A few hours later a small camp had been set up in the hanger while the search for more survivors. More from the Normandy crew had been brought over to help. It took some time for Beskis to explain to his crew, which numbered twenty-five at the moment, but he was able to get them to cooperate.
"So how many more are in there?" Shepard asked Tesc nodding to the open door to the rest of the ship.
"Unknown, right now our priority is the finding of the Inquisitor's team. We were unable to chart a route to them that would have led us to the hanger. With your help we have a greater chance now that you are here." Tesc replied. Shepard didn't know what to make of this woman, she had been told by Beskis that she was indeed a woman. Her entire body was covered in the thick red robe, the only part of her that Shepard could see was the lower half of her face and the metal tentacles that came out from her back. "Question. What are these Reapers that the captain has pledged to fight?" Shepard could tell this had been on Tesc's mind since the word had come up.
"They are massive ships… although compared to your ship they don't look so massive. But they are machines that come every fifty thousand years and wipe out all life that is too advanced for them why I haven't a clue."
"They are AI then?" Tesc said appearing to very watchful of what Shepard was saying.
"Yes."
"I see…" Tesc said clearly think this new information over.
"Now my turn, what the hell are you?" There was a few moments of silence before Tesc responded.
"I am a Magos of the Cult Mechanicus."
"And what is that?"
"That's not how the game is played."
"Oh… you got me there." Shepard smiled at the dry wit of the woman. "But you kinda cheated."
"What is the Systems Alliance?" The Magos as she called herself said trying to avoid Shepard's accusation.
"It is the governing body over most the star systems that are colonized by humans. Some colonies are independent or are run by companies but the vast majority are with the Alliance. So it is seen as humanity's nation. My turn. What is the Cult Mechanicus?"
"The Cult Mechanicus is at its core the worship of the Machine God, and the holy quest to understand the Omnissiah this is called the Quest for Knowledge."
"Quest for Knowledge? What kind…" Shepard stopped herself."
"Hm, you get that one for free. We search for the knowledge that was lost, once humanity was in a golden age built by technology, but much of it was lost. We seek this out. But there are rules we must follow in how we go about this. The tenants of the Cult Mechanicus are the Sixteen Universal Laws. These are the Mysteries and the Warnings. The mysteries are one, life is directed motion. Two, the spirit is the spark of life. Three, sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge. Four, intellect is the understanding of knowledge. Five, sentience is the basest form of Intellect. Six, understanding is the True Path to Comprehension. Seven, Comprehension is the key to all things. Eight, the Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all."
"Wow." Shepard was truly shocked by these tenants. "It all sounds… well it makes sense in its own logical way."
"Now for the Warnings, Nine… I should skip this one." Shepard was about to ask why but she didn't want to lose the game. "Ten. The soul is the conscience of sentience. Eleven, a soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah… now that there is no Omnissiah here in this reality this warning has lost its meaning." This seemed to cause Tesc to ponder for a moment, Shepard couldn't tell if she was just thinking or felt sad at the fact her god did not exist in the galaxy anymore. "Twelve, the Soulless sentience is the enemy of all life."
"Yeah, I get that one."
"Thirteen, the knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question. Another that no longer fits with this reality, humanity is still young and so there are no Ancients… but then…" there was another long silence.
"You okay? Damn it, I hope she didn't notice that."
"I am fine, Logic concludes that with no Ancients there is no way to search for their lost knowledge, so we must find the knowledge on our own. This is an interesting development. I will continue answering your question now. Fourteen, the Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients… redundant. Fifteen, flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Machine Spirit." This one made Shepard a bit uncomfortable as she was part synthetic now. "Sixteen, to break with ritual is to break with faith. Those are the cores of my faith. But the Mechanicus plays a practical role in the Imperium. We are the scientists and its engineers, our Forge Worlds produce much of the Imperium's industrial goods. It is my turn."
"Go right ahead."
"What has become of Mars in this Reality?" This question seemed different then all the others, like she wasn't asking for any real information but for personal reasons.
"Oh mars, it was the first world to be colonized and it is where we found the Prothean archives, that jumped our technology by centuries."
"So Mars is still a bastion of Knowledge, good… that is good to hear." Shepard could just barely see a slight smile form on Tesc's face but before she could remark on it Beskis walked over to the two women.
"Alight, my men have been caught up and your crew is helping them get through the ruble. Rogon, the equipment they have is nothing short than a miracle, they have a salve that is closing wounds right before my eyes. I would call it sorcery if not for the fact I knew that to be impossible."
"I see you saw Medi-Gel, that stuff has saved my life more times than I can count."
"If we had such a thing back in the Imperium… this one thing could be used to save the lives of billions of guardsmen." Shepard was a bit uneased by the way that Beskis spoke about the casualties but from what she had heard already it was slightly expected. "Shepard, your men seem to be using tools that defies all notions I had of technology. Rogon you must speak with their engineers later."
"I shall do so now." Tesc said as she began walking over to the Cerberus crew.
"You almost seem giddy." Shepard joked.
"That would describe the way I feel. This truly is a great gift the Emperor has given us, I know so little of this Galaxy and yet what I do fills me with hope. To hope for peace in the Imperium was a foolish and naïve idea, but here it is a true possibility. Word cannot express the joy I feel, I only feel regret over my fallen crew members that had to die in order to give me this."
"I can understand what you feel, I watched my own ship get blown to pieces right before my eyes. It must be hard to see your ship like this."
"It is, I have traveled the star on this ship for more than two centuries… the memories I have I will treasure for the rest of my life."
"Did you say centuries? How old are you?" Beskis laughed at this.
"I am two hundred and eighty nine."
"What?! You look like you could be in your late thirties if that!"
"There are many ways to extend your life in the Imperium if you have the cash to do so. But those are far from reach now. I would say I have about… thirty years before my age starts to catch up with me and even after it should another five or seven years before I die."
"Wow… that's just wow."
"You seem to be saying that a lot."
"Hey, you and me both are feeling it."
"That is true." Beskis laughed and was joined by the Commander.
Koith watched over Beskis and human called Shepard from afar, as one of the few that had a translator implant he was needed to help with the crew of the Traveler's Luck and the Normandy. He had no reason to doubt Beskis story that they were in another reality, the evidence to support this was showing in the Normandy crew. These humans were not hateful or fanatic in anyway. They were a little annoying with their questions but it was understandable.
"I have another one over here!" one of the crew yelled out as he pulled a half alive woman out of the wreckage.
"With that we have thirty, the black suited human and the blinded one should be on the other side of this hallway. With the new humans help we should reach them soon. Rogon is currently on the path to the apprentice. Once we save them we will pack up what we can and head to the new humans' ship." Koith was in deep thought when the sound of crashing metal broke his train of thought. He turned back to see the ruble had collapsed on itself clearing the way to Koith's targets. The Normandy crew took the lead as it was found out that Beskis' crew's las-guns couldn't function in this reality physical laws. When one of the crew tried firing his las-rifle the power pack melted from the discharge of heat. Koith didn't see the need for the guns, it wasn't like there were any hostiles on the ship.
"We have movement up ahead." One of the new humans said holding his gun up ready to fire.
"Put that away, if he sees you doing that you'll be dead before you can even blink." Koith said as he pushed the gun down. "Vindicare! I know it's you!" A shadowy figure started moving out in to the crew's lights, he was wearing a full black body suit and had a finely crafted sniper rifle and pistol on him, over his shoulder was another unconscious man.
"About damn time." The man said as he passed Koith and the crew.
First officer Gesgina watched over the unpacking of crates and supplies in the Normandy's hanger. She was the one that was overseeing the transfer of supplies from her ship to the new one. She had never thought she would have needed her translator implant being around humans all her life but it was something that would make her look good on her file. It must of helped her get on General Beskis' crew. She like him was a former guardsmen and would always know him General.
"I think that's the last of them for this trip." The man that came with the one Beskis had spoken to said as he came over. She still had not fully trusted this to be the best move, while they were human these people were an unknown.
"Yes, I think the space in this ship will be able to hold what we have salvaged from our ship." Gesgina said trying remain formal in her speech.
"So what's the story, with your ship I mean. I've never seen a dreadnought that big before."
"Dreadnought, no this is a repurposed heavy cruiser. The largest of the Imperium's warships are its battle ships that are at the very least a third larger than the Traveler's Luck." The man gave back a look of utter disbelief. "But your ship is impressive too, it is not always size that matters." Upon hearing this some of the Cerberus crew began quietly snickering. "Did I say something funny." Gesgina said to the crew members, giving them an ice cold stare that made them freeze up with fear.
"No… not at all." One of the crew said as Gesgina walked over.
"No what?" The first officer had her had on her saber.
"No mam."
"Better, your men could use some work operative. I've met gretchin with more back bone." The woman said as she walked away leaving the crew to feel the intense disappointment radiating off Jacob.
It had been three days snice Sho had a proper meal, or anything for that matter. When the ship had crashed he was in the archive room. He loved history, he always did. This came from the stories his grandfather told him. About battles fought long ago, Sho's favorite parts were why and after. The fighting was nice, but it felt empty if he didn't here why the two sides were fighting, and what happened after was always needed. He had to know, it would nag at him all through the day until he found out. It was no surprise when he was admitted to the archive division of the Administratum, but what he thought would be a dream turned to be a nightmare. He spent months destroying history, he of course read as he did so but for the stories to be never told again hurt him. But one day he was saved when Inquisitor Faren plucked him out, he had needed someone to write his reports for him and act as a scribe. Sho was grateful for this, and soon he traveled around the galaxy to new and wondrous places. Learn as he went, and when he saved the life of his master from a Xeno's gun the Inquisitor took him on as an apprentice, among three others but he out lasted all of them. Until now that is.
"That damn xeno lover, he did this. This junkyard reject of a ship couldn't even make it through a normal and predicted warp jump." Sho said as he crawled through the ruble of the ship. "I hope he died along with his ship… but I do hope Sir Faren survived." There was a sound that came up ahead. It was like a chainsword but with more power. "It must be the Tech-Priest's power axe! Good, they found me. Over here! I'm just… agha!" Sho yelped as Tesc's power axe cut the ruble just a few inches from his face.
"Sho located, your do not appear to be heavy injured.' Tesc said as Sho was pulled out of the ruble.
"Then why do I feel injured?" Sho snorted as he pushed away the helping crew. "Where is Inquisitor Faren? I need to report to him I survived."
"He is dead." Tesc said bluntly, her artificial voice making the tone even worse.
"What?! He is a member of the Holy Inquisition!"
"They can still die, also Priest Curble has also died."
"That is impossible! Two men with holy protection of the God-Emperor could not have…"
"Correction, the Omnissiah allowed for their death."
"Watch your tongue or I may think you have turn traitor!" Sho said pulling out his sword and holding to Tesc's head.
"Come we must speak with Beskis and Shepard. Now that we have found you all remaining crew within reach are accounted for."
"Within reach? Speak!"
"The ship is incapable of self-movement and is currently drifting towards the system's star, the last of the crew trapped would take longer to get to then we have time."
"We cannot just leave them to their fates!"
"I have run the situation over thirty thousand times, in all of them that we attempt to rescue the remaining crew we all die." Sho was silent at this. "We will now return to the Captain and Commander." Tesc said as she turned to walk down the hall to the hanger.
"Commander?" Sho asked as he followed.
"Yes, Commander Shepard of the Normandy SR2. She has been most helpful."
"Is she Imperial?"
"No… she is of the Systems Alliance."
"When we get back to Imperial space I shall be sure to make the recommendation to try and absorb this Systems Alliance rather than destroy it outright." There was an uneasy silence following this statement.
"Let us join the Captain and Commander and they will explain what has happened." Tesc and Sho walked back to the hanger. By the time they had arrived all the supplies that could have been made any use of had been transferred over to the Normandy.
"Sho! You made it." Beskis said as he walked over to the former inquisitor apprentice. "This is Commander Shepard. She has been most helpful in our rescue."
"You mean I'm doing all the rescuing, hi nice to meet you." The woman held out her hand.
"You have my thanks." Sho said not looking at the Commander but keeping a firm eye on Beskis. "Let us return to Imperial space, we need as the Xenos asked and we brought the ship to its target. We shall collect a new ship and then STC and return to Holy Terra." Sho was surprised at the small laugh he got from Beskis.
"Kid, you can quit with the high and mighty talk. It just makes you look stupid."
"What… how dare you. You are but a Rogue Trader, I am a prospect to the Holy Inquisition and I shall hold myself to the reasonability of it."
"That doesn't mean Grox shit anymore, there is no Inquisition here." With that Sho's sword bolted to Beskis' neck but was caught by Beskis' cybernetic hand. Right now he was thanking the Emperor that this was just a normal sword, unlike his or the Inquisitor's power sword which could have sliced through his hand like it wasn't even there.
"Heresy! I always knew you were a traitor!" The burning hatred in the man's eyes stunned Shepard, she had never before seen such furry in someone. She watched as the metal tentacles coming from Tesc hoisted Sho in to the air.
"Now listen up, we have been given a great gift by his holiness. In thanks for our finding of the STC that will free the Imperium from Warp Travel he has sent us to another reality. One in which peace for humanity is possible. This is his will, your not going to argue with the Emperor are you?"
"To insinuate as such is blasphemous. But you lie, if this was the work of the God-Emperor then Lord Faren would be here and not you." Sho said as he trashed around but not getting free.
"Nope, and you'll find out why later. Shepard, we must leave now. I have already sent Koith with your crew to the Tau's ship to awaken its crew. You and I should meet with the Tau leaders in order to help out their response to this situation."
"Yes, good idea." Shepard said as the four walked and was carried to the shuttle. During the shuttle ride Sho calmed down somewhat but was still being held by Tesc's Mechadendrites. The way to the Normandy was quiet, those they all knew this was because of the anger coming off of Sho and no one wanted to say anything just in case it might set him off. But they were all too deep in thought anyways.
"I wonder how they will react to the rest of humanity." Shepard thought. "They are coming from an entirely different way of life and while it seemed like I real shitty one I can't help but feel worried. I know I'm going have to tell the council at some point… I have to tell them I'm not dead too. That. Will. Not. Be. Fun."
"A whole new galaxy!" Beskis thought. "One were to live is not the same as to suffer. I wonder how their military keeps sharp… most likely pirates or slavers. Shepard had said that the entire military is voluntary and in a galaxy that is not plagued by constant war that might mean people can still live normal lives or even… I have to ask I must. The possibility of it, a soldier returning home after his duty is done. Please Holy Emperor grant me this one wish." Tesc wasn't thinking like the other humans though, her thoughts were centered around the view outside to the void and what was floating in it. The Normandy, it felt different to the Magos. And as they drew closer Tesc could feel why, it had no machine spirts within it. This confused Tesc, the Traveler's Luck still held its machine spirts, but as Tesc recounted her final logs she noticed something in the machine spirts' words, they were final and fading. Like something was draining out of them, then Tesc remember the third question of proof Beskis asked Shepard. There are Chaos Gods, which means there was no Warp, and as a Magos she knew that all things spiritual came from the Warp they were fueled by it. Now in this reality, there was no spark of life in the information she saw wisping and flowing around her, it was simply just there. But then something happened, a flow of Data, bright and eager coiled around Tesc, it gave out several access requests, and maybe out of loneliness Tesc allowed limited access to this data. There was a small burst of data, all in binary. Tesc felt at peace with this familiar way of communicating.
-State identity- Tesc sent to the data in the time a millisecond passed by.
-Identification EDI. Enhanced Defense Initiative- The data answered back. The two began to have entire conversions in the time amounting of seconds. By the time they had reached the Normandy it was as if the two had been friend for years, or as close as two machines could be. It wasn't until a few seconds before the shuttle docked in the hanger that Tesc asked the program the question she had been dreading to ask.
-Request information, clarify is the program classified as EDI an AI-
-Confirm- At this Tesc broke the conversion, ther was a slight pain that ran trhough her cyberimplants but it had to be done. She began rising firewalls upon firewalls as well as any ofer digital defenses she had. Her core huddled like a hurt child in the corner. She began berating herself for began so weak as to allow an Abominable Intelligence into her network. She felt more alone then ever, all around her were flows of information and the only one that had any life to it was something every member of the Mechanicus knows is an affront to the Omnissish. Even as the others walked out of the shuttle she stood motionless.
"Tech-Priest." Sho said to the unresponsive Tesc, as he was still bound by her metal tendrils. "Umm Magos, we have arrived… Beskis! Your pet toaster is malfunctioning!" Sho yelled out to Beskis.
"Sho would you… Rogon? Rogon what's wrong?" Beskis said as he walked back to the shuttle. He had never seen Tesc like this before. "Tesc?" At the sound of her name she lurched forward back to life, then tightened back up at the sight of Beskis.
"Oh… Beskis, I apologize. It won't ever happen again."
"Alright… you can let Sho go now, and Sho if try to kill anyone I'll have Rogon turn you in to a Servitor." Beskis said this but was fairly sure that she couldn't do that but was even more unsure when Rogon looked back Sho with a gleam in her eye. Sho gulped at this and once the Mechadendrites had loosened to allow for him to leave he quickly bolted out of the shuttle. "umm, can you really that here?"
"We would never know until I try." Tesc said as she climbed out of the shuttle.
"We are going leave this topic and not speak of it until completely necessary."
"Confirmed." Beskis sighed, she said this every time she ignored him and his orders. They both walked over to Shepard who was looking over the thirty crew members from the Traveler's Luck.
"So what now?" Shepard shrugged not really knowing hat to do with thirty extra people. It wasn't like the Normandy was filled out and in fact she just had enough to not be considered a skeleton crew.
"I need to talk to them, do you have somewhere we could do this, I know we can't do it here with your men unloading our supplies."
"Yeah, you can use the crew deck, I'll have everyone cleared out." After typing something on her omni-tool, an item that still amazed Beskis and even Rogon. "There my crew should be moving out now, I'll have someone in the elevator to help operate it."
"Thank you Shepard." Beskis switched over to Low Gothic. "Everyone listen up, I'm going to explain things a bit more now that we're safe. Head on into the elevator at the back of the hanger and gather on the Crew deck, I'll be up shortly." Once he was finished speaking the thirty men and women all moved to huddle around the door to the elevator shocking the Normandy crewman waiting to help them.
"Now before you go up there are a few things we need to talk about." Shepard said with a solid and frim voice. "When we were back on your ship you Pledged yourself and your crew to me. Are serious about that or was that a heat of the moment kind of thing?"
"Shepard, you might want me to say I didn't take it lightly even though it looked like it or I was as serious as a Mordian Guardsmen…"
"I don't know what that means."
"… but it was not my choice to make but I still made it gladly. My Emperor loves humanity, even if its not his home reality's humanity and so he sent me here not only as a gift to me but a gift to you. I will follow his orders and help in your endeavor to save humanity from this Reaper threat."
"I guess I have to believe after my little talk with him… I just need to know this is something you want."
"Yes, to save humanity not once but twice, it is a great honor. I am a soldier first commander; I may have been forced to follow the path of a Trader Noble but at my heart I will always be a soldier. And to once again serve under a hero such as yourself, I could ask for nothing more."
"And what about the rest of you?" Shepard turned to Rogon, Sho, the Assassin, the Astropath had been taken to the medical bay.
"I have served under Karet Beskis for many many decades, I shall stand by his side, but I too must also do this first and foremost because it is the Omnissiah's will." Tesc replied. Shepard turned to Sho.
"I shall follow the Emperor's will, even if I don't like it."
"It's as good as I'm going to get." Shepard thought. They all then turned to the only one who had yet to speak, the Vindicare Assassin.
"Thenvas, you still follow me right? Your were in my master's service that mean with him dead you severe me." Sho said impatiently.
"With all due respect, which is none, shut the throne up kid." The assassin said his tone more relaxed, along with it was the sound of experience. Shepard could swear that he sounded just like the old badass cowboys in the old westerns but without the accent. The look of surprise was on all of their faces as the Assassin walked over to Shepard and gave her a salute. "Phantom Thenvas Jorgal reporting for duty mam."
"Holy fucking throne…" those were the only words that had come out of Beskis mouth.
"Watch your mouth!" Sho said back at Beskis. "Thenvas! You're not going to honestly tell me that you're going to serve this heretic?!"
"I said shut up kid, I don't need to take your shit anymore. We are in a new reality and that means my ties to the temple are null and void. So I think I'll sign on with the only person that has the Emperor's recommendation… for a price."
"What?!" Both Beskis and Sho said together.
"Here's the deal you keep me paid and you'll have the best damn sniper as your attack dog."
"Best damn sniper, I have a friend that I'm pretty sure can make you think twice about calling yourself that."
"Did your friend ever shot out the eye of a skull without shattering it from forty kilometers away through think jungle with no scope, because that was my graduation exam."
"Umm… wow. You're hired." Thenvas nodded and began walking over to the now empty elevator. "Wow… that's all I can say."
The rest of the command crew made their way to the crew deck and was able to get all of their crew into the mess hall. The thirty survivors were all seated at the table or on the floor.
"Okay everyone listen up." Beskis began. "I told you all that we missed our intended destination. But I didn't tell you by how much. We are far from the Imperium, we have been taken to another reality entirely." At this there were a few gasps and a few whispers. "Here there is no Imperium but also… there is no Warp, no Orks, no bugs, no heretics. We now live in a galaxy where humanity lives peacefully with Xenos, where life does not know the pain of the Hive cities or of death worlds. Here you are not just a number, not meat to be throw at the dogs of war. But humanity is by no means safe." The crew was hanging on by every word. "There is an enemy, one we have faced in our own reality. Machines called Reapers, they are coming to harvest us like common Grox, for what reason I don't know but don't care! We are the children of the God-Emperor and we will protect the humanity of this galaxy because that is his will!" There were a few cheers at this. "We may be leaving behind old threats but that does not mean there are new ones and just like before we will not sit and wait for them to come and slaughter us! We will stand, and we will fight! But no longer for a crumbling Imperium but for Humanity itself! We will drive back these soulless Machines and we will roar into the void that we will never back down!" The crew did just that, they roared with agreement and applause. Even the Normandy crew who was watching on the monitors cheered. Shepard had to admit, they had spirit and they would no doubt help win this war.
Author's Notes
The pet toaster joke is from A Cynical Owl 's Faith and Wit. The story is good… until the Inquisitor joins Cerberus then it just becomes disappointing. Its like noooooo I want you to be the good guy but no. It shows a bit more of the darker side of the Imperium and that is what's great about the Imperium, it has dark and light sides.
To whoever anon is, I am going with the assumption that you are trying to help and are not being a smartass. I fucking know how the Imperium works, the Emperor knows this shit and that's why his greatest gift is to send someone to other reality. (oh yes he's done this before… try and guess who… eh?) Yes everything the Imperium does is for a reason and they are very good reasons, but the whole point of ME/WH crossovers is bring over the best parts of WH over to a more hopeful setting, or that's what I'm doing anyways. It may be a grim dark future for the Imperium but the Alliance is other matter entirely. Not only that it has been proven that a nice Imperium can exist, the Emperor almost did, mutants were allowed to live and even serve in the guard, some Xenos were allowed as long as they were under regulation, and if he had finished his crusade and the imperial Webway then humanity could basically be like the Eldar without worrying about Murderfucking a god in to being. I hope you continue reading and enjoy my work, but always remember I too am a lore master.
