I was reading Reboot and had an idea. What if instead of the Star Trek verse, it was the Mass Effect verse? I had a similar idea to this before, but I finally decided to go ahead and write it. Since this is the version, you don't get the link to Reboot or the fancy logo I made in Paint, GIMP and . You want the enhanced version of ANY of my fics, go to Spacebattles.
Commander Jane Shepard swung her rifle around the corner. The Prothean beacon was finally in sight. As were two husks and two Geth troopers. She dropped down below the solid railing, the Geth fire passing harmlessly above her. Of course, the husks were probably moving rapidly toward them. Unlike the robotic Geth, husks were cybernetic, half-dead suicide troops made by impaling enemy casualties on massive spikes.
Eden Prime was a human colony on the edge of Alliance space, once a beautiful garden world well worthy of its name. Now it was a wasteland. The Geth hadn't been seen beyond the Perseus Veil in literal ages. Led by a Turian named Saren, it was obvious they had come to the colony for the beacon. The beacon was a relic of the ancient Protheans, the same race that had left ruins on Mars that led to the discovery of the Mass Effect and advanced human science by hundreds of years. That was in 2148. It was now 2183, and humanity was a prominent member of the galactic community. Of course, other races such as the Asari had discovered spaceflight earlier.
It hadn't been an easy fight. Their Turian companion, a Spectre named Nihlus, had been shot in the back by Saren. Shepard had lost one of her men, Jenkins, gunned down by Geth recon drones. She had found a lone soldier that had escaped the massacre, a Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. The two of them and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko formed their three-strong squad. Shepard liked small squads. They had pushed through Geth-controlled areas, chasing down a beacon that was constantly being moved. Bombs were planted by Saren and the Geth with the intention of destroying the entire area, but they were able to defuse them. Finally, they had made it to the beacon.
"Cover me!" Shepard ordered, shouldering her rifle.
"Yes ma'am," Williams acknowledged. Shepard still couldn't figure out what was with the pink-and-white armor. It wasn't practical, and by now it was so dirty that it wasn't pretty anymore either. Despite appearances, Williams was a skilled combat soldier. She fired at the Geth position in short bursts to avoid overheating her rifle.
Shepard concentrated on the husks- they were the immediate threat. She took down one with a burst from her assault rifle. Before she could get off a single shot at the other one, the cybernetic abomination was surrounded with a blue aura and slammed into the wall behind it.
"Good job," Shepard said to the lieutenant. Kaidan Alenko was a biotic- a person that could manipulate mass effect fields with their mind. With a little help from element zero in their bodies and an implanted amp, of course. Biotics were rare among humans and never natural, but biotic ability varied among aliens. Some likened biotic powers to telekinesis, whereas fans of classic sci-fi insisted it was a real-life version of the Force.
The two Geth troopers returned fire. One of the tiny slugs slammed into Shepard's armor, stopped by the kinetic barriers protecting her body. She unleashed a carefully aimed burst of fire into the Geth's flashlight-like head, tearing through the machine's kinetic barriers and then through it's electronic brain.
"Clear!" Shepard shouted. "Move up!"
The proceeded carefully down the stairs. No sign of Geth activity. One of the husks twitched, and Williams put a round through its head, splattering a disgusting goo everywhere.
"Normandy, the beacon is secure. Request immediate evac," Shepard said, activating her communicator.
Kaiden approached the beacon with Ashley behind him. It was a tall, slim device with an angular base, all made out of dull grey metal. A blue-green light pulsed from the beacon. "This is amazing!" Kaiden exclaimed. "Actual working Prothean technology. Unbelievable!"
"They say this is even older than the ruins on Mars," Ashley agreed. "Much older. And it wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up!"
"Something must have activated it," Kaiden muttered, edging closer to the device.
"Whoever activated it wasn't very nice about it," Chief Williams pointed out. She pointed to where a panel had been removed and the crystalline insides tampered with. "I wonder what they did to it."
Kaidan was now only a meter away from the beacon, which caught Shepard's attention. "Get away from that thing!" she ordered, moving toward them. Kaiden backed away as Shepard approached.
As soon as she got within a meter of the device, three things happened. The beacon glowed an intense green, much brighter than before. Shepard was picked up like a ragdoll and suspended in front of the device. And strangest of all, images began appearing in her head.
"Shepard!" Kaidan called, but she was barely aware of it. There was another voice, but she didn't even notice that one. Intense images flashed through her mind. A group of humans dressed in what looked like late 20th or early 21st century clothing. A pyramid-like starship battling a grey, blocky starship. A spinning stone ring. A strange glowing crystal. Another starship, this one with a massive glowing hollow centre, emerging from what looked like a puddle of water contained in a ring-shaped object. A much more organic looking ship and a vampiric humanoid. She saw the Citadel under construction, and finally a cuttlefish-like object. Then she was dropped violently and passed out.
The next thing she knew, Shepard was in Normandy's sickbay. Her head was pounding and she was quite dizzy. She forced her eyes open and briefly saw double before the world slowly came into focus.
"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she's waking up." A voice. Lieutenant Alenko. Shepard slowly sat up. It didn't hurt that much.
"You had us worried there, Shepard," the doctor said. She had dull grey hair and spoke with a British accent. "How are you feeling?"
"Not too bad," Shepard replied. "Bit of a headache. What happened?"
"You approached the beacon on Eden Prime," Alenko said. "It activated, picked you up, held you for a while. Then it just exploded. Blast knocked you cold, Williams and I had to carry you back to the ship."
"Physically, you're fine," Chakwas reported. "But I detected some unusual brain activity- increased, actually. If I didn't know better I'd have said you formed a lot of new-oh, Captain Anderson!"
Shepard turned as the Captain entered the room. Dreaming... it was starting to come back. "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?"
"Most of the readings look normal. I'd say the commander's going to be fine, physically at least," Chakwas reported. "But we did find some abnormal brain activity. I don't think the Prothean beacon caused any permanent damage, however."
"It wasn't Prothean," Shepard blurted out.
"What?" Ashley said, stopping in the middle of the doorway. She had overestimated how long it would take the Commander to regain consciousness and decided that cleaning her gun was more important. Of course, she stopped as soon as she heard the news.
"The beacon wasn't Prothean," Shepard repeated. "It was built in 2015 by Colonel Samantha Carter and Doctor Rodney McKay using reverse-engineered Ancient Repository technology."
The sound of the Normandy's ventilation and other systems was deafening compared to the resulting silence. Ashley broke the silence after what seemed like an eternity. "How the hell do you know that? Uh, excuse me, ma'am."
"It's okay," Shepard replied. "I don't really know myself. The beacon, repository, whatever it was, put images in my head. But it also put thoughts, ideas- it's really hard to describe. That just came to me."
"Did you say 2015?" Chakwas asked. "That predates Mass Effect technology by a hundred years!"
Shepard managed to avoid blurting out facts this time. "They used something called a Stargate that allowed nearly instantaneous interplanetary travel. You would just... walk through the thing and end up on another world. The Stargate was discovered in Giza in 1928 and 1945 experimentally, though nothing came of that. The United States Air Force started operating the Stargate program in 1994 or 1997- I'm not sure of the date."
"Then where did it all go and why haven't we seen any evidence of these Stargates?" Captain Anderson asked. "This could be a deliberate attempt to throw us off... or it could change everything we know about galactic history."
"My god..." Shepard trailed off. "That ship, they call them Reapers. They're sentient starships. And there are a lot of them, lurking out beyond the edges of the galaxy. And... they have one goal. To wipe out all organic life. In fact they did it already. That's why we're here. That's why everything changed."
She looked up. "Another flash of insight. I think I have some control over it- some things just pop up out of nowhere but if I think about it I can bring them up."
"Take all the time you need, Commander. We're a few hours out from the Citadel, you have until then to write a preliminary report," Anderson ordered. He paused. "I cannot stress how important it is that this does not leave the room. You may not discuss it with anybody- not the Normandy's crew, not me, not each other. Is that understood."
There was a chorus of "Yes sir."
"Good. When we get to the Citadel I'll inform my superiors. Commander, the beacon knocked you unconscious, nothing more. Doctor Chakwas, I want you to remove all mention of abnormal brain activity from the medical records. Dismissed."
Preliminary Report #4559247
Eden Prime Beacon, Tau'ri Legacy
Personal Remark: This was very difficult to write. Some things just came to me, and some of those things were just plain distracting. Other times I really had to focus on a certain topic to get any sort of information. The beacon, repository, whatever it is, is very advanced and Chakwas still isn't sure what it did to my brain. Still, I think I have put together a reasonably complete picture of what happened over the last few hundred (to us) or million (to the rest of the galaxy) years. The process wasn't exactly pleasant, but someone named O'Neill apparently is sorry, and that this device is much less dangerous than the original. Apparently I have something called the ATA gene as well, which explains why the beacon responded to me but not Lieutenant Alenko.
In 1928 CE, an alien device called a Stargate was discovered buried in what is now the Greater Arabic Republic. The Stargate is circular stone-like ring capable of transporting living matter across interstellar distances using an artificial wormhole. Each Stargate needed a destination Stargate to "dial" to, and these were placed across the galaxy. The Stargates were built by the Ancients, a highly advanced ancient race that disappeared thousands of years ago. Interestingly, they appear to be human or very close to human. Alien influences apparently affected Earth mythology, with figures such as Ra and Thor having extraterrestrial origin.
In 1945 CE, the Stargate was activated for the first time, but it was only an experimental trial. In the late 20th century, the United States Air Force began using the Stargate for military and exploration purposes. They encountered other humans in the galaxy who were previously taken from Earth as slaves by the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld were a race of parasitic aliens who inhabited human hosts, and were, in a word, evil. Eventually, their iron rule of the galaxy was broken, largely by the humans from Earth. They also encountered the Asgard, an advanced race that was once allied with the Ancients and possibly responsible for UFO myths. The Asgard were nearly wiped out by the Replicators. The Replicators were a machine race that turned anything they could find into more Replicators.
There is truth to the legend of Atlantis. Around 2004 or 2005, the city was discovered. It was built by the Ancients and once sat where Antarctica is today, but was moved to the Pegasus Galaxy. The humans from Earth sent a small expedition to Atlantis, where they encountered another hostile race. The Wraith were a humanoid race that could drain the "life force" from humans via some unknown method. The expedition did not encounter any live Ancients, however humans were present in the Pegasus Galaxy as well.
Later on, a splinter group of the Ancients, the Ori, entered the Milky Way via a massive Stargate and crushed all resistance to their religious crusade. They were eventually destroyed thanks to technological advancements and recovered Ancient technology. The Wraith would continue to be a threat of varying strength for years afterward.
The state of the Milky Way Galaxy after the defeat of the Ori and the collapse of the Goa'uld empire is a confusing subject. It seems that there was a lot of chaos, with small factions and criminal elements fighting for dominance. Conversely, it seemed to be a time of prosperity, with the Citadel being constructed as a symbol of galactic unity and as a gateway to the Pegasus Galaxy. It is worth noting that the Stargate still had not been revealed to the public. It is also worth noting that Mass Effect technology seemed to be completely unknown to the people of either galaxy at this point in time.
On a supply mission to the Pegasus Galaxy in 2014, the Earth ship Daedalus encountered a new alien lifeform. These would later be termed "Reapers". They are a race of sentient starships, each one massively powerful compared to anything we have encountered. The Reapers' sole mission is to destroy all organic life for reasons unknown. The Reapers may be as old as the Ancients- however after a failed invasion thousands of years ago they went dormant in dark space. However, the Milky Way Galaxy had been racked by war, and the Reapers were numerous enough to carry out their plans.
With the Reapers on their way to Earth and their forces decimated, the humans of Earth that knew about the Stargate came up with a desperate plan. On September 14, 2014, their plan was put into action. Earth was simultaneously shifted out of phase and encased in a time dilation field, both based on Ancient technology. The plan was to keep Earth isolated until the Reaper threat passed.
However, something went wrong and Earth would be cut off for millions of years. During that time, the Reapers presumably continued their cycle, allowing life to evolve and then destroying it. Several key personnel were able to escape to Atlantis or other offworld bases. Two of them, Colonel Samantha Carter and Dr. Rodney McKay, planted the beacon, leaving a message for future humans to discover.
Although Earth was cut off for millions of years, only a few passed to the humans of Earth. The galaxy had gone through untold changes, and we didn't know anything about it apart from the unexplained Celestial Shift Event of 2016-2017. All, or at least almost all, records of the Stargate's existence were destroyed.
Ambassador Udina looked up from the datapad. "You expect me to present this to the Citadel Council?" Composed of an Asari, a Salarian, and a Turian, the Council formed the most powerful governing body in the galaxy. The Citadel was the heart of galactic politics and commerce, supposedly built by the long-extinct Protheans. But if this was true...
"Yes, actually I do," Shepard said. She really, really hated Udina, and they had just met.
"This looks like the kind of pro-human trash a sci-fi writer would turn out!" Udina fumed. "True or not, nobody is going to believe this."
"I hate to admit it, but Udina has a point," Anderson agreed. "If you were the Council- which explanation would you go with? That someone made up a bunch of bullshit to make humanity look good, or that everything we know about galactic history is null and void."
"We should at least try," Shepard argued. "Maybe we can find evidence if we know what to look for."
"Like what, the CSE?" Udina shot back. "That was proven to be caused by gravitational lensing from a moving black hole in-"
"Look, damn it, if this is true then the galaxy is on the verge of destruction." Shepard pounded her fist on the table. "Except this time around, we won't have a time dilation device to protect Earth. There will be nothing left of humanity, nothing left of anyone!"
"Calm down Shepard, you've made your point." Anderson said. He shot Udina a death glare. "We're meeting with the council anyway to discuss Saren's treachery. We can mention it at the same time."
"This meeting serves no purpose. The humans are wasting your time, Councilor. And mine," the holographic form of Saren spat. The Council was actually protecting Saren. Did they not want to admit one of their precious Spectres had gone rogue, or were they just racist?
"Saren's hiding behind his position as Spectre," Shepard argued. "You need to open your eyes!"
"What we need is evidence," the Salarian councilor replied. "So far, we have seen nothing."
"There is still one outstanding issue," Captain Anderson said. "Commander?"
Even before Shepard began, she knew the Council would never believe them, even with evidence. "Councilors, to put it bluntly, almost everything we know about the history of this galaxy is wrong..."