MASS EFFECT: PROJECT PERSEPHONE

The Illusive Man sends Commander Naomi Shepard to Titan Station, where one of Cerberus' projects has gone horribly wrong. There, Naomi and her teammates quickly find themselves descending into a terrifying nightmare filled with madness and death. Will they be able to survive the brutal onslaught of the necromorphs and their inner demons? Or will they succumb to the Marker's power?

Disclaimer! I most certainly do not own either the Mass Effect or Dead Space franchise. I just play the games and write this story :)

Hello readers! Welcome and thank you for reading my first fanfiction. This is going to be a crossover story between Mass Effect and Dead Space, and will take place during the second game of both series. This first chapter will mostly be introductory, laying out the plot and providing some background information about Shepard, the Marker etc, but it will also hint at all the bloody good stuff that will definitely follow in later chapters. Cue evil laughter. Now, without further ado, I present to you:

CHAPTER 1: Dark Tidings

Location: Chronos Station, 0450hrs

The bright holographic display of the Omega 4 Mass Relay spun lazily in front of The Illusive Man, its light casting a red glow upon his face. Casting his eyes downward, he scanned the line of text below the image of the relay, pausing to take a long drag on his cigar.

Start mission report

Reaper IFF successfully acquired.

No casualties.

Normandy now able to proceed through Omega 4 relay.

Ready to assault Collector Base.

End mission report

Feeling immensely satisfied, he exhaled and waved his hand across the hologram, causing it to blink out of existence.

Once again, Commander Naomi Shepard had failed to disappoint him.

With the hologram gone, the room was plunged back into near darkness, the only illumination coming from the dying star outside his giant window. Bathed in its warm glow, The Illusive Man silently sat in his chair, stubbing out his cigar in the ashtray conveniently built into its armrest. He stared impassively outside at the roiling sphere of burning gasses, the occasional jet of super heated air streaking outward from the star's surface.

Soon, the Collector Base and all of the technology and secrets within it would be in Cerberus' hands. The sheer amount of resources which would be acquired and the potential advances to Cerberus' capabilities made The Illusive Man smile just thinking about it.

His thoughts then turned to Shepard, whom he had used a large portion of Cerberus' resources and wealth to bring back to life. She was definitely his most successful investment to date. The headstrong woman had proven to be just as efficient and resourceful after her resurrection, having scored several major victories against the Collectors.

If she ever were to join Cerberus, he would have no doubts about making her his right hand and second in command immediately. Humanity's first Spectre and best soldier would be Cerberus' greatest asset. But he knew that Shepard was still too untrusting of Cerberus to pledge her allegiance to him yet. Apparently, bringing her back from an untimely death didn't make her feel indebted to him in the slightest. If anything, it had only served to make her even more suspicious and wary of him.

It was of no matter, he mused, lighting yet another one of his signature cigars. He was confident that Shepard would eventually see working for Cerberus to be in both their interests, and for the benefit of humanity. Until then, Shepard was comfortably expressing her disdain of associating with Cerberus by spending almost all of her Cerberus funding on pet fish and model ships for her cabin.

Recalling the discussion that he had with Miranda Lawson near the start of Project Lazarus about implanting a control chip in Shepard's brain, part of him now wished that he had not been so quick to dismiss her suggestion, for Shepard could be hard to deal with and reign in at times.

Miranda had helpfully pointed this out to him after a particularly heated mission briefing in which Shepard had vehemently refused to destroy a residential building occupied by hostile mercenaries, not wanting to sacrifice civilians for the mission. The furious Commander, much to the shock of everybody in the briefing room, told The Illusive Man to go to hell, flipping him off spectacularly before terminating the connection. She then proceeded to storm the building one floor at a time, accomplishing the mission with all hostiles terminated and no casualties to either her team or the civilians inside.

As The Illusive Man continued to look out of the window in silent contemplation, he couldn't help but feel amused by Shepard's unique personality. On one hand, she was a brilliant leader, her bravery and combat prowess unmatched, but on the other hand, she could also be unbelievably childish at times, and her occasional blatant disregard for authority had given him migraines that lasted days.

A series of flashes from his omnitool and a notification from his VI assistant directed his attention to the glowing orange interface on his forearm.

"Incoming transmission," a disembodied, female-sounding synthetic voice informed him. "Director of Titan Station, Operative Hans Tiedemann."

At this, The Illusive Man frowned in slight annoyance. Didn't Tiedemann, a senior and high-ranking Cerberus operative, know better than to choose the wee hours of the morning for a project update? Those usually took ridiculously long and The Illusive Man was most definitely not a morning person.

Hoping, for Tiedemann's sake, that he had something good to report, The Illusive Man raised his cigar and took a long, satisfying drag as he waited for the call to be patched through. At the same time, he was formulating a plan for Tiedemann's potential termination. It was certainly not going to be pleasant for the Director if the call turned out to be a waste of his time, or if it was bearing bad news.

Finally, a hologram flickered to life in front of him, revealing a bald, dark-skinned man dressed in a Systems Alliance government uniform. The silver badge on his chest put him as a Station Director, a position of high rank within the Systems Alliance government, in charge of managing an entire space station inhabited by hundreds of thousands of civilians. In Tiedemann's case, his responsibilities also included overseeing one of Cerberus' top-secret projects.

Sifting through his photographic memory, The Illusive Man recalled that Hans Tiedemann was heading the Cerberus cell in charge of Project Persephone. The cell was tasked with reverse-engineering and replicating an ancient alien artifact found on Earth more than a century ago. Dubbed the Black Marker, researchers quickly theorized that it was the actual cause of Earth's fifth Mass Extinction Event. They had found its shattered remains buried in the impact crater of the asteroid supposedly responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, and discovered its age to also be approximately 65 million years old. The implications of this discovery led Cerberus to begin the Marker reconstruction project, Project Persephone, in the hopes that such a devastating weapon could eventually be built and wielded by humanity.

The Illusive Man stared intently at the Director, the cold, steely gaze of his prosthetic eyes boring into his subordinate's nervous ones. Hans Tiedemann looked flustered and panicky, shifting his weight from one foot to the other constantly. He also appeared to be sweating profusely. His bald head was shiny and he kept wiping his face with a handkerchief that he stuffed back into his pocket, only to whip it out and repeat the same action a few moments later. Breaking the silence, The Illusive Man exhaled loudly, smoke billowing out of his nose.

"Good morning, Hans. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Taking another quick drag on his cigar, he did not stop scrutinizing Tiedemann, who had managed to compose himself sufficiently in order to start speaking, although anxiety was still evident on his face and body language.

"Sir, we have a...problem with Project Persephone."

Surprisingly, Tiedemann's voice was level for a person who appeared so jumpy. He wiped his face yet again with the now grimy handkerchief as The Illusive Man narrowed his eyes, leaning in closer to the Director's image.

"Elaborate."

"The Marker reconstruction project was a success. We now have a fully functioning Marker."

The slight tilt of the cigar in his right hand was the only indication of surprise from The Illusive Man.

"That hardly seems like a problem."

"Well," Tiedemann swallowed, looking at something over his shoulder before turning his attention back to his superior. "Believe it or not, that is the problem. We had just completed all construction work on the Marker when the whole thing suddenly turned on by itself and started glowing!"

Tiedemann took a deep breath, gripping both sides of his communications console.

"Our initial scans showed that the Marker was emitting an enormous amount of energy, but we could find no interface, no visible way for us to use or issue commands to it! We thought that the Marker would shut down eventually if we left it alone, but as of now, it's been a full 24 hours and it is still glowing! Sir, I am loathe to admit this, but the Marker is completely beyond our control!"

The Illusive Man remained silent as Tiedemann continued to speak, his voice becoming more and more fearful and desperate.

"It started to get worse. Not long after the Marker was activated, there were reports of homicides and suicides coming from all over the station. People were literally attacking and killing each other, hell, I just had to shoot one of my own people right here in this facility! He went berserk and started strangling one of the researchers, but nothing we said could get him to back down! It was as though he had suddenly lost his mind!"

The Illusive Man could now hear other noises coming from behind the Director, making out panicked shouting and the blare of an alarm. "There was widespread panic and looting, everything was getting out of control! I had no choice but to declare martial law."

"We managed to restore some order, started to treat the wounded and clear the dead, but then those...things started appearing and killing everyone on sight!"

"What do you mean by 'things' Hans?" The Illusive Man demanded.

"I don't know!" Tiedemann almost screamed, wiping his face furiously and tossing his handkerchief to the side, no longer trying to remain calm.

"All I know is that dead bodies are coming back to life and attacking every living thing on the station!"

"What-"

"Sir! Listen to me!" Tiedemann shouted urgently, cutting him off. "I have no more time to explain, those freaks are everywhere now. They're going to overrun this facility soon! I have managed to lock down the entire government sector and I'm going to move the Marker and all project personnel there, it's a more defensible position-"

Tiedemann ducked as bursts of gunfire erupted behind him, accompanied by the sound of inhuman howls and terrified screams.

"Shit! They've broken through!" Tiedemann yelled. "All personnel, evacuate! Evacuate now!"

The Illusive Man stubbed out his cigar furiously, grinding it into the ashtray. He could only watch as Tiedemann waved his arm frantically, getting an Alliance Marine in full combat armor to stand behind him and fire at something off the screen, covering him while he resumed his frantic conversation with The Illusive Man.

"There's nothing else that we can do, Sir! We have to evacuate, the whole station is overrun! We need to get the Marker and all project personnel-"

An ear-splitting screech interrupted him, just as the marine behind him was hit by a projectile of incredible speed, being thrown out of view in a huge spray of blood.

"Fuck!" Tiedemann threw himself to the blood-stained ground, snatching up the fallen Marine's assault rifle and firing a burst in the direction of the attack. All around him, the disturbing howls and roars intensified, and soldiers and research personnel could be seen running past Tiedemann's position, falling back to an unseen location.

"YOU listen to me, Hans!" The Illusive Man rose from his seat, almost stabbing the hologram of Tiedemann with an angry finger. "Do not lose the Marker! It's years of research and millions of credits worth of effort! We need that weapon! Do you understand?"

Tiedemann picked himself up from the ground, still firing wildly at whatever that had broken into the facility. He cast a terrified glance at The Illusive Man as he slowly backed away off the screen, firing as he retreated.

"SIR! SEND EVAC TO THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR! WE CAN'T-"

An explosion rocked the facility and the feed cut off abruptly, the sound reverberating throughout The Illusive Man's cavernous command center. Slowly, he sat back down into his seat and lit another cigar, gaze still fixed on where Tiedemann's hologram had been a few moments ago.

He tapped a command into the console on his chair, taking several long drags before making the call.

"Connect me to the Normandy."

And so it begins! Once again, thanks for reading, do review, let me know what you think and whether you want more! All comments and criticisms are welcome! In the next chapter, Shepard will receive her assignment, and I'll see you guys on Titan Station! Gibbering Gemstone signing out!