While the majority of whatever world Rigel found himself in was made up of desert, there were other, rare features. After hours of silent travel, Rigel halted at the top of a small hill overlooking a thin valley running between two rises in the soil, falling prone to better conceal his presence.
If his sniper rifle had made the trip with him, Rigel would have been looking through its scope. Without it, he was forced to survey the encampment below him without amplified vision.
They're transmitting a message of some sort to an unknown party. I'm breaking the signal, but it might take a bit. I've never seen anything like this encryption before. Nova said in Rigel's head. The two of them had learned long ago that Nova shouldn't reveal herself unless absolutely necessary. When Sundance and Sagira died, Nova nearly stopped coming out completely. Only when Rigel needed light or technical expertise would she show herself.
I don't see any humans. Rigel said back in his mind, a combined feeling of failure and carefully focused rage coloring the message.
It's possible this was a meeting point and someone else took them away. That camp looks too small to be a long-term base. Keep some alive so we can interrogate them.
I will. How close are you to cracking that signal?
Just finished. It's…Wow.
What's wrong?
Nothing. I just…Deal with the batarians. I'll fill you in when you're done. I still haven't sorted through it all myself yet.
Batarians, huh? Interesting name.
Rigel planted his feet and stood to his full height. A wind blew in from the East, his robes billowing in the breeze. Impassive, he watched the batarians move around beneath him. There were close to two dozen of them. Some were hauling crates off of vehicles. Others were sitting at tables playing some analog of a card game. They all seemed to be waiting for something.
One of the batarians started wailing, its speech like that of a growling tiger as it pointed up to where Rigel stood silhouetted at the hill's peak.
Immediately, the camp became a flurry of activity. Tables were uprighted and ducked behind for cover. Aliens dropped crates and ran for weapons. A group of three advanced up the hill towards Rigel, guns drawn and readied.
The one in the lead smiled, revealing curved, pointed teeth. It made a sound Rigel approximated as a laugh as it sauntered forward, uncensored with the armored, imposing image of Rigel.
"I don't understand you." Rigel said, his tone devoid of any form of emotion. "If you can understand me, then I offer you this one chance for mercy. Lay down your arms, place your hands behind your heads, and tell me everything you know about the humans you have enslaved. Do this, and I will not kill you."
This time, all three of the advancing batarians laughed, their chest armor convulsing as organs similar to lungs rapidly exhaled air.
"Very well." Rigel said. Before any of the three batarians could react, Rigel held up his right hand, an orb of Void energy exploding into half a dozen smaller, lightning-fast streaks of Void energy.
One of the batarians was able to howl in agonizing pain as the Void passed through its armor like butter, flowing across its body like viscous water and hungrily devouring its flesh. The other two batarians were too slow to manage even that.
A panicked bark from the camp below preceded a hail of gunfire. As he leapt from the hill and glided downwards, Rigel idly noted the weapons in the aliens' hands were using some strange form of energy to propel their projectiles through the air rather than simple gunpowder. Harnessed gravity, perhaps? He would need to study the weapons later.
Landing in the center of the camp, Rigel drew Ace as projectiles pinged ineffectually off his shield. Four Batarian heads snapped backwards, their bodies falling to the ground as four shots barked forth from Ace's barrel. In the same motion, a swirling orb of Void energy left Rigel's other hand. A massive ball like a small, dark purple sun formed behind a stack of crates a group of batarians was using for cover. They tried to crawl away from the destruction, but their torsos were absorbed the moment the orb expanded, leaving the rest of their bodies to slowly be devoured by the Void.
"I need five of you alive to interrogate." Rigel said calmly, Ace already reupholstered at his hip. "Throw down your weapons and you might be one of the five I don't kill."
A great rushing of air sounded as an engine flared to life.
Unconcerned, Rigel turned his head to see a tarp falling off a small, armored vehicle as it rose to hover a foot above the ground. It was no bigger than a heavy pike, but the passenger compartment was internal, blocking Rigel's view of the pilot. The batarians began to laugh as a long barrel extended from the top of the vehicle. The armored assault vehicle moved forward, its barrel slowly panning towards Rigel.
While the Risen didn't recognize the model of vehicle, it didn't matter. Rigel pulled his right hand in close to his stomach, his fingers curling together like five claws surrounding a gem. Void sparked to life in his hands just as the vehicle's weapon zeroed in on him. With a light leap forward, Rigel thrust the gathering Void forward.
Air rapidly rushed together as a sphere of pure Void launched out of Rigel's hand, devouring the air around it as it rapidly flew towards the makeshift tank. Whoever was steering the vehicle tried to move the craft out of the path of the sphere, but they were too slow.
The orb impacted the tank, sounding as a boulder splashing into water after falling from a cliff. Dirt, metal shrapnel, and rocks exploded out of the epicenter of the explosion, though everything within had already been consumed by the void.
Rigel turned back to the remaining batarians, noting the dead quiet permeating the camp.
"Throw down your weapons and I will interrogate five of you." Rigel reiterated, casually drawing Ace from its holster.
A symphony of clatters rose through the air as the eight living batarians all threw their weapons to the ground.
"Good." Three loud claps sounded in swift succession. Three batarians fell to the dirt, dead before their bodies hit the ground.
"You can obviously understand me, which means you have a translator of some sort. Activate it so that I may understand what you are saying. Inform me when it is on."
One of the batarians reached a shaky hand towards its arm. An orange hologram sprung to life around its arm like a vambrace. It fiddled with the hologram for a moment then said, "It's on." Its voice echoed as the hologram translated what it said in its guttural language.
"Where are the human slaves you brought here?" Rigel asked, Ace hanging by his side, though still held in a tight grip.
"I-if we tell you we're dead. You don't know wh-" A thunderous boom cut the batarian off, his body falling to the ground with a hole the size of a coin in his forehead.
"Where are the human slaves you brought here?" Rigel repeated, Ace once more hanging by his side, a thin line of gray smoke drifting out of its muzzle.
"Omega!" one of the batarians screamed, his four eyes wide, his entire body shaking. "The boss picked them up and took 'em to Omega!"
"Who is your boss?" Rigel asked, his voice devoid of emotion.
"Dragan! Please let us go!" the same batarian yelled, his voice cutting out as something Rigel approximated as a sob wracked his body.
They've said enough. Nova said in Rigel's head. I can piece together the rest with what I found on the Extranet.
Without a moment's hesitation, Rigel brought Ace to bear and fired off four quick shots. "Extranet? Sounds important." Rigel said as he holstered Ace, the batarian threat dealt with.
"Believe me, it's much more than important." Nova said as she shimmered into being in front of Rigel. "It's…everything. Literally everything. I'm sifting through relevant data as fast as I can, but there's too much of it to absorb it all. Rigel, I don't think we're anywhere near home."
Rigel walked over to a stack of the crates in the camp, cracking them open with his void trick as he said, "Why's that?"
"Because I found Earth." Nova said, sounding like a convict on their way to the firing squad.
Rigel dropped the clear container of the same drug they'd found in the cache and turned to Nova. "Why is finding home bad?"
"Because…It'll be easier to show you." Nova said, a depressed acceptance coloring her voice.
Rigel took off his helmet, a frown on his face as he walked over to Nova. His ghost was typically rather chipper, whatever she'd found couldn't be good. Had Atheon sent them so far into the future the war with the Witness was already over? Had they lost?
A beam of light shot forth in a cone away from Nova, projecting a holographic screen to let Rigel view what Nova was sifting through on the Extranet.
"That's impossible." Rigel said, his eyes wide.
Clips of video footage rapidly played before him, shifting to other videos the moment they were complete. A sky-down view of a thriving metropolis with skyscrapers as far as the horizon. A black-haired human woman holding a microphone, interviewing a man dressed smartly, a blue sash hanging from his shoulder, a crowd of hundreds cheering in the background. A man in a military uniform standing on the bridge of a massive command ship overlooking a fleet large enough to rival that of the Red Legion. Dozens of human researchers in lab coats laughing as they mixed solutions together in vials.
"What…what is this?" Rigel asked, his legs weak as impossible dreams played before his eyes. The future he'd been fighting for for hundreds of years already achieved.
Suddenly, Rigel's entire posture changed. His eyes narrowed. Ace was in his hand as he spun around, scanning his surroundings for threats. "Atheon somehow pulled us into a stronger version of the Infinite Forest. It's the only explanation. They're simulating the possibility of an Earth without the Collapse. We need–"
"Rigel!" Nova cut him off, clearly exasperated as she cut off the projector. "Do you honestly think I didn't check for Vex interference? We spent long enough in the corridors of time that I know what a simulation of that level feels like. The moment I found this footage I checked. This isn't a simulation."
The arm holding Ace collapsed in on itself, bending until the hand cannon was held limply at Rigel's side. "Then what…?
"Best guess using the information available? We're not in our universe." Nova said, sounding resigned.
"That…isn't impossible." Rigel said, a feeling of deep dread falling over him as he recalled his many conversations with Queen Mara about her jaunts to "other places". That woman could be infuriatingly obtuse when she wanted to be. "The Vex weren't native to our universe. So if Atheon tried to escape our last attack…"
"Then he might have left our universe and brought us along for the ride. Or maybe the explosion just sent us hurtling out into nowhere and we got lucky. I honestly can't say. All I know is this is real, and I have no idea how to get back."
Rigel walked over to an unopened crate and sat down, staring into the dirt. "So what do we do? I just…What the hell are we supposed to do?" Rigel had been fighting for the survival of humanity since the dark ages. While he never joined the Iron Lords, more than one corrupt warlord fell to his hand in those days. He'd fought Fallen. Cabal. Hive. Vex. He'd faced literal gods on multiple occasions and come back for more, all in the name of a future for humanity. Now, he was trapped in a world where his dream had already been realized. From the few brief clips he'd seen, Rigel felt humanity was thriving as much as the Cabal. What was he supposed to do in a universe where the purpose he'd based his entire existence around was already completed? Where not one soul knew his name or what he was?
"Hey!" Nova chirped as she flew into Rigel's forehead with her shell.
Rigel started at the unexpected action, shying away as Nova hovered closer and stared down at him.
"No moping. I thought we finished with all that after Twilight Gap. Yeah, reality may as well be broken, but that's our bread and butter. How many times have we had to remake space and time? Compared to that, this is easy. You don't know what to do? Pick something. There's a lot going on in this galaxy and countless species living together in relative peace. You're a Risen. Start acting like it." Nova's shell jerked up and down in a contented nod when she'd said her peace.
Rigel smirked at his small friend. "I guess you're right. We're already moving to free slaves. We'll finish that mission, then find something else to fix. Maybe I'll finally take that vacation I've been talking about for the last fifty years or so."
The two sections of Nova's shell spun counter to each other as she did a happy spin in the air. "That's more like it! Now get your helmet on and start gathering up all the guns and drugs in the camp. We'll head back to the cache once our ride gets here to grab those too."
"Since when were we drug dealers? And what was that about our ride?" Rigel said as he stood, idly grabbing his helmet as he watched Nova float through the air with a smile.
"The drugs are ridiculously expensive. We'll be able to sell them without being traced on Omega and get enough from them to outfit you properly. Also grab those things off their forearms. We'll be able to sell those too and use one to make you a translator. As to our ride, it's a piece of junk these guys were going to get picked up in." Nova floated over one of the batarian corpses to highlight who 'these guys' were. "It's not pretty, but you'll be able to capture it pretty easily and it'll get us to Omega. We can get something better there to take us to the Citadel where we'll upgrade again."
Beginning the process of organizing the crates of illicit substances, Rigel said, "While we wait for our ride, I think it might be a good idea for you to fill me in on all these seemingly important terms I don't understand. I don't have an all access pass to whatever the Extranet is. Oh, speaking of info, see if you can figure out how these guns work."
"I already did!" Nova said, her light brightening in pride. "I was just about to tell you! So there's this force the peoples of this galaxy discovered called the Mass Effect…"