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.

15. Chapter 12: They Blitz, We Blitz Back

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] – Track Timed to Scene: Hans Zimmer - Is She With You? (part of the YT link: /watch?v=8TmTSAf_H1A).

[2] – Track Timed to Scene: Michael Giacchino - Hope (part of the YT link: /watch?v=RaEzKRngCyY).

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Chapter 12: The Skyllian Blitz and We Blitz Back (with the Tech Side of Biotics)

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Headquarters, Gaia's personal funhouse. Early 2176 CE.

Most of the pirate bands still alive from the Terminus Wars were behaving strangely lately. Despite many of them having rallied under the "leadership" of one slippery turian, who was good at being "elusive" (i.e. a coward), they hadn't made any moves, staying off the radar. They were probably planning something big. This was what my intuition, now honed by almost six years of combat experience, told me.

However, until then, I gladly took this moment of respite and went back to the HQ to relax, have some fun and check things out. But mostly to check things out, especially since some pretty awesome stuff had been finalized. And my destination this time was where our most dependable member, Gaia, would go do some weird/crazy science. Also, exactly where I was sitting right now.

This place was as if a Mad Scientist Laboratory had gone wrong, since it had a clean look, bright illumination, many colors, fresh air of nature and there were no brains in jars in her collection of… stuff. At least none that I could see… It was also a mix of organic elements, such as plants, and smooth metal, like the floor, though I did wonder why there were a few scratches on some walls.

Moreover, so much of the "furniture" was made out of wood, of exotic types from all around the galaxy, genetically modified to assume its designed shape, which could be as a chair, a desk or anything else. Just experiments, she said. A hobby, I said. To myself, I bet she'd engineer an entire mansion out of these materiais one day.

"You've rushed here very fast after hearing about some new tech.", Gaia personally teased me with her android body, which was fully connected to her bluebox with a high-bandwidth QB. Furthermore, she was grabbing her hips and giving me a knowing look. "Don't try to play dumb with me. It wasn't because of the miniaturized cyclonic tech. I know exactly why you're so excited about these new inventions!".

Expressions. Little movements. Everything was realistic. Even as a "robotic" body, this was already beyond what anyone could design today, easily blending in with any human crowd.

After faking a cough, I started defending myself.

"Well, considering what it involves, who wouldn't be excited about it?", I pointed out. "Or are you just displeased that I don't visit as often? There's not much reason to when you're always coming with me everywhere!".

"What can a girl do when the most exciting explosions only happen near you?", she didn't buy it. "Still, it's a shame mom isn't here to see this come to fruition… Nevertheless, here's what you were looking for!".

Gaia snapped her fingers and a new suit of power armor walked itself in, being carried by its own exoskeleton. She told me she had been doing extensive work on it recently, which took a surprising amount of inspiration from organic structures, in order to make it easily fit other species' forms. Yet that wasn't the focus today.

One big misconception that the people here have is that a biotic is required to pull off biotic abilities. That's not the case. They're just dark energy being manipulated into mass effect fields by electrical impulses fired in certain patterns. In the case of biotics, those impulses are generated by the nervous system, but there's nothing stopping them from being fired off from machines. Some people got quite close to this realization, as can be seen by their actual replication of biotics with technology, but no one has ever thought about replicating the entire eezo nodule pathway into a suit. Until now…

"We've gathered enough data on the artificial eezo nodules to create those experimental L5xn implants, fusing and refining all biotic abilities into one package.", Gaia finally let go of her teasing, assuming a serious countenance. "But this is the real culmination of all our work: a suit of armor that can operate as a biotic on its own. Actually, by applying this to my body, I'll probably become the first biotic 'synthetic' in the galaxy…".

Going over the schematics of the power armor that had been sent to my memory implant, I couldn't help but notice how it used the same principle (or blueprint) as the artificial eezo nodules. When Element Zero bonded with neural tissue, getting wrapped into a nodule, our nanites would scan and replicate it into a purely tech "nodule", which would be linked in the same way as the nervous system, but staggered to match biological speeds.

Now, after refining those, switching the "impulse directing method" from the nervous system to a computer and making it all synergize with the biotic implant, it was finally ready.

"Show me.", I requested while going over the testing area, where there were some training dummies, targets and testing objects.

Gaia took control of the power armor remotely, the usual signs of biotics - more aptly, mass effect fields - enveloped it and the target object began floating. This was the more common lift skill of telekinesis. Then, she quickly directed the electrical impulses in another way and flung it away with gravity. This was a more advanced technique, a throw.

Afterwards, the tests became increasingly diverse: putting up a barrier, warping the object, slamming it on the ground, pulling it closer… Throughout the whole process, energy draw was easily replenished by E-Reactors installed in the suit, that would constantly generate energy up until the graphene batteries' limits. And no mnemonics were required!

Finally, as my instincts began warning me of mischief incoming, she threw a really massive singularity at the furthest corner of the lab, where most of the targets were close together, and began tearing it apart with warping fields. The resulting explosion was so big it actually pushed me down the chair and onto the ground.

"Hey! Are you planning on wrecking your whole place!?", I shouted while getting up. Her answer was just the laughter of a prank gone right. Damn, it did some work on the targets! Even the wall was damaged a little bit.

"That thing packs quite the punch!", was my professional review. "We might actually need to turn down the power. Otherwise, people will wonder where all these overpowered biotics came from. I'm sure those Matriarchs would, at least.".

"Ha! What did you expect?", she asked without expecting an answer. "It's being directly powered by electricity, rather than just biochemical electrical impulses. Some DSs even suggested we should skip biological eezo nodules altogether because of it…".

"I've already said it's better to keep both for redundancy.", I waved that idea away. "Who knows what we might end up facing in the future? A weapons system capable of harming synthetic eezo nodules might not be so effective against biological ones – and vice-versa. In that case, the soldier can continue using biotics.".

"I concur. This is it then! Even without our work with the organoids, anyone can just wear it and become a biotic now.", Gaia spoke calmly. "This is yet another invention that can flip the common logic of the galaxy, but I bet you're more interested in the other two, right…?".

"Did I ever tell you that you know me too well?", I asked with a raised eyebrow, but she just smirked in response. My focus then shifted towards something in the armor.

On its belt, there was an elegant weapon, for a more "civilized" age. It was the Mass Effect Universe's very own lightsaber, though that name was completely inconsistent with how it had actually been implemented. I'd decided to spend R&D on it not only because one of my philosophies was that there isn't much point to advanced tech if we can't make cool stuff with it, but also due to the melee weapons' resurgence in the Reaper War.

Indeed, Omni-blades had always existed here, as I'd confirmed years ago, yet only gained widespread use in response to Reapers forces. And I wanted them to be improved further. Ergo, this weapon was made.

We actually had this for a while now. More than a year in fact. However, I kept it in store for a few reasons. For one, Omni-blades were good enough for our needs, if not bothersome due to the resource requirements (each flash-forged blade that was disposed meant a bit of silicon and carbon used up). For another, I was waiting for a new breakthrough, one that was originally of quarian make, for the full experience.

Although the concept behind its implementation came from me, its inventor was actually Eli Wegner. He had been drawn into our merry circle of conspirators after I'd sweet talked him about replicating biotic abilities technologically, only for the guy to become completely ecstatic at living in what was, using his words, "R&D paradise". Now, he even had his own team, which I'd tasked with creating the weapon. Their ideas when designing it were… quite interesting.

The first one thrown away was making an actual "laser sword". That's just dumb. A sword that was made of laser would simply start and… keep going forever, at lightspeed. Might as well make a laser rifle then. To stop that from happening, it'd be required to use a mirror being held by metal contraptions, ruining the classic look. And the power needed to easily cut through anything would be utterly insane. So, they looked for something more viable: plasma, the fourth state of matter.

This was actually how Star Wars lore describes the weapons. Besides, plasma fits many of the criteria: it's hot enough, looks correct and even makes the same hum/sound (creates small pressure waves as it moves through the air). We could even use mass effect fields to hold it together, bypassing a big problem in the creation of the weapons when all one has are electromagnetic fields, since it's hard to make those strong enough for containment and plasma's own magnetic fields interfere with them.

But then there were two massive problems. In order to reach the temperatures necessary to cut metal (blast doors) and bone like a knife through butter, you'd need the same heat as the surface of the Sun, but in the palm of your hands. Turning it on would light everyone in a room on fire and containing it in "nonsensium-fields" wouldn't solve the issue, since it'd effectively block the plasma from acting on the world as well. Moreover, the effect on the target would be grosser than just cutting through, as it'd immediately vaporize the water in the body, making it explode into parts everywhere at Mach 1. Still, from a certain point of view, this was actually more awesome!

After some back and forth, I asked why they were overengineering it when the solution was simple. In fact, it could already be found in pieces of existing tech. So, they asked how I'd do it. Tech armor. That was my answer. Eli thought I was joking, until I pointed out that it was just a stationary Warp field/effect, made by rapidly shifting mass effect fields that rips anything apart at the molecular level, and suspended between 2 low-yield kinetic barriers. Any "bullet" that would normally shatter on impact harmlessly passes through the kinetic barrier, but then breaks apart inside of the field.

Therefore, if we could contain that same Warp field in blade form and extend it beyond the handle, as an Omni-blade already proves we can, then it's only a question of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and powering it with an E-Reactor. As for the iconic sounds? That's quite simple. We just slapped a little sound emitter inside, detecting what's going on and making the appropriate classic sounds. Yep, there was no need to overcomplicate it! Then, use holograms to give it the desired color, add a "cyclonic" setting in the mass effect generators and voila! Our very own Mass Effect lightsaber.

Except not really. Just as Tech Armor should be called Warp Amor, this was named by me as the Warp Blade. The next versions would be based on warped gravity (spacetime), allowing the blade to rip matter apart without resistance.

I slowly pulled the handle towards me with biotics and grabbed it with my hand, switching it on, then began waving the weapon around. It was very light, since the "blade" didn't have any mass at all. It was just the result of dark energy manipulation.

I had no idea at this time, as it was something I only found out later, but the reveal of this technology would spur TIM to fund a secret project to create something similar for his pet, Kai Lame. That cell, however, would soon go "rogue" and try to make it by using plasma. What was incredible was that they actually managed to create plasma hot enough to melt through blast doors and contained it… for the fraction of a second it lasted. After turning it on, it melted the whole fucking facility down. And the only results were better ways to resist Sun-like heat. So, by Cerberus standards, it was considered a successful project.

Afterwards, Gaia and I kept hanging out and chatting for almost half an hour.

However, it seemed this Universe had decided to push back against us…

"Hold on. I'm getting something from Daedelus…", Gaia spoke all of a sudden, connecting to our Quantum Battlenet. Her focus shifted towards her line with the Network, getting the rest of his report, then bounced to another QB, one whose pair had been quietly "installed" on one of the central comm buoys of the Terminus. Its hacked systems, as well as worm malware that had been planted years ago, gave her enough access to the communications of the region to confirm what the other DS reported.

"The batarians are on the move. Their deniable assets, more specifically, are being led by Elanos Haliat in a massive fleet.", she reported with a serious tone. "Their path seems to intersect the Hades Gamma cluster. Given all we know, their likely target is Elysium…".

"The Blitz… Wait, what about Shepard?", I shot her question, while a scenario crossed my mind. "What does our intel say she's at right now?".

"She's been posted there recently.", Gaia replied, her confirmation giving me pause.

"It's all still happening, huh.", I muttered. "That's the second colony she's staying at that's been targeted by batarians. Is that the protagonist's halo or just a personal curse?".

"Regardless of the reason, we need to act.", she stated resolutely.

"But what gave them the courage to still try something like this…?", I was baffled. "Even if it's a massive fleet, they'll suffer terrible losses against Thanix-equipped warships!".

"Unless…", Gaia used her vast intelligence to run simulations and, 0.8375 seconds later, revealed her predictions. "They must've accelerated research on the Leviathan of Dis and gotten Thanix technology from it, which likely means the indoctrination of the Hegemony's officials and scientists must be speeding up… And way before Terra Nova even happened!".

"Great, now that the batarians are poking around Bob, they're going to be a bigger pain in the ass to deal with! They've grabbed that damned cuttlefish corpse 7 years before I'd even arrived here, so I couldn't just nip the problem in the bud.", I grumbled, then started worrying over a possibility that came to mind. "Do you think they'll start an actual invasion of the Terminus?".

"I don't think so, as that would quickly unite the entire region against them, resulting in the cuttlefish losing one of their biggest assets after the Geth. It would be worse than losing the Collectors.", she gave me her evaluation, which took two full seconds this time. "But I guess we might get more Hegemony presence in the Terminus from now on. And a bunch of buffed up 'External Forces' as well.".

"Well, if the batarians have gotten themselves Thanix weaponry too, then I think this is an opportunity to test some prototype tech from Project Space Force…", I squinted my eyes a bit at the idea of making what would be left of that massive fleet just… vanish. "We should also send some people to Elysium. To assist them and as an insurance against any... unforeseen consequences.".

"I'll get enough of a fleet ready to do some live testing.", Gaia said with a small nod, giving me a smile. "And Alec is already preparing to take some reinforcements to Elysium. Just because he joined us fully doesn't mean he had abandoned humanity or the Alliance…".

I nodded in agreement. That did sound like the old veteran. Then, I began moving towards that new, cutting edge power armor until it was right in front of me.

"Hey, do we have a cape or something like one around here?", I asked while looking at her collection of stuff.

"There's some cloth woven with carbon nanotubes that I'd been experimenting on…", she mentioned, immediately going over to grab it.

"Oh, so it must be dark. Perfect! Can you help me attach it to the shoulders of the armor?", I asked, grinning after her confirming nod. "Batarians like to terrorize people. Maybe it's time for them to have a taste of their own medicine.", I muttered, looking at the armor and imagining a dark cape over its shoulders. "I guess this is where the fun begins…".

---

Elysium, Illyria. A few hours later.

An alpine paradise, featuring lower gravity than Earth, tolerable atmosphere and a climate that was suitable for humans and aliens alike – if not a bit cold. That's how this colony had been described. Its strategic location, at the nexus of several primary and secondary Mass Relays, made it a major and vibrant hub of travel and commerce. But it also meant only a bit over half of this human colony's several million population was actually human.

And this was also where Jane Shepard had been posted. The job was meant to just be yet another step in her military career. She would get to know other species and cultures, buy all sorts of things from all over the galaxy and, of course, stop the occasional pirate and mercenary raids that happened every now and then.

But the Universe, it seemed, had other plans for Shepard…

"Reports are coming in from checkpoints all over.", the intelligence officer was the first one to speak. "The first forward scout fleet was almost wiped out, but a Frigate managed to escape to inform us. The batarians are coming and they have a massive fleet this time.".

"Almost every single ship?", a voice questioned incredulously. "But how? The scouts could always escape to FTL. Where did the batarians get that kind of firepower!?".

"The escaping Captain said they had Thanix weaponry of their own.", explained the intel guy. "Our people were taken by surprise, with their pants down…".

"Still, how could that rabble get their hands on this kind of tech?", the other guy followed with another question. "Do you think someone sold it to them?".

"Don't be ridiculous!", their fleet's leader replied from a hologram. "Maybe they managed to get their hands on one and reverse engineered it. Or someone else did and sent it to them. This is not the moment for throwing blame around!".

"None of that matters right now. What are we going to do?", asked the governor after going over the information. "Our security is good, but it can't handle this kind of attack.".

"We'll do the only thing we can: hold on until reinforcements arrive.", declared the highest ranking military officer, a middle aged Major. "I've already used the QEC in the HQ and informed Acturus about it. The population is being escorted to the underground bunkers. That way, we only need to hold defensive perimeters around them. It's a good thing the brass heard at least some of the suggestions from that daring interview…".

Shepard just observed the Alliance meeting with a deep frown. She had been called by the brass to help put together a defense plan, but every single news was worse than the last. What was really bad, however, was how defeated everyone looked. It felt like they had lost the fight even before it began. It wouldn't work like this. Therefore, she moved closer to the Major after he finished speaking, saluted him and opened her mouth.

"Sir, are we going to do nothing about morale?", Shepard glanced at many in the room, all still wearing forlorn expressions, and asked quietly. "With all due respect, if things continue like this, then we'll have lost even before the enemy arrives!".

"Lieutenant Shepard, right?", he asked, to which she nodded. "I'm well aware of this situation... But, unfortunately, there's little we can do. Everyone already knows what's coming and they're panicking.".

"Still, we should try to do something about it!", she didn't relent. "You probably know this better than me, sir, but battles have been won and lost over morale alone.".

"I agree. Hell, if you can pull off a miracle, then I'll put you up for promotion.", he nodded at her, making an offhand promise to lighten the mood. "However, we'll try to do what we can with the cards we'd been dealt…".

He then returned to coordinating their defense strategy. She simply saluted and left. If this was the hand they'd been given, then she'd need to reshuffle the deck in their favor…

Moving towards their comm center, Shepard looked for the military comms specialists, the kind who could give her what she needed, and went straight to the point: "Can you connect me to the entire colony?".

"Pardon me, ma'am, but could you repeat that?", a young man, thinking he'd misheard her, asked to confirm her request.

"I have an important message to whoever we can reach in the colony.", she added to the confused guy. "Before you ask, I've been given authorization.". To pull off a small miracle, she thought inwardly, but that part didn't need to be mentioned.

While still doubtful, he relented after some more persuasion. Then, he got a group together and, after a few minutes of work that pulled off miracles of its own, created a "line" which connected with almost anything electronic in the colony. Finally, he pulled his Omni-tool, with a finger in the recording button, and said she could begin at any moment.

Shepard briefly closed her eyes, took a deep breath and began speaking:

---

Hello, people of Elysium. My name is Jane Shepard and, just like you, I was also taken aback by what's coming. But that's not important right now. What is important is that you listen to what I have to say and… what I need to remind you of!

All over the colony, in every local channel, extranet media sharing and streaming sites, even old radio, the message began playing. Many people, desperate to leave the planet, run away to hide in the mountains or just get a place inside of a bunker, suddenly stopped what they were doing and listened.

None of this is new to us. We've suffered several pirate and mercenary attacks, time and time again. Yet here we are, still living in this paradise so many species call home. And we made it this far by relying on each other!

An asari with her human bondmate, who had been going towards a bunker prior to the message, squeezed his hands tightly, then let go, leaving her kid with him while marching to the nearest militia barracks.

The only real difference between those raids and what's coming isn't the size of the enemy force. No, it's that this one will be remembered.

An old krogan bounty hunter, now jaded by what his people had become, decided to stand up for something, at least once, and started making his way towards the Alliance's HQ. In any case, this was going to be a worthy scrap!

The calvary IS coming, I can assure you of that. And, without a doubt, it will be the key to ending this attack. But, 'till then, it's our sweat and blood that'll make it happen.

An alliance marine, hoping this shore leave would help him forget the terrors he'd seen at the Terminus borders, threw his half-empty beer away and took his navy buddies towards the nearest military outpost.

After everything we've been through, just like every single other time, I know that we can count on each other to get the job done! Or take the bastards down with us, if that's what it takes…

An old veteran, still bearing the scars of the First Contact War, got up and moved with firm steps towards his old home. Along the way, he wondered if they still had his trusty Avenger stashed somewhere.

I'm Lieutenant Shepard and this is my message to all who would stand up and face those damned raiders.

The fight's just begun. But it'll end on our terms.

So, let's give 'em hell!

All over the colony, a fierce and defiant resistance force had been rallied. A true shepherd does not merely point the way, but also leads it.

---

The bunch of comm specialists started at Shepard wide-eyed. Regardless if the message had been authorized or not, they knew this was going to be big. She saluted them and left the room, going back to the brass meeting.

Upon returning to the now much busier meeting, she was received by incredulous gazes that were filled with admiration and respect, although there were a few jealous glances too. The loud room then instantly became much quieter.

"Well, I'll be…", spoke the Major, breaking the silence. "You actually did it! We're getting volunteers from all over the colony. Even some random mercs.".

"Permission to speak freely, sir.", Shepard requested.

"Permission granted.", he replied, then added: "And for the entire duration of the assault.".

"I think your plan of holding a few defense perimeters around the bunkers is solid…", she began by praising, which got a few nods from the crowd. "...But we can't put ourselves in a position where we're only reacting to the enemy. We should also be a little proactive!".

"Interesting. I'm listening…", he said as he adjusted his sitting position.

"I think we should form a few ground teams made up of militia and marines, with biotics as supporting roles, especially the trained asari militia.", she spoke. "They'll be constantly moving around the colony, hitting where they're needed the most, or joining up together to hold a certain line.".

"There were indeed a few asari in the militia and volunteers.", the Major mentioned. "An entire species of biotics… It's a massive advantage.".

"We'll also use our drones mostly for intel gathering. They'll be our eyes and ears, looking for any weakness in the enemies' formations to exploit.", Shepard continued. "But we should also keep a few in store, as a quick response force to overwhelm the enemy in a moment of need.".

"That's a good idea… What else have you got?", he asked expectedly.

Like this, they went back and forth for a minute before being suddenly interrupted…

"Chief! There's someone outside looking for you.", a Private rushed in to report, almost not believing the next words that came out of his mouth. "He… came flying in, landing right in the middle of the HQ.".

Jane looked at the young man, then spoke up: "Gentleman, you take care of things here. I'll go deal with this…". Going outside, she saw a figure fully clad in lean light black armor, with a few spots of red, slowly turning around to face her.

"That was one hell of a speech!", complimented a distorted, but still recognizable gruff voice, coming from that figure. "Oh, excuse my manners… I'm The Pathfinder, Hell's Angels second-in-command. We're here to help.".

"You're… You guys are here too!?", Shepard widened her eyes in surprise, quickly offering a handshake, which he took. "I didn't think we'd get this kind of support…".

"We do have a 'mutual defense pact' with the Alliance.", the Pathfinder replied, a bit of dry humor also added in. "Besides, we'll probably get paid handsomely for pulling off the defense of this colony, given the size of this raid…".

Recognizing the individual, Shepard turned to the Private and ordered: "They're friendlies. Let them through. Don't worry, it's on me.". The marine obliged, going to inform the others.

Immediately after he did, another member of Hell's Angels came in and she saw… what could only be described as a walking tank. And that wasn't even because of the actual main tank cannon on his back, or the two shoulder mounted gatling guns, but the hefty amount of armor. Around the figure, what once served the role of infantry was replaced by drones, some of them probably carrying ammo too.

"Proudly: we have set up the defensive perimeter as instructed, Pathfinder.", the Elcor said in the usual monotone. "Badassfully: try as they might, they shall not pass through us!".

"You're an Elcor?", she asked spontaneously, widening eyes. "When did Hell's Angels start recruiting you guys?".

"Enthusiastic greeting: good day to you, human. You can call me Bulwark.", he spoke with the same tone. "Plain explanation: I'm from Thuwanaruno, an Elcor colony in the Terminus that exports uranium, thorium and gold to the galaxy. Nefariously: despite having almost 4 million population, our shippings are targeted by foolhardy pirates, but they soon discover our deals with mercenary companies. This is how I met Hell's Angels.".

"Hello. I'm 2nd Lieutenant Jane Shepard of the Alliance.", Shepard greeted him, trying to offer a handshake, only to realize how hard that would be, then just put her hand on his shoulder. "It's a pleasure to meet you.".

"Approving comment: your speech was greatly inspiring.", the Bulwark also complimented her. "With barely hidden eagerness: they have no idea what's waiting for them!".

"Meeting new people is all well and good, but we have a job to do…", interrupted the Pathfinder.

Shepard nodded her agreement and led him inside. The Pathfinder followed her while the Bulwark stood guard outside.

"…what about airspace? Our orbital defenses won't last long against that many enemy ships…", a woman's voice questioned.

"[Clears throat] This is Hell's Angels second-in-command, the Pathfinder. He said they'll be joining us.", Shepard grabbed their attention, introducing him, followed by a short moment of greetings. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but were you discussing the orbital defenses?", she later asked and the woman returned an affirmative nod. "I've been thinking about that…".

"Well, tell us. It can't hurt to hear it…", spoke the Major.

"There are more than a hundred thousand people living in orbital stations around Elysium and the raiders might target them if we do nothing.", Shepard pointed out. "So, what if we move those mobile planetary defense cannons to protect them? It'd keep them from being destroyed at the start of the assault while also making those civilians a bad 'target', then our starship complement can keep the raiders busy in space…".

"You can leave some of the hit-and-run space harassment to us.", the Pathfinder offered them. "Our ships are fitted with many broadside Thanix cannons. In fact, from what I'd heard, the next warships of the Alliance have a similar design.".

"That's good. We only need to prevent the enemy from holding orbital superiority.", said the leader of the fleets. "There's no need for any heroic last stands. Just… try to harass orbital bombardment away.".

Afterwards, they talked for a while, ironing out any details in the time they had left.

"Everything's in order here, but there's something else. I want to let you, but only you, borrow one of our weapons temporarily.", the Pathfinder came closer to Shepard and quietly offered all of a sudden. "I've contacted the Commander about it and, after mentioning you, he authorized it.".

"That's… amazing! But why would you?", Shepard was ecstatic, but still suspicious. "How can you trust me like that after barely meeting me?".

"Look around you… Whether you like it or not, you've become the rallying point for the people here.", said the Pathfinder. "Yet you aren't protected well enough with that standard Avenger there. Can't have our 'pillar' fall now, can we?".

Despite some lingering doubts, she accepted that explanation and followed him towards his ship. Along the way, however, she kept thinking about the situation.

Jane Shepard wasn't very tech savvy, but still managed to get some interesting Omni-tool programs installed after a lot of tinkering. She also didn't have biotic powers despite having suffered a secondary eezo exposure in 2168 CE. But she was healthy, unlike so many others.

She didn't have any complaints about it, being glad those two events didn't result in cancer or deformities, though she heard rumors that VersaLife had figured out a way to help those exposed to the substance "unlock" their powers. This seemed to be why almost all Hell's Angels mercs were biotics. And that reason stuck, quickly becoming "public knowledge".

Given all that, the only thing left for her to do was honing her body into a weapon. And her instincts, which were part of that, told her that the Pathfinder had an interest in her, though she knew it had nothing to do with physical attraction. And it was a familiar feeling to her…

"Here we are. This is our standard assault rifle, the Harrier.", he spoke, bringing her back from her thoughts, and put a beefy-looking rifle on top of a table of the ship's armory.

"It's… the latest model of the Angel Harrier, bringing the full might of the M-96 Mattock, but as a fully automatic assault rifle!", she exclaimed immediately, going over the specs. "Compared to the prior model, the recoil system has been completely revamped, it's got a high-grade autotargeting software that can make the Locust jealous; besides the usual phasic envelope, the slugs now spins, which adds stability, and…. I'm rambling, aren't I?".

"You… know quite a bit about our weapons.", the Pathfinder spoke, clearly taken aback a bit, while she touched the back of her neck sheepishly. "Yes, this is the most recent model. But I'll need to get a sample of your DNA. May I? Otherwise, it'll explode when you grab it…". With her consent, he took a small sample, giving temporary authorization to her, then moved to another part of the armory and pulled something else, leaving it on the table.

"And this is the M-490 Gravitational Singularity Projector.", he showed her a mean-looking thing. This weapon definitely meant business. Then added: "It creates a hyper-dense mass effect field, making some particles get 'near-infinite' mass; projects the resulting singularity at a range, which drags everyone on the path to its center; then it explodes violently. Be warned: this prototype is quite stronger than the mass-produced ones will be, so shoot and steer away from it. The protection mechanisms can only keep you from also being dragged by it for a moment!".

The more Shepard heard about it, the more she liked the thing.

"I guess you don't have any power armor to spare…?", she tried her luck a bit.

"Unfortunately, no. Without training on how to use it, you'll only hurt yourself.", he shot down her request. "But I've heard Ad Astra is coming up with something, at least for the civilian market. These things always start with the military application. And we're testing the rough prototypes for them.".

Both of them finished their business there and went back to shore up the colony's defenses.

One hour later, flaming trails of re-entry dotted the atmosphere.

The raiders had arrived.

---

After a few hours…

The fighting had been brutal so far. When it began, the raiders thought they had lucked out in finding just a few airspace defenses, but reality quickly set in when they landed, meeting a resistance that forced them to pay in blood for every inch of ground gained. After the first hour, the defenders had finally found their tempo. Any change in the raiders' tactics would soon be discovered by the drone information net and quickly responded to, showing the feared human trait of adaptability.

Jane Shepard would rush towards any location that needed her help the most, a feat made possible because she'd managed to get some basic thrusters installed on her suit. Despite being called on it, the Alliance was still thrifty with that equipment, only giving it to special forces. Regardless, she'd make ample use of them, almost flying towards any squads asking for help. After deploying her radiators to cool off for a while, she'd return and assist the next ground teams.

As such, a back and forth dance of bloodshed was established. Right now, Shepard was resting in a makeshift CC, though she was full of pent up energy after having eaten her fill. Things were going well, almost too well for those who believed in the Arch-Demon Murphy, until they suddenly weren't.

The prelude was a series of thunderous explosions, which shook the entire colony. A barrage of orbital bombardment managed to get through the space engagements, probably ordered by whatever bastard was behind this attack. Those sounds came from the place that was most targeted by the raiders. They didn't care about killing their own "allies", only that this stalemate would be finally broken. Unfortunately, it was.

"They've broken through our defenses! I repeat, there's a breach in the defense line!", was heard over the Command Center's comms. "Call drone support! There's no way to seal the breach… We're doing a staggered retreat!".

Now fully rested, Shepard got up, checked her equipment carefully and started leaving.

"Hey, Shepard! Where are you going!?", shouted another officer there.

"I'm going to seal that breach…", Shepard replied briefly, neither stopping nor turning back.

[1]

Reaching the place, Shepard's first action was to throw the GSP behind cover, temporarily giving up that card for better mobility. Looking around, she finally took in the devastation of the bombardment. What once was some beautiful grassland had now become a bombed out mess of dirt, dust, rocks and gravel, with molten bits complementing the scenery.

All over it, a mass of drones was getting swatted out of the sky. But they had done the job of plugging the hole and holding out until she'd arrived. With no further delay, Shepard got closer, trained her assault rifle at the nearest guy and pressed the trigger. One burst, with no more than three shots each, were all it took to end his life. Before his body even started falling to the ground, she had already switched targets, taking them down just as easily as those drones. Any who had good armor and shields needed two bursts, but only that!

Reacting to her sudden arrival, a few enemy squads returned fire, dropping a good portion of her shields. In response, she rushed towards a big piece of debris and took cover there. The suppressing fire lasted for a few seconds, then she ended it after popping out of cover and taking down two more guys in quick succession. One of the enemies threw a grenade at her, only for it to be returned soon after, with massively lethal effects.

They kept at it for a while, with Shepard popping in-and-out of cover to kill anyone who had nothing to protect them from her, then waiting for her shields to recover. Yet, this wasn't all, as she had been slowly going from cover to cover, gaining ground along the way while simultaneously pushing them back. The raiders were too busy dying to notice that, until it was simply too obvious by the trail of corpses they'd left between both sides.

[0:57]

Finally figuring out that this wouldn't work, a few brave raiders began moving closer, in the hopes of flanking and/or dragging her into a melee, banking on their numbers. However, it was also something she could use against them. Carefully keeping track of it like a hunter stalking its prey, Shepard hugged a wall, bent her back while leaning forward and, all of a sudden, ignited her thrusters, rapidly snapping at the closest raider with enough force to break his jaw. Immediately after, she pulled an Omni-blade from the right arm and stabbed his neck, twisting the blade around for good measure.

Turning around to look for the next victim, she saw a well armored batarian and charged at the guy, using her momentum to kick him in the leg, shove her assault rifle through his right armpit and turn him over to use as a shield, aiming and pulling the trigger at the rest of his squad while his arm was bent backwards. Only, this time, she didn't even bother exercising any burst fire control, holding down the trigger and dropping the raiders like she was holding a minigun made out of sniper rifles. They shot back, of course, but died much faster than their comrade's barriers were being reduced.

And when his shields were almost depleted, Shepard quickly slapped two grenades on his back with her Omni-tool and kicked him straight into an incoming squad of batarians, who she promptly ignored in favor of a better equipped turian group – even with a biotic in the mix. One, two, three trigger presses meant they'd lost that many allies in a second. Then, when the biotic began glowing, she sent a barrage of hypervelocity bullets at him, dragging the line of fire towards the rest of the group. After the last one had his brains blown out the back, two sudden explosions happened one after the other at her side, throwing dirt everywhere and even some red blood her way, right into the suit.

After that, Shepard just kept going, kept using the raiders as shields until they'd spent their use, then turning them into weapons. A few fought back only to have their limbs sliced off by an Omni-blade, or just outright killed by sudden impact trauma on their cerebral fluids. At the end of the day, their shields worked only to her benefit.

[1:59]

It got to a point where they threw explosives near one of their own men, a turian, hoping to finally take her down. In response, however, she grabbed him while firing two shots at his legs, then kicked the guy into the explosives, using his body to block the blast. A second later, an explosion of body pieces sent bits of dark blue blood into her armor. It mixed in with the big patch of red and small tint of purple already adorning it. Shepard didn't give a single thought to that as she took down the daring batarians for trying to blow her up.

As the battle raged on, a big pile of dead bodies started forming in front of her line of fire. If there's one thing she'd learned way back during Mindoir, it was this: just because a suit's wearer was dead didn't mean its shields stopped working, especially if it was from a shot to the head. With that in mind, between a few exchanges of fire, Shepard was constantly making a series of makeshift covers with the bodies of the dead. Those went all the way towards where the breach in their defenses initially happened and they were, in a way, her very own trenches. Moreover, between them, she had hidden a few proximity bombs.

Once again, she kept jumping from cover to cover, keeping tabs on her shields and taking down what felt like endless numbers of enemies. In one moment, a team of batarians, with a well equipped one very far behind, almost managed to flank her, but she still ripped right through their shields, falling back in the process. After those, what followed was an even bigger number of raiders rushing in there. It was as if they'd just heard of the breach in the defenses. But she had prepared the battlefield exactly for that!

Falling much of the way back, Shepard began dragging those new teams, made up of all the species in the galaxy that would join criminal life, towards where the "mines" had been set up. They would make for a nice show.

From the corner of her eyes, instinct told her there was someone playing dead among the pile of bodies, but she was distracted by the sudden sound coming from one of her traps.

Because, from one of the proximity mines, came a… BOOM!

When an enemy squad would pass closer… BOOM!

Another squad would come in and… BOOM!

Yet another group would rush in the trenches and… BOOM!

Then they barely got near, yet… BOOM!

They finally began figuring it out, but… BOOM!

[3:25]

At some point during the onslaught, Shepard couldn't tell exactly when, she had entered a battle trance, mowing down all incoming raiders from behind cover for what felt like hours. Only some minutes had actually passed, but her suit's combat stims and adrenaline were messing with her perception of time. From the back of her mind, she'd still make some conscious decisions, but most of it was on auto-pilot. And the small injuries pilling up didn't seem to affect her anymore, even as medi-gel was close to running out. However, the fact she actually had to reload the metal block and tungsten supply of the Harrier was proof the massacre had been real.

The battles kept repeating themselves, with new teams of raiders showing up only to meet swift ends at the wrong side of the Harrier. Or falling for what remained of the explosives, which had been generously donated by their fallen "allies". The fact she was alone there only seemed to spur them into rushing with more fervor, in a crazed exercise in futility. It was as if they'd been infected by her display of madness, neither caring nor worrying over the possibility of death.

However, more and more came in, slowly driving her into a corner, one that no amount of heroics could simply deal with. The tension slowly grew and became so palpable it actually snapped her out of her state. It was then that she finally remembered a card she had yet to play – and one that was safely hidden. As such, Shepard began a staggered retreat of her own, running back towards the place she'd arrived from.

During the whole process, her shields were being tormented by a number of enemies that could merely be described as… simply too many. She would charge and hide behind any protecting surface, using her thrusters to quickly move from one cover to the next. A few more explosions happened along the trenches, but those had already become worthless. She'd never felt so much adrenaline all at once. This went on and on until, finally, Shepard threw herself behind the initial cover and grabbed the big fucking gun.

Then, what almost felt like an illusion, time seemed to slow down even further.

[4:40]

Shepard pressed and held the firing button, watching as the countdown slowly ticked down on her HUD. When it was almost ready, she popped out of cover and aimed the weapon at the biggest concentration of enemies.

The massive black and red singularity, made out of nearly-infinite mass particles of matter, harmlessly left its firing chamber, then started inwardly drawing everything on its path. Dirt, dust, gravel, rocks, grass. All would be pulled in.

Soon, it also began dragging the raiders closer, as the mere 0.695 G of the planet further helped pull them towards its center. Some even tried to hold onto something, anything, but it was to no avail. They were lifted off the ground and began spinning, faster and faster, as a vortex slowly formed.

The swirling dirt, dust and blood sucked the enemies in, ripping and tearing them apart, in a winderless tornado of righteous fury. Amongst those were the corpses of the fallen, also being torn apart ever further.

Finally, the mass effect field holding the singularity together began destabilizing, showing signs of returning to normal…

Then, for a brief moment, the world was still.

BOOM!

Chaotically red/orange energy spread all around, mincing what was left of the dragged-in raiders, while those outside of the blast radius simply watched with stunned expressions.

An explosion so strong only body and armor bits survived, its loud noise another form of trauma, painted the ground, now with a massive hole on it, with red and dark blue blood.

[1]

Jane looked at the remaining and terrified batarians, then at her new favorite weapon, then back at them, pressing the trigger once again with a savage grin.

Now finally scared out of their wits, the enemy broke ranks, turned tail and fled in the direction of what ships they still had left. And this was even a few minutes before the Alliance's reinforcements had arrived. The raiders sounded the retreat unanimously.

In spite of this, Shepard didn't let them go scot free. She chased the escaping raiders up a hill and, pushing her thrusters to their limits, shot the Harrier at the escaping vessels 'till it actually overheated, bringing one of them down simply with the sheer amount of bullets hitting its thrusters. This feat was the last event of the battle. She had held long enough for reinforcements to arrive on the scene and witness it.

---

In the year 2176 CE, many batarian-funded pirates, slavers, mercs and warlords launched a surprise attack on Elysium, a colony of the Traverse. The assault was later known as the Skyllian Blitz and it was repulsed by the combined efforts of the colony's militia, Alliance Navy and Hell's Angels PMC. Most notably was the heroic actions of the Alliance marine Jane Shepard, who rallied a resistance before the invasion began, faced an overwhelming enemy force and single-handedly sealed a breach in the colony's defenses.

Because of that, the Alliance publicly gave her the Star of Terra and the epithet "Lioness of Elysium". However, for those who witnessed the aftermath of her defense, especially the corpse barricades, the epithet "Butcher of Elysium" was much more apt.

But it was debatable if those killed by the Lioness/Butcher really got the worst of it…

---

Somewhere in the border of the Terminus. Hours after the Elysium raid.

Right in the middle of a Drone Carrier, while sitting casually, I was receiving all the reports from Elysium, especially streams of memories from the fleet hit-and-run engagements. As expected, it was a disastrous defeat for the Hegemony-backed side. Going over the data, I noticed that the surviving enemy vessels had at least one Cruiser.

This was something I'd wondered about. Why would the Alliance need Cruisers with "wolf packs" of Frigates in order to patrol the borders of Council space? Just to deal with armed freighters or small Frigates? Of course not. The factions of the Terminus, as I'd found out, actually had their own Frigates and, in some cases, even Cruisers (like Purgatory, though it was a Carrier type of Cruiser). Even Eldfell-Ashland Energy, a mere "mining" corporation, could have a "fleet" of three Frigates and a Cruiser. This was why it wasn't that big of an issue that we had our own Cruisers, albeit we walked on thin ice due to that.

Still, much of what remained of the once massive enemy fleet was in pretty bad shape. We needed to be careful not to damage the enemy ships too much. After all, they could still be salvaged and rebuilt into better warships. That's how much of our initial fleet was created: by recycling and reusing the generous donations from the criminals of the Terminus.

It seems we won't be able to test our gravity based mass drives on them, save for a few powered down particle beams, my thought was sent directly to Gaia, who received it after it left a mind-machine neural interface.

That interface had been created by Ellen last year and was connected with a QB implant in my head. Through them, we could exchange information much faster than normal speech.

Indeed. GARDIAN lasers are already effective against the weak, lightly armed, small vessels usually employed by pirates, she gave me her own evaluation. If we'd use the full powered weapons, nothing would be left to salvage.

How's our encirclement going? Are they following the predicted Mass Relay path? I asked her while also going over the reports.

Yes, and the 'fake' fleet is close behind, in pursuit, Gaia confirmed. But are we really going to block access to all the Relays leading here? People trying to use them might complain or worse: do something stupid about it.

If someone shows up close to those 'interdicted' Relays, explain that they may find themselves right in the middle of a combat zone. I suggested to her. Or, if they really want to use them, say they're getting in the way of rescuing the people of Elysium. That might shut them up.

We stood close by to one of this Star System's Mass Relays, waiting for the fish to fall into the trap. Without the Reaper IFF, which we've had for years now, any ships using a Relay would emerge randomly on the other side and with positional "drifts" of many thousands of kilometers being common. Because of that, we stayed about 1 light-second away (three hundred thousand kilometers – 300.000 km) from the Relay, enough distance to cover any possible arriving location equally.

After a while, the Relay spun to life exactly as when a large fleet used them. This was what remained from Elysium's assault. And it was also our prey…

Caught off guard at meeting this lone kilometer long ship, the pirate warband desperately moved their ships to join together into one big fleet, as the of this galaxy here usually did. I then ordered the operation to begin.

We'd play a trick on them. The first step was sending a fake first contact package, using the image of a random Star Wars species and attaching a message written in Klingon of all things, pretending to be yet another "innocent" new species just stumbling upon the Mass Relays. The fact our Carrier used CNO fusion, and nothing more than that, further helped sell the idea - for a moment. But a moment was all we needed.

More timid than cautious, they only sent a few vessels to "scout" us out, while the enemy Flagship and its escorting vessels stayed far back. Nevertheless, what mattered was that they all turned to face us. And we actually got a message back (a bunch of lies), since our faked transmission was made to be quite close to galaxy standard.

When the forward party was well within Drone range, be it either from the perspective of its weapons or fusion torch drives, the ruse came to an end. At the other side, from the same 2D coordinate and both "up" and "down", a few warships of Destroyer and Corvette class came out of FTL 1 light-second away. Among them, there were also a few Battleships.

Armed with the intel previously gathered, they immediately opened fire at the enemy ships with very long ranged, tightly focused, high speed beams, firstly aiming to take down their main thrusters. With those particle beams set to reach 50% of the speed of light, the opposition had all of half-a-second to respond. It didn't prove to be enough.

The golden lances of relativistic particles carved hulls with ease, leaving destruction where they passed. A few of the targeted vessels who could barely handle GARDIAN lasers were simply sliced apart in the middle. During the entire time, the pirate warband couldn't even turn their vessels to fire off a single shot. Not that it'd do any good. It'd take over a minute for a single shot of theirs to even reach our warships. After taking down the engines, what followed were the point defenses and any spacecraft they'd released. It didn't take long for all of them to be disabled, including the Flagship.

Our "welcoming party to the galaxy" received a warm welcome of its own. Drones, lots and lots of Drones, kept pouring endlessly out of the Drone Carrier, who also shot at them with its comparatively meager (point defense) weapons. Fighter-Drones, who superseded their manned equivalent by utilizing all their space as death delivering systems, Shield-Drones, who projected gravity where it was needed to project its fellows, and CW-Drones, whose cyberwarfare suits screwed their electronics (such as radar). And those were just the most common types. A few, for instance, just had the job of intercepting their FTL paths, so the enemies couldn't even think of running away.

With our foes now completely stranded here, I'd decided to get up from my chair and make my way towards the ship's axial mounted hyper velocity launcher.

Oh, I know what you're thinking… And it's crazy!, she exclaimed in my head, referencing a certain digital gal. There's no need to do this just to test the new gear.

So… What's the problem? I mentally shrugged. Are you going to stop me? You know this is what I'm like…

No, actually. Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy, she replied playfully, completing the reference. But I'm making sure you won't get harmed – and this lady isn't taking 'no' for an answer.

I just shook my head at her antics, continuing my way towards the main firing chamber.

The ship's launcher had a mass reducing field and a consistent extreme gravity gradient to create a super high speed mass driver. Unlike electromagnetic acceleration, gravity allows for complex "slugs" due to the lack of acceleration from the projectile's perspective and the lack of exposure to fluctuating magnetic fields (which could fry electronics). In the case of this Carrier, the projectiles it shoots are drones; however, right now, it would be me…

I know the ship is slowly dragging towards us… I remembered an old classic. But tell the Captain to shoot me closer to it.

He's already on it, but asked why. What do you want me to say? Her question was what I needed to finish a reference of my own.

Tell him… I want to hit them with my sword! I thought with a grin.

Walking inside the Carrier's main launcher, I climbed on a Fighter-Drone, firmly grabbing onto it, and waited for the warship to "fire" – hopefully slower than normal. It came soon after, smoothly shooting us towards the enemy's Flagship. Around me, a small escort wing of Drones, which were personally controlled by Gaia, formed up in quick succession.

Way before the halfway point arrived, the unmanned craft I was riding on lit its positioning thrusters gently, turning itself around while I reoriented myself, and began decelerating us both. Then, as we slowly drifted towards the enemy Cruiser, I watched the silent onslaught happening around us…

After the initial surprise, the Drone swarm was either cleaning up the last bits of resistance or boarding the vessels not destroyed by accident. Still, against all odds, a few fought on. Even in desperate straits, they still activated their point defenses, as whatever counted for GARDIAN lasers in their vessels came alive, trying to swat the swarm, only to be melted into slag by Fighter-Drones equipped with Prothean-based particle beams. Point defenses were the first to be taken down, followed by the "engines" soon after.

One had to give it to them. What the criminals of the Terminus lacked in quality, they made up for in creativity. For instance, some of the poorer pirate bands' ships were nothing but an oversized GARDIAN laser wrapped around a freighter. When raiding a ship, they'd get into knife-range of it and try to overheat their target before they themselves cooked alive, forcing a surrender or grabbing what loot they could from the wreckage. However, those were the ones doing worse, since their main weapons were being bounced back by a lot of Mirror-Drones. To me, this was the space equivalent of "stop hitting yourself!".

When I was really close to my destination, I "kicked" the Drone off and "flew" the rest of the way towards the Cruiser, hitting it with a thump and immediately attaching my mag boots to its hull. The accompanying drones also got closer, waiting to wreak havoc inside.

The ship was almost in tatters, with some hull breaches and scorch marks everywhere, but it was still holding itself together. Scans showed it had its decks arranged laterally, rather than the usual perpendicular alignment of large vessels. That worked perfectly for me.

Ok, let's move towards engineering to prevent any ass-pull self-destruct sequences. I went through our boarding priorities. Better not experience that thrill ever again. Oh, can you also turn off my suit and visor lights?

---

Elanos Haliat's flagship. A few minutes before.

Captain Zaysh, a batarian and small-time pirate gang leader, was having the worst month of his life, as it seemed the Universe really wanted to screw him over. He was wondering if it had something to do with a message he once carved on a planet, proclaiming his military prowess and virility – but also alluding to the questionable parentage of all humans. His bad luck actually began when his band found a nice, rich settlement to take tribute from, a raid that went by without a hitch.

Except life is a little box of surprises.

That success got him the attention of the "bigger fish" of the Terminus Systems and had him be "volunteered" to a very daring assault on some human colony. In fact, he just barely made the cut, lucky him! Still, because of a gift of Thanix cannons from "back home", the experienced batarian ignored his misgivings about the assault, or the fact that the Alliance had been increasing their colony defenses recently. Luckily, he even landed his ship near one of its richest places – and whose defensive line was crumbling.

But life is a little box of surprises.

That one location where they had broken through? Well, it had some crazy Alliance female who single-handedly held them off. His whole crew got erased, with their shields melting in seconds, 'cause she had a damned Angel Harrier. But How!? What kind of cosmic bad luck was this? Nobody could use those weapons, 'cause they tend to explode when not wielded by one of the Hell's Angels bastards! Zaysh cursed inwardly. He only survived the encounter because he stayed far back and played dead for a while.

He had to wait for the rampaging demon to move away from the location. Then came that red and black sphere of death. The batarian Captain had seen singularities before, but that wasn't right in any sense of the word. He barely managed to escape the first one. And ran away even before the second one was being prepared. At least he didn't meet the crazy Elcor. Seriously, fuck whoever said they were useless in a fight. They never saw a squad being instantly shredded by gatling guns or blown up by the main cannon of a fucking tank! Or just being casually body slammed by one! His only consolation was that everyone else seemed to be doing as poorly as his group did…

Then his luck finally turned around. When the call for retreat was issued, he was one of the few who managed to escape that hell, though at the cost of his own ship. Still, at least he escaped in the flagship of the fleet.

However, as it was becoming apparent for him, life is a little box of surprises.

Upon finally arriving at the borders of the Terminus, they met yet another surprise… There was what seemed to be a new species. Wanting to make up for the disaster of the raid, yet still afraid of fucking up again, their "Glorious Leader" ordered a few ships to go capture it. They'd make up for some of the losses that way – and a new species was a good selling product in the Terminus and Hegemony. It looked like a big gift. But, in fact, it was a poisoned one.

Everything was fine in one moment, then, in the next, everything was going to hell. Some weird looking ships came out of nowhere from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and started blasting energy beams at them. The thrusters were the first to be taken away, then their point defenses and interceptors. They couldn't even turn around to fire anymore. And the shields… What shields? Those didn't matter jack shit there.

Even the "big catch" ship was actually a big ass Drone Carrier. Those drones were even deadlier than the Fighters from the Alliance, with so many different types the "scout" guys didn't even know what to shoot, before being reduced to desperate screams. At least the Flagship hadn't been blown up like some others… Still, they were dead in the void.

They all knew what it meant. Prepare to be boarded, fight a hopeless battle and, with any luck, be taken prisoner. Maybe they might even get to live. All Zaysh could hear was the sound of the sirens blaring out warnings about the damaged propulsion systems, disabled FTL drive and chaos going on in engineering. That was where he was escorting their last technicians to, since the main ones had met their abrupt ends due to the same weapons that left their ship dead in the void.

All of a sudden, they heard a very loud thump, as if one of the things outside had hit their ship. Or a giant brick. Zaysh didn't know why he thought of that. Although the alarms still cried out in the background, it got much quieter, as his fellow pirates kept walking towards their destination in silence, trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. Then, the ship started making some creaking sounds, as if something had been tearing it apart by hand, in the same direction as they were going.

Turning a corner into a hallway, Zaysh got a bad feeling about all of this, which was exacerbated as many of the lights began turning off farthest out. And those sounds slowly concentrated in the other end of the hallway, in a patch of darkness. One of his more cowardly fellows finally snapped and tried to go back, only to find that the door they'd just passed through was stuck. With things as they were, they instinctively started taking cover all around this corridor, though he managed to stealthily stay far behind everyone else – a survival skill he was learning very, very quickly –, whilst training his weapon at the end of the hallway.

The silence was deafening. Everyone was clearly nervous, with the alarms being the only indicator that time was still passing. For a second, Zaysh thought he heard faint breathing, as if it came from a poorly maintained filtration mask, but quickly dismissed that idea, since some there weren't even wearing a suit. And then it happened…

Eyes, redder than their blood and shaped in devilish contours, bared into their very souls, followed by the ignition sound of a red blade with a "pssshhew". The glowing red barely illuminated the silhouette of a figure completely clad in bulky black armor, with a dark cape, who just stood there… menacingly.

[2]

They froze at the scene, equal parts shock and wonder at how that weapon worked, until someone finally snapped:

OPEN FIRE!

As the figure began marching towards them in firm, measured steps, they shot at it until their weapons almost overheated. But most of their shots met the red blade and were deflected away by it, which swung in perfect synchronization with their strongest line of fire, or by that dark suit, whose shields were in a constant rotation.

One suitless bastard pulled a shotgun, but, before he could even aim it, the figure waved his left hand, forcing the guy into the ceiling with biotics, then threw the blade forward with the other. It spun in the air, severing a batarian's head, before being pulled back by the monster, who grabbed it and sliced the lifted guy in half with one fluid motion.

Their weapons, now close to melting, began randomly overheating. Switching to sidearms as the demon continued his march, those too were pulled with gravity by another wave of his hand. Following this, he splattered a turian into a wall with biotic power, sliced another in half and, as if to mock their efforts, put a big biotic barrier the likes of which they'd never seen before.

Now close enough, he started cutting them down with the red blade, each swing turning a pirate into a few body parts. Some of them began banging on the still stuck door, calling for help, but none came. Of course, Zaysh was among them.

When the devil was getting close to him, the door finally opened, but just enough for him to slip through it. While running in desperation, he turned around to take a peek at what was going on, only to see the last guy being impaled by the red blade and the "jammed" door opening at last. But it was too late, since everyone else was already dead.

When the demon restarted his march, Zaysh bolted right out the place, only listening to the screams of a group of guys, who had finally come to "reinforce" them, and what sounded like torrents of lightning cooking everything in its path.

[2]

Escape! That was the only idea left in his mind right now. He ran at top speed towards the CIC, where he quickly recounted everything that happened in that corridor to the leader of this disastrous assault, a turian who was (or had been?) a prominent figure in the Terminus Systems. And he also said that he escaped to pass on this information.

The turian doubted his claims. Still, they decided to jam the door from where Zaysh had come and, just in case, set up a few mines, proximity charges, ambushers and anything else close to it, waiting for the "demon" to show up and fall into their trap. There was no way anyone would ever survive all of this, he claimed. The batarian Captain very much doubted that, as their systems had been unresponsive ever since that monster got into their ship. He was just glad a-grav was still on and the atmosphere hadn't been vented. Still, it was just one guy, the turian stated.

Apparently, he didn't know that life is a little box of surprises.

Seconds quickly turned into minutes as the only sounds they'd heard were of their fellows' dying screams, electrical shocks, the buzzing of drones and the ever present sirens – still blaring warnings aloud. Then, they only heard the sirens. However, this sudden peace they found themselves in didn't last very long, as it was broken by the sounds of the CIC's blast door being slowly sliced apart by that red blade, with an Elcor-sized opening being carved. Everyone in the room trained their weapons at the door, waiting for the alleged dark figure to come in. But that didn't happen.

Instead, the sliced off part of the metal door was violently blasted into the room with an explosion of bluish-white biotic power, blowing up all the traps along the way towards them, who were then thrown into the walls. In one move, the entire Combat Information Center was thrashed. While everyone was still getting up, the devil casually walked inside through the gap, stopped in the middle of the room and, with both hands on his belt, turned most of his upper body to the left, then to the right, finally settling his focus on what was in front of him…

"Elanos Haliat, I finally have you now…", the devil spoke with a deep, gravelly voice.

"It's… You! How could it be!?", their fearless warlord exclaimed in surprise. "Commander Samael, your damned Hell's Angels don't have those kinds of ships! Why is a bastard like you always getting in our way?".

The turian began speaking partly out of genuine surprise and partly to buy time for his men to regroup and surround the devil. But Zaysh knew better. Those guys were utterly fucked. So, he began doing what he did best: carefully moving away from the suicidal idiots.

"Correct, it is I. Did you think you could escape by simply staying far away from the raid you orchestrated?", the Commander; no, The Devil retorted, pointing at the turian. "There is no escape!".

"So what!? That just makes me smarter than the fools who died by your hands.", the turian continued his chararate, looked at his men and noticed they were ready. "It's over, Samael! I have you surrounded. Surrender or I'll tell the whole galaxy about those ships!".

"All I am surrounded by is fear and dead men.", The Devil ignited his red blade again.

"Fuck! You think you're so tough, but you know what!?", the turian cursed, trying to regain some of his courage. "They call you The Devil, but I'm not afraid of you!".

"Then you will die braver than most!", was The Devil's reply before all hell broke loose.

All of the pirates' electronics seemed to have rebelled against them. Weapons flipped the fuck out, most overheating out of nowhere, shields flickered non-stop and some grenades went off all of a sudden, blowing up their owners. Simultaneously, The Devil vanished in a biotic charge which sent the turian flying towards a wall, no amount of cover protected him. Then, the red blade was thrown at a group that was unscathed, slicing at least three guys as it spun, before discharging itself in a big explosion that blew them away again.

Zaysh, who just had his hands up in a corner, praying he wouldn't be targeted, watched the figure pull another weapon, a purple one this time, and continued his onslaught. A massive singularity was thrown in the middle of the ripped apart metal door, preventing anyone from escaping, and the remaining pirates were massacred in a brutal fashion: sliced up by the glowing blade, cooked by lightning torrents and smashed by blue biotic blasts. He just kept marching; just kept blocking the shots; just kept killing.

When Elanos Haliat finally recovered enough to stand up, he saw a purple blade sticking out from the last pirate's metallic carapace, who fell to the ground dead. Immediately after, The Devil started shooting lightning from his hand into the turian, frying what was left of his shields, then lifted the guy off the ground with a wave of his left hand. This wasn't the normal biotic lift! Zaysh thought. No, the turian was being held up simply by the gravity around his neck.

"It is useless to resist!", he stated, gripping his hand further while the turian struggled to breath, until his neck was finally crushed.

Finally, The Devil turned and walked towards the only surviving one.

"You were wise to surrender.", he declared. "I'm sure we'll have much to discuss…".

Despite the words he heard, Zaysh had yet another bad feeling about this.

He then got knocked out soon after. After all, life is a little box.

And it hadn't run out of surprises yet.

---

Same place. But not at the same time.

Ok, that was quite amazing. Can we do it again? Gaia asked playfully, in complete juxtaposition to what we just did. Are you sure you are not really a Skywalker in disguise?

Still, my only reply was sending her an amused thought.

More than just having fun at these bastards' expanse, this was a test for all the new gear and the results were… better than expected. It even allowed me to easily play with them. Not that we weren't taking any of it seriously. While I was casually walking into the room, Gaia was using my suit as a platform to hack everything she could. What was interesting was the cowardly (or perhaps actually smart?) batarian. These survival instinct kind of fellows really did have a use for me…

Gaia, what do you think of sending this guy to the rehabilitation program? I sent her the thought.

You mean to section 34? She asked back, that name giving me pause.

Yeah, but do you have to call it that? I almost shuddered at the horrors of that plan.

She just sent me the thought equivalent of a shrug. Then, a big drone came in and started dragging the knocked out guy away.

With the flagship taken, I crossed my arms and increased my neural connection with Gaia further, not just "knowing" what the results of this engagement were, but also "seeing" what the drones were doing right now.

Most enemy ships had been disabled and their crews were facing boarding parties made up of drones, with a few accompanying squads coming later to get them back to our bases to be retrofitted.

Some ships had been cut down the middle by particle beams that had been just too much for their fragile hulls, while others, a few ships who had no civilians for us to rescue, just had their atmosphere vented.

The kidnapped people from Elysium were grouped up and taken to a few ships, mostly those who survived sudden contact with our weapons, with the utmost care not to let them see what was going on around them.

Pieces of ships "littered" the entire combat zone, but was it being dealt with by spherical drones projecting gravity wells to gather all of the small debris around themselves.

Finally, a few other specialized drones were used to "mask" the scene from sensors, even if that meant filling the area of combat with radiation or electromagnetic waves, hiding what happened here. It was a shame we couldn't use the light-trick delay countermeasure, but there were other steps taken to prevent that from becoming a problem.

Did you capture my initial rampage here? I felt the urge to ask.

Everything! I've got the recordings from almost every angle… Gaia sent a few scenes to my mind, the highlights of the boarding.

This will be the perfect 'unofficial advertisement' material to sell these new shields. I thought back. We just need to make sure it's edited to hide what shouldn't be shown.

I agree. Cyclonic Barrier Technology will be developed anyway, so we might as well cash in before anyone else does, she said. And still keep all the really good stuff for ourselves.

Exactly! You have learned much, my young apprentice. I sent to her humorously. But we should ask the quarians first, since they help a lot with R&D.

On another note, improving the overload program wasn't enough? You've said the gauntlet was to deal with shields, Geth and Reaper forces, which are basically corpses reanimated by cybernetics, but I don't buy it… Gaia declared. You know this is the equivalent of using radiation, like with polonium rounds, against organics, right?

It's nothing personal and you know that… I returned her prior shrug. With this added, the circle is now complete!

You really like quoting Vader, huh? She commented.

What can I say? He's one of the most iconic villains from my old 'verse. I simply said.

One of the roadblocks to the creation of true power armor was the huge power draw. And we completely bypassed that with our E-Reactors. So, with that kind of unlimited power, I tasked the tech guys with creating a gauntlet that ionizes targets with a nonvisible laser to ready them for a high-voltage electrical attack. Basically, it was the downsized mechanism from an Arc Projector, from our quarian allies. And that was just a small project.

This was supposed to be a year chock-full of events happening. Even with the changes I'd brought along, such as bringing the "Anhur Rebellions" forward in time, the most shocking one still happened. Personally, I'd say Elysium was quite the thunderous prelude.

There were so many things that someone in my position could do, could change, yet many would just think of spending some time "training" with the Alliance or with someone else. Sometimes, it was even with Cerberus! In so many years given, all one could achieve was saving some people, killing a few bad guys and gaining some notoriety. That was it! They would rank up from cannon fodder to experienced grunt. What should one do then? Take a rifle and go kill an armada of 2 kilometer long Cthulhu-Dreadnoughts?

No, that wasn't my solution… I wasn't just building a skillset, a reputation, a team or even a company (military or otherwise) to fight the Reapers. Those were merely some means to an end. No, I was building something entirely different from the foundations of this galaxy.

And I wondered how many of my people had figured out what that was…

---

Elysium, groundside. A few more hours later.

After the intense and brutal fighting ceased, the usually peaceful, but tiring and depressing work began: clearing out the rubble, tallying the dead, looking for stragglers… Yet this was what Shepard chose to help with, until someone came running at her.

"Chief Shepard, it looks like the pirates are coming back!", a marine shouted in distress.

"What gave them the guts to return when the cavalry's already here?", she questioned.

"It's not them; it's us. We're bringing our people home.", the Pathfinder also arrived, but he did it by flying. "Escaping to the Terminus was the raiders' last mistake.".

Shepard decided to trust the man and contacted her superiors, who got the orbiting fleet to stand down. Soon after, those few unlucky colonists who had been kidnapped returned.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of keeping those weapons…", before leaving, the Pathfinder suddenly brought up.

"Can't I?", Jane asked, almost pleading with her eyes, but then discovered how hard it was to have a staring contest with a helmeted opponent.

"The Harrier is proprietary hardware, but Ad Astra will be selling the M-490 GSP to the Alliance starting this year.", he replied, kindling some hope in her. "Actually, after today, I guess it'll be called the Blackstorm instead, wouldn't you say?".

He could only see the barely held back glee that was reflected in her eyes.

---

[Star Wars I to VI]

Asari Vid Reviews

For vids that were some of their first forays into science fiction, I was surprised humans had actually predicted biotics even before seeing Element Zero (although it seems to be a type of its own, with unique abilities and fewer physical mnemonics). And also... sexualized blue "women". But everyone in the galaxy does it, so nothing has changed. This saga was divided into two parts, so let me start with the "prequels".

That was an interesting world they've built, but was it just me or was that love story sort of awkward, forced and kinda creepy? I mean, everyone is very young to us asari, but wasn't Anakin a kid even for a human when he got a crush on Padme? I found the Jedi to be very cool and even saw a bit of the asari in them - they even have a council too! However, it hit me just how conformist and conservative they were, becoming blind to everything going on around them. Something to think about…

As for the battles, despite being fought by two disposable CGI armies, they were quite interesting. Those "droids" are even more useless than our mechs, but they're way funnier. Also, I can't be the only one who found R2D2 cute and C3-PO's comic relief hilarious. The talking was a little too much, even for us asari, but they redeemed themselves in the third vid, especially with that last confrontation.

As for the originals, they were a space opera of the hero's journey, from a new hope in a rebellion against an evil empire, said evil's comeback and the finale, when the fate of the galaxy is decided by a fight between good and evil. However, from a certain point of view, they're a fantasy tale about a peasant boy who saves the princess from the evil wizard…!

Anyway, jokes aside, humans continue their creative streak by coming up with the Force, a new FTL travel, all sorts of new species, laser sword duels, very iconic villains and even something like a Death Star!

I would recommend these vids if you're looking for something fresh.

Volus Vid Reviews

From all six vids, the ones I connected more with were the "prequels", although they had their own fair share of issues.

Personally, I found that so much of those were people just standing in semi-circles, council meetings, different council meetings and just talking. Sometimes, they talked while sitting too! Speaking seriously, I felt a missed opportunity here. The director should've given more time for those trade deals, trade regulations and economic negotiations. They didn't flesh those out enough and it simply ended too fast. But I enjoyed it while it lasted, just as this unique universe where lasers are everywhere. Then came the original trilogy…

That Earth-clan Darth Vader proves one can be trapped in a suit with a bad respirator and still be a complete badass! But not like a certain guy I know who overdoses on some weird stuff and thinks he's some sort of biotic god. Still, I'd recommend watching that Obi Wan vs Vader fight with the "SC 38 Reimagined" fan remake. It's much better than the original: two old men poking at each other with glowing sticks…

Hey, this is a personal theory of mine, but I'm starting to suspect Jar Jar Binks was actually the one behind it all. Think about it. He keeps climbing into positions of power despite all odds and even helped Sheev get emergency powers, then simply vanished! I guess he's preparing his plan of galactic conquest. Maybe the sequels will deliver on that…

Salarian Vid Reviews

After having memorized those "prequels", I've now realized just how quotable they really are. Many times in daily life, I've found myself greeting my friends with "Hello there!" or saying that I have a bad feeling about something. But I'm starting to think this is getting out of hand… Maybe I should stop before people start looking at me funny? Anyway!

The fleet battles being fighter aircraft dogfighting in space is acceptable because humans were still planetbound when those vids were made, but what irked me to no end was that they call all of their weapons lasers (turbolasers and such), as if they lived in an alternative universe where lasers are even slower than kinetic weapons! I mean, even ion engines go from the slowest to the fastest type of subluminal travel in that Universe…

Apparently, those are actually supposed to be superheated bolts of plasma. Nevertheless, that Death Star concept was simply insane! I'm glad it's not possible to build something that can just… "sterilize" a planet. Yet that's still nothing when compared to something else I've learned about (no it's not the Force), the most powerful thing in the Universe, which is: The High Ground! Just kidding.

Go watch these vids and you'll understand these references. Do it!

After all, this saga is a fine addition to my collection.

It should be yours too.

Krogan Vid Reviews

Ok, these vids kinda bored me, so I just skipped to the fight scenes and laser sword duels and kinda pieced the story together from the memes. Those lightsabers are even more awesome than chainsaws! I want one. Hey ad astera, help a brotha out?

Oh yeah, review… These fight scenes in the vids were pretty cool!

[The Expendables]

Krogan Vid Reviews

Ya know, you must go through a journey of old human vids to appreciate this masterpiece. You just gotta. Fortunately, me and the boys got the premium membership to the catalog of best action "movies", so we were having a blast. Like, just think of all the cool and badass characters you know, then imagine them all in the same vid, trying to one up each other while the random mercs just get screwed along the way. Awesome, right? Of course it is! And I'll kick you in the quads if you don't agree.

But there's something about the plot that I just dunno how to take… I mean, a bunch of badass mercs, accepting a mission to overthrow your typical Terminus dictator and sticking it to the man too while at it. Doesn't sound like the usual merc outfits you hear about.

Don't care though. It worked for me. Might work for you too.

[Pirates of the Caribbean]

Turian Vid Reviews

Never thought I'd cheer for a pirate, but Jack Sparrow is something else alright. There's a certain magic about the character. Although he does seem to have the power of controlling probability. And what is up with that music? It has no lyrics whatsoever, but it still just… manages to hit right into your spirit.

We turians can't really swim, that's common knowledge, and others like the asari are quite peaceful, so our entertainment media reflects that by basically not existing, especially naval warfare. I never knew what we missed until seeing this vid (and a few others like this too). It's… an entirely different world that we've barely scratched. Personally, I would find it worthwhile to explore just for the sword fights!

Hanar Vid Reviews

This one is happy to see more vids about epic adventures in the oceans being released, even if they are just on the surface of it. It had its fun watching "Captain" Jack Sparrow humorous misadventures in a stage of civilization we have never experienced, but with a different type of pirates, magical curses and sword duels. However, It must squash those disparaging rumors that this work was based on a park ride. Clearly, it is not possible to create such an elaborate tale with such a simple origin.

[Civilization V & VI]

Asari Game Reviews

These two games are really something unique. I've been playing them non-stop, because there's always that little voice in your head that whispers "just one more turn", and loved every second of it! There are so many new cultures here to explore, though these are only a small portion of them, as I've learned. How did the humans manage to come up with so many? Anyway, if you're an asari like me, this is a must-buy! But there's a warning (more like an advice) I'd like to give you before you start your first world…

I've seen many human artistic works have antagonistic forces based on something of their dark history called "nazis" (or just those themselves), who were led by a human named Hitler, which is still publicly considered to be the worst human ever. But I think this Gandhi must be an even more terrifying historical figure (I wonder why the humans hid that fact from us…!). I was halfway through the [Industrial Era], taking my time building wonders of culture and art when he just started nuking the whole world! Mahatma Gandhi? More like FissileMatter Gandhi!

So beware of him! Don't fall for his lies of loving peace like I did!

Elcor Game Reviews

Ashamed apology: I'm sorry it took too long to find these interesting and fun games that it's a big shame. Sad realization: it might have to do with my people's consevative nature, that takes new things at our own pace, and usually slow. Unapologetic segue: talking about taking things slow, I'm happy to learn humans have created a genre of games that allows careful decision making, despite their restless nature. It's called turn based strategy and it stops the world until you are ready for the next "turn", being perfect for us Elcor. Gratefully: thank you humans for making these games not only available but also accessible to Elcor physiology.

[Knights of the Old Republic: Remake]

Salarian Game Reviews

This game has a new fan. The overall plot is rather simple, gathering the plot elements to unlock the final zone, but the journey along the way is very fun, with quests that can be tackled in many different ways. The companions are all amazing. And what a plot-twist in the middle! This is a spoiler-free zone, but I can tell you it actually blew my mind. I didn't see it coming at all (and consider just how good salarian memory is).

The morality system was an interesting idea, but this particular implementation makes you either act as a saint or a krogan warlord during the Krogan Rebellions, which has a charm of its own I guess (all the cool powers are there after all!).

If you take all the nice and politeness out of an Elcor and put it on a killbot like the ones the asari claim all AI are, then what you get is HK-47. He's an assassin "droid" that would like nothing more than to commit wanton murder, yet is so nonchalantly upfront and upbeat about it that it kinda growns on you after a while. And then it becomes hilarious! I for one loved having a psycho robot Elcor riding along on my misadventures.

There's something puzzling me though. The story is set way before the "original" vids, yet they somehow had more powers than those in the "far future". Don't care what anyone has to say, Force Heal would have come in handy in the prequels and solved a LOT of issues.

"He could even save the ones he loved… from dying…"

"Oh, you mean like Force Heal?"

"Yes, exactly Anakin… Wait, what!?"

[Classical/Orchestral Music]

Elcor Music Reviews

Happy discovery: we can't express ourselves well with words or body language the other species can understand, so communication is difficult, but this entire genre of music the humans have mastered seems to be ideal for us. Impressed evaluation: they've managed to convey so many emotions and feelings without saying a word. Some can even tell you a tale on their own, if you focus enough to listen… Depressed musing: it's a shame all these incredible human composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Vivaldi lived centuries ago. Had they been asari, we might still have still been able to listen to their music today.

[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]

Salarian Anime Reviews

Where do I even begin reviewing this work? Maybe I'll just talk about one of the main ideas of it. Ok, so the main protagonist has this little device he uses to control a small mech with his willpower (yeah, don't ask), then he drills into a bigger mech with that little one, fusing and taking control of it. With me so far? Ok, afterwards they face even larger enemies, so the MC drills into something even bigger, turning it into a massive mech. But it doesn't stop there. Oh no. It just keeps going. And you just keep nodding along because it kinda makes sense, you know?

How do humans even come up with this? Don't think that's all. This is just the surface level of insane things happening here. I don't want to give spoilers, but it almost feels like those "JRPGs", where our journey starts by having to find a lost "kitty" or struggle to even defeat a crab, then at the end the game is all like "here's a weapon, now go kill god" at you.

If there's one thing I've learned about humans from this utterly crazy show, then I'd say it's their potential indomitable spirit. No wonder they simply don't back down when facing what the Traverse and the Terminus throws at them…

---

[Science Time Strikes Back!]

Why are Lasers and Particle Beams supposed to be effective against Mass Effect Shields (Kinetic Barriers)?

- Explanation partly "sponsored" by LittleSeraphim -

If you're reading this, then you must've also read the explanation about how shields work in the MEverse. Long story short, those work by decelerating incoming enemy projectiles until they're brought to a complete stop (hopefully). And this is done with "gravity fields", so mass is irrelevant and the rate of "braking" is constant. With that in mind…

The Dreadnoughts of the MEverse can fire their "main" (axial) kinetic weapons somewhere between 1% and 1.6% of the speed of light. In the case of an Alliance's Everest-class one, it's 1.3%. However, particle beams can be a hell of a lot faster, probably starting at 50% of the speed of light and possibly reaching right the way up to 99+%.

What this really means in practice is that, if you have a velocity high enough in your beam, it'll just zip/punch right through kinetic barriers. For instance, a lower mass particle beam moving at like 50% of "c" might just be slowed down to 47% of "c", losing some output, but still getting through with more than velocity to do some real damage. And this is "worse" in the case of lasers, since they're going at the speed of light!

Why does it happen? Because the shields simply don't have time to start decelerating the projectiles. That's what happened in the short space battle of this Chapter, since those weapons were very long ranged, tightly focused, high speed beams set to always reach 50%.

Moreover, not all particle beams are equal, because the element you shoot will have a big impact on your beam's properties. Hydrogen beams will tend to penetrate targets, dealing damage throughout them (kind of like a radiation beam), while a tungsten or other heavy elements beam will act like what we think of when talking about particle beam weapons, burning through armor like the Collector beam.

Hey, then what about Thanix weapons? That's a good question! I dunno. Before I can even try to talk about them, we'd need to decide what they even are. Yes, decide, because the writers did a sneaky retcon on Thanix cannons. In ME2, they're a stream of molten metal, which we can even see during the final mission. However, they're just solidified projectiles in ME3, as stated in the Codex and "shown" (?) in the cutscenes. LittleSeraphim (author of Mass Effect: Logical Conclusions) told me they're just fancy shaped penetrators, but we can still see them being effective against a Cruiser, so how come? I guess most of their damage comes from an additional improvement on electromagnetic acceleration they got from Sovereign's remains. Either that or their "shape" helps to better "bypass" shields. This is kinda irrelevant, because they've become "old tech" ever since we got ourselves gravity based weaponry.

Basically, coming back to topic, particle beams are effective against ME shields because of their inherent velocity, even if it's still throwing mass around. Thus, it's sort of a "myth" that Mass Effect shields, at least as they are implemented in lore/canon, can stop ALL kinetic weapons – but only kinetics and "nothing else". Nope, in order to do that, they'd need to be utilized with a different implementation, which is what we'll be doing for our real fleets in the future. I'll talk about it when it's time…

This is merely scratching the surface of the "depth" of space battles. I'm thinking of writing about how sci-fi portrays those in a future Chapter.

:)

---

Author's Notes: whew, this Chapter ended up being the biggest one yet. I didn't plan on that. It just kept becoming larger as I had more and more sudden inspiration while writing it. Then I just went fuck it internally. That's why it took longer to post. Now, I've rested enough and done some proofreading.

Biotic power armor (or biotic "synthetics"). This is something I had thought about for a long time and it's finally being implemented now. Feel free to correct me, but, from limited knowledge, I think the material linking the artificial eezo nodules' signals (both in the body and the suit) could be carbon nanotubes. Unless someone shows me otherwise, that's how they'll be implemented going forward.

There are a lot of issues when trying to make lightsabers real and it goes beyond the few problems I've said there, but I think we can make something really close to the ideal one with mass effect tech, so I'd decided to give you guys a treat and explain how to "invent" one with eezo. It's actually not that complicated. Besides, it solves the problem we'd get by actually making one according to lore (with plasma), which you can learn by watching the YT video titled "Why Death by Lightsaber Would Be Much Worse in Real Life! (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill)" (part of the url: watch?v=BRAyIXgWBWc).

Oh, Tech Armor. Unlike what many seem to think (a reasonable false impression), it's not something like a "hardlight armor", as we see in many other sci-fi, and neither are the Omni-tools. Those are probably just fancier virtual keyboards (tech we have today, with lasers projectors and cameras). The holographic "armor" we see is just a warning for allies to not get close to it, because Tech Armor is designed to explode when the outer kinetic barrier collapses, similar to Reactive Armor. In canon, it's actually stated they can turn off the holographic display for stealth. We just can't do it in the game.

There was no Elysium scene in the original. Like, nothing at all. Just the fleet ambush. And that one was simpler too. This made the Chapter harder to write (at least this one wasn't like the last one, which was a stitch of 3-4 Chaps). In the future, I plan on writing more detailed fleet engagements, especially when every piece of new tech is fully developed.

I had a hard time "figuring out" Shepard's rank back then, since it's never stated in the lore. There's three "groups" in the Systems Alliance (ENLISTED, NCOs and OFFICERS) and I've recently been informed by someone who knows more than me about the subject that one either enters it as an officer or an NCO. Shepard must have enlisted as an officer, meaning this is her progression according to the Codex: ENLISTED (until Corporal) - OFFICERS (starting as 2nd Lieutenant). So, I guess 4 years was enough for her to reach 2nd Lieutenant at least, which was what I changed her rank into. Now that I think about it, we get so little information about the inner workings of the Alliance that it's kinda sad. What Alliance rank do you think Shepard had during Elysium?

Little trivia: depending on your Shep's background, he/she could either be on shore leave or posted at Elysium. Colonist Shep was posted there, while Spacer and Earthborn were on shore leave.

Some people seem to have this wrong impression that the MC just "let" the Batarian Hegemony grab the Reaper corpse (Bob), as if he had just slacked off or something. Nope! The Leviathan of Dis was taken by the batarians in 2163 CE, 7 years before the MC even got there! Moreover, he can't just waltz in Khar'shan and deal with it for now, as that would mess up so many things in the grand scheme of things for almost no gain. The batarians are almost inconsequential in the games. They're only getting more focus here because we're taking over the Terminus, where they had set up shop for a long while.

What did you guys think of the timed track? I'd asked before about putting recommended music sometimes and some of you guys misunderstood, thinking I was talking about songs with lyrics. Nope, this was what I meant. And here's a small tip: you don't need to listen to it immediately when reading the Chapter; read it all first, then go back to those scenes and read it again, but with the track on this time.

The Hallway scene. This was something I'd do if I were in the MC's place (well, this IS a Self Insert, so…). The timed track had to go there, of course. It's kinda part of the whole thing.

…

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

And I might need a small break because of this one…