Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or the various X-COM games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not written for profit. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.

Chapter 1: Vacation, X-COM style

=SF=

Part 6: You shall not pass!

23:45 PM 12 August 2176 AD

Athena District

Olympus City

Elysium

Vetus System

Dealing with the light tank turned out to be anticlimactic. I wanted to kick myself in the ass for not remembering sooner. There was a reason why back during the Etherial war the armored forces weren't particularly useful. Being hidden under tons of armor didn't do a thing to stop a fucking Ethereal or Sectoid Commander who wanted to mind-control you. At the best case, that would get the crew killed. If the friendly troops in the vicinity were particularly unlucky, whoever did the mind-control got themselves a tank to play with.

Now I'm not very good with the pupeteering stuff, which meant I could control a single person at a time. That wasn't particularly big problem in this case. I could sense only two minds in the tank. The one in the cupola, must be the commander, the unlucky bastard. I channeled my power in a single devastating strike. His mental defenses crumbled and I felt his mind breaking under the strain. That happens sometime.

That left me with little recourse than to use him as an inanimate puppet. To do that, I channeled even more power in his brain, sending a part of my mind in there.

For a moment I looked through six sets of eyes before I closed my own, dispelling a bit of the confusion. Then I used the Batarian's hands to pat him down searching for a weapon. Ah, he had a pistol on a magnet clamp on his hip! I took the weapon, which promptly unfolded in his hand and pointed it at the driver, who wasn't sealed in separate compartment. Three shots just to make sure and I was done with the tank. With the commander's mind turned into jelly, I didn't have the knowledge to operate the alien machine so I pulled my mind back and left the empty, drooling carcass.

A few seconds later I was back, controlling my own body. While I was dealing with the tank crew, the marines and one of the SWAT teams had finished the raiders on this flank, though it wasn't bloodless. One of the soldiers, a kid from Eden Prime, had ran afoul of the tank's gun. There wasn't much left from the poor sod. Another was shot in the left arm after his borrowed shield failed under a few too many shots. The SWAT were even worse off. Only two of their five man team were combat capable, with one dead and two critical.

We wasted no time and rushed to aid the other SWAT unit, which had to deal with a short platoon of pirates. Superior technology or not, if they were facing actual soldiers and not this sorry bunch of slavers, the cops would have been overrun by now. It was small mercy that most of the idiots we were facing apparently didn't really know what they were doing, or the enemy commander had the great idea of sending in the dregs first to soften us. That wasn't a happy thought.

When we reached the second SWAT position, we found half the cops on the ground, their black body armor splashed with fresh blood. A civilian had a med-bag open and was working on the wounded, while the last two policemen were providing covering fire. A half-competent enemy would have simply rushed the position and overrun the SWAT unit before we got there. It was a good thing that the damn pirated were anything but.

When we joined the firefight, all hope those Batarians had of forcing the position died. Some of them decided that they had enough and started ex-filtrating, leaving their leading units to our mercy. Needless to say, there wasn't much of it.

"Get me a prisoner or two but take no chances." I ordered.

"Sergeant, we have a problem." Shepard shouted from the left.

"What new disaster is raring its ugly head?" I asked and looked where she was pointing. "Well, shit."

I could see what was troubling her. Three huge forms were making their way towards us. There were many smaller, spiky humanoids skittering around them.

"Krogan and Vorcha." I grunted. Yeah, whoever was in charge of this clusterfuck had sent the idiots to get themselves killed first and now they were getting serious. If the briefing I got during my training was correct, those were most likely Blood Pack mercenaries. Which meant a bunch of angry Krogan herding in almost feral Vorcha as pissed off, flamethrower and shotgun wielding meat-shields.

I looked around. I had nine hale combatants, one walking wounded, and that's it. I glanced at the entrance of the bunker.

"Shepard, go in there and get me whoever knows how to hold a gun. I need volunteers to help us hold this position." I had the feeling that she was up to the job of getting us some help.

"I'm on it." She said and left after glaring at the approaching aliens. Those were couple of minutes away. Hopefully enough time to reduce the remnants of the pirate platoon on our right flank.

=SF=

23:50 PM 12 August 2176 AD

SSV "Tokyo"

Fifth Fleet flagship

Asgard system

Exodus Cluster

Captain Oleg Petrovsky was in the CIC of his ship, running a late night exercise for the newest batch of ensigns that his command had been saddled with. Amelia, the Tokyo's AI was running a simulated battle against a Turian fleet she was controlling. The fresh academy graduates had to run the ship after an accident had incapacitated everyone higher on the food-chain. And they were loosing badly, despite commanding a force that outclassed the Red team in most conceivable parameters. However the simulated bird faces actually knew what they were doing. His brand new sorry excuses for officers, not so much.

Petrovsky glanced at the woman standing at parade rest to his right. She was Lieutenant Gina Ronson and on top of her other duties had the misfortune to be in charge of the ensigns. She controlled her expression well, barely giving a hint of her displeasure with the performance of her charges.

The main holotank in the CIC was showing the simulated engagement for everyone to see. The by the book formation of Fifth fleet was shattered, leaving more than enough room for enemy frigate packs to flank and catch isolated units out of position. Which had a predictable result. While the light ships paid a frightful price, they were able to bring down their quarry, making the breach in the lines even more dangerous. Then two whole cruiser divisions came out of FTL on Tokyo's starboard side which was now without adequate cover. Those were of the new Tempest design, torpedo boats, which sacrificed their spine mount for more launchers and magazine space.

The moment they exited FTL, the cruisers started launching their payloads in spring mode. In less than a minuted the Dreadnought's broadside silenced them, but not before more than two hundred torpedoes were in the air. Point defense did its best, downing about a quarter of the almost point blank barrage. The monstrous barriers of the behemoth held for two dozen hits or so before shattering. Then it was the heavy armor's turn. More than two third of the remaining torpedoes expended themselves in shredding the expensive alloy protecting Tokyo. The rest however had a free reign and buried themselves deep within the decks of the Dreadnought.

"Congratulations, you got my ship wrecked." Captain Petrovsky glowered at the ensigns. "There will be another exercise in three days. I expect significant improvement. Lieutenant Ronson, they are all yours."

"Aye, Sir!" Gina saluted and turned towards her charges, giving them a thin smile. The smarter of them winced when they saw her expression. "Fall in. We are going to have a long debriefing about your performance." She said in a calm voice. If someone didn't know her better, they would have thought that she discussed something as mundane as the weather.

A minute later, the greenhorns were safely away and the CIC was back under the sole charge of its usual crew.

"This is the sorriest bunch of ensigns I've had the displeasure to carry." Amelia's disgruntled voice came from a nearby loudspeaker. Here ethereal form appeared in the holotank, showing a middle aged Japanese woman wearing a Navy Captain's uniform. "They managed to got my whole starboard side wrecked!" She pouted.

"Now, now. You know very well that they stood no chance with you commanding the opposing force."

"Of course not! Still they made almost every possible mistake when facing a top of the line Turian fleet!"

"Lieutenant Ronson will straighten them out. She has a knack for it."

"She'd better, for their sakes."

"Amelia, no prancing the ensigns. Unless they mess up badly in the next exercise too."

"Aww, you are no fun, Captain!"

Oleg shook his head. He was about to leave Commander Jeremiah Stone in charge of the night shift, and calming down Amelia so he could go take some needed shut eye when the AI froze for a second.

"We've got Code Black. Three shuttles came through the primary relay to Vetus and we just got their message. According to their IFF they are from the Frigate Dauntless stationed at Elysium."

"Fuck. Wake the Admiral, set Condition One through the ship and bring the fleet to combat alert. What else are they saying?"

"The cliff notes? Elysium's Defense Grid is compromised. A freighter was used as a Trojan horse to deliver orbital strike on the military base closest to the capital. And there are more than a hundred ships attacking Elysium..." Amelia continued rattling the relevant information, including the destruction of the Dauntless and the possible presence of at least two enemy frigates on the other side of the Relay.

=SF=

23:49 PM 12 August 2176 AD

Athena District

Olympus City

Elysium

Vetus System

Shepard outdid herself. I don't know what she said to the civies, but after just a couple of minutes she came back with more than forty volunteers. I put her and the still unnamed Armorer in charge of her new friends and they busied themselves with getting weapons from the dead and wounded. On the bright side, the few remaining Batarians that were left behind by their buddies were now either dead or captured. The latter were cuffed and stunned, just in case. We didn't need additional distraction with the blood pack coming in range.

At the same time, down-street the Krogan were busy kicking the Vorcha into shape and pointing in our direction. I don't know what the overgrown lizards were planning, however I wasn't going to watch a gift horse in the mouth. Every additional moment they delayed meant another of Shepard's crew got armed and assigned a position. It was additional time for the pair of maintenance folks to try fixing the damn doors for the bunker so the civies could be relatively safe if we were overrun. Further it was time for a bit of reinforcements to materialize from somewhere.

"Ah, that's what they've been waiting for." One of the SWAT guys who had a sniper rifle and was on over-watch in nearby building said over the comm line we shared.

I glanced downs-street. Another pair of Krogan were striding our way. Bigger and meaner looking too. They had another twenty or so Vorcha walking behind them.

I looked at the skies. "What did I ever do to you?!"

A Krogan roared. The Vorcha charged.

I glared at the incoming wave of spiky xenos and took a hold of my Gift. Tentacles of purple energy surrounded me as I used every trick I've been taught to temporally boost my power.

The closest ugly son of a bitch was thirty meters away and closing. Our sniper shot of its ugly head, the headless corpse stumbling on the ground only to be trampled by the rest of the raving lunatics.

I visualized the place where most of the horde would be in just a few seconds.

The rest of the makeshift defense force opened fire, gutting the front row of the Vorcha. The rest of the maddened xenos just kept on coming. At twenty meters they started firing with their shotguns.

Psionic energy surged through my body as I directed it into an intricate pattern. My body pulsed with barely restrained power.

Fifteen meters. The Krogans started a charge of their own.

My head started spinning with from the !br0ken! The world slowed down to a crawl.

"You..." I grit my teeth as it became painful to hold this much energy. "Shall not..." The world was engulfed in a purple haze as if I was looking it through a filter. "PASS!" I roared unleashing all the energy I could pump from my gift.

The Krogans reached the back rows of their Vorcha pets. The very fabric of reality shifted, then broke. A black void opened in the center of the horde, with a hollow purple disc surrounding it.

It was a tiny change. A little thing.

My power touched the minds of the gathered Vorcha and Krogans. Only two of the lizards had the discipline and presence of mind to fight the intrusion. The psionic Rift merely grazed them, finding no conduit. The energy simply glided over them, leaving minor burns which were already healing thanks to their insane regeneration.

The rest weren't so lucky. The Psionic power found purchase in their minds, their bodies becoming conduits.

Reality shifted again, tearing them apart.

I fell to my knees, gasping for breath. The pair of unaffected Krogan were sprinting my way, ignoring the sporadic fire splashing over their kinetic barriers and heavy armor.

I felt a stream of Psionic power and Shepard was there, slamming into the leading lizard. A corona of Psi power exploded around her, sending the Krogan stumbling back. She leveled her Alloy Cannon and pulled the trigger. The armored head of that bastard was torn open by the point blank shot. Just in case, she put a second blast in the alien, then a third.

That was a mistake. The second behemoth was merely slowed down. He pointed his giant shotgun at Shepard, who had her attention firmly on his dying buddy.

I tried to use my Gift to help her, but I was rewarded with the sensation of cold fire running through every nerve of my body. The last vestige of the power surrounding me vanished, leaving me a trembling, helpless mess.

Shepard finally noticed the danger. Her own Gift came to life in a desperate attempt to protect her.

The Krogan shot her in the chest. Instead of tearing her apart, most of the thunderous blast was absorbed by a purple wall that manifested between Shepard and her attacker. Nevertheless she was thrown to her back from the slowed down projectiles, which made a mess of her carapace armor.

The Krogan marched forward, until he was towering above Shepard. He raised a leg, ready to smash her chest. Mass effect rounds bounced off his barrier, while laser bolts merely melted gorges in his heavy armor.

I watched in a slow motion how his leg started descending with all his weight and power behind it.