Trouble in paradise.
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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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Geth: A species of networked A.I. They rose against their quarian creators in open revolt after they moved to have the Geth destroyed. They have not ventured beyond the Perseus Veil ever since. But are known to attack any vessel that may try and breach their space.
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Eden prime
Ashley Williams
It's often said that war is nothing short of hell on earth and it follows on the steps of the wicked and cruel.
Ashley wished that this sentence had been nothing made of but lies and deceit…
But her current predicament proved that hell could be made manifest anywhere.
Even in paradise.
She was a grunt of the forces stationed in this quiet and remote place as her name had most certainly doomed her to this remote station.
Being a Williams was a heavy burden to any person who was related to the general who had surrendered upon the battlefield of Shanxi and had doomed its garrison to alien occupation.
That name lived in infamy.
And she would take it out of the muck even if it was the last thing she did.
But one thing at a time, Ash.
Eden's prime main garrison had been obliterated the moment that thing landed right on the center of Constant, the world's Capital.
As it was the most densely populated location it housed the bulk of the local garrison which now was not but ashes and cinder.
While feeling sorrow for the loss of her comrades, Ashley's heart sank even deeper at the thought of all the lives lost.
She had watched in horror as the object and an escort of smaller vessels rampaged through the remains of the colony.
As she led what remained of her squad towards a dig site located not far from where they originally intended to go, she thought about how their last assignment had almost certainly saved their lives.
She thought that her posting on that world would be nothing but dull and plain as everybody knew that this world was too out of the way to be the target of any sort of commotion.
The current attack would have proven her assessment wrong had she not been busy for the last months with another… concern.
The brass back at hq had ordered the second frontier division to investigate reports of sightings that had first begun six months ago.
She didn't know all the details, but what she did know is that something had been spotted while roaming through the outskirts of the city and the brass had not been able to deal with whatever it was.
It was described as a large creature lumbering through the forest, disappearing from sight every time they came close to catch it.
Whatever it was, it had been stealing components from the colony's agrarian equipment and communication arrays and they deduced that it had to be intelligent for it knew how to disassemble advanced technology without damaging it.
Due to this, patrols had been issued double and then triple shifts in order to catch this transgresor.
Ash was barely surviving through a combination of stims, coffee and whatever sleep she could get in her downtime.
They tracked its approach earlier that morning and found their missing equipment in a cave not far from where they were now. Their stuff had been assembled in what their technician called a rudimentary transponder.
It was repeating the same message in a frantic manner, but it was not written in any galactic language so their translators couldn't make out the content of its dialect.
This worried her since aliens were nothing but trouble.
Speaking of the cave they found the machine in…
What they had been hunting for the last six months had adorned the place with the remains of the local fauna in great quantity.
Mostly predatory animals, those that would threaten the colony on a regular basis and of those that had seemingly banished at almost the same time that the reports of the sightings had begun.
This proved to her that whatever had taken their equipment was dangerous.
They had managed to track down the creature as it had gotten sloppy and stole something that had been bugged on purpose but unfortunately they found no trace of whatever had hounded their colony for the past six months.
But as they made their way back to the colony the attack had already begun.
Leaving the device behind, they made their way back towards the city. But as they were approaching the colony's outskirts, an ambush had them trapped near a civilian bunker.
There they found themselves making a desperate stand against their assailants, protecting the civilians while suffering heavy casualties.
After the fight had settled down they were horrified to see a massive object descend from orbit and as Williams looked up in horror the object destroyed the colony in one strike.
High command was gone and she remained as the highest ranking officer among her unit. She quickly ordered her division to entrench themselves along the perimeter of the bunker as they radioed to any survivors that may be around.
Hearing nothing for a solid fifteen minutes she almost lost all hope that anyone had survived.
Moments later someone answered.
It was Sergeant Adams. His team had been dispatched to an excavation site not far from where they were and they had fallen under heavy fire as the assailants sieged their position en masse.
Williams quickly called for five members of her unit to follow her to relieve the sergeant and his men.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as private Stevens called for her, "Ma'am?".
"Yes, Stevens?" asked Williams not taking her sight from her rifle as they advanced through a forest towards the sergeant's position.
"What were those things that attacked us?" asked the private.
"Most likely Geth, Stevens" answered Corporal Sanders, their technical expert. She always had a knack for technical jargon and a disturbing interes in AI history.
As she did not have the chance to examine the remains of their enemies, this surprised Williams.
She didn't know of any Geth activity beyond the Persius veil.
Aliens were nothing but trouble.
She held the creators of such machines and any other creature that wasn't human in high contempt.
This was due to growing up a member of the Williams family as the name and clan was mired in a troubling legacy.
The outcome of the war and the immediate fate of her family left them as outcast for the surrender.
Some dared to call him a coward.
She never accused him of being a coward, she knew that such a situation could never be fought over as the turians left no room for negotiation should they not surrender.
He never spoke kindly of the alien.
And neither would she.
But as if fate itself turned against the Williams, it was the rambling and hatred that was present in the later days of her father that nailed in her head how the fate of her family was mostly the fault of the turians and their illegal war.
She liked to remember her father for what he once was and by what he had become as she would carry this memory in honor of the man he used to be.
Ashley noticed movement to her left where the Geth had placed strange devices. These devices were stuff of the old channel pits of human history, for they held the impaled bodies of the innocent like those of Vlad the impaler.
Before she could continue to analyze it, the deceive suddenly began to lower the bodies that it held.
What descended was not human anymore.
Whatever this was, it looked like something ripped straight from a horror story.
Before Williams could order her squad to shoot at it, a plasma bolt came from behind and tore through Steven's chest.
This was an ambush.
Calling for them to retreat, what remained of her unit fled towards a clearing ahead of them as two more were killed behind her.
Only herself, Sanders and another lucky soul remained to fend for themselves.
They took cover behind some rocks and debris as they began to take pot shots at their assailants.
They managed to destroy the Geth that had been following them as only two robots had attacked them.
But failing to realize that the creatures they had seen before had been charging at them they were suddenly attacked by a group of four.
Two immediately eviscerated Sanders, another stroke at the other marine's chest killing him in the process, and the last one launched itself at her.
She quickly used her rifle to guard the attack but fell to the ground as the creature pushed her towards the soil.
She prayed for someone to save her.
As she was about to make peace with her maker, gunshots were heard from behind.
The monsters that attacked her squad had been killed and as the one that was above her began to raise its arm to attack her, it was before it could strike as it was pushed by a biotic wave.
She quickly stood up and began to shoot at the downed monster, taking her frustration and wrath against the creature for killing her squad.
Finally calming down she turned to thank her savior.
…
She now wished that the creature had finished the job.
"Hi. How are you?" A caucasian man smirked towards her.
John Shepard…
The shit-eating bastard had saved her ass and while he had massive grin plastered across his face she began to rub her eyes with her fingers
Would this day never end?
"How is it that every time a Williams is in trouble a Shepard has to come and save their asses?" started the bastard she unfortunately knew since they were nothing but children.
"I don't know, Baldy. How come every time you wished to fight me I ended up kicking your ass?" replied Ashley while a small smile formed across her face.
"I would watch your tone with me, gunny. I graciously come to save your ass from whatever it is that took my place as your bully" retorted Shepard as the stupid grin never left his face. "Come, let's save your people so that I can take credit for completing this mission. Again" that last statement brought Ashley back to reality.
She followed Shepard and the other soldier as they made their way towards the digsite.
?
They did not know it, but someone had saved the life of the young woman.
It had not been two robots which attacked her group as it had been five originally.
The lost three were molten slag on the back of a tree.
As the group left, a figure who had stalked her and her squad through the forest materialized over the body of the fallen husks and geth.
In a wisp of smoke a tall figure appeared and began to analyze the remains of the carnage.
Kneeling over the remains of the twisted and lifted it with only one hand and then began to analyze the components that crossed its body in a disturbing manner.
Feeling disgusted, he dropped the remains to the ground and stomped his metal boot over it as the bone and metal bent before him.
A head splitting migraine assaulted the being…
With a pounding head he turned his gaze to the heavens and as his attention was directed at the dark obelisk of evil that was the screeching machine that had destroyed the nearby city.
After a moment, the machine stopped it's bellowing roar and the figure was no longer under pain.
He knew that something had to be made about that thing.
Deciding that following the soldiers was the right decision he enveloped himself with the powers of the void in order to disappear once again.
Xiltar began to follow Shepard.
Afterword.
What dawns are not the beliefs of our people but their sins as they repent.