Fallout NV X Mass Effect: Warbringer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Fallout New Vegas or to Mass Effect so don't bother asking if I do…

Prologue

( ): Thoughts

…

In the Sink…

Travis Marlowe had been plenty of things in his life, Lady Killer, smooth-talker, gun expert, explosives nut, loved using energy weapons, an avid user of blades, a standup kind of man, a bit of a geek at times, and very handy with hand to hand, and had a heart of gold and a moral conscience that was considered extremely rare considering where he grew up, but he was never a very patient person. He had been a Courier, a simple messenger who carried all manner of things and messages from one end of the map to the next. But this one job had set him to a path that he had NO idea about, all he thought was he was taking a simple though slightly odd job.

But now he was a veritable legend in the Mojave Wasteland…the Courier who cheated death not once, not twice….but multiple times, changed the whole Mojave Wasteland and had helped the New California Republic to finally take control of the New Vegas Strip. He was never part of the NCR, but he was now considered as one of the greatest heroes of the military there. And to the once proud and brutal remains of what was left of Caesar's Legion, he was the Scourge of the East, the man who not only slew Caesar, but killed Legate Lanius in single combat to the death and sent the Legion running by the end of the battle.

He also took down House and did quite a number on the Fiends as well, sending the Fiends running to the four winds or hunted them down, and with House gone, the NCR went on to keep the Strip for itself and use it to feed their forces. People in Freeside or Westside might have seen his actions as wrong, but he knew that the actions he took were better in the long run. At least with a lot of order going about, Fiends and more were no longer going to be a major concern in the wastes.

Cass was right, and so was Boone, the NCR might not have been the best, a bit too greedy, and also spending too much, but one thing was sure in their minds as well as his, they needed only direction and a purpose, and they could do good things. Besides that, while there was no doubt some less than good people in the NCR who profited from the sweat and blood of others, not all of them were callous and greedy, some like Private Stone had some justification, and there were people like Private Christina Morales and her husband who did it for good reasons, Colonel James Hsu who really worked hard to make the most of it, Ambassador Crocker who was doing a hard task in trying to be diplomatic when more than one member of the NCR was more interested in using bullets than words, and more that he had met in his long travels in the Mojave. Those people in the NCR were the right kind of people and while he could name others, he was not into working too hard about it.

As for him…he decided to leave the Mojave Express behind and leave being a Courier, sure the fame was nice, but too much of it was a bad thing. That and the fact that while he made more than his fair share of friends, he also made a fair share of enemies as well. The Legion still wanted his life even after he killed their leaders, last he heard a conclave or whatever that meant of Centurions and some Praetorian Guard had begun to place bounties on his head…a huge set of bounties as well. Not to mention the fact that there were more than enough greedy mercs after him as well as a number of people trying to make a name for themselves on his hide.

The NCR were more than willing to help him and more than once and he had been helped by more than willing NCR troopers who shot up the enemy who came to come after him. Rangers, both the regular Rangers and the Veterans who spotted him fighting who knew what would go in and save his bacon. He was not unappreciative for the aid and knew that he deserved it for all that he had done, but he was not happy with the idea of them risking their lives for his sake.

The Kings did the same thing, any Great Khans around also swooped in to save his bacon and so did the Brotherhood once in a while, but he did not want to them since they had other things to do with their time. The same could be said for Boomers since the last thing he wanted was to go there and bring his troubles on them, they had the firepower and the guns to hold anyone off, but he wanted not to drag them into anything that they did not need.

.And that was why he was here in the Big MT, namely the Sink, not many people knew just where the MT was, and even if they had SOME vague idea where it was, the dangers of the place and the fact that it looked like the granddaddy of nuclear blast sites made coming here a real pain in the neck and seemingly suicidal. And while the safe houses he got from the Followers, the Brotherhood, and the NCR were secure and more than useful and comfortable, he wanted to keep out of the limelight or whatever that meant. And he had access to supplies thanks to the Sink's AI providing him with supplies and whatever he needed thanks to the special technology there in the Sink.

That hardly meant that he was gone from the Wasteland though, he would routinely go back there to check up on the Mojave and also keep his skills sharp as well as connect with those he had been with from before when he managed to wake up after being shot in the head. This meant visiting places like Camp McCarren every now and then to see just how the place was holding up and what the NCR was doing.

Farber was pleased with supplies coming in from the Crimson Caravan and he was damn happy that the men and women he served with were finally getting some quality grub to feast on. As for him, he would routinely send Travis some well earned food every now and then. Colonel Hsu was pleased to see him and so was Major Dharti along with the 1st Recon team, and they were all right with him coming in and going whenever he wanted. Plus if anything came up, he would be more than ready to go there and help them out. Plus just about ever NCR trooper there from the regulars to some of the Heavy Troopers would routinely buy him a drink or even ask him on how he started out.

Dropping by Camp Forlorn Hope, or rather Camp Restored Hope as it was was good and Major Polatli was more than happy to have him drop by, with the Legion high tailing out of the area, the Camp was now better supplied, and the morale in the place was sky high, along with the men who were a lot better armed than they were in the past. The Major at times would inform him of raiding parties about and rogue Legion forces, and he would help them flush the bastards out. Plus with things as they were, the men and women in the place were far better off.

Bitter Springs was also in better straits as the people there who were refugees were now better supplied, housed, and fed with the guards there pleased that they were better off now and safe from possible attack from the Legion who might be around as well as the Mutants moving about in the sidelines. When he came there on occasion, he would make sure to drop off medical supplies as well as food which was something many refugees were thankful for.

Camp Golf had recovered from the massive Legion attack and was now a hotbed for training new recruits and also helping keep the NCR's soldiers and Rangers supplied and housed. The Misfits served well there and more than once he would chat with Mags, Poindexter, Razz, and O'Hamerrhan every once in a while to see how they were doing. And he was damned happy that they were doing well and were now working better as a team and as allies, when fighting the Legion side by side and realizing that their skills and team work were what kept them alive, made them better. Hell, he even told them that they might become Rangers well enough.

One of the longest journeys he ever made was to go back to California and meet up with the retired Chief Hanlon. It had been some time since the victory at Hoover Dam and the old ranger was welcoming of him, they shared some whiskey together and chatted about it. He was happy that Hanlon's worst fears had been unfounded and the efforts in Mojave were working out better than expected, and the old man was more than willing to say it.

Travis recalled the conversation well enough.

Hanlon: I have to admit it now…I let my fear get the better of me, and at least the rangers were never dragged into the mud and their names spat on. I doubt I could live with that.

Travis: You were right though, the Mojave would have broken the NCR, but retreating would have meant all those who died fighting for the NCR there in the Mojave have died for nothing. At least this time they were given some sense of closure that it's now in the hands of the NCR.

Hanlon: Yeah…you brought it there though, you know, in all my years as a Ranger, I have never found anyone as tough and resourceful as you…the fact that you willingly walked into Caesar's camp and then killed him right there and then with C-4 WIHOUT getting caught by his Praetorians and all of those Veteran Legionaries of his spoke volumes. I was worried that even with that man gone, the Legion would still be a threat that we could not beat…but you wiped the floor with them.

Hanlon drank his whiskey and sighed with a smile as he finished his speech.

Hanlon: Hell, I would have willingly walked all the way to the dam myself to see you take down Lanius in one on one combat and then take his head right in front of ever Legionary who was still there. That took some serious balls you know…we sent so many after that bastard and they did not win, you did and you even took his sword as proof along with that war mask of his. If you ever decide to be a Ranger, I'll be glad to give you my recommendations. After all you've done, it would be worth it.

Travis placed that thought aside and decided to go back into the Think Tank and see just what was the progress on those upgrades he had asked for when it concerned his weapons and armor. Not to mention the recreation of some of the guns he had been able to see in a GRA bazaar back in Shady Sands a year or so ago before he came to the Mojave.

…

In the Think Tank...

"Ah…my Lobotomite teddy bear has come at last!"

Travis shook his head at that as he was now before Dala and he spoke to the Think Tank.

"So how is the project?"

"Hmmm…these upgrades you requested cost us a fair penny to be sure, namely when it required us to reactivate the Saturnite Alloy Research Lab, but for you, me and the others did it good. These new and improved suits should be more than adequate for your needs my little teddy bear. Feel free to take them out for...what is that term again...ah yes 'a spin'."

Any other Wastelander would have been scared half out of their wits being called a teddy bear by a brain floating about in a robot, but Travis was used to Dala, in fact, she and a few others from this Think Tank were able to convince their…boss Klein not to go into the Wasteland, just like Morbius wanted. And after all he had seen, he had to agree, the last thing he wanted was for their creations and ideas to be loose in the Wasteland without supervision. But at the very least, they were more than able to give him support when he asked for it. With that in mind he turned to the newly upgraded suits of Armor.

He had collected QUITE the array of armors in his day, very much a need considering the pace he called home, along with the LESS than humane and friendly residents. He had a full T-51b Power Armor from his alliance with Brotherhood, minus the marks of course despite the alliance with the NCR, along with a T-45 Power Armor just in case he needed it, along with two of his prized Power Armor Suits, namely the Gannon Family Tesla Power Armor, and the two Remnants Power Armors, the first from his friend Arcade, and the other two from his little trip to that nest of Death Claws and from him helping reunite Arcade's 'family' for the Second Battle at Hoover Dam.

He also wore the Armor of the 87th Tribe, a suit of Armor resembling Lanius' own armor and served as his baseline Heavy Armor and despite looking like that of Legion creation, he was pleased to know that at the very least it was not recognized by everyone…even by the Legion. This was followed by a customized suit of NCR Salvaged Power Armor, it was not as advanced as he could take, but it was tough and with the upgrades of Saturnite Alloy and improved metal plates, it was as tough as the T-51 but at least did not have to be too heavy.

The upgrades installed into his Power Armors included Saturnite Alloy replacing most of the metallic casings and also was used for not just armor plating but also for inner protection from radiation and heat due to special filter systems installed into the Armor, so now the Power Armor he had were much stronger yet lighter as well. The Saturnite Alloy was also made to be thicker and stronger with improved hardened lattice structures to make sure that they would last longer. The Heavy Armors had a combination of metal and Saturnite Alloy so they were also harder and stronger to boot.

He also had with him his trusted sets of Medium Class Armor, namely the Combat Armor Reinforced Mark II that had saved his hide more than he cared to count, along with the Stealth Suit Mark II, though he noted that there seemed to be some changes done to it last time he had seen it. The armor was perfect in his mind when he needed to sneak around and despite it being armored, the upgrades he got while running it through it's paces were more than enough to counter the weight differences.

This was rounded off by the armors he collected over the years, namely the Ranger Armors he got from his alliance with the NCR. The Ranger Armor and the hat was all right by him and certainly comfortable plus the water sack on the back helped, and of course the Ranger Veteran Armor was also something that he was proud to have and it had saved his butt more times that he could count. There were also supported by the Advanced Riot Gear that he salvaged from his time in the Divide and also the US Army Armor. They too were upgraded with Saturnite Alloy Armor plates along with chemically hardened metal for extra protection.

He also had an array of Light Armors which had their metallic parts replaced with Saturnite Alloy, though the only one that did not have the changes was his Chinese Stealth Armor since doing that would have weighed it down. The other armors were made from Leather and the only time he had used these armors was when he needed speed and agility without sacrificing protection for those two things. He also had that duster that he got from Ulyssess back in the Divide and that was a certainly useful piece of gear that helped him out a lot when he needed it. And like all the rest it was a lot tougher now, most would have called the intense upgrades on all of his armor overkill, but he was not the regular kind of guy...and with a large number of people routinely gunning for his hide, better have that now than never.

Travis placed that aside for the time being and spoke to Dala.

"Thanks for that Dala, these will certainly come in handy just in case I run into trouble again. Anyway has there been anything happening here?"

"Not much I believe, the Lobotomites outside are still doing the same thing, and so are all the other creatures, but at the very least it's been...peaceful. Anyway, I should point out that we've had some issues with the teleportation technology."

"You've had problems?"

"I am sure, recently there have been some sudden energy spikes in the system and at times the coordinate systems get mixed up, we only noticed it after a while when you were there back in the Mojave, fighting those brutes, the Legion. So we've decided to run tests on it while making sure that if you come here. we would only allow it when we were not dealing with the spikes."

Travis did not like the sound of that, the last thing he wanted was go through the teleport systems and suddenly find himself in one place in the Mojave surrounded by who knows what, or coming to the Mojave all rearranged in an order that would have killed him or in pieces. None of that sounded the least bit pleasant to the young man as he decided to get those things packed up along with what other tools he had been bringing with him.

"Fair enough, what about some of the weapon mods I asked for?"

"They will be ready soon enough my dear teddy bear. I will tell you when you can go and get them all right?"

Travis nodded in appreciation as he decided to head back into the Sink and make some much needed purchases in terms of food, drink, ammunition, medical supplies, drugs, and whatnot before checking on the weapons that he had on hand.

He had quite the arsenal in his hands already and that was only possible through his above the norm strength, savvy storage sense, toughness, training in carrying heavy loads, and the Pip-boy that he had on him. Anyone else who carried the amounts of supplies, weapons, spare armor, food, drink, and ammunition he did would have broken his or her back a LONG time ago. The weapons he had were all good quality gear and thanks to him making sure to have Weapon Repair kits on hand when he was not close to a skilled repair expert, his gear was all ready for war. That massive arsenal of melee weapons, explosives, energy weapons, and guns was the key reason why he got that nickname of his which he found to be very accurate and poetic as well so he made darn sure he kept his supplies up to the standard.

Once he arrived in the Sink, he decided to get one last round of supplies from his A.I 'butler' and then head on back to the Mojave to see what was up. It was not long before he was informed that what he had asked for was now ready for him and he could now pick up the things he had asked for from the Think Tank.

...

He was soon back in the Think Tank as Dala and Dr. 0 came in with the rest of his gear, he smiled as he looked at all of the armor carefully and he soon moved to take them into his Pip-boy. He felt the weight of all of his Armor but did not mind at all as he took them in along with all of the new weapon upgrade mods that he had asked for. He decided to switch to his Stealth Suit Mark II and as soon as the suit materialized on him, he smiled a bit and was pleased that despite the changes it was not too different from before. He then turned to face Dala and gave the Think Tank a nice show of breathing in and out slowly, making Dala smile...as much as a floating brain in Med-Gel using screens could manage.

"Thanks for all the work you and the others did Dala. Now I need to go back to the Wasteland and see just what's been going on."

The Think Tanks spoke to him well and he made his way to the teleporter area which would take him back to the Wasteland, and as soon as he stood on the pad, he felt the energy come back on. The first time he felt it, he felt like someone was running a tingling electrical current running through his spine and nerves, and had given him a bad case of the shakes, but after some time, he was quite used to it. That did not mean however that he liked it at all as he readied himself for the transfer. Unfortunately for him, the very moment the teleporting system came to full power, the Sink A.I quickly warned him that a massive power spike had just struck the area.

But it was already too late as he was now being sent through the teleportation grid...just as the Think tanks tried to fix the problem. But when they were told by the Sink that Travis had just gone through the teleporter at the same moment the spike happened, things got bad...it only got worse when they discovered that the power spike had somehow messed up the coordinates to the satellite, sending Travis...elsewhere.

…

Klein was shocked by this and was already fuming at what had gone wrong as he and the other Think Tanks tried to figure out just what had happened…but there was no denying the fact that Travis had just disappeared through the teleporter and was NOT going back to the Mojave. One thing was coming out of Klein's mind and it was this.

Where had Travis gone?

…

"Damn it…I haven't felt this bad when I got attacked by a band of those pesky Praetorians who wanted to turn me into a punching bag."

Travis managed to shake his head and get up while still wearing his Stealth Suit Mark II and looked about to get his bearings. He was obviously not in the Sink anymore since the place looked like a valley of sorts. He had still a splitting headache but quickly decided to grab a shot of Med-X from his supplies to get the pain to stop. As soon as the drug kicked in, he felt better and began to look around and hope that instead of finding himself in the afterlife or in hell, whichever way one viewed his or her life, he was back in the Mojave. He was alive and taht helped him relax as he looked around, only to suddenly be wide eyed as the valley as some of the weirdest rock formations he had ever seen in his life...not to mention the fact that the sky...was purple! The sky was bloody purple!

For a brief moment, the Courier tried to figure out how the heck this happened and thought maybe he had been struck by some radiation that screwed his perceptions over. There was NO way the sky on the Mojave could purple on ANY time time of the day, and where was the drive by inn ruins that he would go to in order to go to the Big Empty and back to the Mojave?

But as soon as he recovered what wits he had and make some sense on what was going on, he spotted what appeared to be some sort of flying…thing coming down a fair distance from him. It looked like nothing he had seen before, neither the rockets from REPCONN or the planes in McCarran Airport and the bomber of the Boomers, heck, even the Vertibirds used by the Remnants of the NCR for ferrying their President looked ANYTHING like that thing. He felt the urge to go there and find out just who or what was in that thing, but his battle hardened senses told him not to try it, he needed to find out just what was going on.

He activated the Stealth Suit Mark II's installed Stealth Feature he had and then took out his Anti-Material Rifle which was from the GRA which had been given an upgrade by Dr. Morbius which was designed to amplify sounds and had a connection to his Pip-boy so he could hear what was being said by his target when he focused on the scope. The hero of the NCR looked through the scope and as soon as the ship landed and soon there was a hatch or whatever it was called that appeared and then he spotted some figures moving about.

(What the hell is that?)

Travis could not help but be surprised as he gazed a bit more, some of the figures were definitely humans, a few men and women, and some very nice looking ones at that. But they were wearing clothes that were totally unfamiliar to the Wasteland resident, they were too...clean and seemed to be made from fabric that was of higher quality, even to that of the suits he had seen on the Strip and what he had worn personally. But his attention was now focused on the figures that LOOKED human from a distance.

The figure he was looking at was definitely human shaped…and judging by the clothing on the figure, was female. And very well formed to boot and would have gotten quite the attention back at the Strip or anywhere in the Mojave, considering the rather interesting set of clothes. But what got his attention was the fact that she had blue skin, and had no hair. All he could see that could pass for hair was flaps of skin that looked flesh like. There were some odd tribal markings there and some sort of devices that he had no idea about.

There were a few others of the same being as well, though some had varied skin hues and patterns on the faces, and some wore some sort of…armored suit as it were and carried some weapons to boot, at least what looked like weapons. Travis had no idea what was going on here, but he knew that staying in one place was not good. The good news was that the people and whatever the blue skilled female aliens spoke the same English language that he was quite used to. That might be good news to him so he decided to move closer and see just what else he could find out before things went down south as it were. He moved down carefully and still had on the Stealth Boy though he knew that sooner or later, the power supply was soon going to run out. Once that happened, he knew that he was going to have to try and talk to the people that were in front of him.

Getting closer and closer to the collection of buildings allowed him to see that the people there were all human with the exception of those all female like beings he had seen already. He managed to make it in before he finally saw that his Stealth Boy was going out. he sighed a bit and knew that stealth was now out of the question and he only had a limited number of Stealth Boys left so he could not use them all up.

(Now I really wished I got more of these things when I could.)

He decided to take a risk and switched from his current choice of armor and moved to using his newly upgraded T-51 Power Armor and got the systems online. Once he was assured that everything was working the way it should, he gave himself a mental waking up and moved out of hiding. The very second he showed himself, he got quite the reaction from the people in the place. That was to be expected since it was not every day that someone walked up to you carrying an anti-material rifle and wearing power armor. The humans in the area were wide eyed and the same could be said for those blue skinned beings. as he moved closer and carrying his mammoth of a weapon. Then out came several humans armed and armored. The gear they had on them did not match the gear he had seen over the years, it all looked too...high tech and streamlined, no that he was complaining as one of the armed people was a very gorgeous looking woman with brown hair and green eyes and a body to boot.

His study of said person was cut short when she aimed what appeared to be some weird looking rifle at him and spoke in a no nonsense tone to him.

"Hold it right there! Stand still and hands where I can see them!"

Travis could tell that the woman was serious and he quickly stopped and moved his GRA Anti-Material Rifle to his back, hearing the specially made magnetic clamps he had installed into the Armor hold the weapon in place. He then raised his hands and spoke as he allowed them to get closer.

"Easy there Miss, I'm not here to cause trouble."

The woman snorted a bit and replied.

"I'll believe that when I know you better, now who the heck are you and what are you?"

"In answer to question one, the name's Travis Marlowe, and to the second, I'm human like you so chill, who are you anyways?"

The woman did not lower the weapon she had in front of him but seemed to be intent on asking him yet another question, and he was right on the monety.

"How can I be sure that you are a human anyway?"

Travis sighed and decided to grab his helmet and removed it quickly and sure enough, the people saw that he was human, and that seemed to relax them somewhat, something that he felt thankful for and hoped that it was going to stay that way. He then spoke to the woman who now lowered her weapon and ordered wordlessly to her companions to do the same thing. That was a good thing in Travis's mind as he decided to speak again to the woman and hope that it was a good choice of action.

"Are you happy now miss?"

The woman nodded and spoke.

"I am all right for now, anyway since you said your name already I will say mine, I am Dana Maxwell, Lieutenant of the Security here in the New Alaska Colony."

Travis raised an eyebrow at that as the name was not unknown to him, he like all residents of the Wasteland heard of Alaska and with the old piles of newspapers that he had been able to find, he knew that this was the battle field where the old US forces and the Chinese fought one another. He did not know what was going on but he decided to do something else. He continued to look at the alien women and wanted to find out just who and what they were.

"Thanks Miss Maxwell, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"All right, since you're not doing anything dangerous, you can ask what you like."

Travis nodded and then pointed at the Asari who were all looking at him with open curiosity and confusion.

"You mind telling me who and what they are over there?"

Dana looked to where he was pointing and she was not the only one as her men looked at the same direction. Once they saw the Asari, they looked back at Travis and could not help but be surprised. Dana raised an eyebrow in surprise since she expected that everyone knew who Asari were, but before she could reply to the question as strange as it sounded to him, one of the men under her command spoke. And this guy was not the least bit tactful in the direction of his question either.

"You have got to be kidding me, how can you ask that question, everyone knows who they are."

"Well excuse me buddy, I don't know them so humor me here."

"All right, they are Asari, from the Asari Republics."

Travis raised an eyebrow and spoke a bit more.

"Asari huh?"

Before things could go any further in whatever direction it could have gone, the people below pointed upwards and that was enough to get the attention of everyone in the security team and Travis as well. It was another ship but it looked to be something that looked more...predatory to those who saw it. Travis had no idea what it was but it did not look the least bit friendly. Dana frowned and looked at the ship and Travis noted that she then took something that looked like some sort of device and placed it like a loop on her head. There was some sort of glowing interface there and was over her right eye. He looked and noticed that she was now in a bad mood and her swearing told him that this was bad.

"A slaver Ship! Damn it!"

She did not focus on Travis and shouted to the people behind her and her men.

"Everyone get inside! Lock down your houses and get your weapons!"

The people did just that as they moved back into their houses, while the blue skinned alien ladies Travis now knew to be Asari moved back, or rather, one of them moved back while the others took out their weapons. The Courier decided that now was not the time to gawk as he decided to place back on his helmet as the ship deployed smaller looking shuttles to the ground. The group under Dana were already taking defensive positions beind the crates nearby and some tall posts as the shuttles landed. Travis tried to figure out what to do first as the shuttles opened and he soon heard the booms of weapons fire, and while different from what he used to hear in the Mojave, he ducked all the same and decided to get into the act as the T-51 was about to get a test drive as he took out his GRA Anti-material Rifle and rushed over to get some cover of his own.

Dana spotted him and was shocked that this armored guy was actually moving that fast in a suit of armor that she had next to no idea about.

"What the hell are you doing?-!"

She had no time to get an answer as she ducked as more rounds flew overhead, one moving merely inches past her and was deflected by her kinetic barrier, but to her shock the guy in the armor did NOT have one. Yet he seemed to be fine as he moved into cover and had no unslung that massive rifle from his back.

(Just who is this character?)

...

"Damn...this is about to get interesting for sure!"

Travis mentally spoke to himself as his position near the port allowed him to see just who the attackers were...and they were all bloody weird looking in his eyes.

They were as tall as he was without armor as far as he could see, but they had only three fingers on their hands and split toes like a bird's, and had BONES on their faces. They wore armor that appeared to be just as high tech looking as what Dana and her team were wearing and to his surprise, the things were speaking english!

"By the Spirits! What sort of armor is that?"

"Don't know, weird looking though."

"Doesn't matter, we're here to get some creds, so let's get them!"

Travis had NO idea how the heck those strange looking...things...were speaking his language, but now was not the time as he ducked from the incoming fire. He had no idea what sort of weapons those guys were packing or Dana's team for that matter, but it was very obvious that they were not carrying those to look cool. He was happy that he had the Armor he had one repaired and upgraded otherwise he would be dead as the weapons seemed to be like the Gauss Rifle he would routinely use at times though they seemed to be releasing those red hot things after firing a number of times. He place those thoughts aside and quickly moved to aim his GRA made Anti-Material Rifle and managed to spot one of those bone faced figures in armor get up to fire at him.

He aimed and pressed the trigger and the weapon roared out and that was more than enough to send the massive High Explosive round smashing into the face of the alien...blowing the head right off!

BOOM!

He had no idea just how much improved high explosive primer filling the GRA boys had been stuffing into the Anti-Material Rifle's rounds lately but he was not going to complain as his round literally took off the head and middle chest region of the bone faced alien. The explosion cleared and the being dropped dead with a wedge shaped chunk of his body gone and bleeding all over the place. Travis had no time to react as he quickly cycled the bolt and aimed at his next foe, another one of those guys with the bones in the face and fired right at the weapon in hand. The round roared out of his weapon and smashed hard into the gun and it exploded, the weapon was reduced to rubble and the same could be said for the bone faced being's hands as it now had bleeding stumps for hands.

Travis wasted no time on commenting on the fact that the two he just sent to the afterlife were bleeding blue blood as he decided to switch to a different weapon, namely his Laser Rifle. The Anti-Material Rifle disappeared from his hands as he moved to his back, and was soon replaced by his fully upgraded Laser Rifle, he looked through the scope and spotted another alien, this time with the ugliest mug he had ever laid eyes on and had FOUR eyes on the face too, not to mention in need of a serious trip to the dentist. he wasted no time and aimed right at the middle of all four eyes and fired the beam.

He had loaded MAX Charge Microfusion Cells in all of his Rifle sized Energy Weapons so it made no surprise to him as the beam drilled through the creature's head and now there was a smoking hole in between all four eyes. The creature apparently had not expected that and dropped down to the ground and had a now smoking hole where the shot had torn through him. Travis however wasted no time and tracked another target, spotting another one of the four eyed aliens, but this guy was armed with one mean looking grenade launcher, or it vaguely looked like one. Wasting no time on looking, he quickly fired another beam, this time aiming for the hands and the beam form his Laser Rifle tore through the creatures hands, cauterizing the stumps and making him drop the device. The alien roared in pain and began swearing at him in a language that defied his understanding, but he was not in the mood to listen as he aimed at the mouth of the screaming alien and pulled the trigger.

"Shut up!"

The beam hit the creature and in that instant the MAX Charge MF Cell allowed the beam to incinerate the creature, turning it into a pile of dust. that apparently had caught the other aliens off guard as two of them stumped at what happened. That allowed Travis to fire several more beams at the two aliens, one cutting through the thing's armor and leaving a massive smoking hole in the side where the stomach should be. And the other getting a direct hit to the chest region right where the heart was, at least he hoped it was where the heart was. He fired a few more bursts and killed three more of the aliens with the four eyes when he spotted a disk like item thrown at his direction, he did not know what the heck it was, but the beeping coming from it told him it was hardly good. That also told him to roll out of the way, not an easy feat in Power Armor and his throughts were right as the thing exploded.

He decided to fight back as he quickly placed aside his Laser Rifle and took out his special Grenade Rifle, 'Boom Boom' and loaded an incendiary grenade and chugged it right at the attacker who he could guess had tossed that disk grenade. The weapon exploded and the alien along with two of his running buddies got incinerated as Travis shouted out.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE YOU BASTARDS!"

Travis wasted no time and quickly switched to using one of his patented Flash Bangs, tossed it high and it blew up in the face of the aliens. he saw them cry out and scramble in pain, more so for the four eyed aliens. That was his cue as he then took out his GRA Assault Carbine and loaded it with Armor Piercing rounds, he had no idea if these could cut through those glowing barriers they had but no sense not trying. He got out of cover and quickly charged in, firing all the way with controlled and as accurate as he could manage bursts while on the move, silently thanking for the mods he had in this gun. The rounds hit the nearest alien and apparently the bullets had to work a bit harder, but with him this close now due to the T-51 speeding him up, he did not have to worry as the rounds hit and began to rip through the ceramic like plating. One dropped dead and Travis emptied the next alien with all the rounds in his clip.

He quickly turned and smashed the butt of his Assault Carbine in the face of another alien with the bones in the face and he heard the bones crack, a strangely satisfying sound as he reloaded a fresh clip rapidly and then placed the barrel in front of the thing's face, and fired several rounds, expecting the bones to be like armor of a sort. But that was not true as the rounds tore through the bone faced alien's face like the bones were just for show as the head was torn up and the alien was now headless. Travis turned and emptied the rest of the clips into the other aliens but he knew that the shields would be a bit of a problem and they were recovering, but he was FAR from finished. He placed aside his Carbine and switched to his next weapon of choice, two at a time, and these were Lever Action Shotguns and all loaded with his choice of 20 gauge 3/0 buck magnum and smashed both barrels into the faces of two of the four eyed aliens and decapitated them, he quickly moved his hands, unloading the shells and reloading them at the same time while moving the shotguns in a rolling fashion.

(Think the way the Terminator (Arnold) used that Lever Action Shotgun on the bike when facing the T100 only with TWO of them.)

He fired another pair of buck magnum into the aliens, only this time on a bone faced alien and the four eyed ones in the mouth, he did it again and fired two more shots into the arms of two more aliens, preventing them from firing as he reloaded again and fired the next shells on the other aliens. He then stopped as they took cover and he placed those guns aside as he took out the Q-35 Matter Modulator and loaded it with a Max Charge MFC and quickly moved to fire several plasma shots at the aliens and the shots turned them into smoking corpses with several burning holes in them. Apparently their shields were useless against energy weapons or heavy ordnance and that was a good thing in the mind of the Courier as he turned to shout out a challenge to the others.

"IF YOU ALIEN BASTARDS WANT SOME OF THIS, COME AND GET IT!"

The surviving bunch apparently got the hint and tried to attack, apparently hoping that they were have better luck than the others...tried being the figurative word as Travis took out the Sprtel-Wood 9700 and unleashed a hail of the green lasers and he cut down so many of the aliens down before they could fight back. He then directed his attention to the alien ship and fired some just to see what would happen, but while he did hit the ship and damaged it, the ship apparently decided to get out, the crew no doubt thinking that trying to continue with their plans was a BAD idea. As the ship took off, Travis felt himself relax a bit and walked back to the people there and saw that Dana and her team looked at him, utterly flabbergasted by the sight before them. He then took off the helmet and spoke once more to the lady with a grin on his face.

"The area's all clear Miss Maxwell, they won't be coming back."

Dana whistled and replied though with some worry on her face.

"I can see that...who the heck are you?"

"Heh, okay, like I said, the name's Travis Marlowe, born in California, near the Mojave region, and I used to be a Courier but dragged into one heck of a job and got another name doing what you have just seen me do."

"That name being?"

"Warbringer."

…

On the Normandy 2…

She was known by many names, the Hero of Elysium, the daughter of Hannah Shepard and one of the best graduates of N7…and until two years ago, the first Human Spectre, and the one who helped save the Council from the actions of the rogue Turian Spectre Saren. But now she had two new names to add to the list, the hero brought back to life, and now an agent of Cerberus. The last one was not something she liked a great deal and she had good reason as well, she had dealt with Cerberus in the past, but her time with them was less than friendly, in fact she had destroyed a number of bases, disrupted their work, and killed personnel from their side. It still surprised her that they even bothered to get her ruined body from where the previous Normandy was lost and then went through the amounts of money and time to bring her back.

As she got out of the elevator, she could not help but recall looking at the picture of the one man she loved…and lost.

(Kaiden…I wish you are well, and I hope you can forgive me…)

It had been a painful think for the Spectre to leave her loved one behind after all they had been through. She had assigned him to oversee the nuclear bomb that they would need to destroy Saren's base, while she would send Ash to handle the attacks on the rest of Saren's forces alongside Kirrahe's team . It had gone on so well that Kirrahe lost no one in his team as they advanced…that was until Ashley and Kirrahe were caught in a trap and needed her help. She rushed to her friend's aid but only to find that Kaiden and his team of Marines were caught off guard by a strike force of Geth.

She had been forced to choose…save Kaiden and let Ashley and the STG team die, or save Ashley and the STG team and let Kaiden die. She was in a desperate situation until Kaiden told her that the bomb was now locked down and there would be no way to stop it, she hard the Marines fighting and dying, with Kaiden using his Biotics and pistol. It tore at her but Kaiden told her to do it and save the others…he knew her well enough to know that she would do it.

And he was right…

She still recalled looking through the screen to see the detonation of the bomb and knew that he was gone. Ashley was angry as well and was saddened by Kaiden's death, so much so that she and Ash had nearly come to blows on this until they recalled that Kaiden would have wanted to them to not let his death mean nothing by grieving over him. That allowed them to move on and do what they could…eventually stopping Saren, Sovereign, their Geth allies and more.

Ash and her had continued to work together, all the way to the moment that the original Normandy got destroyed. Ever since then, she had no word on her friend and she hoped that with her new position after what she had done on the Citadel and for the salvation of the Galaxy, Ash would have finally redeemed the Williams' family name. She hoped that at least with Ashley finally bringing honor to the Williams name and maybe end the problems that she had to deal with growing up and working in the Alliance. She had only heard from Anderson when she came to the Citadel that Ashley had gone up several ranks and was currently on a special assignment that was off the books. And naturally, Anderson could not tell her anything, namely due to the fact that she was with Cerberus and as such was suspected for working with sworn enemies of both the Citadel Council and the Alliance.

Though at least Anderson was kind enough to explain why and at least, even if with was just symbolic, he and the Councilors gave her back her Spectre rank and position. Now here she was...trying to recruit a number of allies on what many would call a suicide mission and also a fool's errand. If her mother found out she was still alive and keeping away from her...then it was going to be a LOT to explain to her. Cassandra Shepard knew how her mother would be when she got angry about something and it was a miracle that she had not suffered a migraine from it all, but despite that, she loved her mother and wished to see her and her father Daniel Shepard again.

Her train of thought however was soon broken by EDI informing her that the Illusive Man wanted a word with her, that annoyed her as she had been hoping to head off to try some of the new food that Rupert had finally gotten ready with the supplies and new provisions that she got for him. She agreed wholeheartedly with the Mess Sergeant that having good food was a morale booster for the crew namely with what they were going to be doing, and her father always told her to never look down on the power of a good well made meal.

Where she was going, that was going to be something that could be a major boon.

…

In the communications/briefing room…

Shepard sighed mentally to herself she was scanned and now faced The Illusive Man and it galled her at times to be with him. But she was a professional woman and did know when to place thoughts and perceptions aside…hell that was how she managed to recruit her previous team in the first place.

"Ah…Shepard, good to see that despite recent events, you've had the time for a chat."

"I doubt that this chat is a social call Illusive Man, what is it that you want?"

"Direct as always, good to know that. Recently we got wind of a raid done on another colony, this one is named New Alaska."

"In the Terminus Systems again?"

"Yes, the only difference is that this raid was not done by the Collectors, nor is it in the Terminus Systems, at least deeply anyway. New Alaska is at the fringes of the Terminus Systems and is in what would officially be considered Citadel Space…just not enough for it to be routinely patrolled by security fleets. This raid was done by Batarian slavers who also had support from some Turian forces who have an axe to grind against humans. This raid in question was not well led, but substantial, yet it was repelled recently."

"By the Citadel fleet or the Alliance Garrison I take it?"

"No on the first part, and no on the second Shepard, New Alaska is not under the jurisdiction of the Alliance and as such only has a small volunteer colonial militia with basic weapons, not enough to count as a professional garrison force, nor was there a Citadel fleet in the area to respond. This was repelled by one man."

"Really? That guy must have been either very lucky or well armed."

"I usually don't credit luck too much, but you may have a point…we got video footage of the man in question when he fought the raiders and slavers Shepard…what you might see will surprise you."

Shepard was about to reply that after seeing all she had seen, she was not the kind to be surprised that easily, but she was going to have to rethink that as she watched Travis unleash hell on the Raiders and Slavers, it was rather impressive to a degree to the N7 Marine to see the man take on a force which while not too large was well armed and led. But what really got her attention was the way he was able to fight and what weapons he used…namely the weapons in question and how he got them into the field.

Once the battle footage was paused, she spoke to the Illusive Man.

"Was all that real?"

"As real as it can get Shepard, as you have seen, he uses quite an array of weapons, and while most of them appear to be antique weapons, they are still fairly effective and functional, some of the weapons appear familiar to some of my people who specialize in history, but the others are a bit different. But as you saw, there were weapons that were anything but antique and regular."

"I know…he was carrying actual laser weapons and even some plasma weapons to boot, I've never heard of that before being done by anyone with the exception of the Geth and possibly the Collectors if rumors about them are true, and the same can be said for the Armor, never seen anything like that before, and after what I have done and seen in the past, that's saying something."

"In that regard we can agree, his ability to suddenly acquire weapons out from thin air as well as ammunition is very interesting, what we have pieced together is that the device on his right arm might have something to do with it. Whatever it is, it somehow allows him to carry a veritable armory of weapons into the field along with Armor and supplies. That is something that no one has ever seen before. But that is not the only thing that surprises us Shepard, there are three things there too."

"The first being?"

"His sudden appearance for one, most would have thought he was from a colony elsewhere, but we checked New Alaska's records and it has no other colonies near it and there had only been a supply and trading ship that came to the colony prior to the attack. This means that he somehow came to the colony unannounced and that alone is surprising."

"The second?"

"His name, he was…kind enough to give his name to the colony's local constables when they asked him for it. His name is Travis Marlowe and he was born somewhere in California back on Earth. I immediately ran his name through the residential database on Earth, namely in the cities that are still there…we came up empty, no family, friends, nothing. Marlowe is a common family name and Travis is common enough, but there's no one resembling this man."

"And what is the last?"

"That is the surprising part of this man…take a look."

Shepard watched curiously at the video once it played again with Travis talking to the colonists. She wondered what was the last part concerning this mystery man that surprised the Illusive Man…and as soon as Travis revealed his face…she got her answer and she was wide eyed at it and as soon as the images stopped and stayed still, she looked intently at the image.

(No…it can't be…this has got to be a trick.)

She then looked at her…benefactor and spoke seriously.

"Is this some sort of joke?"

"No Shepard, if it is a joke then it's a very poor one, we have confirmed from the videos that this is Travis Marlowe. I was surprised about this as you were as well when our agent in the Alliance showed us these records, I am forwarding this to you right now and you should be getting this minutes from now. There's a reason I called you about this as well, we want you to find this man…and recruit him."

Shepard looked at the image and scowled a bit.

"Recruit him? Care to tell me why?"

"He obviously has very unique technology and shows quite a level of skill in combat Shepard, he might very well be a helpful ally…despite his appearance. The dossiers I handed you are for your new team to fight the Collectors who we made sure to get all the data that we could get. But as you can guess, we have nothing on this man Travis…but we do have a codename for him, he apparently gave that same codename to the people of the colony he rescued and considering what we have seen thus far, the name suits him."

"That name being?"

"Warbringer, a strange title to be sure, but considering what we have seen thus far, fairly accurate considering he knows how to fight and carries an arsenal that by all rights should be impossible for one man to carry. As far as we have pieced together, he is still there on New Alaska, he has not taken any ship off the planet so it would be best to go there and get him."

Shepard took a deep breath and sighed at this, looked at Travis's face and then to the Illusive Man.

"All right, if this…Warbringer is who he is, then I have no doubt that he can be helpful in fighting the Collectors."

"And Shepard…despite his…looks, do not be distracted, he is still an unknown to do not let that get in the way of your judgments."

Shepard glared at that and merely replied.

"I'll handle it."

As soon as everything was over and the Illusive Man cut contact from her, she spoke to he resident AI on the ship.

"EDI, patch me to Joker right now."

"Understood Commander…I have Mr. Moreau on the line."

"Let me do the taling here, jeez, anyway, what do you need Commander?"

"Change of plans, we're going to the colony of New Alaska."

"Not that I want to sound overtly curious, but why are going there?"

"To pick up someone, get us there Joker, I'll fill you when I get up to you."

Shepard did not wait for Joker to finish as she quickly got out of the room and headed to the CIC, what she had seen had gotten the cog wheels in her brain spinning and she wanted to make sure that she was ready. That man she just saw was impressive in the way he managed to fight the Turian and Batarian slavers, and the way he can unleash a storm of weapons fire from weapons that seemingly came from thin air due to that device in his arm. But there was something else that was tugging at her mind, try as she might, she was still reeling from seeing Travis's face…and for a good reason.

He looked just like Kaiden…

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Yet a new addition for all toe read but rest assured, the other stories are already getting new chapters and will be posted when I am able to have the time. ANd one such story is Justice League Fire Shadow, so it will be updated soon.

There we are with the prologue of Mass Effect: Warbringer, not the flashiest of titles to be sure, but works for me. I hope that this prologue will be enough to get things going and while this might seem like some sort of copy, this is my own creation. And yes, this means I have played Fallout New Vegas and all the DLCs so don't think I cooked this all up on the fly. Travis is based on one of my own characters who I have used to finish the whole game along with the DLCs so he will be a high end fighter and as such can be a major asset to the team Shepard will soon be assembling for the battle with the Collectors. And no, I do not have plans to bring Travis back to the Wasteland so don't think it's the same as my other stories where the heroes want to go back and have the means to do so.

And yes, Travis does look like Kaiden who as you have read in this fic was Shepard's love interest but had died on Vrmire and as such she's still hurting on the day he died. And now we have Travis who looks just like the man she loved so you can bet that the whole situation is going to be rather...awkward is the best way to sum it up. How will it affect the team what worked with Shepard before since they all know that Kaiden is dead? That is going to be under wraps for now so I will not say anything.

Travis also happens to be of high positive Karma and in this story, Shepard is a full fledged Paragon with a slight mix of Renegade so they might work well together and it should prove interesting. In light of Travis's weapons and ammunition, he can handle that well enough as he will find ways to repair and maintain his gear. As for ammunition concerns, Travis has brought a LOT of ammunition in bulk as you will all see later so he will be all right for now, and when he finds a chance to have more supplies, things are going to get a LOT more interesting when he plays chemist and gunsmith.

I'll send you his overall data in the next chapter so don't bother me about his perks and abilities yet, okay?

And if you want to know if he will wind up getting female attention...well, the fact that he has the Lady Killer Perk might help there.

See you all soon!