This is an idea of ME/X-COM fusion I had some time ago. I recently found my notes concerning this project and decided to try doing something with it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or X-COM. They belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial purpose. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent!
With fire and blood
Prologue: Ghosts from an impossible past
=WFB=
Part 1: The death of an Empire
41.15.17513 AE
Feolin Prime
"They've breached the perimeter." I said.
"Indoctrinated forces are entering the complex." The Protean to my left confirmed.
"All soldiers report to the entrance. We need to buy more time." General Javik ordered.
Even now, at the end, his voice was steady. It didn't crack despite the disaster in progress.
"Once more into the breach, old friend." I grinned and removed the heavy plasma rifle from my back. Once in my hands, the weapon recognized me and hummed as it's on board computer powered it up.
The last Protean Avatar still alive gave me a flat look with the pair of eyes facing me.
"It's the last time and you damn know it." He growled, while retrieving his own weapon, wrapped himself with emerald biotics and sprinted towards the nearest entrance.
"We still may get lucky." I quipped and followed. My extensive cybernetic implants and genetic tailoring allowing me to keep pace with Javik
Soon enough we were at the third defensive ring, which was under heavy assault by indoctrinated forces. We could easily see the second ring in the distance. It was breached by heavy enemy units and they were lumbering our way.
Protean Bastions were holding their ground, barely keeping the mass of enemy troops at bay.
We wasted no time and opened fire. Javic threw a singularity over the head of the defenders and opened fire with his particle rifle. I followed with a pair of grenades and controlled plasma bursts. The two platoons that had joined us in our dash to this position joined our onslaught and soon enough the floor and surrounding walls were covered with itchor.
For a few minutes we were able to keep the relentless onslaught contained thanks to the firepower and Protean biotics we could concentrate in the tunnel. Yet, one by one the soldiers defending this positions were falling. One was shoot too many times, his barriers shattering under the onslaught, before a lucky shot smashed through the visor of his helmet. Another was buried under a wave of drones and torn apart moments before we could blow them to pieces. Then a third exploded into steaming chunks when a former Orovorus blasted his torso with it's dual heavy weapons.
It went downhill from there.
"I hate to be a party popper, but we won't be able to keep this much longer." I shouted over the roar of battle.
"I know!" Javic grit his teeth. "Victory status?"
"Done. You should pull back and lure in as many enemy forces as possible." The VI reported.
I reloaded and patted my last remaining friend on the shoulder. "It's time."
The Protean glared at me with all four eyes, before giving me a sharp nod. He sent another singularity at the enemies and headed deeper in the complex. I threw my remaining grenades at the pressing mass of indoctrinated and followed him.
By the time we reached the stasis pods, all but the final defensive perimeter were breached and there were already leakers rampaging through the fortress. A group of drones screeched behind us and darted our way. The few troopers that were preparing to enter stasis unsheathed their weapons and started burning the corrupted Proteans with particle beams. I emptied my clip in them, while Javik used his biotics to tear apart anything that got near us. In moments it was over and two more Proteans laid dead on the metal floor.
"The situation is critical. I need to initiate the neuton bombardment in moments." Victory reported.
"This is the first time I wonder if your kind's plan might have had some merit." Javik gave a me a grim look.
Gods, I knew what it took for one like him to admit it. Needless to say, it didn't make me feel any better.
"For what's worth, I'm sorry my friend."
"Me too." He grunted and opened his pod.
I went to mine and did the same.
"Bombardment in fifteen. Get in!" Victory ordered.
"No! There are still soldiers out there!" Javik protested.
"Their sacrifice will be honored in the Coming Empire."
"Javik, we won't hep them by dying here. Get in or I'll deck you scaly ass and dump you in the damn pod!" I shouted while opening my own coffin for the next few millennia.
"Preparing Neutron Bombardment. Get into your pods now." Victory ordered it it's flat, toneless voice.
The Protean gave me a glare that could melt battle-steel and relented. We lasted no more time and followed the VI's instructions.
"Neutron Bombardment under way." Victory announced a moment before the world ended. My pod was busy sealing itself as the experimental weapon went into effect, simulating the nuclear purge of the facility.
"Purge successful." The VI announced some time later. "The Bunker is Secured, Commander Javik, Field Commander Veil."
"What's left of it. A few hundred people." My old friend muttered in shock. Huh. So our comms were still linked.
"Perhaps. There are other facilities. Other fail-safes." I said.
"The Field Commander is correct. Error. The Neutron Purge has compromised this facility. Further adjustments may be necessary.
"Clarify!" We both snapped at once.
"Sensors are damaged. Automated reactivation is no longer an option. Your pods will remain into stasis until another culture discovers this facility. This may need to a power shortage."
Well, fuck.
"Do not shut more pods! I need the few that are left!" Javik ordered.
"I will triage power appropriately. You will be the voice of our people, Commander Javik, and you will speak for all our allies, Field Commander Veil."
"I will be more than that..." Javik muttered.
"That we will, old friend..." I whispered as the darkness of cryo-stasis claimed me.
=WFB=
Part 2: Electronic dreams I
41.15.17513 AE – 21.04.2183 CE
Feolin Prime/Eden Prime
It was supposed to be a dreamless sleep, interrupted only by periods of virtual training. Well, the facility was supposed to be sealed intact instead as as burned and bombed out husk too.
In hindsight, it shouldn't have been a surprise that the stasis malfunctioned a bit. We were lucky the pods lasted as long as they did and a few of us were still more or less intact when you awoke us.
Let me tell you, it didn't feel that way while we were "sleeping". The virtual training went as planned. Every ten years or so, our brains were thawed a bit and we participated into simulated combat to keep us sharp. That part of the plan went without a hitch. However, some time in the endless cycle something went wrong. We were no longer left to sleep, unfeeling the passage of time. Instead we dreamed of our pasts, again and again.
Considering that everyone who had left to be entombed in the pods had seen and experienced more nightmares that an organic should in a dozen lifetimes, that was a problem…
=WFB=
My first conscious memories were from studying at the DAGGER facility, where the Proteans were uplifting us to fight their latest war. By that time, the Empire had conquered most of the territory easily reached from the Relay network. The Proteans were at the height of their power.
Then they encountered the Ethereal Concordat with their genetically and cybernetically enhanced slaves, which was probably the best or worst thing that could have happened to us primitive humans.
First contact had occurred a few hundred years before I was born and subsequently upgraded, and trained to fight in a war which had been raging for centuries... I can still remember myself sitting on a white desk, surrounded by dozens of other kids, while a human woman was teaching slash indoctrinating us. I freely admit that the holograms showing us the botched first contact and the subsequent battle were awe inspiring… Especially for wet behind the years children who hadn't seen anything as awesome. Protean Guardians pitting their particle rifles and biotics against Heavily Armored Muttons and Sectoid Commanders providing psionic support… It went quite well when the scrap started. The little skittering bastards were no match for a platoon of the Empire's finest. Even if the Muttons were harder to put down than their Protean counterparts, the biotics were a great equalizer.
I vividly remember seeing plasma blast slamming into biotic barrier for no visible effect while various combos tore apart the heavy armor of the Muttons, before they were either cooked by particle beams of wiped out by biotic warps. What the pair of Sectoid Commanders could do, while impressive, was too little to turn the tide.
Then I saw an Ethereal for the fist time. The damn thing was tall, easily visible above the line of dying Muttons. Very thin too, to my young mind it appeared that the thing was starving, so it shouldn't have been a real threat.
How little did I know then.
The appearance of fragility was immediately shattered when the Ethereal entered the fray. It raised it's two pairs of arms and long lances of purple energy appeared above its shoulders. Then it threw it at the Proteans. The energy spears passed through the barrier as if it wasn't there. Then, they impaled the two biotic specialists maintaining the defensive field and exploded, disintegrated the poor patrons and anyone who had the misfortune to be near them.
It went downhill from there.
The only reason we knew exactly what happened was that the surviving Protean officer on the ground called an orbital strike on his location, which was granted. When the dust settled, there were a couple of Guardians still alive and no sight of the Etherial, but I digress. That bit of info was something I learned many years later, while I was busy completing a short OCS course.
I almost smiled at that thought. At the time, all my attention was concentrated on the holographic display. We all cheered when the orbital strike hit home and we could see the Ethereal forces being obliterated. Heh, we were kids then and such displays of propaganda were more than enough to make us want to be like the Guardians we saw fighting and holding their own against the evil enemies of the Empire.
Whatever you want to say about the Proteans, they had a great PR, something that held true even centuries after the Reapers fractured the Empire and we were busy fighting for our lives against those damn synthetic horrors.
=WFB=
I had a shit eating grin on my face. Of course I was grinning like a tiny loon. It was a down period and we were left to play in one of the common rooms of the facility.
Which meant that my cronies and me had a puzzle to complete. A scared Patron, who was one of our favorite people at the time, smiled at us and brought us a huge bag with the pieces. That man, Kou'ta Rowlleen, told the best stories! He had the best puzzles too!
The Patron waited us to seat on the thick carpet at the corner of the common room that was our usual prowling ground, opened the bag and poured its content between us. Pieces of metal in various shapes fell to the ground with a quiet thump.
"Awesome!" Tina shouted when she saw what we were going to be putting back together. A huge grin lit her heart shaped face as she picked up the barrel of a particle pistol.
"Kou'ta! You're the best!" Nort, my best friend waved at our Patron.
"Heh. Anything to keep you out of trouble." He gave us an eye smile with pair of eyes. "Cute little monsters..." Kou'ta added good naturely.
"What?!" I exclaimed in mock indignation. "We're the best! We never get caught!"
"Of course not. I taught you how to skulk around after all." The Patron announced Proudly.
"Ah. So it's your fault." An all too sweet female voice announced from behind me.
I glanced behind my shoulder. Quleen Krane, the Matron in charge of our education was glaring at our Patron with all four eyes. Though there was that strange gleam in her emerald orbs…
"I deny everything!" Kou'ta declared.
"You three, continue playing. I'll have a word with your friend." Miss Krane waved a hand at our Patron and he was engulfed in a wave of green biotics.
"Dear, don't be like that!"
Miss Krane paid no attention to Kou'ta's protests as she dragged him out of the room.
"You'd think that our Patron would finally learn!" Tina huffed.
Nort and I looked at each other and started laughing.
"Nope!" we chortled.
=WFB=
The next flashback was of a time years later. It was of a mock battle for which we were wearing our training gear – hardsuits with light barriers, particle rifle knock-offs set to stun ans well as concussion and smoke grenades.
It was my two best friends and me again, and we were the last people standing from our class. Most of the others were littering the floor in the next room over, after we were ambushed by Class C. The only reason we made it out of there was simple – it was a free for all exercise, with each Class in our age group pit against the other. The D folks took our nemesis in the back while they were busy stunning us and that let us slip away in the confusion.
We let a few C-grenades set up for proximity detonation as a parting gift in case someone had the bright idea of following us and we tailed it as fast as our legs could carry us.
"That was close, Del." Tina panted next to me.
"Too close..." I huffed, while leaning on the wall, trying to catch my breath.
"We. Made it. Out." Nort wheezed.
"With a bit of luck the others will shoot each other and let us get the prize." Tina tried to cheer us up.
"Or whoever's left will be hunting us for the bonus reward." I added.
"Spoilsport!" Nort pointed an accusing finger at me.
"Weeell..." Tina drawled. "That's what happened the last time."
"If it wasn't for that sniper we would have gotten the prize!" I grunted. Jon of Class B shot me in the back just as I was getting the prize, the wanker.
"So, what's the plan?" Nort asked. "We try to wing it like the last time or..." He trailed off.
"It didn't work too well."
"This time we are going hunting." I grinned.
"Del, you know, you're kinda creeping me out right not." Tina gave me a pointed look.
"What?!" I looked at her in confusion.
"Mate, when you smile like that..." Nort shrugged. "It's just like Kou'ta when he's about to prank someone."
"It's disturbing." Tina nodded sagely.
"But… It took him hours to teach me how to do it like him!" I protested.
"When this is over, I'm telling Miss Krane." Tina huffed.
"Why?" I asked.
"When you two are like that, you're kinda creeping out the whole class. Remember last week?"
"It was great! Everyone thought that Kou'ta was about to prank the eyes off their heads!" I pumped a fist in the air.
It was amusing watching everyone checking everything for surprises, when we both knew that this time there were no pranks. It was hilarious!
A C-grenade blowing up in the next room interrupted us.
"Here we go again." I grinned and waved my friends to follow.
We staggered next to the door and Nort hit the hard-light release, opening the way. Tina followed by throwing a flash-bang into the room and we dashed in a moment after it detonated. Inside we found a pair of students out cold, while another four were disoriented. Before they could recover we stunned them and went into cover.
"Hunt?" Tina asked.
"Yep." I grinned.
"I need to get my scores better anyway." Nort shrugged.