A/N: So I've reading the reviews and try to take them to use as much as possible. Thanks for the reviews. I hope you will message me any inconsistencies you find in the story. As for the grammar I am looking for someone to help me beta read, but I'm hoping to resolve the matter on my own by studying boring grammar books. Not fun. No one has asked about terms or names, so I'm assuming people that know the Mass Effect Universe are the only ones reading this. This battle is huge so expect it to last a few chapters.
Chapter 4: War never changes...
48,000 BCE: Fall of the Protheans
Prothean civilization
The Protheans, the sole spacefaring race in the galaxy at the time, establish a galaxy-wide civilization linked by the mass relay network before mysteriously vanishing. Their legacy, ruins and technology scattered across many worlds, survives and influences later spacefaring civilizations. Source- Stolen Reaper Data
When subjected to an electrical current, the rare material dubbed element zero, or "eezo", emits a dark energy field that raises or lowers the mass of all objects within it. This "mass effect" is used in countless ways, from generating artificial gravity to manufacturing high-strength construction materials. It is most prominently used to enable faster-than-light space travel.
Eezo is generated when solid matter, such as a planet, is affected by the energy of a star going supernova. The material is common in the asteroid debris that orbit neutron stars and pulsars. These are dangerous places to mine, requiring extensive use of robotics, telepresence, and shielding to survive the incredible radiation from the dead star. Only a few major corporations can afford the set-up costs required to work these primary sources.
Humanity discovered refined element zero at the Prothean research station on Mars, allowing them to create mass effect fields and develop FTL travel. Source- Citadel Galactic Library
Thousands of ships followed by a gigantic oval-shaped spacecraft known as the Citadel, surrounded the fourth planet of the Sol solar system. They halted as they saw a horrible sight on the third planet and its white moon.
The moon was cracked and part of the moon was floating apart from its past circular shape. Before humanity had found the Prothean data cache in Mars, that had advanced their technology a hundred years in a single swoop, humanity had built giant ship building space stations on the moon. Now they were gone. Debris and large clouds of smoke rose into space. Around the moon hundreds of floating spaceships faced the approaching army. They were about three times the size of any organic life form cruiser. The only thing bigger was the Citadel.
Behind the cracked moon lay a gray cloud covered earth. Bright circles shone all over the continents on Earth. Shepard and the remaining Alliance vessels Shepard had gathered, began broadcasting messages to earth. However nothing but static came back.
A message popped on his omni-tool and Shepard pulled it up. It was from the Shadow Broker.
"Dear. Please don't be impatient. Stop sending messages to earth. You are being blocked by frequency firewalls. If they figure out your frequency they might try to feed you misleading information. We will hack their network when you hack your Reaper...be careful."
"EDI tell the Alliance to have radio silence and stop broadcasting messages to earth until I have a Reaper."
"Affirmative Commander."
On the right flank...
Turian General Septimus Oraka, a man of excellent character and well respected by the Turian military, despite having a lapse of stupidity when he begged the consort to marry him two years ago, but Shepard snapped him out of it.
He was in command of the turian Army, and in command of one of the mightiest cruiser ships in the Turian military, Oblivion's Sword. The politicians from their homeworld Palaven, had tried to step in and make them betray the humans, but the council had overruled them.
General Septimus was content with the outcome and now he prepared his armies to lead the assault on the Reapers. Personally he had been looking forward to this battle ever since he heard rumors from soldiers claiming Shepard was crazy and was ranting about imaginary giant robots, called Reapers.
He had fought one of the Reapers in the Council attack and did not consider them too much of a threat. However those Geth and a race calling themselves collectors had been a major pain the ass. He made his unit charge leading with the cruisers.
"Fire when in range." the general ordered. They prided themselves on their tactical genius. Humanity had learned during the Contact War with the Turians, that their weaknesses were arrogance and they underestimated their opponent's strength. Unlike the Krograns, they did not fight relentlessly. But with might and sometimes recklessness.
The Turian oval-shaped battle cruisers began the charge on the right flank. While the asari ships, that looked more like a flying mantaray, covered the left flank. The rest of the Alliance, Salarian and combined species charged on the front.
Super-heated lasers were shot from the Alliance as well torpedoes with element Zero nuclear weapons came from the Turians. The Reapers countered some of the lasers and bounced them off their biotic shields. The Eezo nuclear weapons exploded near them and took out most of their shield, but they continue their advance against them.
"Didn't I tell you to fire continuously?" exclaimed General Septimus to one of his admirals, admiral Kibal. "Ye-ss sir. Fire the trilaser cannons! and the element Zero Missiles!" the admiral commanded eagerly.
"Their armor is too heavy we are not making contact!" replied a soldier through the comms.
The clouds of smoke separated by a gigantic body of four-legged Reaper coming at the cruiser, Oblivion's Sword. General Septimus yelled. "Helm to port! It's going to ram us!" The Reaper came with full force against cruiser, undisturbed by the constant bombardment of lasers. It roared a warcry.
The Oblivion's Sword was crushed from the side as the hull was being ripped to shreds in the impact and explosions within. General Septimus was thrown across the command center and his ribs were broken in the impact, only a few admirals were left alive.
Turian Admiral Kibal was one of the few alive and his face was covered in scars and dark blood seeping out of them. "General are you alright?" Kibal asked rushing towards the commander to help him. Darkness had overtaken the control tower and sparks from holographic consoles were the only light source around them.
The General coughed blood and cleared his throat to be able to breathe in heavy lapses. His hand was shaking in anger and surprise. He could not understand what had gone wrong. The Reaper in the Citadel battle had been a pushover, why had this Reaper crushed his ship with no trouble.
His eyes focused on yelling Kibal, but he could not hear him. His words were muted. Kibal tried to lift up the General, but he screamed in pain. "No! Leave me! Evacuate the ship!" he yelled, for once not thinking about himself.
Kibal refused and tried again to carry him.
"Damn it! admiral, help me up near that console, it was the general's console where he relayed messages and commands. Kibal said a few words, but Grievas did not see his lips, and could not understand him.
"That's an order admiral!" he bellowed in pain around his sides. Blood was drooling from his mouth.
"Damn it just wait a few minutes" he told himself. Kibal helped him up and carried him over to the console. A half-torn holographic image popped in front of him and he began pressing buttons. Kibal set him down next to his console. A few more presses and he could rest. He set what he thought enough time for the injured to escape then pressed the command. Red alarms emitted across all consoles and a VI's female voice spoke.
"Ten minutes until self destruction. Please evacuate immediately."
Kibal was suddenly surprised at the words and angered at what the general had done. He wiped the blood at his face and started shouting at the general. He grabbed the generals armor from the front and shook him, but a his head wobbed like rag doll. His eyes distant and empty.
On the left flank...
The Asari taking the precautionary tactic launched all their star fighter crafts, designed to manuver well in the vacum of space.
One of the few matriarchs to be a star-fighter was major Jela X'tsu, she had been a fighter pilot since she was in her maiden stage and had seen plenty of combat. Her squad the Winded Rachnis had seen action since the Rachni Wars, thus the name.
They were the only squad to survive the Krogan Rebellion. She had personally led a cruiser ship and took down the Overlord Kredrak, leader of the Krogans. She was one of the most decorated soldiers in existence yet she did not like being a cruiser captain so she was now where she felt she belonged, with the Winged Rachni.
Jela X'tsu, better known as "Rach mama" was tense despite her impressive battle record. She had once taken down cruiser by herself, but those things down there were huge about three times bigger than a cruiser ship. She was sure they had biotic fields so she recomended cruisers test their shields.
She comanded the Winged Rachni One, also known as WR1, and was leading the charge of the arrow formation of the WRs. She was ready to engage the enemy so her squad started reporting in.
"WR2 ready!" exclaimed "Crazy legs" Joan O'leni. She was the second in command and one of Jela's lovers.
"WR3 ready and waiting!" exclaimed with a maiden girly voice, "Blue sky" Delas D'turoni.
"WR4 bored." replied a stubborn Asari named Orchan S'er aka "Dark Cloud"
The last one and whom Jela had almost asked to sit this battle out was "Silver Luck" Yuri A'ishna. She was Rach mama's girlfriend. She had been injured in battle and had lost her arm; so she now had a mechanical arm, but she was still capable of flying. "WR5, ready!"
"Follow my lead, seems we gotta test their armor and joints for weaknesses. Nothing is known about the Reapers. Don't do anything stupid and watch your sixes." Rach-mama ordered them.
The WRs encountered their first Reaper and glided around it. They could feel its biotic shield disrupting with their fighters. "Pull starboard, we will engage it with Mach-lasers and tactical explosive spores. OK incoming cruiser disruptor lasers for their biotic shields."
Above them a stunning bright light laser collided with the Reaper in a deafening growl, it seemed to be pushing it back and drained its biotic shield defense. The WRs rushed in testing their armor with lasers and explosive spores. The explosions commenced but their armor was far more tougher than they had anticipated.
It began to swing it's clawed arm at the WRs. "Evasive manuvers!" warned Jela. She plunged into a dive and flew near its belly. The thing looked a lobster, a human food delicacy Jela enjoyed at the Citadel.
Silver-Luck and Crazy-Legs followed after Rach-mama. They avoided another claw swing that struck the Reaper in its belly and let out another growl of frustration. Behind it Rach-mama begin firing on the arm joints. She lauched explosive spores grunting.
"Rach-mama watch out!" The Reaper had become angry and was swinging its sharp long triangulated tail at her. The explosion reached a peak and ripped through the arm separating it from the Reaper. The Reaper howled in pain and moved to destroy Rach-mama, Blue-sky rushed to block the Reaper's path and let her blinding flares fly, while her helmet went dark to block the light.
The reaper howled but charged ahead. "Get out of the way blue sky!" Rach mama roared. But Blue-sky was too late and she was ripped to shreds exploding in the Reapers gigantic snout.
The team shouted in anger and sorrow. With tears of guilt Rach-mama charged aiming at the round dark eyeballs. The Reaper shrugged off the pain and advanced on Rach-mama. Yelps of anger followed Rach-mama as she made her escape.
"Rach-mama to Cruiser XJ9!" she said desperately
"Come in Rach-mama." came the calm tone from cruiser XJ9.
"Fire on the joints they are weak there and can be maimed!" She rolled as a claw came close to crushing her. "Fire now!"
Lasers zeroed in on the joints of the claw arm of the Reaper and after another giant light laser the joint exploded sending debris and the arm floating in space. Another wail of pain erupted from the Reaper.
"All WRs concentrate your fires on its snout when it is open." She flew in close and the Reaper charged forward to bite the pestering tiny starship that was destroying him. At the last second she boosted to starport and missed its snout by a few feet.
Suddenly a barrage of lasers and explosive spores poured into the open snout. The Reaper tried to close its snout too late and light and explosions ruptured the face and made the dark eyeballs glow. The Reaper chewed on the explosions, vomiting fire. More explosions followed within and the Reaper was in engulfed in blasts ripping its body apart.
"Retreat WRs, Dark Cloud send in video data or our tactics to head quarters, tell them Rach-mama tells them to use those tactics."
Dark Cloud did not like being bossed around, but she was saddened by the loss and did not want to talk so she agreed. "Um, roger."
Everyone in the team was down because of the death of a WR member. No member had died in a century. There had been over five-thousand Winged Rachni, that was 2000 years ago, now the last four WRs glided in space awaiting orders from command. Rach-mama cried silently in her starfighter. Blue-sky had been like a daughter to her and now she was gone.
Behind the Citadel...
Capsules about eight feet tall and three wide were being transported near the drop cargo area. While the battle was raging on the plan was to stealthy attach three capsules to a Reaper, enter it and fight the way into its brain.
There the hacker of the group would upload the virus, which would hack the Reapers brain. Whether they could pull it off depended on their luck. Shepard was leading squad Alpha, along with Jack, which had threaten to destroy things on the Normandy if she wasn't allowed to go with Shepard.
Tali and Miranda had both protested, but Shepard was in no mood to argue. He took Legion with him since he was quiet most of the time and could hack any system expertly like Tali.
The signal to charge against the Reapers was ordered by Shepard towards the stunned Council. Asuna D'Carlo was left speechless after she had seen the Reapers images for herself. The other Councilman afraid of their own shadows because of Kasumi, ordered the attack.
The Normandy saw this as an opportunity and went on FLT speed across mars. All the members in the assault team were placed and ready. Joker was in charge of delivering them to the Reaper. He used the gravity of mars to catapult the Normandy towards the moon past the heavy Reaper security.
He turned the stealth systems on and a bright red light illuminated the inside of the whole ship. The Normandy crew was on stand by in case of emergency, but the assault team was the main priority. Shepard felt he could not rely on council so they would try to hack a reaper away from the battle; so they wouldn't be attacked.
Shepard was wrapped on capsule that would be launched convertly withing gliding distance of the Reapers. The turbulence and fast acceleration and deceleration was playing tricks on Shepard's motion perception. A message appeared on his omni-tool and he lifted his arm to read it.
"First turian casualties, the Reapers are not getting stopped and they have begun destroying turian vessels and cruisers. The asari have released their fighters ships and those seem to be more effective. I'm still waiting for a reply to my early questions blockhead. I did not make this five-thousand bit decription code just so that you could ignore me Shepard. Liara."
"Crap I don't feel like texting." he thought. "Omni-tool Shepard, code 221-XDHW-AJK, write what I say." The onmi-tool beeped with a yellow flourecent light in response.
"What do you want me to say Liara? I'm too tense about this mission as it is, to answer personal questions. command-send"
She replied back after a few seconds. "Omni-tool, command, read it to me."
"I can't imagine how tense and nerve-racking it must be there now, but us talking will serve me two purposes, to randomize my frequency so they don't discover we are sending messages and to keep you calm and focused. You know I want you to succeed love."
"would you stop calling me love, please. If Tali finds these messages my head will roll. I have enough trouble with Jack and Miranda."
"You worry too much, besides I doubt Tali will ever be able to crack this encryption. I have four AIs randomizing it and helping me fine tune its encryption codes. A Salarian super-computer could not decrypt it. Since you know you can trust me I have stored a cloaked software within EDI. I have discovered that the Elusive man is tracking your progress and getting updates and sending code to the new Normandy. I have unlocked some of the code and he pretty much has control of the ship if he decided to take it away from you."
Shepard cursed punching the capsule cap. He felt the pull of gravity pull him down and heard Joker's voice. "This is your captain speaking, sorry for the turbulence folks. We are near the moon and I'm evading Reapers as we speak..." he grunted in the intercom " prepare for deployment, Shepard."
Heavy turbulence shook the Normandy and Shepard could only hope Joker knew what he was doing.
"Comand-write, Any way you can find out where he is? I want to pay a visit to him when this is all over. Do you know any way we can disable his control?"
The gravity pulled him upside down and he heard shouts of excitement from some of the capsules. The gravity pull increase to ten G's and a few girls were screaming. Shepard just held on. He wished he was with Tali, she was probably scared by now. "Goddamn Joker, what in the hell is he doing?" He asked himself.
in the cockpit...
Joker was not having a good time despite his upbeat mood. Battles always put him in a good mood for some reason. Maybe because it was the only times he was allowed to put the Normandy to its fullest potential. He was sidestepping Reapers in stealth mode and some of them were bigger than Turian cruiser ships. Every time he avoided collision he had to change course and retreat.
His target was a gigantic long tailed Reaper. It reminded him of a scorpion without a sting. The Normandy dove across two Reapers that were destroying the surface of the moon. Joker had a suspicion that they were ripping the moon apart looking for something. The cloaking of the Normandy had been improved physically as well and it was hard to spot it visually and through radar.
The Reaper rested itself on the moon surface and began firing on the moon with blood red lasers. Explosions erupted across a field of craters sending debris of the moon flying into space. Joker used the tremors of the explosion to attach itself on the Reaper.
"Up to you Shepard." he said out loud. "EDI Launch capsules for Alpha Assault team."
Static emitted and there was a disturbance in EDI's hologram. Even her voice changed for a second. "Capsules launched Jeff."
"EDI, are you alright?" Joker was concerned, if something happened to EDI, Joker could pilot the ship manually, but he was afraid for his AI friend.
"Yes Jeff, I have detected pulsating waves of radiation near the center of the Reaper."
"It's that the central station for the AI, EDI?"
"No Jeff, it actually imitates something humans have."
"What is it?"
"A heart beat Jeff."
Out in the vacum of space...
The fighting had ensued and the Asari military had broken through the line. Their tiny star fighters could surround a Reaper and shoot at it's internal joints and disable parts of the Reaper.
It was up to the cruisers to disable their shields and destroy them, but the Turians were having a tough time keeping the reapers away from their cruisers. Ten percent of the cruisers had been destroyed. Following the lead of the Asari thousands of star fighters flocked out of the cruisers. From afar they looked like flies surrounding an animal.
Shepard's VI controlled by Liara was relaying orders to the three armies. Despite turian's hate for humans, they had to admit Shepard's tactical genius. He was a hero to the Citadel and a natural leader. Instinctively you were drawn to follow Shepard's lead, whether you were human or alien.
The three capsules were ejected and through air boosters, they attached themselves into the Reaper. It's thick metal was hard to penetrate; so lasers started cutting through a round entrance. EDI was still in control of the process and it was up to her to get the capsules inside the beast.
suddenly the beast felt something and recoiled its long tail swinging it around. The tremor of its movement was felt on the Normandy and the clamps holding it to the Reaper came off. Alerts went off all across the ship. The capsules became detached too and had to use air boosters to keep themselves from flying off. "EDI hurry up with the cutting use the three capsules to cut through."
"Understood commander." she replied aligning the capsules. A hole was made and the vacuum sucked out air. The Reaper let out a howl and moved his tail towards the hole. "Shepard look out!" came Joker's voice through the comms. The Normandy sped out blowing its stealth cover, it began firing on the Reaper's head to attract its tail towards it.
Meanwhile EDI was taking the first two capsules inside the Reaper, only Shepard's capsule remained. The Reaper shot its tail towards the Normandy with sudden force. Shepard's capsule bounced off the armor and ricochet out into space spinning wildly. "Escape Shepard!" shouted Joker as he flew around the Reaper distracting it.
Shepard reacted on instinct blasting his shotgun into the capsule heavy glass frame. He could not hold on as he kept spinning. As every second passed he felt nausated, but he kept kicking the bent hatch down. In an instant he was thrown off the capsule, continuing his spining motion. He fired the shotgun and the kickback slowed him down enough to see what was going on around him. His space suit armor had sufficient air boost to take him half of the way there. The only way was to shoot his way there blindly and hope he could make it. "Shepard!" came Jack's desperate voice in the comms. "I'll go for you."
"No wait for me there. Stop me near the hole I'll be coming in fast." He begin boosting and immediately picked up speed. He was coming in fast at thirty miles per hour, Fifty feet.
If Jack didn't catch him he was going to overshoot the hole and end up scraping around the Reaper into the moon, twenty-five, he was going too fast, goddamn he should've thought about the sensors on the Reaper armor!
Five, he felt his body get tackled by heavier force than him and knocked the air out of him and his suit breathing rate was too slow. He passed out from hyperventilating. His body continued towards the hole and Jack tried to catch him, but his head helmet smacked into the outer rim on the hole.
Jack took hold of his leg by her biotic powers and pulled him in. His head recoiled back and he arched his back. A metal shard about ten inches long was perforated in Shepard's forehead. Jack gasped in horror.
"No! Shepard!" She cried in histerya inside her helmet. Legion heard her, but did not speak. She rushed to pry the metal off shepards head, but was stopped by Legion.
"No we must seal the entrance hole and represuarize or Shepard-Commander's skull will freeze to death. He is still alive, his heart beat is 300 decibels abnormal. Surgery is required."
Legion went to sealing the hole with a laser welder, while Jack roared helpless in tears. "Hurry you piece of metal!"
"Insults do not harm my systems human." He spoke doing a second pass on the welding. Legion checked his omni-tool, "Pressure stabilized. Oxygen faint, enough to be breathable for humans." he calculated.
Jack immediately took off her armor breathing helmet and checked Shepard.
"No! no, please. not Shepard. Anyone, but him." She sobbed. Legion reacted and pulled out a combat knife, bandages and healing chemicals. Shepard's head was slumped back against his helmet.
Legion removed a piece of his arm and held the knife away from the humans. A flame shot out from his internal flame thrower and he bathe the blade in flames. "Sterelization 99.6% complete. Raise Shepard-Commander's body." Legion told her in a soul-less tone.
"Don't you care that he is dying!" wailed Jack.
"Panic induces 74% more errors, Jack-Biotic should reduce heartbeat immediately. levels of blood pressure dangerous."
"Who cares about me! Save Shepard!" She exclaimed crying over his body. It felt cold because of space and she hoped it was only that.
Legion pulled the Shard unceremoniously and blood splattered across Shepard's helmet. Jack panicked whimpering, then Legion proceeded to remove Shepard's helmet.
"Place him on ground." Legion instructed her. Jack did as told and he placed his omnitool in front of Shepard's injury. A x-ray scan showed in blue light showing deeper into Shepard's wound. "Laceration perforated skull, no brain damage, internal bleeding dangerous, must alleviate blood clot." Legion read as if examining a textbook. Jack gasped horrified at the injury.
"You can fix him right?" asked Jack in tears.
"Please, do not speak and follow commands." Legion told Jack remembering Shepard teachings about how to approach humans. He had told him organics responded kindly when asked with the word please.
"Turn and hold head with biotic powers, Jack-biotic." he instructed. Legion consulted his omni-tool once more than placed the knife a few inches above Shepard's ear.
He held the tip with his robotic fingers and raised his hand. the slammed it down on Shepard's head. Jack jumped back stunned at what had just happened, but her biotic powers did not recoiled. Legion had anticipated her reaction. Blood began pouring out of Shepard's head.
"Oh my god! You've killed him!" roared Jack gathering her biotic power to attack him in rage. Legion threw an automatic syringe at her and it pricked her on the arm and injected a green liquid on it. She temporarily felt her arms too heavy and her body weakened and slacked.
"What have you done to me?" She asked, but her voice sounded low and distant.
"Powerful sedative, tires muscles halting biotic powers. Stolen from Salarian Stealth unit."
"I will destroy you for killing Shepard." She tried to shout, but voice became calm and peaceful almost sleepy.
Legion looked at her then turned Shepard's head around. He had patched up the fresh cut and was now working on the metal-shard wound. Shepard's breathing had stabilized and he was grunting in and out of consciousness. He reached insides Shepard armor and pulled water container and began cleaning Shepard's wound.
Jack was stunned at the sight of Shepard breathing normally. "Is he alright?" she asked in her distant voice.
"Commander Shepard will regain consciousness, skull not fractured, sealing it and disinfecting it now." Legion explained.
"Oh my god! Thank you so much!" cried Jack. Her body was too heavy to move, but she forced herself near Shepard and begin crying on his chest.