Disclaimer: I do NOT own either Mass Effect. It belongs belong to its creators and/or copyright holders. This story is not created with commercial purpose. It is not for sale of rent. I make no money from it.
Inheritance
=ME=
Prologue: Legacy of the dead
The remains of Protean FOB "Avenger"
Abandoned mining Colony Agrippa
Last year of the Reaper war
"We got a good run, my friends." General Primus Len – the highest ranking Protean in the sector, possibly in what was left of the galaxy too, smiled bitterly. He was standing among the ruins of a destroyed Protean base, which was one of the few protecting this world before it was abandoned years ago.
"You aren't going fatalistic on us, are you?" A massive man, who towered a head above the soldiers gathered around Len snorted, breaking all kinds of protocol and tradition.
"Nah. It's worse, he's going religious on us." The only female in the small group chuckled.
Len looked around at the last remnants of his command and shook his head.
"Not considering us gods any longer?" A brief look of amusement flashed over the Protean's scarred face.
"It's been long time since your kind pulled us out of our caves and hides. We thought you Gods for a long, long time." The giant of a man, who was clad with the best powered exoskeleton the Proteans could built with what was left of their industry a decade ago, added.
"Then we got to know you." The female continued.
The General shook his head. Who would have thought that he would find his end on this forsaken world without any other Protean for company? He was going to die, soon. The Reaper that shot down their cruiser would be coming soon, after it was done moping up the escorts in orbit.
And the cursed machine would be coming. Somehow – indoctrinated traitors most likely – it knew where Len would be. It would be coming to make sure that he was death and with him the last trained high ranking officer the Proteans had in this part of the galaxy.
They wouldn't stop until he was confirmed dead – he knew their SOP too well by this point to dare hope otherwise. Yet…
Len looked at his companions. Under different circumstances, before the war, their very existence would have been an affront to the Empire. The process that turned the former primitives in the soldiers that survived a century of war – a high crime even in an Empire built over the premise that strength made right and looked down on lesser cultures.
"You know, there were times when I wondered why you continued to fight. Why not siding with the Reapers to see us all dead." The General asked.
"In the beginning?" The giant mussed. "You were Gods. Oh, terrible, vindictive and cruel ones, but gods nevertheless."
"By the time we knew in our hearts that you were simply people, who were incredibly advanced..." The woman continued before trailing off. "Oh, we hated you. At least I can honestly say that no matter what would have happened, no matter the years we fought beside you, I hate you all." She removed her helmet, revealing a face that some might have called beautiful – before half of it was turned into a scarred mess. "It's simple really." She smiled as her two bionic eyes bore into the General. "The Reapers are worse and they were winning. Ancestors, they've practically won."
"We had nothing else. No place to go back. I remember living in cave – cold, hungry, scared of the dark." The giant took on.
"We have nowhere else to go, General. We made a peace with it – we were going to die in this war for a cause, for an Empire that isn't ours. That could never be ours."
"I suspected so, Sigma One. What do you want?"
"Does it matter?" The giant asked.
"We're going to die here. Might as well be honest. It's good for the soul." Len smiled sadly. It was ironic really. As the war continued, as a strongholds fell one after another, the Proteans who weren't practically religious to start with, lost faith.
At least most of them. A few, Len included, saw the Reaper as a monument of the Empire's sins. While that didn't stop him from doing his best to stem the tide of extinction, that got him thinking.
He looked at the six beings surrounding him. His personal guard so to speak. Their existence, the way they came to be, represented a flaw in the Empire. Its arrogance and hubris. It's belief that the galaxy was theirs for the taking and all resistance should be subjugated.
For a moment, Len wondered if the war would have had a different outcome if the Empire didn't have to content with dozens of doomed rebellious species that were conquered in the golden days of the Proteans.
"Please entertain my curiosity." The General spoke quietly.
"I have a dream." Sigma muttered. "I want to see one day my people reach for the stars. I want them to be strong enough so neither Proteans, Reapers or anyone else could pluck poor bastards from our world and experiment on them."
"I wanted vengeance, yet the Reapers did your kind worse than I could ever could." The woman – Sigma Three added. "Now? I simply want to experience something I've never known – peace."
"What about the rest of you?" Len asked as his eyes turned to the other augmented humans.
One of them, the demo specialist of the team shrugged. "I'm a simple man. Usually leave the deep thinking to one. The rest of us – we're simply soldiers. Show us an enemy and point us at it." Sigma Five spoke quietly. "Then again, perhaps it's my conditioning speaking. It's not like I've dared to dream for a future without a war. It would leave us without a purpose."
The remaining Sigmas nodded at those words.
Len hummed and lit up his omni-tool.
"Are you willing to take a chance? A very long one? You might die for nothing, alone." The General asked as an insane idea started forming in his mind.
"We're going to die here anyway." Sigma One rumbled.
"Not necessary. Not right now at least." Len continued, while scanning the data his omni-tool had about this place.
"It's never good when you have this thoughtful expression on your face." Three grumble.
"Well, his plans usually work..." Five trailed off as the rest of his team gave him pointed looks. "Well, kinda." He shrugged.
"You gave me too much credit. Under normal circumstances, I would have been court-martialled about most of the brainstorms I came up with."
"If its stupid and it works, it's still stupid but you got lucky." The woman stated.
"Well, I'm all out of luck. There's an old detention facility ten kilometers east of here. It should contain stasis pods meant for transporting high-risk prisoners."
"You want us all to hide there?" One asked.
"You. The Reaper will be coming for me and I'll make sure it doesn't get me alive."
"We still would be stranded on a practically dead world." Three pointed out the main flaw of the plan.
"Not really. You'll be asleep until someone finds you and opens the pods. Thus the probably dying alone, without an enemy to fight part." Len shrugged.
"And if someone finds us?" Sigma One asked.
"Then, if you are actually lucky you can warn whoever discovers you about the Reapers. You know that unless some kind of natural disaster wipes your people out, they will be victims of the next cycle."
"That's one very, very long chance." Three's eyes widened.
Len shrugged. "That's all I've got. There won't be any last minute rescue this time around."
"The Reaper might be suspicious if it doesn't find you protected by us." Five decided to rain on their parade in his own inimitable fashion. "Besides, whoever gets in those pods, if there are any operational, could be there for a long time. Power sources run out. The less people, the better chance."
The Sigmas looked at each other. "You should go, One, Three. You two want something more. Have a vision, that the rest of us have trouble seeing, much less sharing. We're just soldiers who want to meet the enemy one last time."
"Damn right." Four spoke for the fist time since their escape pod landed.
The huge man stared numbly at his comrades, at his brothers.
After a long moment of awkward silence, Three nodded. "You won't be forgotten."
"Don't make promises you might be unable to keep." Six stated flatly. "Try not to die. The damn machines needs killing and you might be the last chance to see it done right."
"It's agreed then?" The General asked. "Our escorts would be gone soon, if they aren't already." Len pressed a few buttons and sent his authorization codes to One, then pulled a data chip from his omni-tool and handed it to the Sigma.
One and Three saluted and sprinted east.
"Good luck."
An hour later, the Reaper burned the whole area from orbit, not bothering to sent in ground forces, thus denying General Len's wish for a last stand against the machines who obliterated his people.
=ME=
The year is 2183. The galaxy is in turmoil after the Rogue Spectre Saren Arterus led a Geth attack on the Human colony of Eden Prime. The rumored target was a freshly uncovered intact Protean beacon.
Thanks to evidence discovered by the Quarian pilgrim Talli'Zorah nar Raya, Saren was confirmed as the leader of the Eden Prime attack. The evidence revealed that the Asari Matriarch Benezia was aiding the rogue operative.
As consequence, a certain human – Commander Mark Shepard was made the first Human Spectre and sent after the Turian rogue. Lacking other viable leads, Commander Shepard and his crew headed towards the human colony of Therum, where Liara Tsoni – Benezia's only daughter was taking part in an archeological dig on newly discovered Protean ruins...