The Tides of War: Rouge Spectre
A rouge spectre and a colossal ancient sentient machine is threatening all life in the galaxy with extinction. It's a race against time to solve the mystery and stop Armageddon from being unleashed on the galaxy. The only ones who can stop it are a misfit crew of soldiers, mercenaries, scientists, and engineers.
AN: This story will have slight alterations from the original story. I intend for this story to go from ME 1 all the way into ME: Andromeda. As always, mass effect is property of Bioware.
Timeline of events
In 2083 explorers on Mars made a discovery that changed human history. Hidden in a cave system deep beneath the Martian Surface was a data artifact from a 50,000-year-old lost civilization. This discovery would propel human technology hundreds of years into the future.
In 2097 explorers in the outer Kieper belt discovered what had been thought to be an asteroid was a massive alien object.
In 2099 researchers begin using the newly discovered element zero on ships. The use of this new element allows humanity to achieve near light speed travel.
In 2100 researchers activate the alien object and send a probe through it, they discover that is an interconnected FTL transit system between star systems.
Over the next several decades humanity explores these relays and begins colonizing the stars. The United Nations Systems Alliance is formed to govern the colonies.
In 2187 tensions rise between colonists and the Systems Alliance and by 2190 conflict erupts.
In 2192 the Systems Alliance passes the treaty of the exiles. It ends the war and lets all those who do not wish to live under Earths government to leave Alliance space. Human colonists begin colonization along the outer edges of the Sagattarius arm.
In 2248, thirty-five individual colonies along the outer edge of the Sagattarius arm form the United Colonies of Sagattarius.
In 2257 the Systems Alliance has first contact with the Turians resulting in a 4-month military conflict.
In 2270 the UCS has peaceful first contact with the Quarian Migrant Fleet.
In 2275 the UCS and the Quarian Conclave decide to sign an alliance agreement.
By the end of the 23rd century human migration from the Systems Alliance to the UCS become a flood. By the year 2300 over one hundred and fifty colonies are part of the UCS.
In 2325 the United Colonies of Sagattarius are invited to send an ambassador to the citadel and travel to the citadel is allowed to its citizens.
By 2350 the United Colonies of Sagattarius has grown to over 300 colonies.
In 2375 the UCS signs a colonization agreement to allow Quarins from the Migrant fleet to settle on planets in the UCS, and medical biologist offer to research ways to improve quarian immune systems. The Citadel Council revokes the UCS embassy status in response to a new law, the following year the UCS passes a secondary immigration law. The new law allows immigration of all species from Council space into the UCS.
2400, human life expectancy has increased to over 300 years thanks to advances in medical science. By the late 2500s human life expectancy is at nearly 350
By 2450 UCS territory is pushing on the edges of the Terminus Systems, the Persius Veil, and Batarian Space.
By the mid 2400s UCS colonies begin to come under attack by mercenary groups from the Terminus Systems, Batarian Slave fleets and raiding forces from the geth.
2457, the UCS begins a drastic buildup of military forces. The formation of a special operations force is ordered, the result is the Joint Special Operations and Recon Task Force, nicknamed the Devil's Bounty Hunters or the Black Rangers.
The Black Rangers require a 22-month (660 day) training period where trainees undergo intensive training including: simulated missions, tech training, physical and psychological endurance training, hostage negotiation, prisoner interrogation training, demolition training, hostage rescue training, and survival training. Also, candidates undergo minor medical procedures to improve muscle and bone strength and density. These procedures also increase the healing rate of trainees and increase their life expectancies by almost 100 years
2465, the Black Rangers prove to be very effective in special operations throughout the Terminus Systems and Batarian Space.
2473: Rick Warren is born to a Wealthy rare element mining family in the inner UCS colonies.
2491: Against the wishes of his parents, James Warren joins the military.
2506: Rick Warren proves to be a very skilled and talented soldier, withrecommendation from his superiors he is allowed to undergo training with the Black Rangers.
2508: Rick Warren succeeds and joins the ranks of the Devil's Bounty Hunters.
2540: Joanne Shepard is born.
2583: Current events begin
Chapter One
Arcturus Station, United Nations Systems Alliance, July 11th, 2583.
"Well, what about Shepard?" Udina asked as he stood at the end of the conference table. "She's a spacer, spent her life living on starships with her parents. She has a decorated military career, hell she's the only reason Elysium is still standing." Anderson added.
"She watched her entire squad die on Akuze, experiences like that can leave deep emotional scars." Admiral Hackett said.
"Shepard is still a hero, and she's the best." Anderson retorted.
"Is this the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?" Udina asked.
"It's the only kind of person who can." Anderson answered. Udina looked at Hackett, the admiral gave a nod of approval.
"Alright then, I'll make the call."
Colonial Department of Defense Headquarters, United Colonies of Sagattarius, July 19th, 2583.
President Frank Alder sat at the head of the table in the joint command briefing room. "Alright, the council has made the offer to let one of our own join the spectres, I have agreed to accept this offer. So, what I need from you generals and admirals is a name." The room fell silent as the commanders in the room thought.
"Well, I think there is only one person we can send." The man who spoke was the human general Nathan Westmore, commander of the Joint Special Operations and Recon Task groups. All the others in the room looked at him waiting for his response, which he gave. "Colonel Rick Warren."
"You want to impress them or scare the hell out of them Ned." The Turian secretary of the marines, general Shardus said rhetorically.
"He's about the best damn soldier in the galaxy general." General Westmore retorted. The president decided to intervene before an argument broke out. "Gentlemen please, Ned I want to see his service record."
General Westmore opened his omni-tool and typed in Warren's service number and with a swipe of his hand the Colonel's service record popped up in the center of the table in holographic form. General Westmore began to explain the Colonel's service record.
"In the seventy-five years Colonel Warren has been with JSORT he has carried out more than 3,000 missions and had nearly 18,000 confirmed kills. He has aided in the rescue and release of more than 30,000 civilian slaves as well has freed hundreds of Marine and Navy POWs. He has carried out assassinations on some of the most notorious dictators, arms dealers, drug smugglers, and slave runners in the galaxy." The general paused for a second, "But, he is also known for ruthless efficiency and his tactics can be somewhat brutal."
The President sat there quite for a few seconds thinking. The Turian general decided to add some input, "I've never really liked those Black Rangers, in my opinion they're just a few steps above being mercenaries."
"Thank you for your input general but I think I made my decision. Ned, I want to talk to him." the president said. "I think he's on mission sir." General Westmore responded, "But I'll try."
The general typed on his omni-tool trying to connect comms, in the center of the table a holographic picture of the Colonel showed up. The Colonel had unique armor like all black rangers do. The first thing was he wore a slightly tattered black hooded trench coat that went down to his knees, over top of the coat was a tactical vest that had pouches for thermal clips and grenades. His fore arms and lower legs had a grey cloth wrapped around them overtop of guards. The most distinguishing feature was his face, you couldn't see it, all that was there was the front of a white human skull.
"What can I do for you General?" Colonel Warren's voice came through, a deep and rough Australian accent.
"Colonel, the President needs to speak to you on a priority one level."
"The President, well I'm flattered, but I'm a little busy at the moment."
The President took control of them comms to speak directly to Warren. "Colonel, I'm reassigning you to special assignment on my orders, you are to report there immediately."
"I hear you loud and clear sir, but I'm a little busy, send me the coordinates and give me thirty minutes I'll be on my way." The Colonel said before he cut the commlink.
Planet of New Hue, Terminus Systems, July 19th, 2583. POV Rick Warren.
I laughed quietly as I disconnected from the commlink. "You know Rick, that is going to get you in serious trouble one of these days." A Scottish female voice said. The voice was coming from Freya, my personal Enhanced VI assistant. "Oh, I'm just having fun Freya."
I was currently crouching in the thick trees and brush surrounding the mansion of arms dealer Nicholas Zvolensky. I had just finished sneaking around and throughout the mansion placing small demo charges. "What's the status on our target Freya?" I asked her.
"Zvolensky's shuttle just landed, an armored motorcade is bringing him to the mansion, eta is three minutes." Freya responded. "Well, I guess we wait for a bit." While waiting I decided to look over my gear. On my right hip my M48 black tomahawk axe was attached, on my back just over my left shoulder was my 13-inch blade kukri machete. Also on my back was my M85 Harrier, a high-powered battle rifle, it had a shot capacity of 30 per thermal clip. On my right hip in front of my axe was an M-11 suppressor with extended 10 round thermal clip. On each of my forearms were my blade throwers, magnetic rails inside of a flat barrel shoot four-inch blades from a six-blade cartridge at 100 meters per second. They were wired into my omni-tool and into my neural link so I could fire them by just thinking it.
On my left hip was my special gun, a specially designed .357 mag Colt Single Action Army with 7 ½ inch barrel in black finish with black handle. The handle had a skull and cross bones on each side. It had been specially designed to shoot special high-powered loads for combat use. I use it mostly when doing assassination missions. The rest of my gear was just my vest which had pouches for thermal clips and preloaded cylinders for my colt.
"Rick, Zvolensky's motorcade just pulled up in front of the mansion." Freya said. Time to move, I crouch walked up to an open window on the side of the mansion, I had already disabled the cameras, so I wasn't worried about getting spotted. I climbed through the window and started moving quietly through the hallways. "Rick, Zvolensky is heading towards his office, so make a left at the end of this hall then a right on that one." Freya said. I kept moving until I reached the end of the hall. "Rick, hostiles just around the corner." My infrared monitor showed four guards around the corner. I unsheathed my kukri and tomahawk and slowly crept around the corner. When I did, I was greeted by the four guards. I swung my kukri slicing the neck of the first guard, I then swung my tomahawk slicing the neck of the second guard, both falling dead. Before the third guard could react, I embedded the point of my tomahawk in the side of his neck and jerked him forward past me, as I did, I ripped the point out. I turned and the fourth guard was raising his gun. I raised my and shot a blade in the front of his neck, he reached up to grab his throat as he fell to the ground.
With all four guards dead, I sheathed my kukri and tomahawk and quickly but quietly made my way down the hall. At the middle of this hall, I turned onto the hall I needed to be on. I saw two guards, a handler and Zvolensky about halfway down the hall. They were about 25 feet from me so I unholstered my colt and pulled back the hammer. When I did the noise made the four men turn to face me. We stood there and stared at each other for a second, when the guards started raising their guns, I raised my colt. Using my right hand to cock the hammer I quickly shot off all six rounds, within just a couple seconds I was able to put two shots in each of the guards and one in the handler and one in Zvolensky.
The guards and handler fell to the ground dead, but I only got Zvolensky in the gut because he started crawling towards his office leaving a trail of blood. I started walking towards him, as I did, I halfcocked my colt and pulled the cylinder pin under the barrel. I slid the used cylinder out and pulled a loaded cylinder out of the pouch and put the used one in it. I put the new cylinder in and slid the pin back in place.
By the time I finished, I was next to Zvolensky. Using my foot, I turned him over so he could face me. "What the hell are you?" he asked in a struggling voice. I fully cocked my colt and aimed it at his face. "Death." I said as I pulled the trigger.
After Zvolensky was dead, I holstered my colt. "Rick, those shots will have alerted the other guards." Freya said. I unholstered my harrier rifle. "Well, I guess we need to make a little distraction." I said as I opened my omni-tool and hit detonate on the explosive charges. The house slightly shook as the explosives went off. "Damn." I spoke. "Used to much again?" Freya asked. "Nah."
I charged forward as fast as I could to the front door. When I reached it, I ran down the stairs into the roundabout. Any guards that were in the area I quickly shot before running off in the woods.
After getting picked up I was back on the ship in the outer regions of the star system. I was currently in the debriefing room; I was still in my gear. The captain of the ship entered the room, he was an older human male. "You hung up on the President of the Colonies." he said as he shut the door behind him. I shrugged my shoulders, "I was busy."
The captain shook his head, "Well anyway you're being reassigned. There's a new class of stealth warships being deployed; over the next few months it's going to be used for a series of special operations. Since this ship is a joint development between us and council space, high command wants you on it. The ship is doing a covert pickup on some Alliance colony before heading to the citadel, you're going to meet them there. We'll be there in 24 hours." The captain said, he then turned and left the room.
This is the end of the first chapter. More will come in the next couple of days. I hope you all enjoy.