I surrender

Disclaimer

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard entertainment.

Mass effect is the property of Bioware.

Any elements used in this story are used only in order to create a story for no monetary gain nor do I claim any ownership over them, beyond the names and characters unique to this story.

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Welcome to the Galactic codex, your request has been processed:

Batarians (piracy): Illicit activities were many of the concerns brought to the council by many of its client species as economic, personal and security factors were placed at risk by natarians raids. Those of which were incurred under the pretense of 'cultural integrity' and 'the expansion of the batarian people's interest' as the Hegemony justified these actions.

The Skyllian blitz: As a consequence of the council's decision to support humanity against the batarian claims in their shared border, the rise of batarian piracy in the region was seen as almost inevitable by Alliance high command and the sizable human population that called that region of space their homes. Hostilities from the neighboring Hegemony culminated in a coordinated strike upon the world of Elysium on 2176 C.E.

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Asteroid X-57

Time until impact - 01:19:45

Shepard

With speed born from hurry and desperation, Shepard blazed through the stretch of space in-between them and the torch.

"We are almost there. Hang on!" Shepard warned as he decelerated enough to make one final turn "How are you holding Liara?".

"Barely…" the asari replied with a pained expression as she hadn't stabilized from her gun wound but at least the medi-gel seemed to be keeping her together.

"Visual confirmation on the second torch…" Tali informed them as she would most likely see through the turret's camera to identify the gigantic structure "No batarians or signs of battle outside. Kaidan and Xiltar must be inside!".

Her statement was proven right as Shepard passed beyond one final elevation and was faced by the object they were gunning from in the distance.

"Good. We are almost there" Shepard said as he pressed the pedal further down and accelerated the Mako to its top speed once more.

"Wait!" began Tali "Something is happening to the torch!" Shepard tried to confirm the worried girl's observation and looked at the torch as the plasma trail that was pushing the asteroid was not flickering as if the reaction wasn't working properly.

"What the…?" Shepard began to mutter but saw a worrying signal as the exhaust of the torch began to become pitch red like a metal that is placed under extreme heat.

"Kheela, It's going to explode!" Tali warner in distress as she seemed to realize why the structure was malfunctioning.

But her warning came too late…

In an instant, the torch exploded with a force that would have sent their Mako flying had there been an atmosphere to propagate the shockwave even at this distance.

A massive fireball from the torch's explosion remained as the reaction went critical and created enough energy to replicate a mini nuclear weapon in the vacuum of space. And to their horror smaller explosions erupted around the main one as some sort of ordnance finally activated a few meters beyond ground zero.

"No" Shepard watched in horror as the facility went up in flames.

Where were they?

"Goddess, no" Liara added her dismay as she looked helplessly.

Were they?...

A sob was heard behind the commander. He knew exactly who was crying.

"Kheela".

They couldn't be...

He gritted his teeth and activated his radio "Kaidan do you hear me?" He searched for his squadmate.

No response.

"Kaidan do you copy?" He tried again.

No response.

"Answer damnit!" Shepard said before he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder.

This wasn't how it was meant to go…

Some moments passed before a noise broke the silence.

" …ma..er D… R…d me?" A garbled voice came from the radio.

No way.

The commander began to play with the bandwidth of his radio "Kaidan, is that you?" Shepard hoped that they somehow had survived.

"Af..rmat..ve…" the voice began to be heard more clearly as Shepard zeroed in on his signal "Affirmative, commander".

He was alright.

"Kaidan. Thank goodness…" Shepard let out a sigh of relief "Are you okay, is Xiltar with you?" Shepard asked in worry for his other companion.

"Yeah" Shepard thanked luck for his teammates survival "We are both here… the three of us".

"Three?" Shepard asked in surprise.

"The ball thingy from before" Shepard could hear the sound of something hitting metal "Auch!" Kaidan screamed in pain.

"Yeah, they seem to be alright" Tali said in relief as she heard the conversation through the com unit before giving a nervous chuckle.

Shepard chuckled in relief as well.

"Tell me where you are and we will get to your location" he asked the Lieutenant.

Silence rained for a moment before their shields were struck by something.

"Up here, commander" added Kaidan as he had just signaled where they were.

Shepard turned to the still hurt Liara and saw that the asari was looking at her display and traced the origin of the shot.

"Over the ridge on the left" she said as the computer finished processing the telemetry of the shot before she slumped back on her seat and closed her eyes to rest a moment.

"We are on our way" Shepard began to drive towards them as the computer indicated that they were over a ridge they couldn't have scaled by themselves "How did you get so high?".

"Long story, commander" Kaidan began "Better hurry commander. I believe Xiltar is not in good shape".

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked with some amusement as he tried to climb up the hill in question.

"I don't believe it's supposed to bend that way" Kaidan said "He told me it's not".

"What else can the smartass tell us?" Shepard replied as hid his worry over a veil of humor.

"..." Kaidan took a moment to answer "He tells me he will have this rock cracked in half if it's the last thing he does?".

Shepard did not expect that answer… but wasn't surprised.

"Hang on, we are almost there" Shepard said as they began their ascent over a steep slope.

After a minute of struggling they managed to reach the top of the ridge.

"Tali, with me" Shepard ordered as he checked that Liara was doing fine. Both of them left the mako and found the other two members of his team as Kaidan was just sitting while Xiltar was laying flat on the ground next to him.

Shepard could see that both of them had their armor scorched as they most likely were caught in the explosion in some manner. Whatever they had done had most likely saved their lives and for that Shepard was thankful.

But for Xiltar…

"Kheela… It really isn't supposed to bend that way" Tali said as she saw the poor state in which the Protoss was.

(...) He grunted as he struggled to raise his head (No it isn't…) Shepard could see that the protoss was in immense pain as he had most likely broken more than his right arm (DOT!) he called to the orb.

-Yes Wayfarer?- the orb approached Xiltar and stood at attention.

(Can you heal me?) Xiltar asked in desperation.

-Not at the moment, Wayfarer- Dot answered.

(Great…) Xiltar grumbled as he rested his head once again (Where is there a stasis pod when you need it…).

"We can throw you in the fridge if that would help" Shepard joked at the expense of the alien to the disapproval of Kaidan and Tali.

(...) Xiltar raised his head to glare at Shepard (Help me to your vehicle. You have a mission to conclude).

Shepard approached Xiltar to aid him while Tali tried to help Kaidan who just waved her off since he looked better than their other companion "Don't you mean us?".

Xiltar glared at Shepard as the shorter creature tried to help him walk (Do you see it as fitting to torture me even further?).

"Hmm… maybe" Shepard shared a pearl of wisdom in the ways of the asshole as he .

(You Mahk-Var'un… nevermind) Xiltar began to speak in a language that Shepard did not recognize before he stopped and began to recline himself over the commander.

Shepard helped the hurt alien to the back of the tank before Kaidan and Tali followed suit.

"Kaidan, help Liara to the back of the mako and see if her condition is stable" Shepard commanded as he aided Xiltar in taking a seat and securing him with a belt.

Kaidan came down to the soldier compartment with Liara and placed her in one of the seats in front of Xiltar as Shepard helped the taller alien strap himself in.

Shepard returned to the cockpit and began to give orders to his other companions.

"Kaidan, Take the turret" Shepard began as he took a moment to see the condition of the Mako "Tali, be my navigator".

"Understood commander" replied Kaidan as he took Tali's place on the gun emplacement while the quarian took the place where Liara had been moments before.

Once everything was in order and they could continue on their journey to the third and final torch Shepard began to smirk slightly.

"Hang on to your hats!" Shepard said as he began to drive the mako and the tank moved to approach the edge of the cliff.

(Don't you dare…) Xiltar's threat came too late as Shepard had already activated the thrusters of the mako and made them fly.

Their trip to the third torch was filled with moments like this one to Xiltar and Liara's displeasure.

Time until impact - 01:11:11

Ashley

Almost there.

Their vantage point atop the ridge had come in handy to the group for a while.

But after the third wave of batarians somehow strolled out of the third torch they made no progress as the bastards began to rain heavy fire on their position.

At Wrex's suggestion they flanked the batarians from one side of the ridge and managed to take down most of the third wave in a surprise strike, but since they somehow managed to roll ones before this deployment their luck turned sower pretty fast.

A FOURTH wave of batarians exited the structure and pinned the group behind some cover as they were just barely approaching the door.

"It was only supposed to be ten or twenty in that torch. How the hell did they fit so many in there?!" Garrus talked over the ongoing firefight as his two squadmates asked similar questions.

"You tell me" Ashely said while a funny thought crossed her mind "Did they have enough free time to make more bastards in there?".

"Ha. We might be facing an infestation if that is the case" Wrex said before breaking cover and killing another batarian "How do you kill vermin on your worlds?".

Ashley broke cover at the same time as Garrus and killed two more batarians that tried to launch some grenades against them.

"Like that" said Garrus as he smirked for none to see.

At least that's what Ashley liked to think.

"How much time do we have until this rock gets to the point of no return?" Ashley asked with some concern.

Garrus returned fire towards a batarian that had been hounding him for a while now.

As the turian made sure that the bastard wouldn't get back up he returned to cover and answered Williams' question.

"A little over an hour. Hope you didn't want to break any records" Garrus continued to share a little humor to relieve some stress.

"Just don't want us to be dead last" began Ashley "I mean. We were the first to deploy. come on!".

"I don't think we'll be the last to take our torch" said Wrex after a while as he had been busy with a host of flanking batarians "It's not like Shepard has unnatural amounts of luck or the others have some sort of magical powers" Wait… "On second thought I wouldn't be surprised if they were driving towards our position right about now. I would even bet on that".

Wrex was wrong.

At least in the way the commander was going to arrive.

"They just won't STOP!" Ashley screamed as her frustration from the engagement was beginning to mount. But as they began to mow down most of the group yet another wave of batarians came from the torch "Come on!".

But their plight was at an end as their intrepid commander finally arrived to save his squad.

Since he would be landing the Mako over the batarians.

A shadow zoomed out of the top of the ridge as this big mass was targeted right where the batarians were.

"What the-"

*Crunch*

The last words of an unfortunate batarian that realized something was going their way.

Even in the low gravity of the asteroid, the speed at which the mako had gone flying made it so it hitted the batarians with the force of a cannonball.

Ashley looked incredulously at her companions as they tried to process what the hell had just happened…

"Sorry to crash your party" the voice of Shepard came over the radio to the relief of the tired team "Is everybody alive?".

"Everyone is here, Shepard" Garrus answered as they began to relax since the last wave of batarians had been eliminated by their commander.

"Good, we are coming out" Ashley could see as Shepard, Tali and Kaidan came out of the Mako's side hatch.

Where were the rest?

"I see we are missing some people" Garrus pointed out the obvious as some worry began to mount amongst the group.

If she remembered correctly it was Shepard, Tali and Liara followed by Xiltar and Kaidan in that order that had been deployed after them.

"They are… unavailable" Shepard sounded slightly guilty but the lack of worry in his tone made it clear to Ashley that they were alive.

The trio turned to each other in worry as this answer did not satisfy any of them.

"What the hell happened to them, skipper?" Ashley asked as she looked at the commander.

Shepard remained silent and turned to his other companions for aid as they most likely knew the truth.

A sigh was heard from Tali "Liara took a shot in the gut because of me…".

Kaidan scratched his helmet "Xiltar broke most of his bones while protecting me from an explosion".

Fuck.

"Ashley…" Shepard's voice made the group turn their attention towards him "I want you to remain here to defend both Xiltar and Liara while the rest of us deactivate the torch".

Ashley nodded and was about to enter the mako by herself before another voice spoke

"W-wait" Ashley turned to see that Tali had approached her instead of gathering with the rest of the group "I want to stay behind to".

Ashley could see that the girl was certainly shaken so she turned her head to Sheaprd who after a moment of consideration nodded in agreement.

"Come on, Tali" Ashley opened the hatch and entered the tank before turning towards the exit and seeing that Tali was looking towards the departing team "Well?".

"Sorry" she apologized as she also entered the tank while being aided by Ashely.

Time until impact - 01:06:48

Wrex

One could do some certain things to ensure that a Krogan was happy.

Bringing him to a battlefield filled with enemies ripe for the slaughter?

That's a good start.

Giving him some sort of heavy ordnance that packed quite the punch?

Now that's a way to make him like you.

Making it so a band of batarian who were indirectly responsible for the death of a family member are the next targets of his fury?

You made his day.

Wrex was eager for the next engagement as one could tell by his mood. For every enemy he killed he was another step closer towards getting his revenge on whoever was responsible for the death of his nephew.

"Can you see me from up there, boy?" he murmured his prayer for the kid as the room they were in began to pressurize.

"All right team. From what I saw out there, this building must have housed the biggest colony of batarians on this side of our lawn" Shepard began "Be ready for more of them and let's make sure we don't fall in any more of their traps".

They all nodded and got ready in breaching positions by taking cover at each side of the door.

The door opened and as they suspected, more batarians began to funnel towards the room without realizing until the last second that this was a trap.

"NOW!" Shepard's orders sent the group into a frenzy as they gunned down the unsuspecting batarians.

More of Axan's murderers were now gone.

The group finally entered the greater structure after their lengthy siege and found the reason as to why there were so many batarian inside despite there being so few vehicles.

Massive crates labeled as spare parts or mining equipment were scattered across the cargo hold of this structure, empty of any of that mentioned cargo.

So the batarians smuggled themselves on this... It would seem that the humans would have a lot of cleaning up to do after this was over.

"Wrex" the commander spoke to him "There might be more of them on that second level" Shepard pointed towards a second floor that most likely led to the control room "Let's take the bait so the rest of the squad can mop them out".

Wrex nodded and walked towards the emptier part of the bay so the batarians could have a clear shot at him as Shepard signaled to place a barrier on the human as he took another step into the open.

As expected, a bunch of batarians broke cover and began to shoot towards the commander as he retreated under the protection of the barrier.

Right at that moment Kaidan and Garrus began to take out those batarians that were too slow to realize that they had been expected.

"Keep them down!" Shepard ordered as he went towards the stairs that lead to the second floor while being followed closely by Wrex.

"Come here!" Screamed Wrex as he overtook Shepard and charged towards one the batarians that remained behind the railing.

The huddled batarians were surprised as they had lost the trace of the offending duo and were willfully unprepared for the attack of the krogan.

Wrex slowed his charge enough so he could kick one of the batarians square in the chest, the barrier did nothing to stop Wrex as his fury launched the batarian from the second floor, over the railing and down to his end.

Shepard aimed towards the other batarian who failed to seek cover somewhere else and his shot managed to break the batarian's barrier and because of this, the poor bastard was at the mercy of the mad krogan.

"Good night" were Wrex's last words before he pulled the trigger and eviscerated the batarian.

He turned towards Shepard and as they both nodded to each other Shepard spoke "Kaidan, Garrus. Come meet us on the second level".

Their teammates did as asked and approached them both shortly after.

"There might still be some left…" Shepard cautioned the team to stay on guard as they looked at the door that led to the control room "Let's go".

The team approached the door and flanked it once again.

But just as they were about to advance the door to the control room opened.

"WAIT!" They heard the voice of a batarian from the room "I surrender".

Wrex growled at these words.

Like hell he does.

The krogan charged into the room as an unholy fury overtook him and pushed him towards massacring the batarians that remained.

"Wrex, wait!" the krogan neither cared or even followed Shepard's order as he charged towards the origin of the voice and tackled to the ground the sole surviving batarian in the whole structure.

One step closer to avenging his kin.

"Wrex, stop!" Wrex made the mistake of turning towards Shepard and saw that a barrel was being directly aimed at him "Don't you dare".

How dare he.

"For this one" Wrex snarled as he saw that Kaidan and Garrus were shocked at what was happening "You decide to grow a heart after we killed so many of them. FOR THIS ONE!".

"Just stop!" Shepard did not back down even as the krogan continued to aim his gun at the shacking batarian "If there is one thing I know about batarians is they are backstabbing bastards who will not think twice about betraying each other if its suits their goals" Shepard then motioned his gun towards the alien under the krogan "Just look at him more closely".

Wrex turned towards the frightened creature under him as his desire to avenge Axan was still present.

But as he turned, Wrex began to see things that wouldn't be obvious to the others…

This one was young, barely past the short adolescence of their species with only a series of tattooed lines that ran up across his forehead as any distinguishable feature. His armor on the other hand looked in such a deplorable state that it made Wrex begin to pity this fool for even calling himself a pirate.

I mean he did not even have his ear markings remov–.

Wrex pushed the batarians head to the side as it continued to stare in fear with his four cowering eyes…

There.

The mark of a slave.

"You are lucky I don't feel like killing this one, Shepard" Wrex stopped aiming his gun at the frightened boy before he got up and stared at the human who still aimed his rifle at the krogan. Wrex huffed "I said you were lucky. Not right" he then pushed the commander out of his way before leaving the facility.

Why would the batarians bring a slave to this particular attack?

Afterword.

The batarians are a species I truly and utterly distrust…

You can never trust anybody with such evil goaties

And where are their females?

Why do they keep telling me to not go inside that building?

What do they want to hide from me?

Now to answer some questions.

Dragonaut344Doomed - You make an excellent point when it comes to the fleshy… icky… fkn nasty way the reapers are born. I think that an outright infestation (like that of terrran structures) might be possible but if the reapers have like 0.9 of what the protoss have in technology (my estimate) then it my be impossible to say that they could since I remember that it was impossible for the zerg to infest protoss technology permanently (gonna ignore Kerrigan's infestors in the campaign since those things were busted) but its a fair point all the same.

And never saw what masters of Orion was about. May give it a chance if me4 (5?) doesn't come out soon.

TassadarManeuver (Ramming speed?) - Didn't get your question clearly m8, the only dark templar so far has been Jonus.

You have no idea what you are missing on, the world building is quite neat and the role playing elements are quite nice on your first playthrough.

It may not be the best, but us dorks who like it know it for what it is: just fun.