into a Flood hive.
To their credit, the leadership of the Nexus was able to hold out the longest in Operations, despite of all of them except Tiran Kandros having little to no combat experience. But it was a hopeless battle, as the Flood was able to drown them all in bodies and spores. In a matter of moments, the last bastion of the Nexus had fallen.
The Parasite didn't rest there, having learned and confirmed Meridian's coordinates from the Nexus' databanks. Combined with everything they already learned from the Vaults and the infected, and it was clear what their next target was.
A fleet of Parasite-controlled vessels emerged out of FTL over the small dyson sphere known as Meridian. The Jardaan facility's security was still up, but all their cybersecurity meant next to nothing to the Gravemind.
In moments, the gateway had opened and the Flood flew through, individual ships targeting important structures on the station while the bulk of the attack went after Port Meridian and the crash site of the Hyperion.
The Parasite was greeted by not only the colonists, but thousands of Remnant drones, who had been reprogrammed to be non-hostile and even supportive to the people here. In spite of that, the Flood easily pushed through, the sheer number of Remnant constructs still paled to the amount the Forerunners would throw at them in their war.
The Hyperion suffered even more damage from the Flood landing, and things only got worse for the people of Port Meridian as the Parasite spread. The lightly armed colonists found most of their weapons to be highly ineffective against the Flood combat forms, and most holdouts were quickly overrun.
Soon, all that remained was AI core, where one Sara Ryder was guarding it. She already knew her odds of survival were slim to none, but she refused to let these monsters win without a fight.
On the Tempest, news of the disaster had quickly spread to the Pathfinder ship. The crew couldn't believe what was happening, or even how quickly this was happening. Every colony they had worked to build, every Vault they had activated; it was all becoming for naught.
What was worse was the fact that they didn't know who exactly was attacking them to begin with. It was originally assumed to be the Kett, especially since the first wave had arrived in Kett ships, but everything afterward had suggested something far worse than the Kett had arrived.
Jaal in particular was rather horrified at the loss of Aya. No one was responding, not even Evfra or the Moshae, who Jaal would normally look to for guidance. With the credible belief of the Angara's very extinction, Jaal had sealed himself in his room and hadn't been heard from since.
Scott Ryder was looking over the galaxy map, trying to determine what was happening, when he got an alarming report from SAM.
"Pathfinder, Meridian is under assault."
"By who? The Kett?" Despite everything that had been reported, they still couldn't rule them out, especially if the true Kett were willing to strike in all the chaos.
"Negative. I am still not sure who it is, but they bypassed Remnant firewalls with ease."
"Copy that." He turned around and headed to the cockpit. "Kallo, set course for Meridian."
...
Sara Ryder fired at the horde of advancing monsters, trying desperately to hold off the Flood and keep them from the AI core. The Remnant tech particle rifle and the supporting drones were helping, but the Flood seemed endless, as mostly humanoid bodies rushed her position, several of them firing weapons as they charged.
It wasn't hard to tell that these invaders had some way of hijacking bodies, which made them far more dangerous. And unlike Exaltation, the transformation could happen on the spot, and it apparently didn't matter if the infected were alive or dead.
Any attempt to call for support had only been met with static or screaming. With a heavy heart, she soon realized that this was almost certainly going to be her last stand and she had no way of surviving this.
She paused in horror as one body was easily recognizable. It was a face that would forever be etched into her and her brother's memory, only now her body was twisted beyond all recognition.
Hundreds of people had still been in the cryopods when the Flood had landed, and the Parasite had wasted no time in freeing those bodies to be consumed. One of them was Ellen Ryder, who's fatal disease had only barely been staved off. Now her body was only a puppet for the rasping baritone voice emerging from her mouth.
"Spit and rage, you foolish pawn! My safety is assured. Come, join the chorus! Let me sing your bitter words."
Enraged and heartbroken, Sara gunned down her mother's body with tears streaking down her face, then switched to the next monster, and the next. In fury, she managed to gun down dozens of Flood forms before she was finally overwhelmed, all her senses disappearing into oblivion after something had jumped her from behind. With her knowledge added to the Flood hive mind, opening the AI core was rather trivial.
...
The main Pathfinder team had gathered in the meeting room as the Tempest flew through the vacuum at FTL speeds. All of them were preoccupied, trying to come to terms with everything that was happening.
Cora was looking at everything from a Huntress' point of view. From what little info they had gathered, she realized that this wasn't just some mindless alien horde. They had acted with cunning and deception, and with absolutely no regard for casualties on either side. Asari commando doctrine emphasized teamwork and targeting an enemy's weakest link, but what could one do if the enemy didn't have a weak link?
Peebee was rather concerned about how the entire Andromeda Initiative had fallen apart, obviously. But she was also alarmed at how easily these new arrivals could work Remnant tech. She had been the premier expert on that subject since their arrival to Andromeda, and even she couldn't make any real headway until Ryder showed up. But now, these new arrivals were casually shutting down the Vaults and had apparently broken through Meridian's security with ease. If she didn't know any better, she would assume that the Jardaan had returned... and they weren't happy.
Liam just couldn't believe how things could've gone so wrong. They'd managed to beat the Kett back and establish a peaceful relationship with the Anagara, only for something horrific to throw all their work away. Thousands, if not millions dead within a single day... it was just hard to comprehend.
Vetra was terrified about her sister. Last seen aboard the Nexus, Sid had yet to contact her since this new enemy had overrun it. Though she didn't want to accept it, she had to face the very real possibility that her sister was dead.
Nakmor Drack was in the same boat as the smuggler. His granddaughter Kesh was one of the leaders of the Nexus, and Drack knew that she would never have fled when the station was invaded. Even the thought of her going down fighting was cold comfort to the fact that he had outlived his own granddaughter.
Jaal just felt empty inside. His mentor and the vast majority of his people were dead and gone. Hell, it was possible that he could be the last surviving Angara in the galaxy. Such a burden was just... unbearable.
It was at that moment that SAM contacted them once more, warning them that the Parasite had made it onto the Hyperion. As the ship containing the most advanced SAM node not to mention thousands of people still in stasis, losing it would be even more catastrophic.
"SAM, we're on our way!" Ryder said, as the Tempest flew through the stars. "Just hold on!"
"I fear it is too late Pathfinder." SAM's next words horrified them all. "All the colonists have been consumed by these creatures." For the colonists to have fallen that quickly was terrible on its own, but what the AI said next was worse. "They have breached my core and are attempting to-to-to-asnthioep..."
"SAM! Talk to me!" What SAM said next was unexpected.
"I am a monument to all your sins."
Searing agony erupted all over Ryder's body, as SAM's implant went into overdrive. The crew around Ryder shouted in concern, but they soon found themselves to have much bigger problems as power all across the Tempest went dark.
"What's going on?" Suvi asked, her voice panicked.
"I'm not sure." Kallo kept trying to restart his controls, but they were completely non-responsive. "All power's going haywire, we can't do anything to stop it."
SAM's connection had allowed him access to the Tempest itself, and somehow, he was using that connection to disrupt everything onboard. Kallo and Gil attempted to fix what they could, but it was all for naught.
Meanwhile, Cora realized that whoever had attacked Heleus had somehow gained control of SAM and was using him to wreak havoc on the Tempest. Her suspicions were confirmed when several Kett ships dropped out of FTL, covered in patches of some strange green-yellow biomass.
"All hands! Prepare to repel boarding parties!" She wasn't sure how her voice was so level considering everything that was happening, but with Ryder incapacitated, she was the one who had to take charge.
The Flood had boarded the ship almost immediately, sending combat forms, infection forms, and Flood spores throughout the Tempest. The crew fought the Parasite as best they could, but one by one, they succumbed to the onslaught, their bodies then turned against their now former comrades.
Lexi T'Perro had been locked in her office when SAM shut everything down. When the door finally opened, she was greeted by a combat form and several infection forms. Her screams echoed through the vents as they became alien howling.
With the combat team incapacitated, the crew of the Tempest fell one by one. Gil Brodie, Suvi Anwar, Kallo Jath, and all the other crew members were turned into Flood forms by either scratches, spores or infection forms.
Ryder was the last one to fall, the Gravemind letting the human Pathfinder live long enough to watch everything he had worked for go down the drain. To be even more cruel, SAM displayed a video for Ryder's eyes, witnessing his sister's last moments as she was forced to destroy the body of their own mother, and Scott was powerless to stop it. Still suffering from the logic plagued SAM, he was completely helpless as an infection form burrowed into his chest. After that, all he knew was pain, then darkness.
With the consumption of everyone on the Tempest, the last remaining major holdout in the Heleus Cluster had fallen. The Andromeda Initiative was no more, destroyed like so many before it by the ravenous nature of the Parasite.
*For those who don't know, Podromos is Greek for Forerunner.
So yeah. The Flood have decimated the Forerunners at their height, and would easily beat the Mass Effect galaxy alone... in about two months (and that's being really generous). How the hell would the Andromeda Initiative or anyone in the Heleus Cluster have a hope in hell of stopping them? Now, here's a little omake I decided to write for the hell of it.
...
Several blue-white rifts appeared in the middle of space, and large silver vessels shot out of them. The Forerunner vessels, once sleek and shiny, were now marred by patches of Flood biomass growing off of them.
The vessels approached the Scourge, the cloud reacting to the presence of technology. The energy approached the vessels, aiming to bring the ships down like the millions it had before, but didn't even succeed in breaking the shields.
It was trivial for Forerunner technology to avoid or destroy the Scourge entirely. With the knowledge of the Flood as well, it didn't even qualify as an afterthought. Not to mention Forerunner shielding and armor was durable enough to fly through the dark energy cloud and emerge completely unscathed.
...
Yeah, from what I've seen of Remnant technology, it is impressive, but still nothing compared to the Forerunners. Anyway yeah, that was a little short, as will be the same with this second omake.
...
The Flood loaded themselves onto the Remnant ships, their knowledge of the Jardaan, and millions of other species providing everything they needed to use their vessels. With the creators of the Remnant consumed, the Flood took their worlds and ships for their own, before spreading out through the galaxy.
They joined up with a gathering of silvery tendrils in the stars, which coalesced around the Jardaan vessels. They were the protection that the Jardaan ships normally wouldn't need. Of course, there was one thing that could pose an annoyance.
In space, the Scourge moved towards the infected ships, aiming to destroy them, as was its nature. It never reached them: like an appendage clearing away smoke, the collection of Star Roads swatted the mass of unstable Dark Energy aside, dispersing it all across the system, the esoteric minefield having no effect on the neural physics constructs.
With no force capable of stopping them, the Flood moved into the rest of the galaxy, aiming to consume the surviving Jardaan and their opposition as well. Soon, all of Andromeda would be a timeless chorus to the Flood.
Yeah, the Scourge ain't got shit on Precursor structures. Not like the Flood really need it here. But seriously, did anyone expect the people in Heleus to survive at all?
The Flood can take over fully militarized planets with billions of inhabitants in a matter of hours. A civilian expedition with less than a hundred thousand people as well as whatever populations remains of the Angara and Kett in the cluster would barely qualify as a light snack for the Flood.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.