i do not own warhammer 40k sadly, nor Mass Effect...
Rage.
Pure, unending Rage.
It corsed through his shattered sack of a body as he roared his hatred of the Xenos indecipherable language scrolling across a terminal before smashing it with his claws...
"Curse this Xenos tongue..."
He chastised himself for not mounting the crews lone survivor to his sarcophagus...using this vessels database would be much easier with a translator, but alas, he would have to make do with the tools provided.
He was about to go off to find the damnable Xenos when an alarm sounded through the ship, deep within his sarcophagus, his disfigured corpse smiled...at least as much as one without a bottom jaw and tubes running down their throat could manage...he had heard that claxon call through the ship twice before.
The vessel was being boarded...
Navigating a Xenos ship was always tricky for one of his bulk, but he quickly made his way towards the cargo deck the other intruders had come through.
'perhaps a Xenos skin tabard? no I'd have to gather enough skin from the gore...and chunks of skin are so hard to work with these powerclaws...'
His aged mind wandered, as it usually did when he was coming down from his sarcophagus's combat stimulants after a wonderfully vivid xenocide. He had blocked all but one door within the cargo bay, with this in mind he waited beyond the only accessable door, when the diminutive creature's walked in he wanted to see the fear on their massive amphibian eyes when they realized he was the being that had slaughtered the entire ship.
The Door opened, and confusion crossed Harxahs mind for the second time in ten millennia.
[A few moments earlier, within the Enduring Civility's main cargo hold]
Shepard was at a loss for words... when they received no response to their hails, he and the rest of the ground team assumed Cerberus was responsible, but seeing that the ship was completely intact and no Cerberus vessels were reported since the attack on sur'kesh, it was guessed that whatever happened was a result of the salarians touching something no sane sapient should willingly touch...
Entering the vessel was like diving into a nightmare, blood and gore from the crew and what he assumed was the STG infiltration units was savagely strewn across the deck, crossing the reapers off and the list of those responsible as they wouldn't pass up the chance of harvesting such a vast amount of biomass.
Walking past the gore and shattered Kodiak shuttle Shepard, Liara, and Mordin advanced towards the only working door. Liara marveled in shock at the savage brutality beyond anything she had yet experienced in her life, Meanwhile Mordin documented the sight with his Omni-tool in the hopes of cross referencing the gore patterns with known serial killers, mercenary groups, or even animals in order to find what they would likely find stalking the ship...
Shepard ignored the bodies, he had seen worse things in his fight against the batarians as a Marine and later tracking Saren as a SPECTRE. pressing on he opened the door... at first glance he assumed that it was blocked with metal boxes in a makeshift barricade, but to his horror he saw the thing more clearly.
It stood taller than a Mako, and just as wide. what he assumed was the Mechs armor was veritable picture of a lightning storm in the dead of night, the bolts almost lifelike as he glimpsed the monstrous clawed finger in it's gauntlets... tied to it's right arm, a bandolier of massive bleached human skulls swayed to greet him. it was then that the machines singular red optic came into view. deep in the core of his being, he knew that he would not live if he fought this beast...
"I am Harxah the Taloned Fate, Bane of Loyalists, and keeper of my Gene-fathers will... I have many questions for You, Mortals.."
Amusement spread in his shattered corpse as he watched the two mortals and the Xenos become paralyzed by trans-human fear, it had been a while since he had played with his prey without the interference of the damnable combat stimulants his former warband used to keep him compliant like one of those disgusting Helbrutes the other more dubious warbands were fond of fielding...
Harxah lumbered out into the light, his powerclaws deactivating with a purr of powering down energy coils.
"I have slept for too long. Tell me Mortals, Does the Long War yet Rage? Does the Corpse-God and his wretched Imperium lay Dead in its cesspit of a grave?"
He watched as the diminutive creature's emotions raged within them. confusion, apprehension, fear, curiosity...hope... hope? it was now his turn to be confused as the three mortals huddled together in a discussion he, the massive Dreadnought that massacred an entire Xenos ship and three Xenos boarding squads in a combat stimulant induced rampage, was evidently not a part of.
"you have gone insane Shepard...that thing likely murdered an entire salarian research ship and you want to add it to your found family!" Liara hissed quietly her disapproval
Shepard hissed back at her, waving a finger in her face
"You leave the 'Found family' stuff out of this! I understand quite well how much of a risk this is, but look at it! we can't kill it and we can't leave it here for Cerberus or some other assholes to get a hold of, that leaves the only safe option being that we bring it with us. Who knows, maybe it'll help us against the reapers?"
Mordin remained silent but nodded, it seemed that even he was affected by the horror show around them. Liara, the most apprehensive of the three, gave a fearful look at the monstrous machine.
"then it's decided, we'll bring it aboard and see what it knows...I'm curious about this 'long war' and 'imperium' it spoke about and if it has any knowledge of the reapers."
Harxah watched the mortals bicker about what to do with him... it was amusing to see that they thought they had a choice in the matter, he could have killed them all with half a thought, but seeing as he could not commandeer the vessel he had awoken in, what with a lack of proper digit's to manipulate the vessels controls, he would have to leave with these misbegotten mortals.
"Speak, mortals. lest I simply reduce you to a memory."
He watched as the mortals squirmed to turn to him, fear etched in each of their faces as he flexed his claws.
"We have, after much deliberation, decided to ask you to come aboard our ship so that we can speak in a much less..."
Shepard waved a hand to a bisected salarian officer, it was quiet clear he was having trouble with his composure upon seeing just how clean the cut was.
"gore filled place. I will warn you, should you object, we are under orders to destroy this ship and it's cargo. it is up to you wether you wish to live or die"
Harxah paused for a moment before a wretched sound that would haunt the ground team for as long as they lived escaped his vox caster. His laughter echoed through the halls of the vessel as his decision was made...and the fate of the galaxy was flipped on its head...
(Greetings, dear reader! I apologize for the delayed update on my works but circumstances outside my control forced me to take a step back from writing to pursue other matters. with that out of the way, I hope you enjoyed, and may the Omnissiah guard you from the evils of this world and the next.)