Jump Chain Gothic - Mass Effect - Final 2
A Vision.
I saw many Reapers walking over a Prothean city. They fired their weapons, over and over again, red energy beams were laying waste to everything in sight.
There were people running, screaming, trying to hide. They had four eyes, and a head that was similar in shape to the Collectors. Some of them were soilders they were trying to defend the civilans from the Collectors, and other things, husks of some sort, unlike any I'd seen while playing the games.
This was when I realised that I was seeing things from the perspective of an actual Prothean, but in a way the human mind could understand. If the sights before me hadn't been so horrible I'd have marvelled at this expereince.
The Collectors kept coming. They were relentless, uncaring of their casualties, nor did they care who they gunned down. Despite my best efforts, I was forced to retreat. I saw a Prothean take a hit. He, she or it gave a single grunt before he fell.
Clenching my fist, I summoned a surge of energy. biotic energy. Channeling that energy, I lifted the lead pair of Collectors in the air and slammed them into the ground.
The scene changed. I was somewhere else. Now I was watching a display as a city was destroyed.
"I never thought our empire would fall," a Prothean said to me.
"We will sleep here until the Reapers return to dark space" another voice was saying "Then we will rise, a million strong"
"For the Empire," the other Prothean intoned.
"For the Empire," I heard myself repeat.
The scene changed again. I was in the same base as before only now there were many more Protheans about and they were frantic.
"Get to your stasis pod" I heard myself say.
A third Prothean shimmered into view, its outline highlighted in green glowing lines. A hologram? Maybe. I somehow had the sense that it was some sort of virtual intelligence program.
"And the refugees who have yet to reach the bunker?"
I was the one being asked that question.
"Their sacrifice will be honoured in the coming empire," I finally replied.
Damn. Seemed like I was witnessing a last-ditch effort by the Protheans to preserve what was left of their civilization in the midst of the Reaper invasion some 50 000 years ago. Anyone who couldn't make it in time would have to be left behind. Harsh measures, but somewhat understandable.
Then another scene change.
Alternating images of a Reaper, flashing by so fast I could barely process it all…
Reapers touching down over a city, destroying everything in sight…
(Line Break)
Prothean Pyramid. Remote Planet.
"Gothic are you alright?" I heard Tali ask me.
Unlike the last time I'd used a beacon this time I was not taken out of action. I was soon back on my feet. The beacon itself was now once more covered up by the pyramid, but I had the key, the artefact from the asari consort that I'd forgotten to give to Shepard.
"That was a lot more clear than some fractured images" I said to the group "I understood at least part of the whole message, it felt like I was actually there, and it wasn't the same message as before, there must be more information in these beacons. Like stored messages on an answering machine".
It had been weeks since Saren and the Geth had been defeated. The Normandy had already been destroyed by the Collectors, and the Commander was assumed to be KIA, which was true for now.
After Miranda Lawson had approched me on the Citadel I'd fled with Tali to the Migrant Fleet to hide out for a while. They'd not exactly given me a warm welcome, but since I'd arrived in a freighter loaded with supplies they'd tolerated me.
Tali knew everything now. She knew about Jump Chain, about me knowing about the future. She'd taken it well, she'd only slapped me twice. Now we were working together to try to make the future better. But it was a lot harder to changed things for the better than it might seem.
I'd started having dreams about the Prothean Beacons. I knew where more of them were, and that they contained more information than anyone had realised. The beacons had been used many times during the last Reaper cycle, and there were more than distress calls stored within in them.
But that didn't explain all the memories I'd gotten, partly it could be explained by the Cipher, but it was more than that. I could only assume that memories from playing the ME games were getting all muddled up with the Prothean stuff that kept getting ramned into my poor skull.
In order to find out what I'd been dreaming about I'd contact Liara, a Prothean expert, she wasn't in a good state of mind having recently lost Shepard, but having a Prothean mystry to solve was giving her something to else focus on.
Garrus hadn't lasted two weeks back at C-Sec, he'd quit his job, but he wasn't on the path to becoming archangel just ye, as such he was free to come with me on a new mission.
Getting here had been the hard part. Thankfully Tali had some influence with her people and she'd been able to get a small ship for us to use, my shuttle couldn't have gotten us all the way out here.
Now that I'd located a beacon I could just call up Admiral Anderson, and he'd get me credits for the beacon's location. Having the discovery confirmed by a Prothean expert, as well as scans and images, taken with omni-tool, would prevent anyone from thinking this was a hoax.
But we were out here for something bigger. If we found an entire Prothean base with working technology, the reward money for that discovery would set us all up for alive, plus I could grab some advanced tech, and it would make Liria the most famous Prothean expert in the galaxy, .
"The Prothean Cipher you received on Feros" Liara said to me "It lets you see the images as a Prothean would. Understand their language, it does the same for me".
She'd decided to let me use the beacon this time because clearly it was leading me to something. A Prothean base. She could also use this beacon, but it was best to let it settle down before doing so. I understood now that they weren't meant to be used to often, they could overload.
"That would explain why the Protheans seemed to be speaking English" I commented "It looked like the final days of some Prothean outpost, and I saw an attack on one of their cities".
While I didn't know for sure I got the impression that all the images had been the memories of one Prothean, but I couldn't be sure.
"Eden Prime" I said as I looked to where Liara, Garrus and Tali were standing "We need to go Eden Prime".
(Line Break)
Prothean Base. Eden Prime.
We'd found way more than just some remote Prothean outpost. We found an actual Prothean, this base was a lot like a place on Illos, only in this case one of the stasis pods was still going.
"It may take him some time to fully regain consciousness…" Liara began to say.
"Or not," Garrus interrupted.
We all quickly looked down. There was definitely some eye movement going on beneath those eye lids. All four of them. They slowly drifted open. Then closed. Opened and closed. Then they suddenly opened.
The alien's body flared with blue light. With a gesture the last living Prothean, Javik was his name I knew that somehow, he sent us all flying back.
We all got to our feet at more or less the same time and stared at each other. The Prothean backed away and disappeared behind a stack of crates.
"Be careful," Liara warned as we reached for weapons "He's confused, scared, and that might make him lash out again"
Actually what he did do was run away.
"After him!" I shouted.
We couldn't a real life Prothean just wander off. Everyone would want him. Cerberus. The STG. The Spectres, and more would all kill us to posses Jarvis. Plus the goverments would all try to claim him. The Alliance would argue that he was theirs because he was found on Eden Prime, but no one would care. It could led to war if we didn't manage this carefully.
When I got outside I found the alien standing around, staring at he the world around him. I couldn't blame him. Eden Prime must have looked very different fifty thousand years ago. No human run farms for starters.
"Hey there," I said.
He didn't hear me. Or acknowledge me. Or maybe he just didn't understand me.
"Hello?" I tried again.
Still nothing.
I slowly reached out, intending to just tap him on the shoulder or something.
"Remember," Liara said, having now caught up "it's been fifty thousand years since he went into stassi, but for him, it's only been a few minutes".
Javik suddenly turned on me and put his hands on my head, and this led to me having another vision.
I was back in the body of the Prothean. I was also back in the Prothean bunker
"No," the VI, or was it an AI?, said firmly. "The bunker is falling. There is no other option".
"But there are pods online!" I protested. "Ready and waiting for soldiers. Soldiers that are still alive! They just need a few more minutes!".
"Their sacrifice will be honoured in the coming empire" the hologram was now saying "Preparing neutron bombardment. Get to your lifepod now".
Things became a mad scramble of images once more. There were traitors and Collectors. Then I was back in a city that was being destroyed. Then I was watching another city or the same city, on a set of monitors as the Reapers brought it to an end.
Then I was back. I was on Eden Prime. It was the future. Not this was my present. It was the future for the Prothean before me, who had dropped to his knees.
"How many others?" Javik asked quietly.
It took me a moment to realise he was speaking English.
"Just you," I said "No one else made it".
Javik made a noise, it was very insect like.
"Wait" said Garrus "you can understand us?"
"Yes," he replied. "Now that I have read the physiology of this human, his nervous system. I know enough to understand this language".
It had been like the asari Joining. A lot like it in fact, only more vivid. Hmm maybe the asari had been created or heavily modifed by the Protheans?
"I saw what happened to your people," I said as kindly as I could "You need to know that your people didn't all die in vain. A small group on a world called Illos were able to do something to the Citadel to delay the next cycle. Because of them we have a chance to fight the Reapers in this cycle".
Javik just looked at me, not saying a word.
"You fight the Reapers," Javik asked.
I nodded
"Yes" I said.
"Then we will see" he replied.
I extended a hand forward. Javik stared at it. He stared at me. Then he walked away. I wasn't sure what to make of that.
(Line Break)
Quarian Ship. Eden Prime.
We hadn't left the planet yet, we needed clearence, but we soon would. I'd already contacted Admiral Anderson and had told him about the Prothean we'd found. Hopefully Javik would be enough to keep the Council from denying the existence of the Reapers. But even if he was I somehow didn't think this would led them to them doing anything about the Collectors. I suspected that each race would start a massive militry build up in order to prepare for the invasion, and that they would keep their fleets inside their boarders. Which would leave the humans both in and near the Terminus systems even more vunrable.
Currently Javik was sitting on the floor of the cargo bay in a cross-legged pose, almost as if he was meditating. Liara seemed a bit frustrated.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"I've tried to make the room more accommodating," Liara told me "But he still won't talk to me".
She had. Most of the crates, this was a quarian ship and they didn't throw much away, had been pushed into a corner or moved. And she'd done her best to make the room more comfertable with pillows and blankets. But there was a limit to what a person could do with what was on board a small craft such as this.
"You did a great job" I assured her.
"But he won't talk to me" Liara said with a huff.
Perhaps he'd talk to me. Liara wasn't in a good place mentally these days, she was greiving for her mother and Shepard, so she was coming off as overly emotional, even childish. Which was totally fine with me, but clearly our guest felt otherwise.
"What exactly did I experience back on Eden Prime?" I asked "It was like the beacon and like an asari Joining".
The Prothean stood up and looked directly at me
"You found one," the alien whispered. "You saw it all... our destruction, our warnings… why weren't they heeded? Why didn't you prepare for the Reapers?"
I noticed the look of jealously on an asari face, but I ignored it.
"Humans have only been part of the larger galaxy for a few decades" I explained "I can't speak for the other races, but until recently we'd never even seen one of your beacons. One of my friends triggered the beacon we found on this planet, and in the confusion I recived what seemed to be a vision. It was all jumbled images, none of it made sense".
Jarvis made a bug noise at me.
"Then communication is still primitive in this cycle" he commented.
For him it would be.
"We pieced together what we could and used it to delay the Reaper invasion" I went on to say "Your people on Illos did something to the Citadel to prevent it from being used by the Reapers. One of the Reapers attempted to undo this by using organic agents and machine servents, but we were able to destroy the Reaper".
That got his attention. Javik got up close and stared at me.
"Then the extinction was delayed?" he asked.
I nodded silently and let him process that.
"While we defeated one Reaper, and prevented them from attacking us using the Citadel, that won't prevent them from entering the galaxy from dark space" I went on to say "It will just take them a few years to get here. Less than that maybe".
I couldn't let anyone figure out how much I knew. Even people who'd been inside my head only saw bits and pecies. Tali was an expection, but we were pretty close. Not boyfriend and girlfriend close, but she was considering joining me on future jumps.
"With your help we can convince our leaders to prepare" I was now saying "But even then we won't be able to defeat the Reapers, just make it harder for them to harvest us".
At this point Liara fully entered the room.
"Did the Protheans have any plans to defeat the Reapers?" she asked
Javik nodded. No doubt he'd learned the gesture from me.
"We heard only stories" he told us "They said our scientists were constructing a great machine that had the power to defeat the Reapers. It was called the Crucible".
If this led to Litsa finding that device early it could be good news.
"You never saw it?" she asked
Javik shook his head.
"By that point, the Empire was divided by the loss of the relays" he told us "None of us knew what the other worlds were doing".
Which explained how the project on Ilos survived. The Reapers hadn't know about it because none of the Protheans they'd harvest had known about it.
"Then I take it you don't know anything about this Crucible?" the asari asked.
I'd have to drop a hint about the Mars archives at some point. Assuming I needed to bother. Liara would go on her information dealer trip soon, perhaps she'd already started.
"No," Javik admitted. "I was a soldier, not a scientist. I had a different mission in life".
"What was your mission?" Liara wanted to know.
Javik didn't say anything for a while, but he did start speaking again without either of us having to repeat the question.
"Among my people, there were avatars of many traits: bravery, strength, cunning" he told us "I was the embodiment of vengeance. I am the anger of a dead people, demanding blood be spilled for the blood we lost. Only when the last Reaper has been destroyed will my purpose be fulfilled. I have no other reason to exist".
"Those who share my purpose become allies," Javik continued by saying "I will speak to your leaders to warn them, and when the time comes I will help you fight".
Okay so wouldn't be able to help us build the Prothean device, and it was doubtles he knew much about his people's tech, but he was proof of the Reapers. The Council couldn't ignore an actual Prothean, and even if they did well I'd just take Javik to met with the leaders of each race. People often forgot that while the three, well four now, people who made up the Council were the most powerful people in the galaxy, they weren't more powerful than the goverements they respersented.
As for the Cruible, I'd never trusted that. Those three endings almost seemed as if Shepard had actually been harvested by the Reapers. Either to take control of the Reapers by joining them, which seemed a lot like getting harvest to become part of a new Reaper. Become part- man part-machine, like a husk. Or Shepard destroys everything, which was just like dying because he or she was actually destroying their own mind.
"If you'd allow it" Liara said to Javik "I have a few questions I'd like to ask".
The Prothean just nodded.
"I've published several papers on your people in just the last …"
"Amusing," Javik said as he interpted "The Asari have finally mastered writing".
The blue girl needed a moment to process that.
"I'm sorry?" Liara asked.
"Never mind," Javik replied as he shook his head. "What do you wish to know?"
Liara didn't speak at first, no doubt still reeling from the condescending attitude Javik was displaying, but she soon recovered and began to fire salvos of questions at the Prothean.
"We are dead now," Javik said quietly "What does it matter?"
Liara faltered when she realised she was only dragging up painful memories for the Prothean.
"I'm sorry" she replied "Its just that studying your history has been a lifelong passion of mine"
Javik decided to tell the asari something about his life.
"When I was born, the Empire was already at war with the Reapers," Javik told her "The first thing I remember was seeing my planet on fire".
Clearly Javik wasn't a scholar.
"But surely you must have had some kind of education about your past," I said. "What was your civilization like before the Reaper attack?".
Blue girl simply wasn't going to give up.
"We were the dominant race of our cycle," Javik replied "We ruled the galaxy".
I was getting the impression that the Prothean had been conquerers rather than explorers and scienists. Less United Federation of Planets, more Galactic Empire.
"My studies indicated you were the only race engaged in space travel at the time," Liara went on to say. "I've always found that curious".
Now that she'd mentioned it. That was odd. This cycle had a dozen intelligent races flying around in space ships.
"We were one empire composed of many subjects" he said "Other races either joined the empire willingly or did not. It made no difference in the end.
Liara and I exchanged uneasy glances.
"Are you saying you enslaved other species?" I asked.
"Any could oppose us if they wished," Javik simply said. "And if they had won, they would have ruled. Many tried. None succeeded".
Poor blue girl. Her belifs were being shattered.
"I had no idea Protheans were so…" Liara said in a whisper.
She decided to change the subject somewhat.
"Back on Eden Prime, it looked like there were other stasis pods. I saw glimpses here and there, enough to make some educated guesses" she was saying "But not enough to totally understand. What exactly was your mission?".
Like me she had the Cipher, but Liara theorised that the Cipher was incomplete due to having gone from plant monster to asari to me. Being transferred though such different minds had caused information to be lost.
However I had enough to benift from the knowledge. I'd gotten a good scan of a Prothean stasis pod, that combined with my only tech knowledge and Tali's skills should be enough to allow me to build my own stasis pods. That would save me having to buy new ones when I wanted to add my harem. Assuming that scary Jump Chan creature would allow me to cheat that way.
"The Empire had fallen and we knew our cycle was lost," Javik replied. "So we chose to sleep under the ground until the Reapers returned to dark space. When we awoke, under my leadership, a new Prothean Empire would have arisen. We would have commanded the races of your time to prepare for the next Reaper invasion"
Then his head bowed in shame.
"But traitors within our ranks betrayed us" he said "The Reapers discovered our plan".
That part I knew from my visions.
"Just out of curiosity," I asked "how exactly would you have 'commanded' us?"
I had a feeling I knew.
"By leaving you no other option," Javik said bluntly. "You would have joined our army, or faced the Reapers alone".
I wasn't suprised.
"My people found an archive on a world close to ours" I mentioned "Its long been specualted that your people were studying mine. Is this true?".
Javik nodded.
"Before the war, we cultivated species that showed potential," the alien told me "Eventually, you would have been offered a choice to join the Empire willingly or not. But when the Reapers attacked, we ceased all study. We hoped they would see you as too primitive to harvest".
Which they had.
"I wanted to ask about Ilos" the asari the room was now saying "But you might have not called it that. I'll have to get the coordinates and hope you...".
The intrupted her again.
"Ilos was our name for it as well," Javik revealed to us "During my life, it was only a rumour. It was said we had cities there, built on the ruins of a civilization before us. Built by a race called the Inusannon".
Thanks to the Cipher I knew that the ruins of inusannon civilization had provided the Protheans with the knowledge necessary to develop mass effect technology.
"That makes sense," Liara sai. "The architecture, the stylistic design. None of that was similar to what we've seen in Prothean ruins or the vision I saw".
I'd have to take her word of that since I'd not been able to visit Illos.
"If our scientists did have a research facility there, whatever they were doing was secret," Javik said "You know far more than I do".
"Yes, Vigil said they wiped all traces of themselves from the records so the Reapers couldn't find them," Liara informed the Prothean.
"The scientists eventually went to cryogenic stasis," I added.
I saw a light flicker in Javik's eyes.
"More of my people survived" he said "You mentioned this before. I assume they did not survive until this cycle".
Indeed they had not.
"Like your bunker on Eden Prime, there was a power shortage" the asari explained "Vigil, which was a VI who watched over the Protheans while they slept, had to deactivate stasis pods to conserve power. By the time it deemed it safe to bring the scientists out of stasis, there were only a dozen left. They chose to focus their efforts to stop the Reapers from taking control of the Citadel in this cycle".
That hadn't seemed like an act of revenege to me. More like a desperate plan to aid future generations. Perhaps the Protheans hadn't been all bad.
"And it worked," Javik said "The extinction was delayed".
Yes it had been.
"We don't know for sure but its seems as if the Reapers tried to launch their invasion centuries ago using the same tactic that had worked for them in the past: sending a signal to tell the keepers to turn the Citadel into a giant mass relay," I explained "Thanks to the Prothean team on Illos, when the signal was sent the keepers never responded. So the Reaper left behind to monitor organic civilizations began slowly indoctrinating people to work for it as agents, while trying to find alternate way to launch their invasion. Liara and I worked with several others to stop that attempt".
Saying it like that made it seem so simple.
"The Citadel," Javik said it what sounded like mild awe "I never saw that place. It was captured long before I was born".
I would change that.
"Well, it's not captured in this cycle," I told him "We'll soon leave this world and go there so you can warn our leaders of the Reapers, hopefully we'll able to prepare".
Liria couldn't help asking more questions.
"How did your people wage war against the Reapers?" she asked.
This could be important.
"We discovered in our cycle. That our own people were being converted and then turned against us" we were told "The Reapers would destroy any fleet or space stations attempting to defend a world, and then they would unleash the converted, who would harvest our people to make more converted".
These converted he spoke of were the Collectors, the remains of which were near the centre of the galaxy preparing to build a human Reaper.
"It must have been hard to fight your own people" Liara said sympathetically.
"We eliminated them when we could" the Prothean told us "There was no choice. Mercy is a weakness".
Again the subject was changed, this time by the Prothean.
"To discover the most primitive races of my time now rule the galaxy. The asari, the humans, and the turians" he said "It would be amusing if not for the loss of my own people".
"There's also the salarians," Liara informed.
Javik's face became one of surprise, if I was any judge
"The lizard people evolved?" he asked.
Well he might be confusing them with the krogan.
"They used to eat flies," he said at last.
Liara stared at him for a minute before silently walking away. Javik watched her leave before turning to me.
"It was only yesterday. Our empire spanned the galaxy. Now we are only a myth" he said "Primatives rule the galaxy. I will adjust".
Clearly he needed some time alone to process all of this, with that in mind I turned to leave.
(Line Break)
Embassies. The Citadel.
The newly minted Admiral Anderson, adviser to Counciler Undina who'd gotten the job despite Shepard supprt for Adnerson, poured out two drinks of something and passed a glass to me. Judging by how'd he lossened the collar of his uniform I figured he was off duty.
"A real life Prothean" he then said "Why didn't you tell me. You didn't need to quit the Alliance. I could have secured you a warship and a proper crew for such an important mission".
I had my reasons.
"Not long after we beat Saren a member of Cerberus found me" I told the Alliance officer "I assume she wanted to recruit me, but I never gave her a chance".
Anderson was shocked.
"Damn it" he cursed "Why didn't you report this?".
Again my reasons were vaild even if they weren't exactly why I'd quit.
"Because Admiral, Cerberus has agents within the Alliance" I reminded him "There was one on the Normandy. If I'd reported the meeting then I'd have disappered, or the report would have been lost".
I had more to say.
"Cerberus knows I have the Cipher, and now they know what it can do" I said to the former captain "I have to go off the grid, so I'm going to the Terminus systems".
I figured that after a couple of years it would be safe to go work for Cerberus, or at least to work for Shepard as she worked with Cerberus, because the Illusive Man wouldn't want to antagonise the Commander by making a grab at me. Besides they'd have bigger issues to deal with. Plus I could pretend that I was coming around to their way of thinking only to hand myself over to the Alliance when Shepard did.
While I could do that now, even Cerberus would have trouble getting to me if I was locked up at Alliance HQ, but I didn't want to spend the next two to three years being poked and proded by Alliance eggheads.
Also I had remember that the asari goverment, or at least part of it, had tried to take me. Now that I'd delivered a real life Prothean to the Citadel they might not care about me anymore, but some asari had be thinking about what else I might know. There was a reason why it had never been reported that I'd shared the Cipher.
"Its at times like this I wish Shepard was still with us" Anderson was now saying "She could deal with Cerberus".
Perhaps one day she would.
"Don't count her out yet" I said to the Admiral "You never found a body, and this is Shepard were talking about".
Anderson mulled that over.
"Do you think she might have been captured by whoever destroyed the Normandy?" he asked.
No I didn't, but I couldn't talk about what I knew. I'd changed things enough now that I had no way of knowing if events would play out the same. I didn't want to change anything further by giving too much away.
"I just think she'll pop up again" I said to Anderson as I finished my drink and got up off the couch "Now if you'll excuse me I have a reward to claim and a ship to catch. Then I'm going to change my name and my face".
My plan was got back to the Migrant Fleet and then on the boarder of the Terminus system to start looking for work as well odd bits of tech. Many people went out the froniter to seek their fortune, but not many of them had an AI to help them. I was sure I'd be fine.
Anderson shook my hand and wished me luck. I was also sure I'd need that.
The End
Author Note.
The story wasn't as long or as good as I'd hoped. But to be fair I've not played ME1 in many years, and I prefer ME2. Plus this is just part one of three stories for Mass Effect with plenty of chances for side stories.
However I don't want to keep writing Mass Effect right now as I'll get bored of it, so I was think of skipping a head to the next jump, and then going back.
Also I want my reviewers to dedice the next jump and even how the points are spent, although I will need another stasis pod.
The idea I like the most, that comes complete with the points spent will be the next story. You can also pick who from the ME verse I take with me. Don't just say a setting and a character I need a bit more than that, try to be creative. Last of all I'm picking up at least one girl per jump so you can even pick the girl from the next jump.
I hope to have all nine future jumps planned out in advance so there's no limit to the ideas you can send me.