The beacon.
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.
Shepard
It was leaving.
The ship that had leveled the colony and massacred its population with its descend was just… leaving.
As his team began to walk up the crest that would then lead them towards the tram station he saw that what he originally thought to be some sort of superweapon ended up being a ship of all things.
Who built it?
While these thoughts continued to float on his mind Shepard became aware that as they approached the top of the hill that there was a figure who he recognized.
It was Nihlus.
Shepard would have sighed in relief had he not seen the turian collapse as he called for him with concern.
They approached him and saw that his condition was less than optimal. His wounds looked partially covered with the substance that would heal most wounds but they applied another charge of medi-gel on the most grievous wounds that were found on his torso.
"Normandy, do you copy?" Shepard called for the vessel as Anderson would have most likely approached the immediate area as the bigger vessels left the colony.
"We hear you, commander" said the garbled voice of Joker as his comm was most likely just having some interference.
"We found Nihlus, we need an immediate evac on our position" said Shepard as he managed to make the shape of the vessel in the distance.
"Understood commander. We are turning around" answered Joker as the vessel did turn and began to approach their position.
Shepard nodded and turned to his team "All right. We need someone to guard Nihlus while the rest of us investigate where the beacon is. Williams, stay with him while Kaidan and I forge ahead" ordered Shepard.
She nodded as she turned to the commander "Try not to have much fun while I am gone, Shepard" she said as she punched shepard on the shoulder in a playful manner.
"Wouldn't dream too. See you on the flipside" Shepard replied as he punched back and then motioned for Alenko to follow him as they began their approach onto the tram station.
Once they had descended the hill, they saw as the Normandy landed near Ash and some people escorted them onto the vessel.
Shepard resumed to focus on the tram station and as they walked up the ramp that led to an open platform and what they saw there left them… confused.
They saw a geth of gigantic size as it had made scrap.
The most notable damage was where its face should have been as they saw a massive tear cut and melt through that part of the platform in a chaotic and strange pattern.
Kaidan kneeled next to it and as he moved his hand towards the spot where the metal turned pitch black it disintegrated into ash at the bearest of touch.
"That can't be good" Shepard said before a sudden noise alerted them that they weren't alone.
They heard movement from the crates and they aimed their weapons towards that position "There, movement" said Alenko as he readied the gun to open fire the moment any hostile reared its head.
"Wait, don't shoot" said the voice of a scared man as he revealed himself while holding up his hands. "I swear I'm not a threat".
"Easy there Alenko" said Shepard as he lowered the lieutenant's rifle with his hand "How are you here? Anyone who didn't evacuate to the bunkers was killed. How come you are not dead?" he asked.
"I… I was hiding behind those crates, even before the attack…" he confessed, making Shepard wonder what he could be doing back there.
"Because?..." he asked.
"I…I was taking a nap before the attack began. I remained here, even when the turians and that creature began to fight." answered the dockworker.
"Wait, wait, wait… Turians? There was anyone besides Nihlus?" If a turian somehow managed to get inside a human colony he or she was most likely related to what had transpired here. Wait, what was the other thing he said "And what creature, the geth?" he said while pointing at what remained of the machine.
"No, there was something else…" he began to retell what he saw while he shook in fear "It was even bigger than a Krogan" he said as he began to glance around, panicked.
"Why are you still scared?" asked Kaidan, more interested in his current state rather.
"It could still be here" said the dockworker "The other turian, Saren, did not manage to kill whatever it was" this time pointing towards the wreckage "It killed that thing after toying with it and managed to disappear in something that looked like some kind of trippy smoke".
Shepard didn't believe the tall story of the clearly traumatized man. He ordered for him to head towards the nearest bunker while he motioned for Alenko to follow him once again.
They made through more wrecked geth as they followed the trace of the beacon and whoever this Saren was.
Kaidan Alenko
They boarded the only remaining tram in the station as the other two had abandoned the place long before they arrived.
It was due to this that they expected heavy resistance once they arrived at the other end of the tramway.
Heavy gunfire confirmed their suspicion as the tram approached a station and they began to hear as several weapons were fired by either the geth or survivors that had made it to the station.
In their final approach it was shown to be the latter as several geth began to rain fire upon them while the tram they were on offered little cover save for the console they now hid behind.
"This isn't good, commander" Kaidan began to say before he looked over Shepard's shoulder and saw a geth that was flanking their position but… did not attack them?
Shepard turned to see what had spooked Kaidan and somehow managed to make out what the machine was doing "Kaidan, it's placing something over that fuel rod".
True to the commander's word, the geth had a small package placed over said fuel rod with some sort of purpose.
…
Lord, no.
"THEY ARE PLACING BOMBS!" Kaidan screamed in realization as he quickly combed over the battlefield and saw that other geths were doing the exact same thing atop other fuel rods.
The stupid machines would blow them all up to kingdom come should they succeed.
"I count three…" the commander said as he broke cover and began to return fire upon the geth "Kaidan, get those bombs on the upper level. I'll cover you" commanded Shepard.
He nodded and on the count of three he began to run towards the ramp that led towards the second level and dodged shots as best as he could.
As he approached the first bomb he was surprised to find that the geth over it had already been destroyed.
The same smoldered mark as the massive one…
He shook his head and focused on his task once more.
With his extensive knowledge on ordnance disposal he quickly managed to deactivate the first bomb.
He nodded to himself and turned towards the other two.
To his misfortune, the only approach that led towards the last bombs emplacement was guarded by two geths that the commander couldn't destroy as they were behind heavy cover.
Kaidan quickly hid behind a crate and engaged the geth as best he could.
A volley forced him to get behind cover once more but as he emerged once again he was surprised to see that one of the geths had suddenly been destroyed as the same tear appeared over its chest and arched towards its head.
The other once had made the mistake of turning to his fallen ally and failed to realize that he was dead center in Kaidan's sight.
The pull of a trigger ended its existence and allowed the hurried lieutenant to approach the other two bombs uninterrupted.
The second one was easy to defuse but as he approached the third one he saw that the geth that had been guarding it had already been destroyed and weirdly enough the bomb had already been defused.
What the hell was going on?
"All the bombs have been disarmed, commander" said Kaidan as Shepard had also finished to deal with what Geth remained.
"Great. We can finally get to the beacon and see if we can catch whoever harmed Nihlus" said Shepard in between breaths as the fighting had begun to take a toll on him.
After the commander had managed to catch up to him, they then made their way to the only place where the beacon could be and quickly dispatched the few defenders that remained near it.
Once they had confirmed that there were no more hostiles in the area they radioed the Normandy.
"Captain Anderson, we have secured the beacon. No more hostiles present in the AO" reported Shepard.
"Excellent, commander. We are making our approach. Nihlus has already been taken to the Med-bay" replied Anderson as he explained the current situation aboard the ship "Make sure the landing bay is ready for our arrival".
*Splat*
As Shepard coordinated with Anderson, Kaidan was alerted by a noise that sounded like something liquid as it hitted the ground.
He began to search for the origin of the sound but as he took a step he was surprised to find that he had stepped over the source of the noise… It was a liquid.
He kneeled and examined the substance as best he could and saw that more of this blue liquid was making a trail towards the crates on the far end of the bay.
He walked towards that palace to investigate and saw as the trail ended on the other side of the crates.
But as far as Kaidan was concerned there was no clue as to what had left that liquid.
He kneeled once more to judge the consistency of the liquid as he smeared it with two fingers and began to rub it between them.
The all too familiar filling confirmed to him that this came from a living being, for he knew of one substance that could look like this and still feel as warm as it did now…
Blood.
"Commander, we may not be alone out here…" Kaidan said as he expected an almost immediate answer from his commander "Commander?" He was worried by the lack of a responde and decided that maybe separating from the commander may not have been such a great idea to begin with.
He decided to trace back his steps and go back to Shepard's side.
But it was when he moved away from the crate that he saw the commander's hand bare centimeters away from the beacon.
"Commander, what are you doing?" Kaidan asked but Shepard was not answering as he looked entranced by the artifact.
Right before Kaidan could sprint towards the commander an energy wave exploded from the beacon with such force that it launched him to the ground.
After a moment he got up to his feet and as he turned towards the beacon to see what had happened he saw the figure of Shepard limp on the ground…
Next to the now destroyed beacon.
Kaidan limped quickly towards him as he radioed the Normandy "Normandy, this is lieutenant Alenko, Shepard is down. We need to get him to the Med-bay immediately".
"Roger that, lieutenant Alenko. What about the beacon?" Asked Anderson
"It's gone sir. I don't know what happened" answered Kaidan.
The Normandy arrived shortly thereafter, captain Anderson with the help of Williams helped both him and Shepard up the ramp as the commander was in a critical state.
But had any of them turned back to look towards the now destroyed beacon they would have witnessed as a blue liquid began to follow them up the ramp.
Xiltar
He could see why Jonus had said that she found it annoying whenever she had to face the terrans in combat as the primitive creatures defiled the holy places of her tribe.
They engaged their enemies in ranged warfare as they did not possess a high enough body mass ratio to face even the weakest and most senile of protoss in glorious and true combat.
But he had to admit that this made them far more observant than he had originally given them credit for.
One more step and that terran would have bumped into him as he came face to face with him.
After the artifact regrettably exploded and a vessel came to rescue their comrades he was presented with a decision:
Should he remain on this world and wait for rescue to come for him after he had rebuilt his transponder…
Or should he follow these creatures as they had engaged with his enemies and showed a tolerable degree of competence in the defense of their world…
…
He had a soft spot for those who defended their kind.
Xiltar entered the cargo hold as he followed the group that carried this Shepard and the one that had almost discovered him up towards the vessel.
Xiltar allowed them to leave and saw that only he remained on that part of the ship.
As he was now a stowaway he decided that his action for now was to remain concealed and move upon the vessel once there was no suspicion of his presence.
*Splat*
The sound of his blood as it hit the metal floor made him clutch the wound even further as he still felt the effect of that wound that had been made to his body along with the one that had been done to his mind.
…
(Saren…) he said that name with as much venom in his hearts as he could muster since he now thirsted for vengeance.
Xiltar approached a bench where a fabric laid atop it.
He ripped the blue fabric and began to fashion a bandage with it so his wound would remain closed and stopped dropping blood until he managed to acquire what this terrans and the turian had dubbed 'medi-gel'.
Xiltar sat upon said bench and as the alloy from which it was made failed to completely collapse under his weight did he thank the ancestors for a change of luck.
…
He was now on the hunt for Saren. The alien would pay for daring to strike at him.
As he imagined all the way in which he would tear the creature apart did he notice the orange glow from a thing that laid atop the same bench as his concealed form.
He grabbed the flat contraption and saw that it showed some sort of screen which wasn't holographic.
…
Damned primitives and their slow innovation.
With a finger he touched the device and saw that it followed its commands while it was scratched by his armored gauntlet.
He saw that whoever had used this device before him had accessed some sort of repository of knowledge that spanned from the most meal of subjects to detailed accounts of every denisen species of the galaxy.
And it was open… for anybody.
…
Stupid did not even begin to describe how he felt about this system.
Xiltar shook his head and turned his attention to the device once more.
He looked into the few races he had encountered so far as to ascertain if any of them would be especially useful allies, expendable pawns or waste of his time.
After he combed through the entries for the turian, geth and then the systems alliance he began to feel uneasy.
He looked for his race. No entry on the protoss existed.
He searched for the Xel'naga. No entry on them either.
What was going on?
…
By the Xel'naga…
This wasn't his reality…
He was truly alone.
Afterword.
The last few chapters might have shown how long I can make a certain part of the story. This is mainly because I sometimes try to expand events that felt more stale originally. I.E. Eden prime has always been a weird mission for me.
Edit 15/02/2023
I'll take this moment to thank noatw, this cool m8 gave me some good advice on what i had overlooked on my editing of this work.
To clear some of the concerns I'll be listing all the points he brought up and how i have corrected them:
Chapter 5 - The beacon has become a secondary objective, not abandoned. I originally thought that procuring the artifact would be second nature to saving as much life as they could. The alliance is dumb but they aren't monsters.
Chapter 6 - To be honest Ashley has been one of the characters i really didn't like originally. With her and Alenko being exclusive to each other her backstory and mannerism didn't click with me originally. But after reading her wiki page again i realized i have been a dumbdumb while characterizing her, there was more to her family than i realized. Paragraphs concerning her father have been fixed.
Chapter 7 - I'll fill that m8 with so much lead he won't be able to wake up until chapter 30 :v. On Ashley, she could have saved them. That's what's tearing her apart. Most likely knew some of them.
Chapter 8 - Yeah you right, I just saw some gameplay of that part but I saw something weird… Sovereign leaves without Saren, and just about the same part where I called the normandy. Will try and reword that part to reflect this.
And I have only two more things to say.
Expect some comedy, this work would be a bland experience for me otherwise. Continuity be damned on the march on my interests. If this turns you down from my weird fic then it was a pleasure hosting you. Recommend some stories (c:
English isn't my main language, I won't ask for forgiveness on this :)
Edit - Reworked the chapter