Episode One - A New Variable

"I still think we should help this universe and their people with these Reapers," an angry masculine voice could be heard saying which drew a deep sigh from someone else for it went on with more anger, "Not to mention I would love to shove an Impaler up the ass of these fucking slaving Batarians and open fire at full auto."

"Jim, I do agree with you and everything, especially these Batarians, but with myself not able to compress my powers into a mortal body any longer we do not have many options," a feminine sorrowful sounding voice replied to the first voice got an angry curse from the first voice.

"And while I could return to a mortal form, we have some problems with that as well," the first voice could be heard saying a bit of annoyance in their voice.

"Yes, we have been over this already Jim. I am not about to send you in alone with pretty much nothing to use to fight the Reapers," the second, feminine voice, shot back with a hint of anger now leaking into the voice making the first voice sigh out loud.

"Yeah, I got that, you only have a limited supply of essence and biomass so can create only a small team," the first voice grumbled out with a bit of annoyance as it went on, "Even if you could create such a team you can't create anything for them as you cannot create stuff out of nothing even with your all of your impressive powers and everything."

"I am not Amon Jim he used the energy he drew from the Void itself to create those fully equipped void thralls to use against us in the war. I need some actual material or resources to create what we would need to fully equip you in mortal form or a small team of created soldiers from my stored essence and biomass," the feminine voice calmly explained to the first voice who huffed at the second voice making it just sigh in outright outrage at the first voice before it seemed to pause in some surprise.

"Wait Jim do you feel that?" the second voice asked in some concern making the first voice hum in some thought.

"I feel something darling, but I do not know what it is," the first voice answered in some confusion making the second voice seem like it nodded.

"Well that is direct Void energy mixed with what feels like Protoss Vortex Warp energy," the second voice explained drawing a deep breath of some sort of surprise from the first voice, "I remember it from my time working alongside Artanis and his forces when we first encountered Ulnar and the dead Xel'Naga."

"The Protoss here, in this universe!" the first voice almost yelped in its surprise for it had not expected that at all.

"No, I do not think so but something from our home universe or even something from the void itself is about to arrive in this universe," the second voice explained with some concentration which drew the first voice's attention.

"It's going to arrive in this system!" the first voice exclaimed in surprise and a bit of suspicion as it seemed to stare off towards where all of this was going on. The two had been floating above a small moon that held an outpost of the slave operations of the larger Batarian Hegemony on the edge of the lawless Terminus Systems. And it had been one more reason why the two had wanted to help these people.

"You know if I was a betting woman, I would say that this is some sort of prophetic thing once more," the second voice grumbled out in outright outrage at what was happening. For it had been involved with more than one actual prophecy thanks in part to the Xel'Naga that provided the needed essence to ascend her into a virtual goddess in her own right.

"I am so not taking that bet, Sarah," the first voice mentioned with a dark chuckle before looking over towards the system's only asteroid belt where they were picking up that energy, "So shall we go then and see what this happens to be."

"Yeah, yeah. Still, I swear if this some stupid prophecy or something I am going to revive Zeratul so I can kill him myself!" the second voice ranted out drawing another short chuckle from the first voice. Still, the two seem to flash from floating above the moon and its outpost before arriving just out of range of the growing amount of energy.

"Woah howdy! That is a lot of energy!" the first voice exclaimed with a shout as it stared at the expanding ball of energy. Then as it said that the ball of energy started to rapidly expand outwards before it disappeared with a flash of deep green light leaving behind dozens of floating ships. Ships that the two immediately recognized right off the bat.

"The hell? That is a Terran Dominion Fleet! And that is actually theBucelpeus itself, Junior's Flagship! What in the world are they doing here?" the first voice managed to say in outright shock as it stared at the floating ships.

"Are you sure Jim?" the second voice asked after a moment which made the first voice snort.

"Hon, I was on that ship enough times after you took out old Arturus that I know it by sight just like the oldHyperion," the first voice explained with a chuckle before seeming to smirk at something or another, "Besides it is one of only two ships of that particular class of battlecruiser to have the horrid gold secondary color and that even worse wolfhead on its bow."

"And besides you tore the oldPrydwen right out of the sky when it tried to attack you during your attack on Palace during the Invasion of Korhal. So, it should be the only ship remaining in the Dominion Fleet that looks like that. Unless Junior went and commissioned another flagship anyways," the first voice mentioned with an amused sounding voice making the second voice let out a surprised hum at this before seeming to nod at its partner.

"Yeah, now that you mention I do recall a battlecruiser trying all out ram me out of the sky when I was taking apart some of those Warhawk Heavy Gunships Arturus sent after me," the second voice mused to itself before seeming to focus back on the fleet and the handful of powerful psionic signatures, including one very familiar signature, on that gold-colored monstrosity of a flagship.

"Still Jim, sweety, why don't you cross over to the old Koprulu Sector and see what or who caused all of this," the second voice ordered making the first voice grumble slightly before nodding in agreement.

"Yes, ma'am!" the first voice replied before seeming to pause and look at its partner, "What about you Sarah? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to say hi to an old friend," the second voice said in some amusement which drew the attention of the first voice to what the second voice had detected earlier before letting off a bark of laughter.

"Don't scare her too bad Sarah, she did save your fine ass more than a few different times and getting my head straight after you busted in that prison ship to rescue me," the first voice gently reminded the second making it sigh and nod over at its partner.

"I remember," it nearly whispered before the first voice seemed to fire off a salute to the second and with a flash of golden light disappeared from their sight. That done the second voice advanced towards the golden-colored large battlecruiser with a smile on its face.

-o-End-o-

Post Chapter Notes

WELL! This is the actual preface for the first episode of the story, basically taking a page out of the book of the game which had the individual campaigns of the games be known as Episodes. And yes, the two characters talking in this preface are an ascended version of Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor which is actually from the first two versions of this idea. Which basically had Jim sent to the Mass Effect Universe with a small team by Kerrigan. I am keeping them around as a sort of ascended backup for Valerian and his people as a nod to this original version of this idea. Also, I like to mention that the overall "look" mentioned as the Bucelpeus is actually the Co-Op Commander version of the Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruiser design mixed with the fan-made model for the Norad II which has a wolf head on its bow. The actual pair of Pride Class ships that serve as escorts for the flagship look exactly like the Co-op Mode version of the boat but do not have the gold color instead sporting a more bronze-like color. Okay. That is about it for these notes. I am going to post the actual first chapter of this story sometime tomorrow as I have some writing I need to get done tonight.