Disclaimer:

Warhammer 40K is the property of Games workshop

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware

Authors Note

1. So I changed the timeline in the last chapter, not much but i added a few more days to the timeline because i got some ideas later on which i added into this and the next chapter.

2. If anyone knows any info/ designs on pre ME1 shuttle designs of council races let me know.

3. Hope you guys can recognize the movies which i base the next two chapters on ;)

4. Yes, the imperial interiors are based on the SpaceHulk game.

CHAPTER 05 – INTERLOPERS

Location: Paz system, Vallhaland Threshold

Timestamp: Citadel year 2137, +10 minutes since entering Alien wreck

In the empty and airless corridor of a derelict starship, a band of interlopers were cautiously making their way through it, at the head of the band the Former Asari commando and five pirates that made up B squad."Morlan, take point" Jas'la ordered a young Salarian to move up. Jas'la took a moment to examine the short corridor as they went in, the corridor was devoid of anything, beside a thin frost of ice and crystals. There was enough mass in the behemoth to create its own micro gravitational field for the ice and debris to fall into and collect. But looks like that the decompression had sucked out anything or anyone that wasn't bolted down out of the ship and into the cold void of space. Harsh shadows moved with the interlopers as the lack of air was not diffusing the light from their flash lights and the infrared sensors on their helmets only showed hard cold metal as far as they could detect, the ship was cold as a tomb.

Jas'la and the other pirates entered the end of the passage and into what seemed to be an antechamber with a large open two story high pressure door. As the squad spread around she inspected the wall of the antechamber. Two other passages connected to it beside the one they entered, they were dark and her stab lights couldn't illuminate the ends of them, keeping an wary eye on them, she inspected the wall of the antechamber, for the first time she saw something that was something other than a blank metal wall, it looked like a mural, one that depicted a scene akin to the murals she had seen in the temples of Athame as a child, but the iconography had a distinctive alien in origin. The images figures weren't clear as the mural had been casted with the metal wall it was a part of and a thin layer of frost covered the metal surface. But she could make out that an armored figure was holding a flaming sword over a fallen figure. She tried to wipe away the frost, her hand swiped past the fallen figure when…

BANG – a deep reverberation moved through the floor and up her body, causing her to reflexively jump back and turn around with her shotgun primed in her hands.

"Gorlon, you dumb piece of shit." Hakor, one of the Batarian grunts yelled. The young Salarian in question had knocked over a metal crate, spilling its contents unto the floor. Jas'la slowly depolarized her visor to give the hapless Salarian a death glare, who in return cringed behind his visor. Jas'la proceeded to inspect the fallen crate. It was filled with what she could describe as farming equipment and other tools she couldn't make a good guess of.

"Delan, come here and scan them for anything of worth" she ordered the sole engineer in the team to scan the equipment with his omnitool. "Simple tools but the alloys in them are exceptional, ma'am. Could make a good buck in selling these alone" he said with a hint of fascination as he traced with his gloved finger a skull shaped symbol.

"Good, add a marker for later collection, we will come back once we made a good clean sweep of this area. Who knows we might find something worth more inside." Jas'la explained over the squad comms. Turning to the sole engineer "Delan, what else have the drones have found out in this area?" the Salarian opened his omnitool to show a map that the drones have made so far. The other passages seem to lead into a warren of passages that lead to a series of interlinked chambers. While the massive door opposite them seems to lead into single large room. And it was only when Dalen zoomed out to show the rooms that the drones have mapped overlaid with the approximate ship dimensions did she realize the sheer volume of ship she had to explore

"Shit boys, looks like we might be here for a while" A series of nervous chuckles rang through the squad channel. With that moment of levity Jas'la motioned them to collect a sample of alloy and make their way through into the cavernous compartment ahead. They made their way under the oversized doorway with Batarian grunts taking flanking positions before she walked in, once inside once in less than a few minutes she was taken aback by the scale of the space they were in, the room was rectangular with the volume of an industrial warehouse that would only be possible on a planet. She looked up to see the ceiling was crisscrossed with what seemed to be gantries. Even then her flash lights couldn't illuminated the ceiling properly, such was the height. Even the grunts seemed taken aback with the scale of it. "All right boys get your head in the game and fan out carefully" she chastised the squad for not keeping their eyes properly fixed to their surroundings, such rookie actions can get them easily in trouble and killed.

"Boss, you got to check this out." Came the voice of Mal'lak their heavy weapons operator. Jas'la moved towards him to see at what he was pointing the flash light of his Revenant at. At first she thought it was some series of massive circular plates flush to the main surface with a weird skull motif in the center and were equidistant from each other. But once she craned her neck back and took a few steps back did she realized that they were.

"That's one bigass truck, boss" went Mal'lak craning his neck up to the cabin of the "truck'. Jas'la panned her light to see the other vehicles laid out in rows, some were of the same type of the three story truck infront of them, some had massive dozer blades and the others were smaller with two sets of wheels with dozer blades embedded with drill bits. "Looks like construction vehicles" came the voice of Delan behind her, the Salarian bringing himself next to her "Ma'am, I think it's safe to assume that we are on a colony ship." He said while pulling up the map on his omnitool. "So far we have found construction vehicles, farming and other tools and judging from the size of the ship we could assume that it's a colony ship….but the problem is where the colonist are …"

BANG- came another reverberation that was muffled by the lack of atmosphere but was still felt by the vibrations in the floor plate.

A string of curses flew from the squad channels particularly aimed at a clumsy Salarian. But no reply came from said Salarian. Jas'la looked at her Command suite in her HUD to look for his vitals… they were there, spiked but there. "Somebody get a visual on Gorlan" she yelled. Soon enough she, Delen and Mal'lak moved with their weapons ready and moved towards Gorlans last known location. A heavy barrel was laying on the floor its liquid cargo frozen solid enough to create the heavy reverberation. Behind it was the fallen form of Gorlan, he was alive and was silently staring into a mound of debris that he had tripped over. "Gorlan, why the fuck weren't you answering the comms" she yelled. And only when Mal'lak shown his light on the mound did she realize why the young hapless Salarian was paralyzed in shock. Infront was them was something that could have been only described as an unholy union of flesh and metal. A frozen and near emaciated figure of an alien lay prone to the ground with mechanical appendages crudely & invasively grafted on to the being body. Bits of pallid flesh were visible in-between the various machines that dominated the ungainly form from which a cable extended from it and into a niche in the wall that fit the proportions of the abomination. Probably preventing it from being sucked out during the decompression and leaving it on the floor where it is now. Panning her light to shed light on several more niches filled with restrained cyborgs. All frozen in place, with metal optics staring silently ahead into the compartment.

"Looks like something the Lysenthi would do" Delen made a comment on the squad channel. "The what?" went Hakor, "Salarians with a boner for genetic and cybernetic body modifications," Delen explained, "they exiled themselves into the Terminus, but this is beyond what even we say to scare hatchlings".

The former commando hardened by a few centuries of skirmishes and brutality was unnerved by the display infront of her, she didn't know if this was one of their criminals or a slave caste. But her opinions of them took a steep dive right then and there. Bio-conservatism has become an ingrained aspect in many citadel cultures, the Geth rebellions only reinforced that even further. "Still take samples and record whatever you can. And then meet me at the next cargo door" their leader ordered with a tone of disgust.

She opened a channel to the Red Nebula "Boss, are you seeing this?"

"So you found them too?" the image of her captain was imposed on her HUD. The captain had a look that bordered on a look of worry or annoyance. "The other squad found a ton of them in the engineering area. Just lying on the floor or in booths like your ones. So far no sign of activity which is good. The last we need is these things to come alive and try to assimilate us into them or something" Jas'la captain trailed off with a laugh.

"So what do we do boss? Take one aboard to sell to a Salarians or the shadow broker agents or something"

"No, not yet leave them as they are now. Selling one these would bring too much heat on us. Just find stuff we can sell without getting into trouble." She took a breath "and once we have control and maybe re-power the ship perhaps, right now anybody could take this find away from us."

Jas'la thought about it for a moment, understanding her captain's proposition. "Understood, we will explore until we reach bingo air and make our way back." The captain gave her a look, "I don't want you to push yourself or your team too much, remember that we don't have men to spare"

"Copy that" irked at the chastising directed at a former commando. Even by another. She opened the channel to her squad.

"Alright, to the next compartment. We still have a crap ton of ship to check".

Location: Aurem Ignis, High Orbit over Tribute, Fatum system

Timestamp: + same time, waiting arrival of council diplomatic team

Magos Alexie Landus was a happy tech adept, the years with the rogue trader had exposed to so much knowledge and mysteries of the galaxy. He had examined the Tau's technology and their use of Abominable Intelligences, the wraithbone constructs of the Eldar and unsanctioned tech of the Diasporex and others.

Yes, the Xenos mechanism is the perversion of the true path.

Yes, the soulless machine is the enemy of all.

The warnings of the cult mechanicus had rung like the bellows of a god-machine in his core processor in his early years as an initiate. But unlike his compatriots on his forge world who clung to the warnings of the Omnissiah as his core teachings instead of the mysteries, limiting themselves in endless drudgery in forges and ships. for him it was the mysteries that had always been paramount and the warning were meant to prevent the eager and curious from falling into damnation. For it is written…

Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

Comprehension is the key to all things.

The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

He was no longer an initiate of the cult, blindly consuming the data packets sent by his betters. He wanted to follow the path of the Archmagos Lexell Kotov, to search for the gifts and mysteries of the deus machina in the stars. His path, his desire for knowledge, to understanding and comprehension had given him perspective, perspective that had gotten him exiled.

But now he was happy again or as close as he could be from human baseline. The initial data package had been a mistake on the part of the xenos, As an Architect could read a space and layout of a building and discern its nature and sophistication, Alexie had seen the primitive and inelegant codding architecture of the xenos. If their entire digital infrastructure was based on a similar base, he could perform unleash his data scavengers and djinns alone to cripple them and he wouldn't need to lift a proverbial finger. A feat which he was silently achieving.

During the diplomatic conversation between the xenos and the Lord Captain he was able to piggyback on the carrier wave each time to piggyback to the alien ship and integrate himself into the xeno cogitators onboard. He wasn't surprised to find that the xenos lacked machine spirits, the tau had prepared him for that. The digital handshake protocols identified him as a native program of the ship and soon he began looting.

Location: Paz system, Vallhaland Threshold

Timestamp: Citadel year 2137, +1 days later

And a crap ton of ship was left indeed. Jas'la and B Squad had moved on into the deeper into the ship. After days of exploring empty compartment after compartment, finding more cyborgs, unknown equipment, cargo holds and trinkets. But they were already pushing their logistics and had to return to before the oxygen ran out. The rebreathers in their suits could only extend their stay only for so long before risking hypoxia. After making their way back to the breach. They had boarded one of the shuttles back to their ship to resupply and recuperate, once onboard the captain had notified them that one of the shuttle pilots reported another access point on the dorsal tower of the ship. Assuming that the bridge would be located nearby, she and her squad was redirected to a shattered glass dome that might have been some kind of observatory or viewing dome. Dropping in from the shuttle they entered a new section of the ship. From initial impressions it was definitely more luxurious compared to the bare cargo areas they first entered. There were some kind of wood paneling on the wall. Bronze accents on the edges, more intricate murals and etchings on the surfaces and she passed through some areas she definitely saw stonework and marble on a starship. They were definitely getting somewhere now.

Jas'la couldn't but think that whoever the shipwrights that built this dame thing went out of their way to bevel and etch designs and motifs into every edge and corner in the blasted ship. As if they treated a space faring vessel as a monastery or temple, more icons and murals were dotted in even distances or in junctions, some showed armored figures in triumphant stances while some showed a double headed avian creature. The only things that reminded here that she was definitively in a vessel of some kind was the occasional ornate pipeworks, bulkheads and the open pressure doors they had passed through. Which was weird usually pressure doors would lock into place if an atmo breach was detected in any ship regardless of origin. It was common sense. But every door that they passed through was open. It was like someone forced the doors open and intentionally opened the rest of the ship into space.

"Jackpot!" Hakor grabbed a gold inlaid goblet and eyed it. They soon found themselves in a what she could described as a luxurious stateroom, that she you would find in a luxury cruise liner that her crew had once boarded once. The room was grand in dimension, alien tapestries hung on the wall, trinkets and baubles were floating aimlessly above the marble floor in microgravity. It had piqued their interest as it was the first room, they found that wasn't open. After thermals showed no heat signatures behind it. They breached the door with a breaching charge that Mal'lak had placed. And with an audible giddiness to his voice. "One less door coming up, Breaching…. now!" the door had been blown out instead of inward with the trapped air being sucked out in to the vacuum. After a good thirty minutes inside, everyone left with a few more souvenirs that they had when they went in.

"Ma'am, the drones have found an elevator core ahead of us" Delen's voice came through as they moved through what would have been the living compartments of the higher hierarchy of the ship's crew or guests that were onboard. Moving from the wood paneled passageway and through an ornate pressure door. True enough they entered the mezzanine of a three story lobby with two mezzanine floors and a void in the middle. To the right was an ornate opening that opened into the elevator shaft, with no carriage visible. But that took the spotlight was the window that was subdivided into four panels placed inside intricately detailed but thin metal frames. Starlight filtering into show a vista of the star field outside the ship.

"Damn, somebody knew how to live in style" Gorlan voiced filtered through the comms with a hint of awe. "Don't get to close or you'll break the glass" came in Hakor as he slapped Gorlan's helmet casually. Gorlan in response made a gesture with his hand that would have questioned Hakor's ancestry in Batarian culture. A round of muffled laughter permeated the squad channel, until Jas'la had to rein in the bantering. As she silently signaled her posse to moved toward the elevator core. Peering inside she or her thermals couldn't make out much.

"Delen, did your drone map the shaft out?" she asked. The Salarian held up his omnitool, displaying the rendered image of the shaft that the drones LIDAR had mapped out. "It appears that all the doors were open thought the shaft, however vented the ship had probably opened all the elevator shafts as well to expedite the venting."

"Well that's good for us, No survivors for us to deal with and makes it easy for us to move through the ship. These pressure doors and bulkheads looks way tougher than the materials we use, I had to use a lot of composite charge to blow through the last door." Mal'lak explained.

"Mal' stop complaining. You always use more charge anyway" Jas'la interjected. Earning her a grunt of disapproval from him. "Hakor, move up and to the highest door. If there's anything these aliens are consistent in is that the important stuff is on top." A swift "Yes ma'am" came from the Batarian as he disengaged his mag boots and moved into the lift shaft and then upwards.

The squad reformed at the top most level. They found themselves in another lobby. Less grand and no window. The only opening beside the lift door was an opening that led to a narrow passageway that led to another closed door. Hakor was already stepping through the threshold of the passageway only for Jas'la to stop him with a gentle biotic pull.

"Delen, send a drone out and check for traps will you". She said while giving the hapless Batarian a glare that made him cringe behind his helmet. Once the drone made its way down the passageway unmolested to the door. Jas'la stepped over the threshold, carefully made her way after the drone while keeping an eye on the walls and floor. Once reaching the door. "Mal' I need a breaching charge here" bringing the Batarian over to place a breaching charge and both of them and the drone made it back unscathed to safety. "Fire in the hole" Mal'lak yelled as he blew the charge. The detonation could only be felt through their feet in the vacuum. The directed plasma cut an Asari sized hole in the metal pressure door causing the cut door section to be thrown into the passageway with a rush of air pushing it in their direction, indicating that there was an atmosphere behind the door.

"Mal'lak, take point, Hakkor and Gorlan cover his sides" she barked as they barreled down the corridor and emerged in one of the largest bridges that the pirates had seen. "Clear" came the signal and Jas'la and the rest of the squad followed their comrades into the bridge of the alien wreck. allowing the two Batarians and Salarian to move deeper into the space while she stood guard near the entrance.

They had emerged from one side of the bottom level of a three stories high, rectangular bridge. Floor to ceiling windows dominated three side of the compartment framed similar to the window they had seen in the elevator lobby several floors below. Giving a spectacular view of the local star field and allowing enough light into the compartment casting dark veils into the rest of the space but to allowing them to see the rest of the compartment even without their optics. Lining the bottom periphery of the windows were banks of screens and machinery of alien make sunken into recessed area of the floor with a central raised aisle in the middle. To their left was a raised platform that dominated that end of the bridge with a throne like structure.

But the throne nearly made everyone thankful that they didn't retch inside their helmets. The entire construct was covered in what appeared to be flesh, frozen in place by the cold temperatures. pieces of flesh were intertwined with metal, pieces of sinuous tissue were reaching into the niches in the throne, flowing into the floor plate and up the adjoining wall. pieces of bone and cartilage were aligned if the growth was forcing its way into the throne rather than from it.

"Boss, what the hell is this?" Hakor's voice rang in her head as she was dumbstruck in place at the spectacle not to notices the shadow descending from above.