Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or Mass Effect.
Prologue: Operation MIRAGE
"This is Communications Officer Padmin Vilmis, reporting."
"This is Captain Kelir Rogs. Report."
"We have arrived at the appointed location. There is no visual contact with the target. Initial scans detect no signals of the target's presence."
"…Are you certain?"
"…Affirmative."
"STG" stood for "Special Tasks Group". This was common knowledge among the wide galaxy. Stories of espionage, the first SPECTRES, the nation that fell with a single bullet, all were well-known tales about the STG. If you were to ask anyone what does the STG do, they would tell you "spying, science, and dirty work".
None of these was incorrect. "Special tasks" was deliberately a wide term that could take – and had taken – a number of different definitions. The STG had an unofficial moto, more like the core of what it was, that embodied this: "be prepared for anything". This had included a number of things over the years – from a high-class Hanar chef extracting neurotoxins from its own limbs and using its clients as test subjects to later sell the poison to an aspiring political assassin to the "familiar unrest" of Dalatrass Barmani's clan, there was no such thing as a routine mission. The STG was expected to have a solution for absolutely anything; and if they did not already have it, invent one.
All that being said, Captain Kilir, Agent Padmin, and all the other STG agents currently on board of the SUV Letos had absolutely no idea how they would even begin to solve this issue.
The Batarian colony of Anhur had vanished.
No, not the colonists or the colonies – though that alone would be extremely odd and alarming on its own. The entire planet had vanished from sight.
Yes, the STG had conducted extensive searching both among their ranks and via scans to ensure this was not some kind of prank, false intel, or a catastrophic error in the scanning equipment.
It took almost an embarrassingly long time for the STG to detect the issue, though it was so utterly absurd that even the strictest of STG officials had to admit that the delay was understandable.
Anhur was one of the lower-profile Batarian colonies, with its highly toxic atmosphere, courtesy of the native fauna, allowing for the smallest of populations, largely compromising of large slave labour-driven corporations. Even discounting the typical secrecy of the Batarian Hegemony, there was hardly any notable news ever coming from Anhur. This was quite possibly the reason why even the Batarian Hegemony appeared to have taken a long time to start investigating the disappearance of Anhur. Naturally, the Hegemony kept the situation under wraps as much as possible – after all, no species wanted to show weakness, much less the Batarian Hegemony who always wanted to display the superiority of their ways. That, and they probably doubted that the Council would believe them if they came and told them that one of their planets had just gone missing. Vilmis had difficulty believing it and he was in the system right now.
The STG, quite naturally, was not supposed to know this information either, but they made it their business to keep careful tabs on all traffic in the galaxy, particularly in high-alert areas such as the Terminus Systems. Despite what the Council likes to think, ignoring the Terminus was not going to protect them from the consequences of unrest within it. They had detected the small but ever increasing trickle of Hegemony patrols around the area, which was highly unusual, as well as the ever increasing disappearances of Hegemony vessels. Considering the planet of Anhur was not of particular interest to the Hegemony despite being one of their official colonies, this was noted as highly unusual. Initial hypothesis was either that new Eezo deposits had been discovered, there was increased pirate activity or instability regarding the local lords and corporations.
That was when the reports that Anhur had vanished came in.
The mere concept of this was impossible.
Where do you even start with how impossible this thing was.
For starters, removing the planet was- not impossible but highly improbable. The only similar incident in past history was the disappearance of the Mu Relay after the star it orbited went supernova, though it was theorized that a relay blowing up could have similar effects to one. However, neither the star nor the relay had blown up, and all other planets in the system were unaffected. Another possibility had been that a massive impact involving another celestial body, most likely an asteroid, but again, there was no indication of impact – not to mention it would have been detected really early. Artificial means were quickly rejected – there was no weapon, Prothean or otherwise, that could completely wipe out the planet.
And on top of all this, the gravitational forces of the Amun system had not been altered in any way since pre-disappearance scans, which meant that Anhur was probably still there, just… invisible.
Which was another impossibility since cloaking technology potent enough to hide a planet did not exist. The cloaking technology to hide a person was barely there – the STG had taken many years to perfect it to its current level. Perhaps this disappearance was caused by a natural phenomenon. Or an unnatural phenomenon. Because there was nothing normal about this.
At this rate, they might as well say that a fucking wizard did it.
That thought was terrifying. Because, if it was a person who caused the disappearance of the planet and not a phenomenon, then why…
Vilmis shook his head. They had far too little information on their hands for wild speculation. That was why they were here.
Operation MIRAGE was one of the best concealed operations currently ran by STG. It was named as such for the bizarre illusion-like quality of the case, where your mind and the environmental conditions deceive your brain. Vilmis thought it was certainly an apt name. He, along with a crew of slightly over 100 people, had been assigned on the SUV Letos – an STG vessel carefully disguised as a pirate vessel in order to carry out undercover operations in the Terminus systems. The crew was quite small for a military vessel, but the Letos was outfitted for scanning and reconnaissance, not combat. That said, it had a somewhat larger than average Eezo core at its engine to allow for more deft maneuvers and faster escapes, as well as basic shields and armaments to defend itself if they were in combat. In addition, it was lined with state-of-the-art scanning equipment and had the capability to perform highly encrypted communications from almost anywhere in the galaxy.
Hence the current line of communication. Captain Kelir was not actually on the Letos right now, but rather on an undisclosed safe location, along with a science team and a technical crew to analyse the data that would be sent by the Letos. The reason for this was to ensure that no data would be lost – while the Batarians did not exactly boast top-of-the-line technology, the disappearance of their reconnaissance crews was good reason for concern.
Hopefully this gap in technology would make the difference between the failed expeditions of the Hegemony and the future successful ones of the STG. No such luck yet, though.
"Run the scans again. All radio and extranet frequencies, radiation, heat emissions, Eezo, gravity emissions, whatever you can think of."
Not much choice, really. They had not been hailed by any ships or nearby planets yet, which made sense – the local Eclipse cells had also been evacuated or vanished along with the colony; there were different teams following up on those leads, more combat-oriented. Their current mission was to gather more information on the status of the planet.
A few minutes passed as the crew started working on the scanners. Vilmis barely held on to his professionalism. No radio signals whatsoever…
"Captain, I found something."
All eyes immediately fell on the operative on the other side of the room who announced this.
"Report."
"Significant increase in heat emissions… impossible to calculate how much, something is preventing my instruments from getting a clear reading."
This… only raised even more questions.
"Captain, what should we do?"
Captain Kelir fell silent. This was truly a dead-end situation.
At least when you are dealing with people, there is a line of reasoning – no matter how insane – that you can follow, a trace of evidence leading to causes and thus, predictions. When dealing with natural disasters, there are pre-established data and facts you can work with because one plus one equals two no matter what lens you view it from.
In many ways, the current operation went against everything they had ever been taught.
The longer the silence stretched out, the more dread Vilmis felt. He could tell he was not the only one feeling it.
"Approach the estimated location of the planet."
"Sir?"
"We have no other means of obtaining more data."
It was true. They all knew it. There really was no other option. It was the most reckless thing they could possibly do, enter potentially hostile territory they knew absolutely nothing about with no preparation whatsoever, but they had to come back with data.
The SUV Letos activated its propulsion systems.
It was a mistake.
"Father, I have detected an anomaly."
"Anomaly?"
"The approaching vessel has open line of communication with a currently unknown third party. The signal is highly encrypted, in a manner that differs from the Batarian Hegemony vessels we have detected so far. The possibility of an espionage party from an unknown source is high."
In the corner, one Batarian seemed to perk up – the kind of hope that only the truly desperate could manage. The "father" had seen this reaction many times in the past. He knew exactly what to do.
"Crush it."
"Yes father."
Nobody would get in the way of the Eggman Empire.
Pain. There was nothing but pain. It was the only thing keeping him from thinking this was a dream. So many bones were broken. His breath was shallow and laboured. Around him little more than dented and bent metal, a mere husk of what was once the SUV Letos. Green blood pooled beneath him, maybe from him, certainly from everyone else. He could make no other sound than a painful cough that turned into a choke.
He heard others choke to. Unlike his, theirs soon faded.
The yellow sun, a yellow dwarf his brain provided, cast its setting light, providing minimal warmth to his rapidly cooling skin, as his armor's VI screamed warnings of disconnected systems and structural damage at him.
Everything looked so innocent from down here on the surface.
The Salarian gazed up in the sky with the setting sun – an ordinary blue sky, quickly turning to shades of purple, an indication of the atmosphere he was currently breathing without protection having sufficient oxygen.
He could see two lonely stars emerging from the opposite end from which the sun was setting, though for all he knew they could be planets – no, they were most certainly planets, far too bright to be anything else.
Around him the breeze was cool and fresh, faintly carrying the scent of all sorts of unknown flora, with a distant scent of saltwater coming from who-knows-where. A flying animal approached them, slowly, then another, then a third. Its body was covered in a white and black substance unlike anything he had seen before, that seemed to be an offshoot of fur more than anything; not that he had any real idea, as fur was something very rarely seen among the races of the Citadel. There were insects of all colours buzzing around him, lured in by curiosity of perhaps the scent of blood. Blood that went deep into the plant-filled soil, covered in strange leaves of all possible colours, whites, blues, bright reds. Feeding the soil. He could hear water streaming at the distance, from the deafness found in an environment of complete isolation from anything but nature.
The rest of the fauna, if any, was staying well and far away from his crashed vessel.
From where he was laying here, he would have thought himself stranded in a newly discovered garden world, ready to be colonized.
But he knew better.
The two "moons" in the sky mocked him. Looking just so perfect and normal from this angle, shining golden in the setting sun.
But he knew better.
This was supposed to be a recon mission. Nothing but a recon mission, hence the small team and the small vessel filled with supplies and scanning tools, fast and agile. Yet here he was, with all his fellow agents laying unresponsive dead and no answers whatsoever. Oh no, he expected something to go wrong, travelling near Batarian territory. But nothing like this.
In a way, he was glad he had yet to meet any sentient life in this place. He hoped there was no Eezo in this system. He prayed there was no Eezo in this system. Because he saw what they made.
He saw the other side of those moons.
The smaller one was shining so innocently as if to mock him, looking for all the world like a normal satellite. But he saw them when he came near. He caught a glimpse of what that second moon REALLY is.
The inverted city. The giant wires holding down asteroids.
The massive cannon that undoubtedly destroyed the other side of this planet's SOLE moon.
He was those things as his ship was crushing, and thus STG Communications Specialist Padmin Vilmis knew, beyond a shadow of doubt…
They should have never come here.
Author notes: Alright! This is an idea I recently started discussing on Spacebattles, since I didn't really see anyone doing it. Tbh, my favourite Mass Effect crossovers are those that mess with fantasy settings, and I recently got into Sonic which is its own kind of crazy. So here! Completely out of context problem.
I'll be posting the completed versions of the chapters here, but you can talk about anything in the reviews, my PMs, or find me in Spacebattles - I go under Lermis there.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy, because I can promise you this will be a wild ride! Please, read and review!