Sadly, I own neither Warhammer 40k, nor Mass Effect. They belong to Games Workshop, and Bioware, respectively.

The moment Shepard and the group reached the top of the hill, they knew how good of a site it was for an ambush on them. In light of this, they warily looked around searching for possible foes. They found nothing, thought Shepard still felt it in is bones that some malevolent presence was watching him and his group. If there was to be an ambusher, it was likely they would wait until they thought that the soldiers had lowered their guard.

Hoping to lure in those he thought was watching him, Shepard ordered his crew to investigate the two PHU (Portable Habitation Units) in the area. It worked like a charm.

Jumping out of its hiding place was another one of those weird alien women similar to those they had found chasing Ashley. Opening fire upon it and moving away just in time for the group to emerge unscathed, the creature literally tore through the PHU like it was tin foil.

It was in those few split seconds that Shepard truly began to appreciate what sort of creature the alien was and how appropriate the moniker of "Demon" Ashley gave to them was. If the Assari were the galaxy's fan service, then these were the temptresses. Half male, half female and eyes the blackest night, it was the embodiment of perfect beauty, and perfect repulsiveness at the same time.

Remembering the previous encounter with the creature chasing Ashley and how durable it was, Shepard threw a grenade at it hoping to either kill it, greatly weaken it, or failing either, simply distract it long enough for the group to pump it full of lead.

Sadly it did none of those. Noticing Shepard's motion while tearing through the unit, the creature pulled its claw out of the unit and jumped away from the grenade.

From there, the creature began to move to what it perceived to be the greatest threat, namely Shepard and Ashley. Thankfully, it was moving in the opposite direction form Kaidan, whom showed the creature its mistake via a biotic throw, hurling it several meters behind his teammates, allowing them to finish it off.

Taking a few seconds to breath, the group noticed what they thought to be movement coming from the PHU. Noticing it was locked, Shepard decided that more than likely it was because someone was hiding behind those doors. Someone they could ask to help make some sense of the situation.

Making their way there, the first thing they noticed was that the door was locked. Deciding that it wouldn't be all that good if he let that deter him, he immediately got to work on getting through the door, namely through the overly tedious process of hacking it and yelling out a few choice words in frustration (which for the sake of this story's readers will not be elaborated upon). Ultimately, the hack was successful and the door opened up to reveal a pair of scientists, who naturally freaked out.

Correction, one of them freaked out, the other one looked off the wall to begin with. Looking both ways, just in case of a second ambush, Shepard moved to greet and attempt to calm down the two researchers.

"I'm Commander Thomas Shepard of the Alliance Navy. We have dealt with the nearby threats. You're safe, for now."

"No! We're not safe! And we never will be again!" Countered the male scientist. "HAHAHAHA! Chaos has come! And Order comes to hammer it down! Look around you and what do you see? Agents of the destroyers! The age of man has ended!"

The team looked at each other in confusion before what appeared to be the more sane researcher moved to answer.

"Thank you for coming here. I'm Dr. Warren. Sorry about my college, Dr. Manuel. He's a little unstable."

"No! My voice must be heard! They Are Coming!"

Shepard scratched his head and looked at his teammates, whom appeared to be as bewildered as himself. Then, after a few seconds he asked, "I have a few questions I would like to ask. Mind if you answer them?"

"No, I don't mind. Ask away," Responded Warren.

"What do you know about those weird creatures and the cultists with them?" asked Shepard.

"Nothing, they just came out of nowhere, and attacked," answered the scientist.

"You don't get it do you? THE GODS ARE HERE! Order will meet true Chaos and all will be consumed! Just as IT predicted!" said Manuel, drawing attention to himself again.

"I assume the 'IT' he was talking about was the beacon. Tell me more about it," stated Shepard.

"We moved it to the spaceport this morning," Answered the doctor, "It's some sort of data module for a galaxy wide communications network. It also has been remarkably well preserved. It could be the greatest discovery of our lifetime. New, stronger alloys; Medical advances; perhaps a way to replicate the Mass Relays. Who knows what could be inside it."

"We have unleashed the heart of Evil! Brought forth the agents of doom! No good will come of this!" Ranted Manuel.

Looking at the kook, Shepard asked Dr. Warren "So what's with your assistant?"

"I'm sorry about him. Manuel has a brilliant mind, but has always been a bit unstable. Genius and insanity are two sides of the same coin," Stated Warren.

"Is it insanity to see the future? To know that all you have known and cared for is predestined to ruin!? No, I AM THE ONLY SANE ONE LEFT!" Cried out Manuel.

Looking down for a few seconds before looking up, Shepard moved towards the crazy scientist with one of his hands curled up into a fist and said, "Manuel, time to say good night."

"You cannot silence the truth-" Manuel said before promptly getting knocked out by Shepard's fist making contact with his face.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Warren yelled out in outrage at Shepard. "You can't just go punching people out because you can."

"I agree," stated Ashley, "Wasn't that rather extreme?"

Wiping his hands off a bit Shepard looked towards Manuel and then towards Warren and said "In that state, he was a danger and would likely have gotten himself or somebody else hurt or killed."

"I guess" replied Warren "For now I'll just give him his meds."

"Ok then. Ashley, get us to the spaceport," Stated Shepard as they walked out.

As Nihlus hid and watched the movement of his foe from behind the scope of his rifle, he heard the sound of footsteps coming in behind him. Almost thinking that it was an ambush, Nihlus saw Shepard and his group, albeit with one member replaced by another strongly resembling the woman in the distress call.

"Ah, Commander, you're here," said Nihlus, "So is Jenkins…"

"Dead." Replied Shepard, "Torn apart by one of those sonic guns. Never stood a chance. Also, meet Ashley Williams."

"Williams hmm," Nihlus said, "If I recall, General Williams lead the defense of Shanxi during the Relay 314 incident, also known as the First Contact War to you humans.

"He was my Grandfather," Stated Ashley defensively.

"Interesting." Replied Nihlus, "Your grandfather, from what I've heard was vilified by his people because he surrendered to protect his men. In contrast, my people, the Turians, admire him for knowing when to quit."

Ashley seemed to react to the compliment almost like it was some serious insult and opened her mouth to say something before closing it.

Turning away, Nihlus took out his sniper rifle, activated his omni-tool, and said, "Shepard, Take out your sniper rifle. You should see this.

Following Nihlus' suggestion, Shepard peered through the lens of his riffle. What he saw almost literally blew his mind. Standing among the circus of an army were walking tanks, giants clad medieval armor, and quite a few things he did not know how to describe.

"Nihlus. Are you seeing this?" Asked Shepard.

"I asked myself the same question a when I first saw this a few minutes ago." Replied Nihlus. "Since then, I have synced my omni-tool to record what my sniper rifle reveals to me for evidence both for myself and for the council."

Just then, Shepard saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned his scope to focus on it. It was a group of those oddly colored assari dragging what appeared to be a prisoner they had caught towards what appeared to be a magic circle with eight arrows coming out of the middle. In response, Shepard nudged Nihlus to get him to focus on what he was seeing.

When they finished dragging the woman to the center, one of the assari women changed somehow for a brief few moment (He assumed it was mind melding) and the prisoner collapsed.

"By the spirits!" Nihlus exclaimed, "Those are Ardat-Yakshi!"

"What's an Ardat-Yakshi?" Asked Kaidan.

"They are assari with a rare condition that kills those whom they mind meld with," Answered Nihlus, "Their species goes out of their way to keep them a secret- either by secluding them in a monastery or by killing them if they refuse to go there."

"That's horrible!" Exclaimed Ashley.

"Shh!" Said Shepard, Still looking through the scope of his rifle. "You'll give our position away! …Wait."

Just then, a pinkish flame lit up from the magic circle of the eight pointed star, engulfing the body of the dead prisoner. The flames rose higher and higher, until they were the height of one and a half men. Then they took the shape of a hominid before shrinking down and revealing one of strange succubus creatures they had fought earlier.

Shepard lowered his rifle and shook himself off a bit, trying to process what he just saw. He then turned to Nihlus and asked, "Did I just see that or am I hallucinating?"

Nihlus turned to Shepard for a few seconds before giving his response.

"No, Shepard, I am afraid you did just see that."

"What is it? What did you two just see?" asked Ashley worryingly.

"Those demons you called them, I don't know how, but I just saw one created through a human sacrifice." answered Shepard.

"You're kidding me," Said Kaidan before getting a good look at his two superiors' haunted faces. "Oh god, you're not kidding me."

"We have to stop this!" proclaimed Ashley.

"I wish we could. We should to stop their sacrifice of civilians, both for our own conscience and to keep them from creating more of those abominations. However, we need to prioritize, and the beacon is the primary priority, and I don't think we have what it would take to do both or even just save the civilians. Besides, if they came to this, one of humanity's most well defended planets with that level of overkill just for the beacon, then I don't want to know what will happen if they manage to get their hands on the device." Stated Shepard.

"Agreed," stated Nihlus, "But first we need to get to the beacon, and to get to the beacon we need a means to get there. As well armed as I am, I don't think I am ready to test out my mettle against that many foes at once. We need a distraction. Shepard?"

"I think I have an idea," Shepard said, moving towards the nearby PHU, "But first we have to make sure that there is no one inside that thing."

Serendun, Sorcerer of Slaanesh contemplated his current occupation in guarding the various prisoners and sacrifices to their dark lord of pleasure. He of course did not appreciate being left behind while his "master" and the assari whore with him left for their true objective. His daemonic familiar agreed with him, sorcerers like himself were not meant for grunt work such as this and all this stillness did not do well to please the prince of pleasure.

Still he had his kicks. Torturing prisoners like the Dark Eldar and turning them into daemons or other various horrors always gave him some enjoyment, however little it was. Doing it in front of their friends and family was especially delectable. Still, he had to be careful not to break them, that took all the fun out of it. He also had no control over the young males- they had been singled out for recruitment and brought aboard the ships for later use, along with several young girls. Though, he doubted they would have much use for them- humans in this galaxy were way too soft for his tastes.

Just then, the sound of a nearby explosion wrecked his train of thought.

"What was that!?" He bellowed both physically and psychically simultaneously with rage.

"M-my lord… someone g-got through… our lines a-and d-dropped off soldiers." Replied a cultist gibbering with fear.

"What!?" Exclaimed Serendun with livid surprise while psychically levitating the cultist threateningly in the air.

"B-Balnaor said to let them through." pleaded the cultist to no avail.

"Gwack!" said the sorcerer in rage as he proceeded to fling the unfortunate individual with all the force necessary to pulp the poor sap.

"Let this be a lesson to all you stupid, whimpering fools and whelps! Search the area! Find the intruders! Kill them! And make sure they suffer!"

"Always Unfair and Unbalanced, this is Chaos Daily News- your go to channel for all news worthy events at the turn of the 41st millennium. I'm Morbudus Fatius here from the warp. And now for a commercial."