After spending a month trying to conquer a bad case of writers block for The Reasons We Fight, I realized that forcing words out wasn't going to help. The damn story was turning into a dramafest, which is something I think none of us want. Anyway, I've had this idea kicking around in my head for a long time, but it wasn't until I read the completely awesome story "Primed to Defend the Universe," by the similarly awesome writer LawrenceSnake that I received the inspiration necessary to actually start this crossover.

Lawrence Snake has also volunteered his services as my beta-reader, so I want everyone to give a big round of applause, even if nobody can hear it.

Anyway, this is a crossover between my two favourite game series, Metroid and Mass Effect. You probably figured out once you clicked the Mass Effect/Metroid crossover button, but I feel the urge to point it out anyway. It takes place immediately after the events of the first game, will follow some completely AU versions of ME2 missions, and then a bunch of other crazy stuff will happen. If you wanted ME2 campaign starring Samus Aran and nothing else, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Actually, I don't suggest that. Even if you were looking for the aforementioned campaign starring Samus, you should read this anyway.

What? You want me to shut up and let you read the story? Fine. Here's the intro. Chapter one should hopefully be up in a few days.

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With a piercing mechanical scream, the reaper, known as Nazara to it's kin, exploded, it's metallic chassis blasting apart in a massive pulse of red energy. Even in death, it's wreckage killed many, but the results were for naught. The reaper vanguard had failed, and it's mechanical brethren could no longer harvest with impunity. Their prey could rebuild, and the reapers were trapped in dark space.

Nazara's death marked a new era for the denizens of the Milky Way. For the governing bodies, their armies, and the heroes that led them; it was time to prepare for war.

To the reapers, it was time to prepare there last resort. The failure of the citadel relay and death of the vanguard had not been expected. Their organic prey had never before delayed the invasion.

The relay had failed, Nazara had failed, and the reapers were locked in dark space, unable to perform their mission. But this had been anticipated. The reapers always had a plan.

Initiate function 7-11Z.

The command spread throughout the mechanical fleet, it's signal transmitting to every warship, every harvester of life, before reaching it's designated target.

The target, a construct of monstrous size, had been constructed over millions of years, a last resort device to be used when all other means were exhausted. Any scientist of the galaxy would have dismissed the machines purpose as an impossibility, something that went against all laws of reality. But they were organics. They had not had millions of years to discover the workings of the universe. Their organic beliefs were irrelevant and they, along with their owners, would perish in the purge.

The floating spire, thrice the size of the citadel, activated, the resulting hum of machinery loud enough to be heard light-years away. If any organic being could understand the device's function, the prospects would terrify them. This machine, unlike anything before it, did not operate solely in it's own universe. This device operated within two separate planes of the multiverse.

You see, the multiverse consists of various parallel realities, each one an almost exact physical copy of the last. Galaxies, solar systems, even asteroids could be found precisely location as their counterparts within fellow realities, the only apparent differences created by the different species that inhabited it. There is one other difference however. A difference so subtle, so minute, that even a reaper might not notice it. Each reality, each universe is always shifted in one direction. The distance might be kilometers or it might be mere nanometers, but it was always there, the single geographic difference between realities.

The purpose of the reaper construct was to search for one specific reality. In the target reality, the reapers position in dark space would be the target universes equivalent of the Serpent Nebula. Once that universe was found, the machine would unleash a single burst of energy so powerful, that for a split-second, the reapers location would be caught between two realities. During this brief state of trans-universal limbo, the reapers would cover the vast distance between the citadel and darkspace and reappear all around the station. Their organic prey would not stand a chance. But even for machines, things rarely go so well.

A mere hour after activation, the reality merging device found it's target. As it prepared to fire, a single brief announcement echoed throughout the dark fleet. Fusion protocol initiated.

As the three-word sentence echoed through dark space, a massive pulse was unleashed from the tip of the reaper construct, projecting enough energy to break out of the universal barrier and impact with another, temporarily linking the two realities. But something went wrong. Before the reapers could act, something else happened. Something so improbable that reapers hadn't even considered it. It was a statistical impossibility.

The idea of a pulse of the same power impacting their reality had not been anticipated.

Both realities were completely merged, trapped in an unstable energy flux in which both universes existed simultaneously, identical galaxies appearing side by side. This state lasted for only a fraction of a second, barely noticeable by the beings of each universe. But it was long enough.

As the two realities separated once more, they shifted, and in no small way. Both realities were yanked towards their counterparts, moving closer together until their locations were mirror images of the other. The effects were catastrophic. Across both universes, various planets, stars, entire systems even, swapped places, taking their inhabitants with them. Fleets were stolen from one universe, and deposited in the other. Entire races were spread across two separate universes, left to fend for themselves in a brand new reality.

The changes were small too. In some rare cases, individuals were thrown through reality, and dropped in a random sector of space. The majority of these individuals were killed instantly, dropped in empty space or embedded in a solid object. A select few however, were lucky enough to be dropped somewhere habitable.

Most of these people were common civilians, picked out of their homes. One, however, was unique. Born of humans but raised by Chozo, Samus Aran could be one of the only hopes of her new galaxy. But against a threat so dire, can even she turn the tide?

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So as I stated before, chapter one should be up in a few days. I've already got the first 5000 words written down and the words keep flowing.

If you worried that I've dropped The Reasons We Fight, don't be. I am most assuredly not finished with that story. There's much to cover still. I just need to figure out how to write it.

Lastly, being the rebel that I am, I'm putting all disclaimers at the bottom of the page instead of the top. You don't like it? If your complaining about that, you really need to find better things to do in life...

I don't own Mass Effect, Metroid, any of the series characters, weapons, unique technologies, planets, systems, galaxies... you get the picture. I wish I did, but I don't. Those are owned by Bioware, Retro Studios, and all the other Metroid making companies who's names I don't remember.

Toxic out.