Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, Warhammer 40k, Stellaris, or Mass Effect. This is a fanfiction, and I don't have ANY monetary reward for making it. This is purely for fun.
Erwin woke up looking at a blue sky. "I guess there is an afterlife."
"Who knew Created had souls?"
Ares broke his allusion.
Now that Ares mentioned it, Erwin could see the sky had a crack in it. The effects of looking through a damaged visor.
"How are we alive?" Erwin asked.
"No idea!" Ares answered cheerfully.
Erwin ran a diagnostic on his armor. Surprisingly it didn't sustain any more substantial damage after going through a Dark Matter-induced hypernova.
The armor was punctured in multiple areas. All relatively minor, but they compounded into a major issue. The Dark Matter Dimensional reactor was damaged, which meant no dark matter thrusters or deflectors. Only one of the two backup zero-point energy generators was operational.
The good news was that one generator provided Erwin adequate energy. He had plenty of energy for the hard plasma shields, the suits' physical enhancement capabilities, repair systems, mass nullifiers, and multiple other internal suit systems.
The suit gave Erwin his health condition. He had multiple fractured bones, luckily they were only cracks of varying degrees. Except for the broken leg, his left fibula was completely snapped. Which would explain the excruciating pain. He also had multiple torn muscles, and tendons. So overall Erwin was feeling like shit.
Erwin groaned.
"Oh look at the bright side. You're still alive!" Ares said.
Ares had a terrible sense of humor.
Erwin lifted himself off the ground. The suit locally locked around his left calf, to allow some degree of mobility. Still hurt like a bitch, and he's going to have a slight limp.
Erwin took off his helmet and placed it on the left side of his waist.
Erwin looked around and noticed he was in a green field. He looked behind him, and his eyes widened.
In front of him, only a few dozen kilometers away was a city with towering structures, and a few domes.
"Wow. Not exactly Imperial City, but beautiful." Erwin said.
Erwin was at the edge of the city, as the towering structures gradually phased out into the field. Looking closer he noticed a few blue-skinned Humans with tentacles on their heads. They were just enjoying nature, Erwin was in a park. There were a few regular-looking Humans and some unknown aliens.
Erwin was tense seeing the aliens mingling among the Humanoids. He had an urge to grab his assault rifle from his back and start popping off rounds.
"Permission to dig for information?" Ares asked Erwin through his neural lace.
"Granted."
Erwin also looked for information by looking for any signals across a broad spectrum. What Erwin found was testing his sanity.
"That can't be right. I know we're not in a simulation, or dead. So, what the hell is going on?" Erwin asked out loud.
"Welcome to a different Universe, Erwin," Ares answered.
Erwin closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths. After a few minutes of meditation, he opened his eyes again.
"Well, guess it's better than dead," Erwin said, smiling slightly.
"There you go, that's the spirit!" Ares agreed.
A few hours later it was dark, and Erwin walked through the city streets. He got quite a few looks, but not nearly as many he was expecting to get. Especially since he was an eight-foot armored Human. He had the Krogan to thank for that. Some of those guys got even bigger than Erwin.
It was odd, the city had many different alien species living together. Well, ones that weren't part of a massive cult. The difference between this Civilization and the Covenant was night and day.
Erwin concluded that the Asari were Humanoid. They could successfully mate with Anglians, he just knew that. It was instinctive. However, they couldn't with baseline Humans. Therefore they were considered Humanoid, not Human.
This Universes' Human culture was quite a bit softer than Erwin's. They were undeniably Human. The fact they're expanding so quickly is proof of that. However, their culture was xenophilic. Then there was their view of war, they were very peaceful. Everything else was pretty much the same, it was basically just cultural differences.
Looking around the city, it seemed the Asari was in the majority. The Asari were quite beautiful, and the fact they were a female-only Humanoid race intrigued him. They had a funky reproductive system to allow only one sex to exist. The Asari were also pretty psionically powerful, but not nearly as powerful as Anglains or Imperial Humans. There was one thing Erwin appreciated about the Asari. They were all hot as hell.
He glanced at a few Asari that were looking at him and giggling.
Yeah, Erwin could get used to this city.
"Erwin, I found something concerning."
Ares's tone was serious.
Ares shared with Erwin through his neural lace.
"Reapers."
Some people on the street overheard him and looked at him questionably. He gave them a friendly smile and waved, they smiled back.
Erwin rolled his eyes at that. The armored and armed, eight-foot Human was normal, but God forbid he talked out loud.
"I had a feeling that element zero was bad news. These primitives think it's just another element. I thought the existence could be chopped up to a pre-existing race that used a form of Dark technology." Erwin thought to Ares.
"We need to figure out what's going on. This Commander Shepherd was the most vocal about the threat. However, he passed away a year ago." Ares informed Erwin.
Ares sent Erwin the information through the neural lace. John Shepard lost his family at sixteen to the Batarian raiders. He was the war hero of the Skyllian blitz and tracked down Saren. However, a year ago the SSV Normandy was lost. John Shepard included.
Shepard's theories on the Reapers were very worrying. Behind closed doors, Shepard told Alliance brass it was an unknown synthetic race. He told them they were the reason the Parthians were extinct. He left the details bare, which made Erwin curious about what Shepard really saw. He told the public and council an even more bare-bones story, but one that still relayed the threat.
"Shit. This could be a Civilization farm. The flood did that with a couple of planets. This however is on a whole nother scale. The amount of planning and the technological prowess a race would need is terrifying." Erwin thought.
"It could explain the existence of element zero. That stuff is littered all throughout the Galaxy. I just assumed the race that created it didn't know much about Dark Technologies. It's very inefficient for something like Dark Matter fuel. It also gives off some funky readings, based on the test these Primitives ran on it. The damn material is giving them a skewed outlook on the Universe. Their Physics is wacky at best, they basically cut off all fields of research that don't have to do with this Element Zero, and the only noticeable weapons they have are micro ballistics." Ares seemed to agree with Erwin's theory.
"The weapons are very advanced for a Primitive civilization. Hell, in enough quantity they could be a threat to us. However, it's a dead end. They just won't be able to develop highly advanced weapons, armor, or shields, not with their understanding of Physics." Ares continued.
"The Energy production aspect of all this is most worrisome. The energy they produce with these Dark Tech reactors is laughable. Imperial fusion reactors could put them to shame. They have fusion technology, but they have no will to properly advance the technology. The amount of time and money needed to advance their fusion technology to the same level as Imperial reactors is just senseless for these Primitives. Why invest so much when you already have this available technology that is superior in every way? Energy is the biggest aspect of this, they just simply cannot perform certain tasks that there already technologically capable of." Erwin expanded on the theory.
"So give them a modified form of Dark Matter that lets them develop Dark Technology quickly. Effectively stamping out all other routes of development. Then what? Just kill them all? Why do all this?" Ares contemplated.
"For now Ares, consolidate power. You have free reign to do whatever you deem necessary to increase our Political, Cultural, and Economic influence." Erwin told Ares before he ended the speed of thought, conversation.
Erwin looked around him. He saw all the technology around him, how they all just blissfully enjoyed the city nightlife. They were children playing with guns, never truly understanding how it worked. They just knew it went bang.
Having a Galaxy using the same technology did give an interesting result. There were more advanced species with the Dark Tech, but overall everyone was on an equal footing.
The Humanoids, Humans, and Xenos of this Galaxy created a somewhat cooperative Galatic community. Normally how that worked was one apex species unified either the entire Galaxy or large sections of it. Erwin supposed it could be done naturally too, it'd just required an apex species willing to share power and technology.
It was just one more thing weird about this Galaxy. Andromeda had the San'Shyuum, the Milky Way had the Anglians, and Rivendell had the Ilythiirian and Ayleian. All were hegemonies to some degree, each one having an apex race. If you could choose one to be under, you'd probably want the Ayleids or Anglians, they had set up systems with the most freedoms. Even in those systems, there was no question on who was the apex race.
Political unions with multiple Xeno races, each with equal representation and rights, seemed like a recipe for disaster. Without an apex race, stability would always be shaky at best. The cultural aspect of such a system, considering the amount of intermingling between races, was off-putting to Erwin.
The idea of Aliens living alongside Humans was odd to Erwin. Actually, it was almost repulsive.
Two Humanoid species and this Universe's Humanity calls this Galaxy home. Erwin couldn't say he cared too much about the other races, they were Xenos. A lifetime of war drilled into Erwin's head, the reality of Xeno relations. The greatest mistake someone can make is to attribute Human attributes to Aliens. Sure some may have Human attributes, but that doesn't mean they're Human.
Humans were the only species to be distinctly Human, along with Humanoids. The further away one got from Humanity genetically, the more Alien they acted. Batarians are most likely related to Humans, but Erwin would never call them Humanoid. He could feel by just one look at their females, they were not compatible with Anglians.
The Batarians became harsh slavers, raiders, murderers, and rapists. The last one particularly angered Erwin, to have Xeno's take Human females for pleasure slaves. It almost made Erwin want to help the Reapers. If Erwin was doomed to be in this Galaxy forever, he'd definitely fix that problem.
He couldn't perform an exterminates without the Emperor approving the motion put forward by majority vote from the Imperial Congress.
A wicked smile graced Erwins lips.
That doesn't mean he couldn't get close. He could just keep a backwater colony afloat. Make them live like the stone age primitives they acted like.
Erwin closed his eyes and meditated for a few seconds.
He opened them again, as the bubbling rage died down.
Erwin thought about it more. This Galaxy goes against a lot of Erwin's beliefs. Erwin understood he wasn't in his Universe, and there was a good chance he'd never see the Empire again. So Erwin was hesitant to enforce anything. It didn't mean he didn't want to. The Reapers and Imperial law complicated things.
The bigger issue was dealing with these Reapers. From what little information out there they seemed like synthetics, but this indoctrination sounded like a psionic ability. To this day no one was able to endow psionic powers upon clones, machines, or any other form of created life. Not even the Forerunners found a way around that, you were born with it. Somehow only naturally born lifeforms had any chance of one day awakening the mysterious powers of psionics.
The Reapers clearly had malicious intentions, but Erwin had no idea what they were. He had options, Erwin could just leave this Galaxy. He had no loyalties to even the Alliance.
He'd just have to build a ship, get some genetic samples from this Galaxies humans, and leave. He could just let the Reapers play with their little petri dish.
Did Erwin want to fight for these soft Primitives? That was the million-dollar question. Erwin was lost in thought when something grabbed his attention like a vice grip.
It was a primitive and unconscious psionic call. It would probably be drowned out by the much stronger psionic presences and their own unconscious projections. Normally Erwin didn't detect any of those psionic projections, but this one broke through his natural mental shields. He didn't have any of the more powerful ones up, those were for certain dark situations.
Erwin latched onto it because it was undeniably human, scared, and innocent. He felt that same feeling multiple times during the War. It was a young Human child calling out for help.
Anglians were more than human but at the same time one hundred percent human. It's actually considered degrading to refer to Anglians as something other than Human in the Empire. They were referred to as a nationality, much like the Chinese or Germans.
Anglians were the result of a merging between the Emperor and Empress, and what would be considered the royal family of the Percusors. A complex history and even more complex chain of events stretching long before the birth of Erwin's Universe led to it. Perhaps it was destiny. Anglians were immensely powerful and intelligent but were still Human.
This meant Anglians were still naturally protective of Human children.
No one would call Erwin compassionate, he was actually brutal and ruthless even by Imperial standards. Erwin left a trail of death and destruction for the Xenos the likes of which few Anglians could match.
However, Erwin was an Anglian, and by extension Human. He just heard a child call out for help, and even with his darker tendencies, he couldn't ignore it.
Anglians were naturally in tune with psionics, they could detect the smallest of disturbances if they were looking for it. It was hard not to pick up on a cry for help like that. No matter how hard an Anglian male was, they always had that level of protectiveness for Humanity. That was also the sole reason Erwin was debating about just leaving, and not just doing it.
It wasn't that Anglian females didn't have it, but the males were the ones to act on it. There were fundamental differences between the Anglian sexes due not only to them being Human, but a large part came from the Precursors. Anglians were Human, but they were also Precursors, the Human part just happened to be dominant.
Every Anglian male would probably have answered that psionic call too, but Anglian Warriors were extreme in stamping out the threat. The Humanoids in the Empire had a name for Anglian Warriors due to that protectiveness combined with their ruthlessness.
So, like his forefathers and brothers, Erwin answered that little call for help.
Erwin walked down the streets with purpose. The beings that would normally just ignore Erwin now backed away.
That little cry didn't know how lucky it was. The ones that caused it didn't know how unfortunate they were.
A Dark Angel was on its way.