Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or the various X-COM games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not written for profit. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.

Shattered Fate

Prologue: Brand new world

=SF=

Part 1. The end of the line

23:21 PM CET ( Central European Time), 21 July 2025 AD

Raptor flight en route to Berlin

Germany

Earth

Sol System

Being strapped into a seat in an Avenger Assault transport, with eleven other people, was not my idea for a fun ride. Considering how my last few months went, that minor irritation was barely a footnote, though it was almost enough to keep my mind distracted. Because, to be honest I was fucking terrified and was barely able to stop my body from shacking too much.

I'm not the bravest fella around, all right? One might think that I would have grown accustomed to this madness by now. To make thing clear – I was flying with a band of the best killers humanity has ever produced on my merry way to Berlin, where a bunch of aliens were throwing a party. For all I know the fucking Ethereal in command of the mess in the city had a bloody birthday and decided to invite all his buddies. You know how it is – Mutons and Heavy Floaters to provide the fireworks, Sectoids mind controlling the locals, and a bunch of Chryssalids invited on all you can eat buffet. Oh, there were a few Cyberdiscs flying around too, which were cheerfully blowing up civies.

Yeah, you got that right I am in the God forsaken X-COM universe, or at least one of its iterations. One evening I went to sleep and then I awoke strapped on an alien surgery. What followed were the worst couple of weeks in my life, something I'm not going into detail right now. According to the shrinks in the base I am suppressing most of those memories really well. A pretty bad thing as far as they are concerned.

Well fuck them. What happened those days is not something I want to dwell on or remember if I am given a choice. Besides as far as mental health goes I'm not screwed any worse than the rest of the X-COM operatives that have seen more than couple of missions. I've participated in ten deployments in the last two months, which was possible because the docs managed to put me more or less together after my ordeal in that damned alien base.

Now how you get an untrained civilian like myself, not to mention that I was a lot overweight and in pretty bad shape before the x-rays got their sticky fingers on me, well it is the same reason why I am participating in this particular mission as well. Psionics. Neither I or the scientist in the main base (despite all the test short of vivisection they did on me) know if I was born that way or it is something the aliens did to me, but right now I'm one of the few precious psionics that X-COM has. Considering how often either Sectoid Commanders of fucking Ethereals were encountered in the field, my deployment had been easily authorized. It was done because even if I royally screwed up in the field, it was unlikely that I would cause the death of more operatives that would die either way if they didn't have psionic support.

Did I mentioned that the Gift around here made what I saw in the games look like a child's play?

For example, take the first time I actually used my new powers. It was during the assault by everyone's favorite maniacs, on the base where I was experimented on. A stray shot by a panicked Sectoid totaled the device which was containing my powers. Yeah, I was strapped into a stasis pod, unable to do anything but feel what the bastards did to me. For fucking weeks!

Incidentally, that gave me a great view of the final chapter of the X-COM assault on the facility. The surviving members of the strike team showed me that the damn aliens can be killed. I saw both Muttons and heavy armored humans die under barrages of plasma and raw psionic powers. Then whatever was keeping my own Gift in check was shredded by that panicked little bastard.

Then my world went red with fury. They tell me that I went berserk and tore apart the base commander who was in the process of moping the floor with the surviving X-COM operatives.

The next time I actually used my Gift in anger was a month later when there was an alien retaliation targeted at the facility where I was still recovering. I had to help stop the alien bastards from killing or worse, taking me alive. So I assisted the base security, while exploring my gift. Let me tell you, it wasn't fun. At all.

At the time I really didn't think about the other people in the base. I fought solely to keep myself out the Ethereals hands. To blame me or not for being that selfish after what those things did to me is for you to decide. I don't care. But I digress. That is a story for another time (read never if I am able to repress those memories outside of the accursed nightmares).

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Operation "Shattered dreams". My eleventh official mission as an X-COM operative. You see, an hour ago the x-rays stated a Terror raid in Berlin. An Ethereal and at least four Sectoid commanders were spotted on various cameras before the feed was jammed. That is why I was ordered to join the strike team sent to clear their clocks. Three transports, thirty six operatives and six "ODIN" HWPs,(basically small floating tanks loaded with plasma cannon and heavy lasers) escorted by a wing of Firestorm fighters. We were going in to reinforce the elements of 1st Panzer-grenadier division which were protecting the city and hunt down the aliens. My job was to deal with the enemy psionics while the rest of the troops eliminated the never sufficiently damned Chryssalids. Preferably, before those menaces turned the whole city in monster infested graveyard.

So here I was, a minute away from the insertion point. My immediate boss, Colonel Karen "Ghost" Travis patted my shoulder and nodded her helmet encased head my way. Oddly enough, the gesture helped me to calm down. Considering the kind of hell we were about to walk in, the woman clad in "Titan" power armor had a reassuring effect on me. I nodded in answer and re-checked my gear for a hundredth time. Laser rifle and pistol, two alien grenades, four flash-bangs and a spare med-kit. According to the HUD of my helmet everything was all right with my experimental Psionic armor. (Don't get me started on the "joy" I was in about field testing the latest piece of equipment cooked up by our illustrious R&D department. Last week a light blaster launcher blew up when a demo specialist tried to shoot at a rampaging Sectopod. There was nothing left of the poor bastard when his spare ammo detonated too. I was "fortunate enough" to be trying on the bloody armor when the alarm sounded. Considering that it took more than an hour for the prototype to be fitted on me, there was not enough time to change in regular power armor when the presence of enemy psionic troops was confirmed.)

"Ten seconds. Brace yourselves." The all too cheerful voice of our pilot interrupted my musings.

"Do things by the numbers and keep your heads down. I want you all in one piece after we finish our sightseeing trip." The pilot's announcement was followed by the synthetically distorted voice of the Colonel.

"Yes, mother." Sergeant James "Angel" Valdes, our combat medic, quipped. This got few chuckles from the veterans.

The Avenger suddenly lurched when coming to a sudden halt over our designated LZ. Obviously the internal dampeners of the bird had some kinks left to straighten out. Ironically, during our hypersonic flight, the system worked like a charm – I did not feel any of the acceleration.

According to the briefing, we were to deploy in a small park in which local troops were dug in and still holding, link with their commander, get the latest Intel on the situation and proceed from there. Well the plan went pear shaped the moment the ramp opened. On of the our FNG, who were placed strategically next to the exit got a face full of plasma. All because a damn drone had evaded the avenger's sensors only to appear when we were about to deploy. A moment later the damn bot was speared by crimson lance by the "ODIN" closest to the ramp. The hover tank exited, its cameras and sensors scanning for more targets. It was followed by the rest of "Crimson" squad, which was the Colonel's own unit.

Let me tell you, she wasn't happy to be baby-sitting a couple of greenhorns while two of her veterans were stuck in the hospital after her last op.

One lest of the FNG's now…

His death should have shocked me. Perhaps kindled some other reaction than simple shrug.

It would have before my first mission, when we lost seven of the ten men and women we went in with. Instead neither of us paid much attention to the dead woman and we simply continued with our deployment.

The second six man group was me and my designated minders for this op. As you could imagine, the only reason I lived long enough to become somewhat competent was the Commander's decision to sent me out with a bodyguard detail which included some of the meanest bastards X-COM had to offer. Not that he really had much of a choice. At the time I was one of the very few human psionic who could use the Gift in combat. Even now, months later there were only six of us with enough grasp of this power so it could be our primary weapon in combat.

Four of us were still alive and out of the hospital right now. And lucky me – I was alone in the European theater.

When we disembarked, the pilots lost no time in getting the Avenger to safety, the lucky bastards. Even before the ramp closed and our rider could start pulling out, we were dispersing and taking what little cover we could find in the immediate vicinity. The closet trees were twenty meters away with only the HWPs and a pile of sand bags for protection. Thanks to a heavy jamming in the area, which indicated that at least couple of cyberdiscks or a Sectopod were around, we had lost contact with the detachment securing the LZ. Until few minutes ago we had live satellite feed of the area and it was still secure. Then the we lost our eyes in the sky when the sat was blown up by an UFO on its way out of the atmosphere. The next bird would be on station in another four minutes or so.

Needless to say, we were not amused to deploy in potentially hostile drop zone.

If we had any notions that we might be safe for the moment, that damn drone nothwinstanding, it was immediately rebuffed. Far to the left, behind a bunch of trees, we could hear gunfire, angry bellows from Mutons and the distinctive sounds of their favorite heavy plasma rifles, which was heard over the familiar retorts of firearms.

The rest of the park was quiet. Too quiet. Thanks to the night vision systems integrated into our helmets (reverse engineered from alien samples) we could see as well as at high noon. There were corpses strewn near the treeline. They did not bore the cauterized wounds caused by plasma weapons. Instead the corpses were riddled with bullet wounds and some were torn apart in the distinctive pattern of high powered psionics.

"Well shit." I muttered. At out current position we were sitting ducks. That was obvious to the Colonel, who looked at me. I shook my head. I could detect nothing passively. Going active with my psionics would lit me up like a beacon for the most enemies in the area, who could at least sense active uses of the Gift (after all it was the primary way the Ethereals communicated with their slaves). Travis lost no time in snapping orders.

"Pop smoke and advance to the treeline to the right. Crimson fall in. Hammer cover Dragon". (If you are wondering that's my call sign. Don't ask.) She chose that direction because the cover was much closer. There were about seventy meter to the trees behind which the German soldiers were fighting. Too much open ground to risk it when the situation smelled like a trap.

Moment later the grenades were on their way. They exploded releasing crimson smoke mixed with alloy particles which disrupted alien sensors in the affected area. Made it hard for Mark I and II eye too.

The Colonel and her squad dashed, moving behind the mobile cover provided by "Odin 1". The other HWP was standing on overwatch, covering our rear.

When they were halfway through a group of four combat drones appeared over the tree crowns. They were immediately engaged by the second "ODIN" which had clear line of fire. Me and my minders joined in a second later. By that time two of the machines were blasted by laser fire and the third was attempting to evade plasma cannon shots. The ordinance they sent our way splashed on the armor of the vehicle dealing superficial damage. They managed only a single shot apiece before our concentrated fire blew them out of the sky. Luckily their software prioritized the highest threat as a target, keeping us squishy humans safe.

However, that was just the beginning. The frighteningly familiar whining sound of Cyberdisks hover systems rend the night. Three of those appeared from thin air in front of "Crimson" who had almost reached the treeline. The bastards had fitted those machines with active camouflage!

"Sheize!" One of my minders cursed a moment before we opened fire.

What followed was a short and brutal firefight. The reasons why anyone of the Colonel team made it, considering they were at point blank range with the alien machines were twofold. Small degrading of the targeting sensors caused by the witches brew that was the contents of our smoke grenades and the disks targeting priorities. Naturally they decided that the "ODIN" was the primary threat and two of them concentrated fire on it. Lasers speared one of the alien machines and plasma raced in both directions. Within seconds our HWP was overwhelmed but the loyal machine managed to take one of its enemy counterparts to hell.

"Truck", a Nigerian, mountain of a man, who was Crimson's demo expert cut loose with his plasma cannon at the Cyberdisk to the right. The superheated gas caved the armor of the alien construct. The machine exploded in a spectacular way a moment later but not before returning fire with dual bolts of golder energy. The anti-vehicle ordinance had no trouble with the power armor of T'Kou Mobuto and blew him in two at the waist. Meanwhile, all of us were busy pumping the last machine chock full with plasma and laser fire. It spun in place, spreading the damage all over its frame and buying itself the extra second it needed to threw a grenade at the closest squad. Crimson had no time to react, not at that range. The glowing sphere flew their way and hit Angel in the torso, before detonating. Valdes took the brunt of the explosion and shielded the rest of the team. His mangled corpse was thrown back and struck the Colonel who was lining another shot with her sniper. For the moment the boss and the rest of her team were down for the count, dazzled by the explosion. At least the last Cyberdisk had taken enough damage to give an electronic whine and fall to the ground in a heap of smoking metal.

Naturally our situation became worse. It always does when the fucking aliens are out in force. The next wave hit us while the last explosion was still echoing. A flight of ten heavy floaters jumped over the treeline and charged us. One was promptly taken out with a head-shot by my team\s sniper, "Reaper", who was taken position behind the remaining HWP. The said "ODIN" was methodically taking apart the incoming enemies, but it took concentrated firepower to kill these armored foes. Or one straight hit from its heavy cannon. The rest of us joined in the fun, firing controlled bursts of lasers and plasma.

Half of our number were down by now but I still kept my psionics in reserve. The current enemy tactics was too similar for comfort to the way the other two of our psi troopers were taken down in previous bastards had thrown waves of their units at us while their Ethereal commanders were waiting for our operatives to reveal themselves and had struck while they were distracted. Granted it was expensive tactic, but when they had the bodies to spent it worked. Besides when you take into account that our combat capable psi troopers could be counted on the fingers of one hand this was a sound strategic action on their part. Especially considering what someone with my powers could do when there was no enemy psi operative to counter me.

That was kind of the problem, for all of my raw power I was relatively in-expierenced in psionc combat. The one time I was caught off guard a bloody Sectoid commander almost did me in. Right now, in Berlin, Intel had confirmed four of the critters and a fucking Ethereal on the ground. If that bastard was here and struck me while I was too busy throwing psi powers at the floaters we were all dead.

The silver lining of our situation was that those flying bastards were not accurate while on the move and evading return fire. Only couple of glancing hits connected with one of my bodyguards and his armor shrugged it off with only a small rend left by the plasma. I took aim at a floater nobody was shooting at and pressed the trigger. A crimson lance of coherent light carved its armor plate. I held down the trigger until my weapon whined in protest, while silently thanking the genetic enhancements that gave me a fighting chance. My improved sight and reaction times were proving to be a lifesaver.

The continues laser assault made short work of the armor and reached the juicy innards of the creature. Apparently I got lucky and scored a critical hit in its propulsion system. It blew up which detonated the grenades he was loaded with. The ensuring chain reaction took out another of the bastards, who had strayed too close to my target in his attempts to evade the fire of my teammates. Soon the floaters were down for the count and the Colonel and her remaining two troopers were stirring, slowly coming back to their senses. However we were in no position to cheer. With angry roars, two Berserkers, clad in their distinctive crimson armor, charged from the left. Behind them, a pair of Mutons laid down a barrage of suppressive fire. And the gunfire of the Germans was conspicious in its absence.

Reaper threw himself to the ground barely dodging plasma bolts. The "ODIN" whirled around and flew over the prone sniper. Its plasma cannon roared and struck the leading Berserker, staggering him. Meanwhile its laser weapons were shooting all over the alien's buddy, leaving deep rends in his armor. However that didn't stop the x-ray. It simply roared in fury and continued its charge. Before our flying tank could shoot again with its primary weapon a purple sphere flew between the Mutons and struck it just below the cannon. It expanded to a meter in diameter and then imploded tearing a big piece of the "ODIN" which it collapsed on itself. The gutted tank fell to the ground.

This little demonstration of power could be used as an example why I was considered a critical asset. That trick was barely scratching the surface of what a psionic could do. Compared to the real thing, the Gift, in the way portrayed in the games I knew was a child's play. Or Sectoid for that matter. What I and the Ethereals could do... It was plain scary. And when all is said and done I was little more than a beginner who had a lot of raw power and lacked the knowledge to unlock its true potential.

Unfortunately for the alien bastards the hide and seek was over. With a thought I removed the mental blocks chaining my powers. I barely noticed how Reaper blew off the brains of the second Berserker while the rest of the squad were taking potshots at the mutons. I grinned madly as I felt the rush of power that greeted me, made ever sweeter and more potent by psi-amps integrated into my armor. Purple energy cracked all over my body, forming a hazy aura around me. I concentrated on the area from which the psionic attack had came and unleashed my power. I could sense the location of the Ethereal, as if I was looking at him from a birds point of view. The tree behind which he was taking cover was ghostly, transparent to my eyes. I idly wondered if that is the way superman felt when using his x-ray vision.

Dismissing the errand thought as fast as it came, I focused my attention on the alien leader. I could feel his surprise and shock. He did not expect for a human to wait this long before acting, obviously assuming that our psi support was with one of the other X-COM units. He frantically tried to reach for more of his power but it was far too late.

I struck, wielding my psionics like an assassins dagger and plunged it deep into his mind. He screamed like a damned soul in the depths of hell as his consciousness shattered like a fragile crystal struck by sledgehammer. I felt as his mind blinked out and released him from my psionic grasp. He, while technically alive was finished. His body slowly toppled to the ground. His unseeing eyes stared at the sky while drool leaked from his open mouth. I smiled with satisfaction. Another of those bastards was dealt with once and for all.

Then my attention came back to the Mutons who were still alive and sniping my squad. It was trivial thing to take control of the dim mind of the one to the right. Without a sound, my puppet made of flesh and bones turned his weapon at his comrade and emptied the clip at his brother in arms. I channeled more power in the mind control and the alien fell to the ground when I fried his brain.

I roared as searing pain gripped my left shoulder. It was like a liquid metal flowed in my veins.

How true it was. I was spun in place by the kinetic force of a plasma bolt as my shoulder was burned by the liquified alloy of my armor. A second shot missed my head by centimeters. I was caught off guard by the most glaring weakness of my powers. I could not multitask while using my psionc abilities. If they hadn't my full concentration, my attacks dissipated. The scientist back at the base believed that it was matter of mind discipline and training. The lessons in meditation I was offered and took didn't help much and there obviously was no one who was able to train me. In contrast, the some of the Ethereals could concentrate on multiple targets while using their psionic abilities and usually kept their situation awareness. The only live capture we had of their kind was still in interrogation and had not cracked, which only made our resident mad doctor more determined. So I was left to stumble in the dark.

That was a problem that just came home to roost with vengeance.

I gritted my teeth and concentrated. A purple wall of energy formed between me and the direction from which the attacks came. The next shot splashed on it harmlessly and I looked at its source. The Colonel was on her knees and her sniper was pointed my way. I could see a line of psionic energy stretching from the treeline to her head.

Mind control.

The same was happening to her two subordinates who were still stunned and were struggling to bring their weapons to bear. The God damned Sectoid commanders. Was it coincidence or did the aliens use one of their ruling caste as a bait for me? I could sense the Ethereal's surprise while he died. So probably a case of Murphy screwing with us.

The result was the same anyway.

I felt the an alien clawing at my mind with his powers. The Colonel shot at me again and again. All I could do was to desperately hold up my barrier while the little fucker was assaulting my mind. As I said, I suck at multitasking when my Gift is concerned. And my bodyguards? They were panicking and firing wildly in all directions. The X-Rays had hit them with a terror wave and succeeded. No help there. And possibly a few shots with my name were about to came from them too.

"Damn..." I spat tiredly. The mental assault was taking its toll. I was out of good options.

The moment after the next shot from the Colonel hit my barrier I dropped it and with a wordless scream reached as deep into the intangible source of my psionic power as possible. And then I went even deeper, thanks to the armor I wore. The time slowed to a crawl as my brain started working faster than should be humanly possible. I could feel warm liquid leaking from my nose and ears but didn't care. I ignored the way my vision turned pink and then red. There was only my power. A whole ocean of it, more than I could channel in a thousand lifetimes of constant combat.

My attention went to the Sectoid commanders. They were blazing like a signal beacons in the night. I could feel my psionc power screaming in rage like a living thing. I reached for them and touched them with my Gift. My power blazed like a newborn sun. They glowed from within and went up in flames before managing to even scream. The night was lit up by fires so intense that the Sectoids were rendered to ash. I felt them go into the long night and tried to smile. My head ached dully and I was loosing the concentration needed to use my powers. The ocean of energy I had touched was slipping from my shaky grasp.

Captain Travis. My mind strayed to her. I could feel the futile desperation with which she had fought the mind control. The last command given to her by the fucking alien, which she and her body had no choice but to obey. I felt her index finger squeezing the trigger of her sniper, while my head was in the center of her scope. She screamed in her mind as the weapon buckled against her shoulder.

A bolt of plasma exited the barrel of her sniper and headed my way. I tried to move or raise another barrier. My body refused to bulge. The trickle of psionic power I could still use hurried to obey, but I knew it won't be nearly enough. Not against a sniper shot.

At the same time I was still touching the colonel's mind. Could hear her screaming. The shot was coming at me slowly as if it was taunting my futile attempt to deflect it.

"It's not your fault, Karin." I sent through our unexpected connection. I sensed her surprise at hearing my words. "And thank you. For everything..." I trailed off.

The world went green.