Mass Effect: A Very Terran (Re)solution

by NihilMomentum

What would happen if someone with vast knowledge about the Mass Effect Universe, both official (wiki/Codex) and theoretical (fanfics), decent fighting ability and a plan was dropped into that Universe 13 years before Eden Prime? As it turns out, quite a lot! FemShep. Soft HFY. And a very different kind of self-insert.

14. Chapter 11: (Un)foreseen Consequences

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or anything else referenced here. Those are the sole property of their writers/companies (Bioware/EA and such). I do not claim ownership of anything but my OC and original concepts.

List of track(s) used:

[1] – Recommended Track (starts at 2min28secs): Transformers Soundtrack - Scorponok - Extended (part of the YT link: /watch?v=cfBy6JpgXhI).

[2] – Recommended Track: Mick Gordon - BFG Division (part of the YT link: /watch?v=QHRuTYtSbJQ).

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Chapter 11: A Leap Forward, (Un)foreseen Consequences and the World's Dah

---

Headquarters. Early 2175 CE.

While walking down the corridors, I could feel a sort of vitality in this place.

It wasn't just because we finally had a place for the "core" members, the ones who knew of The Enemy, to gather together with us. No, it had more to do with having a special place to ourselves, where we could speak freely, interact with like-minded individuals, train in some of the best simulators in the galaxy, do actual research unperturbed and relax.

But it wasn't here to relax or appreciate the new facilities that I'd been called, though the actual reason was also unknown to me. Still, I had some conjectures. Nevertheless, I was moving towards a section with restricted access to most members where my destination was, storing my suit in an armory along the way. While approaching the place, I began hearing some noises.

It sounded like the fast humming of a song…

"...I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters ma-the-ma-ti-cal. I understand equations, both the simple and qua-dra-ti-cal…", it was actually Mordin who was singing to himself. Upon noticing me, he offered a greeting with a happy smile. "Oh, here already! Many new developments. Got to show you. Come!".

"Hey, doc. How's it going?", I greeted him back with the same kind of smile. "You're quite energetic today. Must be something really good, but then why is it just you here…?".

"Of course! New developments. Big leap for organics.", he quickly said. "Others' presence not required. Also, either left on missions or too focused on own work. Look!".

The Professor showed me a small device. It was a tiny thing, with an utilitarian design, and almost impossible to tell what it did just from looking, so he pulled up a big holo schematic, showing me the insides. There were many small bits on it, but I could see a reservoir of bio compounds, strains of something and nanites "swimming" in a liquid. Pulling my Omni-tool and linking it with the device, a new drive partition showed up. Its limits were massive, in the ballpark of zettabytes. In order to test it, I sent a large vid. It took some time to upload, but the playback was perfect and the usage hadn't budged at all.

"So, you've created the entire system for that new storage method?", I concluded.

"Yes, but not all. Prototype simple to make with nanites precision and ability to operate at molecular level. Only needs suitable environment for these DNA 'writers'. Also, result very compact.", Mordin explained how he did it to me. "Took songs, Gilbert and Sullivan mostly, then encoded on synthetic DNA strands. Afterwards, digitized them back. Perfect playback. Very unique molecular biology hardware.".

This was DNA, nature's original data storage system. It was relatively cheap, very compact and could do parallel computing. In some cases, we could even read DNA from skeletons that were hundreds of thousands of years old to very high accuracy, due to its resilience. A zettabyte, a billion terabytes. That's the predicted upper limit of data storage a single gram of human DNA could theoretically store, with a lower limit of 215 petabytes. I'd heard that our brain capacity was estimated around 10 terabytes to 10 petabytes (10.000 terabytes). And that was by relying on our four bases (A-T-C-G). From my knowledge, by synthesizing other DNA bases, the amount of information stored could be increased further, when going from binary to hexadecimal.

"Liara has her time-capsule, but we could try other ways. One would be to encode all the information about the Cycles on DNA and insert it on a resilient lifeform, like a bacteria that can survive in vacuum…", I paused, raised my arms dramatically and proclaimed: "Then, we shall name him: Conan, the Bacterium!".

My dramatization got a geeky chuckle out of him. "Could be done. Would need to prevent generational DNA loss. Still doable. However, not finished yet. Only part of development. Here, look!".

The Professor showed me another small device, faint traces of Prothean aesthetic design dotting its surface, the kind you only knew by interacting with these kinds of things a lot. In this one, there were weird looking parts sticking out, like they'd connect with something. It was, in a way, reminiscent of a biochip…

"This is… the finished memory storage implant? You actually got it working already, even before Ellen's melding one?", I questioned him incredulously.

"As said, others too engrossed on own work.", the Professor replied, allowing himself to feel smug about it for a bit. "My breakthrough main reason. A… very memorable leap!".

While recovering from his pun, I began thinking about what this meant…

No matter how fast and "smart" you can think, it's worthless if you can't save the thought, if there's no storage for it. And no amount of genetic augmentation might allow one to match synthetic memory capabilities. Fortunately, this Universe already had the possibility as well as all the bits of tech required to improve our "drive" capacity. A proof of concept one might find out about was the graybox, which was made by Synthetic Insights, Ltd.

The way a graybox, such as the one used by Keiji, did memory storage was troublesome, to say the least. No wonder it was called a "mnemonic neural recall stimulator", rather than a memory storage implant. Basically, its mechanism works by formating parts of the brain into blocks and "chunking" incoming stimuli there, to consolidate it into recognizable, more easily recalled pieces of memory. This irreversibly shifted the brain's workload over to the machine, meaning software bugs or removal could lead to incapacitating brain damage. To me, that didn't sound good. So, I came up with a different solution.

And Mordin looked like he had already turned it into reality…

"Awesome! Wait, if you've called me here, then that means it's ready for testing!", I quickly realized, excitedly. "Still, first explain something to me… If we've got the mind-machine interface ready, at least for this specific use, why did it take months to make it?".

"Delay due to minimization. Took out all unnecessary parts from Prothean Beacon design. Only scanner remained. Tuned it for specific neurological physiology. Human architecture, to be precise. Much smaller now. Could easily fit inside brain-computer device.", he said it all in one go.

The Prothean Beacon… In just those moments Shepard was lifted into the air, the Beacon scanned his/her brain almost instantaneously, looking for its optic and auditory nerves, as well as many parts responsible for memory. Afterwards, it stimulated those with pinpoint electromagnetic/other irradiative energy, using programs to recreate any images or sound it required, stimulating memory. Not only that, but it also delivered more information over seconds than a simstim could do in hours, to a species whose physiology was completely unknown to it. Evidently, this tech was quite high on my wish-to-research list.

"Ready for procedure?", Mordin asked me and I just nodded in response, preparing to lay in the closest operating table. "VI already set up for assistance. Will begin in a moment. Delicate brain operation. Better to be sedated. See you later.".

Like always, the operation began after consciousness left me, as the newest generation of nanites built the implant directly inside my brain. We'd reached a point of maturity with the technology that a DS overwatch wasn't required anymore, though Gaia had shifted focus here a few times without my knowledge. This wouldn't take more than a few hours. Then, I'd already be up and about, testing this device partly inspired by my ideas.

My way is quite different. Firstly, it tries to completely steer away from methods that involve scrambling and/or formating parts of the brain responsible for memory. Rather, it utilizes a new brain-computer interface made by Ellen's team to connect with and expand those very same parts, and then scans them with a special device based on the Prothean Beacons' mechanism, finally encoding the digital data with DNA synthesis by using our nanites (or a machine with their precision). In a way, it's like a sort of backup system.

Therefore, if a certain memory gets replaced in the brain over time, it can still be accessed by being recalled from the implant, which reads its storage with DNA sequencing, decrypts the digital data and sends it to the brain. In a simple analogy, the memory storage implant is like a hard drive, while the gooey matter is like RAM. You could even call this liquid-state storage. And it can do much more than just an encrypted memory backup…

"[Yawn], that was a nice nap. What's up?", I lazily got up and sat on the table, still rubbing my eyes. "So… How did it go?".

"Welcome back. Operation successful. No issues detected.", he responded. "Added best galactic dictionary. First thing actually. Also, basic knowledge on wide array of subjects.".

"Ok, ask me anything then…", I declared, cracking my knuckles.

"Speed of light in absolute vacuum, in meters per second.", the Professor asked.

"299.792.458 meters per second.", I replied immediately.

It felt exactly the same as when I normally tried to recall a memory, just way faster. A way to describe this experience was like I'd spent all my life dream walking in a hazy mist, but now I was finally waking up and the fog was dissipating. Every thought, every memory, everything felt… clearer. He kept asking me questions, which got harder and harder as time went on, reaching subjects I'd never studied before.

"The rachni must have something like this, only fully biological…", I mused to myself. "And now we do too. Even better, I believe, since we can encrypt any information we want, such as what one must know to be a core member. It'd make our secrets nigh-unbreachable. To be honest, the potential is insane. From now on, it's not just DSs who can just download a 'SkillPack' and learn something new practically immediately. We might too with this!".

That wasn't an exaggeration. In a weird way, "muscle memory" is just like the "speed of light". Light (or photons) has nothing to do with the speed it goes at, while muscles have nothing to do with the memory associated with them. It was all about committing a specific motor task into memory through repetition. Therefore, if we could, for instance, digitize a set of combat moves and upload them to the implant, we could turn Neo's phrase "I want to learn kung-fu!" into reality. But it didn't have to end there. After all, what is studying if not another type of memory association through repetition?

At some point, Mordin just paused, changing to his classic position (left hand on his mouth and holding his elbow with the left hand), while looking to be in deep thought.

"Hey, Professor… What's on your mind?", I inquired after a few seconds.

"Salarians metabolism very fast. Stated main cause of short lifespan. Not many can make it past 40 years old. But also allows much faster thinking. One huge advantage, to offset downside. Just as eidetic memories.", Mordin spoke out of nowhere, and slower than usual. Suddenly, he began watching his right hand thoughtfully. "Ever since nanite injection, not noticed aging. Still same appearance. Younger in some areas, in fact. More energetic too!". He then returned his gaze towards the biochip. "Now, eidetic memories for everyone, regardless of species. No need to sacrifice anything for it. Salarians' biggest advantage… replaced by tech. And by my own hands!".

"Hey, you should be proud of what you've accomplished. This is a giant leap for all organic life in the galaxy. And it didn't cost part of your mortality… or your morality.", I declared to him, getting an small positive reaction in return. "Besides, you're going to get a lot of augmentations as well, just as the lifespan ones, to make up for any loss. Mind augmentation is for everyone, you know that…".

Mind augmentation faces many challenges. And some of those come from our decision to patch up problematic systems, rather than only design new ones from the ground up.

Take the human brain for instance. It's a cobbled-together mess of ad hoc solutions that had accumulated throughout millions of years of evolutionary history, being the result of a haphazard evolutionary process that often proceeded by piling new systems on top of old ones, even when they didn't work well together. From a certain point of view, it's kinda like Bethesda's Creation Engine. Thus, if it was merely translated into "machine code", it would likely be spaghetti-code.

This was one of our biggest challenges during Gaia's creation. We had to remove a lot of evolutionary messes from the human mind architecture, such as vestigial parts that work wonky and/or worse than newer additions, before we could translate that into the basis for her mind. Still, it was a good thing neuroscience didn't get nerfed like nuclear weaponry did. Some of the things removed were, for example, that desire to lick lips randomly and that weird quirk giving an impulse to yawn in response to another person's yawn.

The result could be described as a massive soup of machine learning algorithms, expert systems and brain-inspired processes. In the end, however, it all worked out. We removed all the "bloat" while keeping the essence of what it meant to be human, then adapted it to this "mold". Finally, there were the modifications, natural and otherwise, done during Gaia's development and growth. Eventually, she ended up a being that could think at the speed of light, had much more processing power than a baseline human, yet still generally thought like one, with none of the weird quirks that came with it. Some would even say more human than even a "perfect" one like Miranda.

Therefore, contrary to what Javik alluded to and the Catalyst advocated, there are ways for organics to continue "improving" themselves. I've been at the forefront of it since day one, back when Mordin still needed to hook me up with whatever military grade genemods we could get our hands on. In truth, it's not a question of if or can, but when and would! This was the true first step towards bridging the gap between organic and digital life-forms.

Of course, our organic brains would still be improved with genetic augmentation, much of it taking inspiration and reference from other species. There was no issue at all with pushing the base hardware to its limits at the same time, like the team had been doing.

"Where are the remaining people right now; the ones who stayed, I mean?", I asked.

"With Liara and Ellen. Close room at end of hallway.", he said, looking better now. "Other mind-machine interface almost ready for testing. Alec very excited. Even more than me.".

"I see… I'll go there to say hi. Be right back!", I waved him off.

Following his directions, I'd quickly arrived in the other lab, rushing inside.

"Hello there!", I announced my presence. "Hey, guess what. I've got a memory implant now. Ask me anything!".

"Ah, already installed it? I'm really curious to see the results… Let's test it then!", Liara accepted. "Say, what is the definition of verisimilitude?".

"The quality of seeming true or of having the appearance of being real.", I said while armed with a smirk.

"First twelve digits of Pi after three?", she asked another question.

".141592653589", I answered back smugly.

"And what is my birthday?", Liara cheekly gave me the last question.

My smug smile collapsed.

"Shit!", I cursed out loud.

---

In a hidden, unknown location. At the same time.

He did it! He finally managed to intercept a data device from Hell's Angels.

Ganto Imness fancied himself one of the best operatives of the Special Tasks Group. And rather lucky too, a trait he was beginning to believe was necessary in this line of work. This was despite the long time it took to accomplish his mission. Now, with what he was holding between his fingers, it was only a matter of time he got the recognition he deserved!

It was a weirdly retangular device, with a plugable entrance that was half filled. Definitely ancient tech. On its surface, there were two human words, "San" and "Disk". It was quite clever, using technology most species wouldn't even know what to do with in the first place to pass secret information… But this wouldn't work on him, for he was one of the best STG agents in the galaxy!

Therefore, he began studying old human tech. One thing led to another and he ended up watching some old human media, eventually learning how to operate the things. Totally the initial goal, he swore to himself.

But there was a problem. Despite being inserted the right way, it just didn't seem to want to enter the correct slot. Still, he was a top agent and quickly devised a solution for it: fabricating a machine to firmly grab the device, using mechanical precision to insert it, flipping it after the initial failure, then flipping one more time for it to finally connect.

It was a success! His genius had been proven once again, not even being stopped by the problem of accessing the damned thing, as he had also pulled up an emulator for the old OS that could read it. While trying to open the device, he met another obstacle, for its file system was encrypted. Still, the pitiful 29.8 GB of data on it was simply no match for his quantum computer based VI, which netted him one file, with a weird file extension: ".mp4". It wasn't any encrypted file extension he'd ever heard of. "Clinking" on that with his finger, just to see what would happen, actually opened it and a vid began playing…

Ganto blinked. He stopped, then blinked once more. Maybe there was a message hidden in there somewhere, he thought to himself… It was when the weirdly dressed human in the vid began singing how he was never going to give him up and neither let him down, nor desert him, that realization finally set in…

Duped! He had been made a fool. He dropped on his chair, depressed over the massive waste of time it all had been. As the music continued playing, he began thinking about the future. Maybe he should take that offer and join Kirahe's team, climb the ranks slowly and stop being a dreamer. His luck might even turn around…

Still, he wanted to get at least something out of this. So, he did the one thing those who fell for this cursed video, who had tasted a bit of spite after getting tricked, would inevitably do.

He tricked his STG co-workers into trying to watch it.

Let them share his spite too.

---

Eagle Nebula. Amun System. Anhur. Mid 2175 CE.

In a room inside of a hidden bunker, a group of civilians and military leaders stood facing a dark figure that was being projected from a hologram. An individual from the group, which was mostly made up of humans, was speaking to it.

"Those corporate bastards, no offense meant, and the corrupt politicians in their pockets are afraid the batarian's custom of legal slavery would ruin their profits!", a General, which could be inferred from the many medals adding his suit, explained. "So, they've passed a resolution that abolished the minimum wage a few days ago…".

"They've basically relegalized slavery again. And in a human world, no less…", lamented a civilian-looking one, evidently the civil leader/representative. "This… It could be considered one of the ugliest violations of sapient rights in modern human history! We should've never allowed those batarian corporations to colonize this world with us.".

"Now, Civil War has broken out after the people turned to activism and violence.", another one chimed in, her appearance identifying her as an intelligence officer. "I'm not gonna lie. Despite not being a legitimate government, they have a significant advantage in ships, labor and weapons over us. We'll have to rely on mercenary outfits, such as yours…".

"So, abolishing the minimum wage, huh? You know what someone means when he or she pays you minimum wage?", the holographic dark figure asked, his gaze meeting each person's eyes in the room. "None of you know? They mean: 'Hey, if I could pay you less, I would, but it's against the law!', that's what. It's a protection against this kind of abuse, yet some of your politicians waved it away just like that?".

"It's not just them. Their faction, Na'hesit, they're calling themselves, is composed of many corporations, in a massive consortium, with wealth and resources.", spoke the General, in a frustrated tone. "Furthermore, it's primarily batarian, and the bastards want to keep their slaves, so I'm guessing the Hegemony has a stake in this mess too. In fact, they might have spurred them into action because of these conflicts going on all around us.".

"You've evaded the Terminus Wars until now… But good luck can only go so far!", the dark one commented. "Tell me, what is it you're proposing?".

"We want to hire Hell's Angels to help us fight in the Civil War…", said the leader, matching my gaze. "Put an end to it, no matter the cost!".

"I'm quite curious about something… Why did you look for us specifically?", I asked with a perplexed tone. "You could've looked for the Blue suns. They've become quite respectable these days. And I know for a fact the Eclipse contacted you…".

"Our militia has the numbers to hold ground, but nothing like your men, special forces to push back and take ground from the rebels.", the military guy justified.

"Your PMC has the ships, weapons and soldiers to defeat them.", spoke the spook.

"And then there's the rare fact you seem to be heroes to many…", added the politician.

"I see... Hell's Angels will take the job.", I declared to them. "You only need to sign the contract and give us your consent. So, then… How do you require assistance?".

---

Sekhmet, in the same Star System. Some hours later.

Often, when you know something is going to happen and prepare for it well enough, the result is almost always within your control. Sure, no plan survives contact with the enemy, but getting to do the first strikes means dictating most of the terms of the engagement. And, beforehand, we'd cast a wide and stealthy enough net to cover the entirety of the Anhur Rebellions, even if they began one year earlier – a butterfly effect due to our meddling, no doubt, especially by screwing the batarians and provoking the Terminus Wars.

Not overtly "touching" this System was part of the plan. Kasumi would pay a visit to it with a DS and scout everything about those corporate suit/politician bastards: from the number of drinks they had in a day to how many mistresses and secret bunkers they hid, even stealing a few things along the way. And everything of theirs was bugged or subverted by us. For example, the batarian version of Dick Richard might have installed an "Omni-Tool Optimizer Pro!", or commercial VI program to wipe extranet history, without realizing that it doubled as a tracker.

As such, when the Civil War was showing signs of starting, we'd be ready. Some of our agents would reach out; slowly, quietly, covertly. After it really began, Hell's Angels would take Eclipse's place, who got a nice PR boost out of it in the original timeline (gaining market share against the better established Blue Suns). While Eclipse would take two years to end this Civil War, I wanted it finished in a month's time. But, surprisingly, it was the militias who reached out to us. And that was soon after I'd asked Aria and Zaeed to run interference for us, distracting the other factions of the Terminus just long enough for us to put an end to the war.

The Eclipse would use Neith, a cold and dry planet, with a thin atmosphere (0.7 atm), as a staging ground for their ships. Inevitably, that place would be the site of their first defeat, in the hands of a Na'hesit surprise attack with superior forces.

We, however, didn't need to use that planet as our staging ground. More so because ours could be considered the entire Relic System, where many hanar/drell colonies were. It was also in the same cluster (Eagle Nebula) as the Amun System, just one Mass Relay away from Omega. Drack had been dealing with the issues of the planet Rough Tide, hopefully preventing the ugly series of race riots of hanar/drell vs krogan/vorcha that would occur in the later 2170s while boosting his forces at the same time, so no problems there.

Besides, given our comprehensive preparations, we could always take one of the Na'hesit staging grounds instead. In fact, our first strategy was to directly capture their refueling stations present in the gas giant Sekhmet. Without easy access to fuel, the rebels' space assets would soon be crippled, depending on their main bases for refueling. We wanted to concentrate all the fighting on Anhur, rather than let it spill over the entire Star System. Still, our first hurdle would be defeating a fighter wing hiding in the gas giant's rings…

"I want those Carriers. Did you inform the Admiral?", I spoke to myself, knowing Gaia was with me.

"Of course. He already knows the plan and promised to see it through.", she answered.

I was standing in our flagship's CIC, looking at the visual representation of the outside that was gathered by the ship's cameras and sensors, as we were quickly approaching the fuel stations. Still, before we ever got very close, the hidden fighter wind showed itself, rushing towards us in the hopes of overwhelming our point defenses and hitting us with disruptor torpedoes. But that was when they met their first surprise…

Since we couldn't use our true fleets or tactics, our quarian engineers had to get creative. So, they installed point defenses and as many broadside Thanix cannons as the warship's power/heat management allowed. And all those began firing their precise kinetic rounds in overlapping, superintelligence guided arcs that left almost no room for maneuver.

The second surprise was when our fleet began disgorging a crazy amount of craft. Just because our warships weren't Carriers didn't mean they didn't carry a "Fighter/Interceptor" contingent. Or two. Or a swarm. Actually, it was closer to a swarm. Unlike most militaries, these were unmanned craft, with all the wasted space meant for the pilot and life support systems being either utilized for better hardware or removed, making them compact.

A few were equipped with scaled down Thanix cannons and kinetic barriers. Most of them, however, could be said to be nothing more than big electromagnetic turrets in the form of a "space drone", with simple torch drives. Each of their shots was matched by the short ignition of a small rocket from behind, equalizing the momentum. Therefore, rather than rush towards the enemy blindly, they just stood far away, picking them apart while lazily doging with their thrusters.

And, to make matters worse, the enemy also met a new addition to our fleets: CW-Drones. Those were the ones whose only role was to wreak absolute havok in cyberspace. With no delay, their cyberwarfare suits began jamming enemy comms, hacking their systems and spreading the electronic equivalent of "There are hot singles near your area! Click here!" all around. But what was crucial was creating fake reports of getting routed and escaping, which we'd use to commandeer a few fighters. Some whose pilots had died after a few sudden encounters with pinpoint accurate, man-made metal objects.

Taking those, we "escaped" towards where their Carriers hid in the gas giant's rings.

"Clear your windshields. We can't confirm your identity.", we received a command from one of the Carriers, who might have gotten a bit suspicious of our patchwork.

"That's a negative, sir. Our windows are broken. Barely got them to not vent atmo.", Gaia replied with the deceased pilot's voice.

"Copy that.", was the response after a short pause. "But follow the designated approach vector to dock. We are leaving this damned place in 5 minutes!".

When we finally docked and were received by armed guards, they, in turn, were met with three man squads of Hell's Angels mercs from each of the small spacecraft – all that could fit inside –, who immediately left its confines, opening fire and throwing biotics all over the place. And, though beaten and bruised, the fighters could still be remotely controlled to target our enemies, ripping the Carrier's crew from the inside.

Then, on each one of the Carriers, the boarding parties split into two teams. One went for the bridge, while the other went for engineering, to prevent any MAD response. As always, I rushed to where resistance was toughest. While this was happening, the DSs were going wild on any unsecured systems or channels. Atmosphere would be vented, doors would be closed as the enemies were passing them, shouted orders would lead the guards right into traps. It was a chaotic and lightning fast operation. All of the Carriers were eventually seized and would be used against their former owners very soon…

Sekhmet. That was the tipping point of the conflict, after which the rebels only kept losing. It was also the name of the Egyptian god of war and chaos. Fitting, as it was the debut of Hell's Angels in the Civil War, who threw its trajectory into complete disarray. When the reinforcements from the Na'hesit arrived to protect the refueling stations, they only met the guns of their former allied warships. So, after a short engagement, they retreated into FTL, seeking refuge in a small hydrogen-nitrogen gas giant.

---

Bast. One day later.

This place and its moons were the Na'hesit consortium's fallback position. After gathering their strength, they leaked a false position to Hell's Angels, hoping to lure them into a trap. Or, at least, a pitched battle, banking on their numbers.

Interestingly, Bastet was also the name of the Egyptian goddess of protection, which, as they would soon find out, was quite ironic…

After arriving at the trap's location, we used gravitational wave sensors to find their hiding position in the gas giant, but still sent many drones and probes everywhere, pretending to be searching for the faked position. After all, even the space navies only turned off a-grav during combat. Still, one of the drones, with its own QEC, was sent to keep an eye on the true location of the enemy fleet.

"I hate having to fight with our hands tied behind our backs…", the fleet's overall Admiral, Ysin'Mal vas Lightbringer, codenamed Liberator, complained in the CIC, which was right in the middle of the warship. "I'm not even asking for the gravitic weapons; just the particle beams would be enough to make me happy.".

"Captain, you're giving the enemy too much credit.", his CO replied jokingly. "If we'd used those, there would not be anything left to take!".

"Indeed. I guess I'll see this as an opportunity to try some things out…", the Admiral stated, opening a channel to the entire fleet. "Everyone, suit up, vent the atmosphere and prepare for a-grav shutdown. Let's get this show going!".

They held a spherical formation, the warships only a few kilometers from each other, with their bows facing the opposite way of the center. It was, in a way, a 3D phalanx formation, but in space. And it also was something else: bait.

When the QB-equipped Scout Drone reported that the hidden enemy fleet made an FTL jump, the point after which they could only hope to catch our forces where the delayed sensors told them we'd be, the farce ended. All Hell's Angels warships engaged their thrusters and mass-reducing fields, breaking away into smaller fleets. All that stayed in their previous location was a wide net of drones/probes, linked together with a few QB-equipped ones, which, in turn, sent real-time information to the rest of the fleets. At the middle of the maneuver, they flipped around, decelerating until they were one-fifth (1/5) of a light-second away, yet still in a spherical formation.

However, this time, our warships were pointing their bows towards the center; and, right in there, the "ambushing" enemy main fleet had finally arrived, finding themselves completely surrounded due to the lack of any sensors in FTL travel. Moreover, they were holding tight formations, letting their GARDIAN systems overlap their fields of fire to prevent our drones from ripping them apart, as they'd experienced before.

While they still dallied, the second unconventional maneuver happened. We lowered the amount of mass put in the liquid alloy "core" of iron, uranium and tungsten of the Thanix cannons until it could easily reach 2% of the speed of light. This gave the Na'hesit fleet, which had already wasted precious seconds recovering from the initial shock, merely 10 seconds to dodge. It wasn't enough.

The first shots were concentrated on a few important targets, aiming for the bridge section of enemy warships, which didn't hold on for long. The more they barked orders, the easier it was for us to single out the leadership. Now, thoroughly decapitated and even more panicked than before, it became even easier to pick apart the enemy fleet. The encirclement allowed the Captain's Digital Sentiences to precisely vector in shot trajectories with almost no escape paths, while any retaliatory shots that hit and pierced shields would soon be patched up by maintenance drones, to be fixed later, barely bothering the crew.

The organic crews, not many more than a dozen in each Frigate and less than a hundred in a Cruiser, would help select priority targets. Ship Captains would be constantly receiving streams of data on their new implants and, in an instant, they would "know" what was happening in the entire combat theater.

And, finally, all the ships began disgorging their smaller craft to repeat the tactic used in the previous gas giant. The encirclement closed in on the Na'hesit warships, from one-fifth (1/5) of a light-second to a much more personal one-tenth (1/10) or less, when the spacecraft began showing their lethal usefulness. But they had another purpose here: prevent anyone from rabbiting into FTL. That was why the 3D formation was shrinking.

Many of the remaining enemy warships tried to cut open a path through one of the smaller Angels' fleet, hoping their larger numbers would overwhelm it. After seeing new hope, a few more joined them, reforming into quite a large fleet. However, it was then that the third unconventional, and downright disgusting, maneuver was done. The smaller Hell's Angels fleet turned around with lateral thrusters and accelerated at top speed, dodging any attacks as if drunk, only to suddenly turn back and shoot back, then flip back again and continue maneuvering randomly.

At the same time, the rest of smaller fleets began heading in the same direction and using their many Thanix mounted, broadside cannons to keep firing at the Na'hesit ships. Those were desperately trying to escape, but the spherical encirclement just kept following them, no matter where they ran towards. And any attempt to rabbit would encounter at least one drone in their path, making the FLT plotter refuse to fire.

Outranged, outgunned and outsmarted. Their defeat was simply… inevitable.

"Send boarding drones to the enemy ships and a surrender offer.", ordered Y'sin to the entire fleet. "I want all the debris cleaned up and all still operational enemy ships in our hands as soon as possible. We're hitting the main planet next!".

Bast, which the Na'hesit consortium's believed would be their turnabout victory, ended up as a crushing defeat. Their main fleet was completely wiped out, with knowledge of it only being known when all of their remaining orbital assets over Anhur were also defeated.

With very few space assets still worth a damn, the fight for the planet finally began…

---

Anhur, New Thebes, planetside. A few hours later.

The fighting had spread to most of the colony. The rebels were wealthy and had a massive advantage in ships, weapons and hired guns, which allowed them to dig in and hold much of the capital. As such, the militia's resistance devolved into old style guerrilla warfare and hit-and-run tactics, holding whatever ground they could.

The only saving grace was that their own space assets had drawn most of those bastards away and around the System, so they didn't have to worry about being bombarded to hell, but the close explosions were a constant reminder that air/orbital superiority wasn't theirs. And it couldn't really be, due to all the AA point defenses and jamming everywhere.

That was the militia's military leader sitrep until a few minutes ago, when the orbital bombardments simply ceased, making things much quieter.

"Sir, I'm receiving a message through all this jamming…", said a comms officer, a young batarian. "It's coming from space. They say we have reinforcements incoming!".

"What! But space combat began only a few days ago!", shouted the leader, a middle aged human. "How could our forces have defeated their ships?".

"It's not us, sir. It's Hell's Angels. They're coming. And they said they're coming in hot!", he replied with a confused expression.

[1]

Soon after, something caught their attention, as they both began staring at the sky.

Many large objects burned through the planet's atmosphere, all of them in the direction of the Na'hesit forces, their scorched red hulls bringing with them the promise of destruction. Then, when most of the atmospheric hurdle was crossed, they started to disgorge a large amount of drones, forming a swarming cloud around them.

The anti-air, GARDIAN and missile defense systems of the consortium switched targets to the newcomers, firing with all they had, but were quickly blown away by devastation rained down from orbit. Or from the targets they were trying to hit in the first place. Any retaliation was a quick way of showing their location. Nothing more.

Finally, just for the hell of it, small thrusters on the objects came to life, reorienting them towards any enemy kinetic barricades, entrenchments, power generators, what passed for tanks, and so on, and lit their main thrusters. Their effectiveness as a kinetic weapon was in direct proportion to their efficiency as an orbital insertion method. It didn't take long for them to start landing unopposed.

Soon after, more Orbital Insertion Pods were released from Low Orbit. However, this time, it was the Angels who flew out of them.

They jumped before hitting the ground and lit their thrusters, wing-shaped radiators formed out the back, effectively becoming aircraft with small radar cross-sections. Moreover, all of the soldiers were escorted by a swarm of drones, offering a platoon's firepower and a net of protection as a mobile point defense. They separated in mid-air towards enemy squads and, to bled off their kinetic energy, slammed into the ground with biotic power.

In a brief moment, the entire battlefield had changed.

Without delay, rifles began firing at anyone not caught in the blast, swiftly ripping through shields and armor alike. Some Angel's mercs would make short jumps with their thrusters and land in the high ground, sniping targets from over a kilometer away. Others would attack a certain fortified defensive position, then fly away only for it to be bombarded shortly after. A squad of batarians taking cover would suddenly find themselves pulled up by singularities, which would quickly be warped until they exploded. Many armored vehicles were ripped apart by squad based biotics, while a few were simply blown up by missiles.

And then there were the drones, in a swarm of metal, with their rotors generating infernal sounds to any enemy who would listen. They came in a variety of forms, the most common being cheap, non-eezo electromagnetic rifles which some bastard had taken and slapped a few rotors on. Some of the bigger ones, who had eezo, would plop down on a defensive position, turning into lethal turrets. A good portion only fired missiles, with a few set to CW. And, of course, a few were nothing more than flying explosives, blowing their opostion apart.

[1]

Meanwhile, there were no orders being barked over the radio/comms, bravado speeches being made or shouted reports; just cold, machine-like efficiency.

Only a few hours later, they had taken the Capital. While observers would believe this was due to the squad surgical strikes, the truth of the matter was that this was a war fought by Digital Sentiences, with the Quantum Bridge-equipped officers as command nodes, using their drones, unmanned-aircraft carrying laser-guided missiles and orbital bombardment (by artillery drone platforms) to peak efficiency. Moreover, at least the squad leader would have the new memory implants, providing them with advanced situational awareness and tactical enhancements. And all officers had QBs, allowing them to communicate directly with others, from anywhere, at any time.

And all of this was us holding back. For one, there was no armored unit on the ground. Our artillery support from the drone orbital platforms would be the only heavy metal during the campaign. That was because, in urban environments, tanks were somewhat sitting ducks. They're very open to asymmetric warfare (aka, one bastard with a cheap anti-tank weapon to ruin its many times more expressive target). While kinetic barriers mitigated a lot of this, any armored vehicle would be much more effective in an open terrain, which wasn't the case. We did have our very own tank drones, to support "infantry" and hold ground, but they weren't needed at all, as the militia forces could dig in for us.

As for the conflict, it was completely one-sided. Na'hesit reinforcements were sent to one place only to be taken down by their "friendlies". Nonsensical orders were barked over the comm channels, but never reported – or their source found. They were constantly on the move, going to the next line of defense only to find the enemy there, waiting in ambush. Weapons would stop working out of nowhere mysteriously. Bunkers would be compromised from the inside. All of the supplies would be stolen. Mechs would shoot their allies. Even if the mechs weren't the cheap security kind, those could still pick up weapons and shoot. They learned too late that any mech that could aim, point and shoot a gun could be a killer mech.

Worse, the Na'hesit would hear sounds of distress and arrive to find a wounded batarian on the ground, holding an injury and writhing in pain. Those who moved up eagerly to drag away the wounded one to heal with Medi-gel quickly discovered the truth.

It was another killer mech.

That wrecked vehicle? Killer mech.

That big rock over there?

Killer mech.

That small one on the other side?

That one was a killer drone.

The dead enemy merc? Two killer mechs this time.

That killer mech over there? A wounded Hell's Angels merc aiming his rifle at you.

You thought it was a killer mech, but no! It was I, an Angel from Hell!

And guess what? If this is to be my coffin, then there's a place on it for you too!

---

Sobek. Moon Heqet. One week after our shocking arrival.

Despite their overwhelming success, we were spending quite a lot of resources on drones, even after recycling them as much as possible. Thus, I sent orders to capture a few moon based labor camps around Sobek, a hydrogen-nitrogen gas giant, where the rebels would try to generate raw materials for the war. This was where I was walking now. My presence wasn't required here, especially since this place had been captured the day before, but I had to see it for myself.

These labor camps were more aptly called slave camps, because their only miners were enslaved folk living in abysmal conditions. The batarians didn't even bother installing mass effect fields on some camps, to keep gravity at normal habitable levels, meaning the slaves suffered widespread bone loss, crippling them if they ever left for a standard-gravity planet. This was the final degradation made by those scum, which I wanted to revive just to kill again. And again…

"Gaia, would you kindly bring my new suit of armor here?", I finally asked in my internal comms after seeing enough.

"Why? It's not necessary. And it is still experimental tech at this stage.", she inquired.

"Don't care.", I replied curtly. "Send it from HQ. If it's still experimental, then I'll 'experiment' it on the leaders behind this. Actually, where are they now?".

"Most of the leadership are escaping to what they believe is a 'hidden' bunker. A few, who missed the initial assassination spree, are being herded there too.", she reported. "Anyone who could be redeemed has been secured already. Alright, I'm sending the armor right now.".

With her confirmation, my focus once again returned to the liberated slaves. I remembered now. Their plight garnered galactic media attention and several charities sprang up to pay for their physical therapy and get them gainful employment. The Eclipse mercs even found themselves painted as heroes for their part.

"Gaia, also have VersaLife start developing medical treatments for their bones and open up a charity for it. When it's finished, publish the physical therapy free of charge. And get some of our Mining-Mechs and Mining-Drones here.", I said a series of measures with a dry tone. "Not our latest ones, but the second-hand designs we'd been selling to the galaxy for a while. I want to finish the war without delay.".

---

Anhur, planetside. Half a day later.

Before me was a suit of armor that sought to break away from millenia of stagnation. The first step towards Power Armor, as in powered exoskeletons.

What I'd been using until now looked like a mix between N7 Defender Armor and Spartan VI's Mjolnir Armor, with those terribly exposed areas covered. Performance-wise, it wasn't much more than a buffed up heavy "Colossus X" armor set, with a few features added in. But this new one was closer, visually speaking, to the Crysis nanosuit's exoskeleton. This was, in fact, its one defining feature: a compact exoskeleton, wrapped around the suit and its (still) ceramic plates, but made out of titanium reinforced with boron-nitride nanotubes. It was our first "public" foray into the nano world regarding armors.

It was only during the ME1 period that the species of the Universe started trying to build a few powered exoskeletons, those mostly being prototypes. This one before me was also a work in progress. Its experimental nature was due to the fact two new technologies weren't ready yet, but I only wanted its current capabilities, which increases movement speed and load capacity, reduces fatigue and the power/strength, also helping deal with the increased recoil from our gravity based weaponry.

Without further ado, I began donning the Power Armor.

"We are fast approaching the bunker.", Gaia, the pilot of the gunship I was in, informed me as I was close to finishing. "Are you sure you won't need any support?".

"None. The two of us are enough.", I stated confidently.

"Ok.", she said. "We're almost there. I'm going to start the mind synching process now.".

Suddenly, my perception of reality began to shift. Firstly, through the connections of my new neural interface, I felt a mind – one alien, yet so alike my own sentience – linking with mine in perfect harmony. It was also a much grander consciousness, one safely hidden far away, though only a part of it could connect to my high-bandwidth QB, bridging the gap of many light-years – a distance so immense my own mind could not comprehend it.

The experience was somewhat like an asari superficial mindmeld, but the connection was technological in nature. Data streams were converted into symbolism that my organic mind could comprehend. But it went beyond Gaia's own subjective perspective of the world, for it included everything else here she was connected to.

Drones almost felt like phantom limbs, with electrical blood running through their synthetic veins. Even my own suit came alive, as though it was a real exoskeleton – an extension of my body. My vision did not multiply by the thousands, but it expanded it a different way – as awareness of the surroundings. For one, I knew where a particular weapon on this craft was even without seeing it.

This is… almost overwhelming, Gaia exclaimed in my mind. All of this new data and… experiences. These… feelings? How do you manage to stay sane?

We humans are always a bit insane. I thought back. How are you holding up?

You know us, she said. The way we DS 'experience' emotions is somewhat different from you: my processing matrix and databases operating at peak efficiency could mean I was 'mentally healthy'; if they were running slow, it could mean I was tired. But some emotions are harder to grasp.

Such as? I inquired in my mind.

Like what you're going through right now, for instance. I can feel your anger. Your hate. We don't have the inclination, biological or otherwise, to experience it much, especially with our environment while growing up. Gaia explained to me.

While she spoke, I went looking for a specific weapon I'd "seen" and picked it up.

It was also something of a prototype shotgun. One that was gravity-based, full-auto, with a fast loading system and, more importantly, full sized bullets. Taking one out, I could barely see its capacitor and built-in cooling system. After looking at the shell for a while, I loaded it into the shotgun with malicious intent.

The hidden bunker of the Na'hesit: that was their last bastion, where they hoped we'd buy their threats of nuclear armageddon. That wouldn't fly, of course, just like those nukes. We disabled them even before the conflict began. But the batarian/human consortium would never know that. There were very few lookouts outside it, as the place was camouflaged as some random merc's hideout.

I approached the hatch, waiting for the green light, then jumped down, free falling most of the way down. Following me was a proper Drone Swarm, bigger even than a platoon's, not the pitiful amount we'd opently used to trick analysts.

Reaching the middle of the descent, I barely engaged my thrusters, merely to offset this planet's 1.3 G until my velocity was at a safe level, and hit the ground with a loud Thump right in front of a bored watchman, slowly bending my knees and back upon impact.

"W-What!", the batarian lookout blurted out, before recognizing me. "Oh, shit!".

[2]

I quickly got up and leveled the shotgun at him, pulling the trigger.

The barrel of the shotgun roared to life, sending a big shell at the batarian. His shields buckled over the sheer momentum of the shot, due to its bigger mass and ludicrous velocity. The high-explosive, incendiary/armor-piercing round (HEIAP) spread its content wildly and tore his torso apart, regardless of armor, resulting in a shower of blood and gore. Another batarian showed up just as the residual electrical discharge and wisps of liquid helium in the shotgun's barrel vanished. But this one didn't have a suit with shields, so my second shot distributed his mass across to the surrounding volume catastrophically.

As the remains of the two bodies burned, I made my way into the bunker, whose alarms started blaring. The drone swarm split up into smaller swarms, all moving in fluid motions to encircle this whole place down. Only a few remained at my side, mostly Fighter-Drones and Ammo-Drones, meant for carrying, gathering and/or fabricating ammunition. And I could already feel them going coming closer to me.

It took almost no time for Gaia to start hacking their defense systems. The most dangerous defenses, such as missile turrets, would be disabled. But what surprised me was the warning she blasted over their speakers and comms:

Warning! The Devil has entered the facility!

Two more grunts showed up, now properly identified as members of Na'hesit by their uniforms, so I aimed the gun at them and fired, blowing the closest one into giblets. Despite being scared out of his wits, the second one retaliated, his only shot barely scratching my shields, before being killed with just one shot too. Dropping any pretenses of tactics, I began running inside of the facility, right towards any enemy squads. One shot, one kill. Another one, another kill. It wasn't even about seconds per kill, but kills per second. Some thought themselves smart by hiding behind cover, but I pulled them up with a singularity and kept firing, not even bothering to warp it 'till it exploded.

I kept pulling the trigger until my ammo ran out, not switching to shaved metal rounds. Instead, I rushed towards the last enemy, kicked him in the left knee, bending it backwards, dragged his gun towards his head and blew his brains out. Then, another batarian arrived in the room armed with a shotgun of his own, but I pulled him closer with bioticically generated gravity just as his shields had been overloaded by Gaia and began punching him until his head caved in. An Ammo-Drone arrived and quickly resupplied my with ammo before flying away.

Just in time, as another squad came in. This time, I pulled up an ability from my new L5 implant and charged at them biotically, immediately following with an explosion of biotic power, sending most flying. Rushing towards one who didn't, I kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying as well. Together with the drones, we simply ripped them to shreds without resistance. At some point, I found a disabled mounted turret. Receiving my thoughts, Gaia hacked any failsafes while I ripped it from its metal platform, turning towards the incoming enemies and kept holding down the trigger. The ammunition, meant for heavily armored targets, ripped through anything it touched, leaving a trail of red blood, body pieces and broken armors.

Arriving in a large room, I threw the melted down weapon at a human with my biotics and charged again, right towards the middle of a fortified position, then demolished it with another biotic explosion. A few got creative by throwing every single explosive they had, even if those would kill their downed comrades, but I dodged that by engaging my thrusters and flying in the air, then rushing downwards for another biotic charge. This time, two batarians decided to melee me, which I responded by slicing my Omni-blade at them, decapitating the first one, then cutting the other's arm and blowing his chest away with a shotgun blast. When this room was cleared and I was the only standing, my new destination was where the rebels were gathering.

Approaching closer to where the Commander-in-chief of the Na'hesit laid in wait, a room perfect for an ambush, Gaia brought up his information for me. He was a batarian and veteran biotic, one hardened by many conflicts. A military type, no doubt with deep ties to the Hegemony. Or maybe a member of the Special Intervention Unit. And the room was very spacious, surely in order to overwhelm me with sheer numbers. His best were here, forming a tight net of firepower, both on the ground and in platforms. As I'd discovered so far, there were no mechs, something they'd paid an enormous price to learn.

Suddenly, I thought about filling the room with smoke and Gaia delivered immediately, making a few drones shoot smoke bombs inside. Afterwards, she cut the power and sent dazzler drones in, blinding the enemies through the darkness, with the rest of the swarm rushing in shortly after. I switched my vision mode, allowing me to see in the dark, and followed the swarm. This would probably be my final battle here, as datastreams of death filled in from the swarm around the facility.

With the drones working hard to put down suppressing fire, I rushed to the left, letting the thrusters on my back roar to life and fly me to a nearby wall. Running on its surface while wielding my shotgun in one hand, I killed a few enemies that were in an elevated platform and, while bending my knees forward for a jump, biotically charged at the remaining one, throwing him off the ledge.

Quickly switching weapons, my assault rifle burst to life, spewing exploding rounds of death towards the other opponents that also had the high ground. Each duo of wisps, electrical discharge and cooling liquid, coming and vanishing from my weapon's barrel meant another enemy taken down. Not very happy with how the situation was turning out, the batarian Commander decided to throw a singularity at my location. Years of experience fighting biotics, especially when I didn't have my own, made me dodge it by instinct. That was the correct decision, as the bastard warped it shortly after.

Satisfied with the reduction of enemies "upstairs", I put up a biotic barrier for the first time and rushed to the edge of the platform, jumping right on top of a guy on the ground. While still falling, and aided by my – even more developed – Adrenaline Rush, shots rang non-stop, taking the life of as many enemies as I could. Finally landing and completely crushing the poor sod, another closeby guy thought he could do better by using an Omni-blade, but I broke his arm with Thane's close quarter skills, ending it with a punch that threw him a few meters away like a broken kite.

Then, meeting gazes, the enemy Commander and I both threw as much biotic power as we could at each other, with him losing out and being sent flying towards a nearby wall. Before whatever was left of his small army could focus fire on me, I charged biotically, sending him flying again. Not satisfied, I rushed and, while he was still bouncing back from the second hit, pulled up my Omni-tool, then another one from my other arm, and stabbed him in the torso, using my exoskeleton to Rip and Tear his body apart.

With their cornerstone in pieces, the stunned crowd was quickly mowed down by the combination of drones, biotics and shotgun shells.

[2]

Hey, Uncle 'Slayer'. I rounded up the rest of the corporates and politicians. Gaia sent a mental image of it to me. They were trying to activate all nukes on the planet. What should we do with them?

So, in the end, they really didn't care about killing millions of innocent civilians, huh? I thought in reply. Gaia, do you know why humans truly created something like the geneva convention, even though it limits us in warfare?

I have my own theories and answers about it, but humor me, she responded curiously.

It's not because we are Paragons of justice or anything, but to stop a possible scenario of endless escalation, when one side keeps trying to one-up the other one's atrocities... and war gets too crazy. I told her my own take on it. We are at war. The enemy just told us that civilians are a viable target. Oblige them.

Our mental connection allowed me to feel the electrical shift in the far away drones, their mass accelerators firing a barrage of supersonic metal. But it happened just once. Unarmored targets didn't need more.

We did what we had to do, right? Gaia suddenly asked me. Don't misunderstand my question. Had we done nothing about this, I would have been mad, she quickly explained herself. As beings who easily could've been created in shackles, slavery is a touchy subject for us DSs. It's just that, sometimes, I wonder if things could have been different.

Hardly. We did the best we could. All those who really deserved death are gone and we already did the best we could by separating them from those who can be reformed. I soothed her. Instead of feeling down for the lives lost, be content that this injustice is over.

There a sudden pause, with only the drones zipping around and the burning bodies around me not permiting any silence to settle.

What about the fallen? I asked her, muted sadness slipping into my thoughts.

They've already been recovered and sent to The Pit, she sent a soft thought in reply.

Good… The honored dead deserve their earned rest. I thought flatly.

With the leaders of the Na'hesit faction dead, "The Anhur Rebellions", which were named "The Anhur Liberations" this time, came to an abrupt end just two weeks later, after the last of the stragglers and bunkers had been cleaned up. In the end, justice prevailed, as the abolitionists won out, which resulted in the end of slavery throughout the System. Still, this victory came at the cost of some of the infrastructure – followed by a small economic depression, save for the reconstruction industry.

The recordings of the last battle were never released, though there were rumors that the Commander of Hell's Angels went alone inside the last enemy base and was the only one to make it back alive. No one was really sure who started those rumors, but it only served to increase Hell's Angels recruitments, who had now been elevated to local heroes.

Another peculiar fact was that many of the abolitionists were batarians, mostly those of lower caste. Unknowingly, there was a reformist force brewing here, one which we would help infiltrate the Hegemony over the years. They would subvert that rotten Slaver Empire, not unlike how Cerberus did with the Alliance, except, this time around, it would actually be for a good cause.

---

Deep within the Citadel. A few days after the end of the Anhur Liberations.

In a luxurious room, three figures sat around a table and discussed recent events.

"Disturbing news from the Terminus…", Valern's right eye twitched at the report he just received. "The abolitionist militias of the Amun System won the Civil War. The interstellar conflict was projected to take at least two years to end, but was finished abruptly, in only a month. Such discrepancy was attributed to the intervention by the PMC Hell's Angels, who showed overwhelming military power both on the ground and in space, with armaments, discipline and tactics to equal, or even surpass, our own.".

"It's them again!", Sparatus suddenly flared up. "When are we going to really do something about those upstarts?".

"What can we do?", Tevos interjected, sighing deeply. "Firstly, it happened in the Terminus, where we have no jurisdiction. Even if that damned PMC comes here, we have those blasted deals our goverments were coerced into signing, giving them legitimacy as a 'security company' and the right to own military grade armaments, so our hands are tied on that front too. Then we have to keep in mind that they are considered heroes by many, Alliance included, because they actually seem to uphold their image of warriors of justice in the Terminus and the Traverse. And that is before all the blackmail they have on us…".

"Still, we should do something!", he still grumbled, but much more reserved now.

"And what exactly is that something, Sparatus?", Valern questioned. Ever since last year, the turian's temper had become more irritable when it concerned humans, especially when they were expanding almost unopposed. "Are we going to send our fleets to the Terminus, against that PMC, because they fought and killed what… slavers? For freeing slaves and becoming local heroes? Is that the kind of image you want to uphold? Where did your desire to crush the Hegemony go?".

Sparatus was stunned after getting hit with the realization that he was pulling away from his original views, from before he became a Councilor. But he still growled, twitching his mandibles in annoyance.

"Gentlemen, please calm down.", Tevos, ever the voice of diplomacy, spoke up. "We can't do anything about them, but there are still things we can learn. Valern, you mentioned they could be surpassing us. Can you explain? The STG must have obtained some information, right?".

"Correct, though it was from public recordings. We don't even know how they took out the main Na'hesit fleet.", the salarian looked irritated by the STG's inability to get any better intel. "One of the biggest differences between us and them is how they deal with ground combat in general: we recruit a lot of soldiers and give them basic training and gear; they, however, make use of smaller squadrons of elite soldiers, many of which are biotics, in conjunction with heavy use of drones, even as orbital artillery.". He paused, looking serious. "Their drones, which some have even taken to calling a swarm, are quite deadly in their large numbers. Overall, it has been proven to be… a very effective strategy, which is only limited by the number of elites they can train. Our saving grace is that those, like biotics, can't be mass-produced.".

Tevos and Sparatus began looking at recordings that Valern sent them, quickly becoming mesmerized.

"These drones… are almost too well coordinated to be mere VIs.", Tevos was the first to point out, fear creeping in at the possibility that popped up in her mind. "Do you think that... perhaps they use AIs?".

Sparatus was also genuinely spooked at this idea. They both turned towards their more scientific minded colleague.

"Fortunately, that does not seem to be the case.", the salarian quickly put down their fears and began explaining his reasoning. "It's a known fact that AIs require blueboxes, yet the mercenaries don't carry one of those around with them. Also, none of the intel gathered so far by the STG points towards them having any kind of AI core on their ships. Therefore, our conclusion is that each 'swarm' is locally controlled by each Hell's Angel squadron. It's hard enough to keep just one AI from going rogue; controlling enough AIs for an entire army without problems would be near impossible!".

"Maybe they've found a way to miniaturize a bluebox?", she suggested.

"Also unlikely, as there seems to be an alternative explanation. STG analysts, and contact with the ones behind the technology, Ad Astra, have us believe that the drones, when considering a single squad, are just under the threshold of what a VI could theoretically handle.", Valern proposed. "Although Hell's Angels has denied us access to their software, usually citing arguments regarding its proprietary nature, they did show that many of their veterans, especially the 'officers', have highly sophisticated and personalized VIs. Those could very well be capable of controlling the 'swarm' if they meet that threshold. Besides, they do have the quarians…".

Without realizing it, the salarian created a perfect example of the phrase "sometimes, one can be too smart for his/her own good!".

"Then the unmanned craft might also be the same as the drones.", Tevos finally relented, dropping the theory. "If you can remotely control one, then so can you do the other. Unlike us, they're either reckless or don't seem to be afraid of hacking…".

"But, as you said, those are theoretical. Maybe they found a cache of Prothean technology and are hiding it?", yet Sparatus still didn't give in. Despite her internal discomfort, Tevos maintained her poker face. "Perhaps we can get them that way!".

"That also seems difficult.", Valern quickly dismissed the scheme. "Analysis of the coding from the VIs of the new L4 biotic implants shows that the programming is not Prothean in origin. It has no relation whatsoever with known, or theorized, Prothean designs. In fact, the report I received curiously mentioned that they almost try to steer away from any kind of Prothean coding.".

"So we can't even make that case…", the turian finally deflated in his chair. "They clearly pay no heed to the common sense of this galaxy, yet we can't do anything about it! Also, don't you get the feeling human stuff seems to be everywhere nowadays. Like, what the hell is 'Argent Metal' and why do I feel angry whenever I hear it?".

"You… listen to human music?", Tevos questioned the turian with an incredulous tone, as if he had been replaced by an impostor.

"Only for research purposes, of course. To understand their martial mentality.", Sparatus quickly excused, hiding the fact he loved listening to Sabaton at home.

"I don't see the relevance of this…", Valern said impatiently. "If you two don't have anything else to add, we should move on.".

"Yes, let's move to the next topic.", she said with a serious expression, then began locking down the place even further. This was already a very sealed and protected room they were in, one where they could discuss anything with no fear of repercussions or eavesdropping, yet she still deemed it better to do so. "Any news about those missing Relays?".

The other two paused, narrowing their eyes at her. The silence was almost deafening.

"Nothing concrete yet. The turian patrols can't rush into the Terminus to investigate, having to rely on second hand intel to even learn about it in the first place.", the turian suddenly reported with a somber tone. "Actually, I'm more interested in what the STG found out.".

"Almost no new clues discovered so far.", replied the salarian. "But the STG teams covertly operating there have determined something interesting. By staying far away from where the Relays should be and using the light delay 'trick', they found out an omni-directional bright light was spread with the structures as the center before they were gone. But too much time had passed, so we could only see this light.".

"But who could have the technology to just… move Mass Relays like that?", Sparatus thought out loud. "Do you think it's the Protheans that are coming back?".

"That seems rather far-fetched.", Valern mentioned. "After all, we've also discovered that the time between events was different; one of them, which we believe was the first target, took much longer than the others. Therefore, we concluded that whoever was behind it got more experienced with the process as time went on.".

"Then, if it wasn't the Protheans and no one else is capable of doing this, do you think an entirely new race is responsible for it?", Tevos asked. "One living in that region of space. And who wishes to stay hidden there?".

"That would be just great! Yet another race that doesn't understand the value of the Mass Relays.", Sparatus growled. "And we still need to cover up the news to prevent panic!".

"At least they… whatever was behind it was only interested in dormant Relays and already stopped.", she muttered, trying to stay hopeful. "If they could simply shut us out of the Mass Relay Network, I don't want to imagine what it would be like confronting them.".

"Even so, what if they decide to come after our Relays next?", Valern mused.

They all looked at each other worriedly, thinking about what to do with the intel.

---

2175 Aeia, planetside. One month later.

While the Council was too preoccupied chasing shadows, the "boogeyman" they were so afraid of was cheerfully relaxing on a beach.

This was a jungle planet with lush vegetation, ample fresh water and breathable air. Also, the native flora was a wild ride. Some of it was even to die for. But the Systems Alliance didn't know that, so they saw this planet as an important colonization prospect and sent a survey mission here. And this was where we came in.

While carefully arriving, we looked for the "unspecified impactor" which was supposed to destroy the MSV Hugo Gernsback's sublight drive. When they finally reached this place in some hours, Harris Fairchild would never know how close to death he got. And Ronald Taylor wouldn't become "acting" captain, never being able to put into action what we knew he would. As for us, we got an excuse for some "shore leave", on a literal shore.

"Must we really be here?", Javik asked me, looking vexed.

"Not for long. Only until we confirm there won't be a crash.", I reassured him from my chair, a nicely reclined one. "Dude, don't be so serious all the time. We need some relaxation every now and then. Here, sit down with me…".

He just grunted in response and walked towards the beach. With that, I returned to what I was doing before, which was absolutely nothing, except watching what everyone else had been doing. For this occasion, we had brought along almost the whole gang. Some, like Benezia, had their own things to do. But the others...

Alec was cooking a nice barbecue for us, using a super advanced electric grill, but it never seemed to be ready, because an invisible force would steal it every now and then. Keiji was with him, helping.

Gaia had left a few minutes ago to explore the forest and the unique ecology of this place.

Loki hadn't come because he said it would be super boring and there would be a gaming tournament coming up soon that he was waiting for.

Thane brought his whole family along and, despite their reservation after meeting all these strangers, Irikah was chatting with Liara and Ellen, while the man himself talked with Alec.

Scott and Sara were already building a sand castle together with Jennifer. They'd asked for Kolyat to join them.

Mordin was on the beach with Javik, collecting seashells. It wasn't even one hour later and he already had his Omni-tool out, running tests on them. I just shook my head at that.

And Samara was just… cosplaying as a meditating statue closeby.

While I was dozing off, almost like a salted fish, someone called me on my Omni-tool.

"The batarians put a bounty on your head…", Daedelus, Thane's DS partner in running the Network, brought the sudden news to me. "They just did it. It's in the millions of credits right now, but slowly climbing up. Might even reach a billion in a few days!".

"Oh? Did they now?", I asked with a raised eyebrow, bringing up a can of Paragade and drinking it nonchalantly. "That's… quite flattering in fact. Must be because of what we did on Anhur. Hey, do you think I should offer my head and collect the bounty?".

"You're not afraid? Not even a little upset?", the superintelligence questioned incredulously, simply not managing to process my reaction. "If it's just confidence in your capabilities, I'd advise caution. All the bounty hunters, assassins, hitmen and non white-listed merc outfits might be gunning after you by tomorrow.".

"It's not like that. I'm not really worried about it because it's a non-issue.", I shook my head, barely holding back a smile. "Ha, back in my old life, I've wasted enough time reading xianxia to know how to deal with this…".

"Why is it not a problem?", he was immediately overtaken by curiosity. "We can't just bring down the Hegemony or force them to drop it just like that and hacking their credits would run the risk of exposure. Do you have a better solution?".

"Yep, here's what we can do: get Loki and his group of troublemakers to fabricate evidence of my assassination, maybe even have some of our people play along. Then keep doing 'till the batarians realize. Basically, it'll get to a point where they are being flooded with fake claims of 'job done' that it renders their reward system innocuous.", I spoke mischievously, imagining how much of a headache Loki was going to give to those bastards. "In addition to this, but only after, put up a 'counterbounty' to automatically target whoever manages the feat of killing me, especially if they claim the bounty's reward, until the batarians drop this nonsense. Oh, and add a bonus reward if the identity of the killer is unknown, for the info itself. In short, claiming my head won't be a reward, but a death sentence!".

Daedelus dedicated 99,8% of his processing power to simulating my suggestions, almost 0.1% of it to rebuffing Loki's ocasional requests of "taking the Network out for a spin", while the rest of it was used for his subsequent question.

"Did you just break the bounty system just like that?", he asked, stupefied.

"Like I said, wasted too much damn time on those stories. Shame this only works if you've got your own faction backing you.", I said reminiscing. "In that case, it works wonderfully, to the woe of whoever tries this crap. Let's swindle the batarians for all they're worth! I mean, if they want to give us free credits, it's their problem…".

"Very well. I'm already on it.", Daedelus replied professionally, then disconnected the QB.

It had to be those bastards to ruin my relaxation. I was wondering what they had been up to. They've been too quiet after getting their asses kicked in the Traverse by the Systems Alliance and by us in the Terminus. In fact, I was starting to worry we'd created too strong a butterfly effect, to the point we'd need to manipulate some events.

Still, it was nice not dealing with pirates, slavers and giant space cuttlefish all the time.

And when everything was peaceful like this…

---

Somewhere on Khar'shan, the batarian homeworld. Mid-to-Late 2175 CE.

In a secret underground research facility, a group of batarians traveled down its tunnels. The composition was a mix of high-caste leaders/nobles, mid-caste warriors/officers and a few scientists who were leading the way. This was where they kept the Leviathan of Dis, a Reaper corpse taken from a crater of the planet Jartar. Still, they strenuously deny it even exists at all, more so when shown documentation of it by salarian researchers…

"Where are we going? This section wasn't in the original layout!", the leader of the group demanded, tilting his head right.

"Patience, my lord. All the answers will be found at our destination.", the scientist meekly replied to his superior while tilting his head left.

The leader took the answer as it were or just didn't want to lower himself further, since they just kept going in silence. After reaching the place, a darkly lit and eerie room, the answer really was waiting for them – only, it wasn't one most of the group wanted to know. It was a macabre slaughterhouse of corpses, which were strewn together on the ground. Around it, there were many alien devices, all bearing close resemblance to Dis, and the room was filled with an awful noise drilling into their heads.

While they were still processing that ghastly sight, which was too much even for batarians, the group was surrounded by horrible abominations, crude fusions of flesh and synthetic parts, made almost specifically in ways to induce horror. The warrior caste quickly fought back against their attackers, but it was all to no avail, as the weapons grown from flesh still managed to be more effective than their state issued firearms.

Soon after, the fighting died down, as did many of the warriors, while the cowardly leaders, nobles and officers were imprisoned and chained – a big irony. The fallen were then dragged into the cybernetic spikes and impaled, quickly turning into more of the abominations.

"What's the meaning of this!?", shouted the same one who spoke before. "Do you not realize what you're doing? Release me right this moment! And explain yourselves or you and your whole families will be made into slavers for generations. You won't even be able to buy your way into a higher caste!".

"Do you hear the sweet song of the Masters?", suddenly inquired the scientist, completely disregarding the threats. The awful noise just rose higher and higher.

"My head, it hurts…! Make it stop, make this stop!", begged another batarian, thrashing in his restraints and almost breaking them.

"Ah, I see you're not worthy of God's gifts…", said the now pious scientist, tilting his head right, then took out a pistol and shot the guy in the head. "You only need to embrace the Masters for the pain to go away…".

"W-what! Don't do this-, we can come to an-, please make it go away, argh!", the leader finally looked completely frightened, stuttering words in the brief moments he managed to free his mind and think, since the noise tore right through his skull.

"Shsssh…", the indoctrinated batarian got close and put a finger on his lips. "Let go. Don't try to think too hard. The pain; it will go away eventually. Just give it time. My. Lord…".

The rest were going through similar experiences, all being quickly indoctrinated. They'd be used as much as possible, unitil mind deterioration couldn't permit it anymore, and then be replaced by their successors, who would receive a more mild treatment.

Afterwards, the deranged scientist watched his handiwork in veneration. He had been the first to begin research on the Leviathan of Dis – and the first to fall for indoctrination. Just as the rest of his team, they stopped any research and began only worshiping Dis, up until now. To what was left of his mind, the batarian people had suffered many great injustices at the hands of the inferior races. And it was time the galaxy started making reparations.

After being denied the Traverse by the Council, the Hegemony had closed their embassy as "protest", but the truth was that they didn't want the Citadel to meddle at all in what was to come. However, just as they were starting to use their deniable assets to "persuade" the humans to give up, a corporation, represented by a damned human no less, released and began selling weapons that surpassed the cheap weapons of their assets.

Worse, any contact with the damned corporation resulted in "the line" being unavailable, being constantly redirected by operators or, when finally getting through, being questioned if they could keep the weapons from getting "lost" to Terminus criminals. After assuring the other side they could protect them, the response was a mocking one, asking why, in that case, they hadn't retrieved those assets "stolen" by the pirates and slavers yet.

But the breaking point was Anhur, a slap on their cultural rights. And they received another one after pooling resources together to put up a bounty against the man behind the insult. In the end, they had been humiliated, even on the dark corners of the extranet.

Still, the Deity finally answered his prayers and whispered Its secrets to him. The inferior two-eyed ones must've stolen God's gifts! But they, who had four-eyes and, thus, were of superior breed, had been personally chosen by the Gods and gifted Their weapons for their devotion.

So, he became a Shepherd and hatched plans to gather his flock here, on their new Pillars of Strength. Soon, when enough had been converted into faithful, they would get some nobles on their side, by force if necessary, to fund the counterattack against the humans. It would be a massive assault, one to shake the galaxy. Then they'd understand the meaning of fear. The meaning of humiliation!

Afterwards, the batarian people would take back what, by all rights, belonged to them, the Attican Traverse. And why not the entire Terminus Systems too?

Yes, they would conquer those regions, build up their forces and, contrary to what those not chosen may think, they would not strike. It was the Master's Oracle.

They would bide their time.

And wait for The Arrival.

---

[TES V: Skyrim, Re-Released Anniversary Edition, Omni-tool version]

Asari Game Reviews

I did not understand the republisher's claim of "It's not a bug, it's a feature" until I rode a mount from the human homeworld (called a horse) almost 90º up a mountain. Yeah, you see that mountain off in the distance? You can climb it! This old game is basically Fallout, but with swords and magic. You play as a hero who speaks the language of Dragons, mythical massive beings from the human legends, and fights all sorts of magical creatures with a nearly immortal, teleporting companion of your choice. Eh, now that I think about it, why are we the hero again?

Yea, yea Lydia, we both know you're sworn to carry my burdens… but do you have to be so passive-aggressive about it? I already got enough of that with my fellow asari, thank you very much!

Despite being quite old, the replayability here is enormous. There's always something new to find. And let me tell you… there were moments when I just stopped everything, stared at the aurora borealis in the sky and listened to the music. It was, indeed, quite magical.

Could the soundtrack be released too? Asari has credits, if you have wares…

Drell Game Reviews

There's something about this game, no matter how outdated it is, that just keeps bringing me back. Although there wasn't much realism and the quest wasn't mind blowing, I loved the feel of the Dark Brotherhood. The possibility of playing as magic hitman, in a world of mythical beings, while receiving comissions by "listening" to bloody rituals, was quite and unique and refreshing.

Sometimes when playing, I thought I had fallen into a memory trace. I'll explain. This game has three general styles of combat, mage, wielding spells, warrior, which says it all, and rogue, with the last one using daggers or bow+arrow. No matter how many times I start a new playthrough, deliberately trying to make my character only use spells or sword+shield, I eventually find myself holding a bow while crouched down. Again and again. How does that happen?

Guess I'll start another playthrough. Maybe I'll find out this time!

Salarian Game Reviews

What an innovative and magical game (for its time)! I loved the system of progressing the more you use a certain skil. And the worldbuilding is incredible, especially the spells, which are much more creative than what we can come up by only using biotics. Apparently, it's just the fifth instalment of a series set in an entire planet's worth of factions, lore, mysteries and adventures. Playing this, I quickly discovered that one of the best builds is an archer using stealth, but later found out something amazing. If you train "enchantment" and max out magicka reduction cost on a few pieces of armor, you can use spells forever and have unlimited power!

And it has something else that's cool: mods. There are so many of them! Making you craft not only your own experience, but game too. Ha, you don't know what disturbing is until there's a train, with a human face on it, playing a spooky tune and breathing fire on you! Also, the republisher didn't mention it, but I've discovered that there were two big sites hosting the mods. Those we get are from some place caleed "Nexus", but there was another one. I didn't find the whole name, but it was something about a "lab", so it had me intrigued to find out.

Finally, don't uncheck the "basic" mods list from the republisher, even if they're almost a hundred. This game has to be experienced with them, or at least with those "ENB" and unofficial patches.

Also, here's a tip (but don't tell anyone you got it from me):

1. Get bucket.

2. Cover merchant's head with bucket.

3. ?

4. Profit!

[Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations]

Asari Game Reviews

I never though I would say this, but for a moment I felt proud of being an assassin. Don't misunderstand, I'm talking about in this game, because its version of an assassin code is all about freedom. Yes, who would've thought, right? This game's story is set in an alternate universe where the humans have magical hay, capable of safely stopping a fall from any height, and there's yet another evil company with plans of world domination. Where have I seen that last one before? Oh yes, in just about most of human media, like something that would be possible!

Jokes aside, I loved the voice of the main character, Ezio Auditore. I think it's called an Italian accent. They also invented that amazingly popular dish on Shin Akiba, pizza. The technology of this game isn't much at all, but some of the ideas here are just crazy! Like, they can read memories in people's DNA and get them to relieve the life of their ancestors. Well… I wasn't very good in biology class, but I'm pretty sure DNA doesn't work like that! And the plot is equally crazy. For example, the human developters created a story where aliens had meddled with and were responsible for their race's creation. It's like saying the Protheans messed with the asari evolution or something absurd like that. But I still liked it anyway!

Ah, just a friendly reminder. After playing this and showing it to a salarian friend, he tried to make an omni-hidden-blade only to find out that Ad Astra had already been selling the mod/schematic variant. So don't waste your time.

[Re:Creators]

Salarian Anime Reviews

Imagine creating all these characters, making their life and story miserable and then they end up being released from the yoke of their story, meeting you in the real world. I wonder how many would just look for their creators to kill them. Yet that's precisely the theme of this show. This animation is the next level of crossover, where a student becomes involved in a battle between several characters from manga, anime and video games, who appear in his world to wreck havok. Having a bunch of main characters from different stories and especially different genres fighthing was amazing! And it's crazy how the "Magical Girl" (isn't that just an asari maiden?) was one of the strongest ones when they had GIANT ROBOTS there!

In fact, I've had a crazy thought: what if we used our advanced technology to recreate some of the stuff we see on screen? Like magic! Ok, that might be too much. But maybe giant robots! Those could be done, no?

---

Author's Notes: It's been over a month now since I've started this story and, despite my reservations at giving it an "M" rating, there are more than 600 followers already, which is quite nice. Once again, this one ended up bigger than I'd anticipated. So, I'll try to be brief here.

The memory storage segment was made because it's central to the future and I think the method of storage I chose would probably be an improvement over what they have there. Let me explain.

There's some meta proof of the Mass Effect Universe's storage being somewhat outdated. You can see it clearly when the most commonly used storage is an "OSD - Optical Storage Device", which is described as a small, portable data storage unit, the equivalent of a disk, while the advanced tech of Eden Prime's Beacon they're salivating over is called a "solid state data storage device". Yeah, ME1 was released in 2007, when SSDs (solid state drives) were awesome future tech. The writers also throw around random big numbers, like EDI sending Joker's 7 zettabytes of porn to Cerberus, but never explain how their data storage tech actually works.

So, I chose to do something rather unique, DNA storage, which is something datacenters might switch to in the future. This fits my theme of using real world tech, only made viable by what they have there, in the MEverse. And DNA storage can be done today, only being slow as a snail. But wait! Guess what we have? Prothean/Reaper based nanites! They can even break down organics components and build high-tech cybernetics with it, so quickly writing DNA strands (in parallel, I might add) is a no brainer.

Writing information with atoms themselves would be better and we'll get there eventually. But this is a decent stopgap until then. And the method chosen isn't all that important when compared to the memory box itself. Thinking back on this, maybe something like this was made in ME3, when creating the stormtro-, I mean Cerberus goons. Knowing TIM, however, he had probably just shoved and scramble all soldier information into the brains of the people of Horizon, rather than actually creating a safe and ethical form of this tech to revolutionize humanity or something...

The Anhur Rebellions. That was a struggle, since pretty much everything about it is new. I used it to showcase a bit of the Mass Effect Universe space combat, as per the Codex. It was just a small taste of space battles, since I plan on breaking their common sense in the future.

Interesting fact: Anhur is supposed to be a human-dominated colony with a population of 200+ million. However, Terra Nova, with its population of 4.4 million, is described as having the highest population of any Alliance colony.

I guess it doesn't count because it's an independent one? Or this just has to do with the retcon the Terminus received after ME2. Mabe I'll talk about it in the next Chapter.

Some might think this Aeia scene was a response to a few reviews, but it was actually to a friend of mine's comment that there must always be a Beach Episode somewhere.

Lastly, about media reviews. I feel the need to clarify some things. There's a list where I keep some future "works" to make reviews out of; those can only be what I've either played/watched or have good knowledge about (i.e. if I've watched the entire walkthough on YT); I only put media that has some relation to the current Chapter (or the next one); and these will only in be present in the First Act, ending at the start of Second Act.

…

Questions for my readers:

1) Are these Chapters too large? This one took a lot of me...

2) In the next year, Michael Moser Lang assassinates the United North American States president Enrique Aguilar and Chinese People's Federation premier Ying Xiong. Should the MC stop it? The wiki states that "The resulting political shuffle benefits Cerberus' shell companies and plans for the Systems Alliance Parliament", but I don't see how that would affect the MC much for him to care.

…

When is the next Chapter coming? When it's ready!