Macross Effect

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

MACROSS EFFECT
A Macross/Mass Effect crossover

Prologue
Recent History

In the year 1999 AD an alien spaceship crash-landed on Earth and forever changed the fate of the human race. The new United Nations Government quickly began rebuilding the ship and plumbing the secrets of its construction. This paid off ten years later when aliens known as the zentradi entered the solar system searching for the lost ship. Unfortunately, computer systems on the newly named SDF-1 Macross opened fire on the zentradi and ignited humanity’s first interstellar war. In a desperate attempt to lead the aliens away from Earth, the Macross attempted a space fold and ended up near Pluto, where they discovered how the zentradi had entered the Solar System. What was once thought to be Charon, a moon of Pluto, turned out to be a device that was identified as a Super Dimension Relay. Unable to examine the device in detail, the Macross then began to make its way back to Earth.
In March 2010 the war was brought to end, largely thanks to the crew of the Macross who were able to bridge the gap between human and Zentradi. During the period of reconstruction that followed, the reorganized UN government determined that best way to protect humanity from the threat of extinction would be to spread itself out among the stars. This Space Emigration Plan was finalized in September 2011 and the following September the first of the long-range colony ships, the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 was launched from Macross City, Alaska. Thereafter the UN Spacy (United Nations Space Navy) would launch one or two Megaroad ships every year.

The plan suffered both success and failure. Onboard the Megaroad-01 were Space War One heroes Captain Misa Hayase Ichijo, her husband Valkyrie ace Hikaru Ichijo and songstress Lynn Minmay and soon after the Megaroad-01 departed Earth, the planet Eden was discovered and colonized. Due to its proximity to Earth, it quickly became the second most populated planet in the UNG. Soon afterwards, the Megaroad-01 encountered a race of aliens known as the turians as it attempted to reactivate a dormant Super Dimension Relay. The turians belonged to a collective of races called the Citadel Council, and it was against their laws to reactivate dormant relays. Instead of negotiating, the turians opened fire but thanks to the heroic efforts of Hikaru and his Skull Squadron and the Megaroad-01’s escorts, they were not destroyed. Although the incident threatened to ignite another war, the Megaroad-01 followed the relays to the Citadel, an ancient Protoculture space station, and opened up diplomatic relations. Not long after this, humanity and zentradi were welcomed into Citadel space.

Despite this rocky start, the seeds of humanity slowly began to spread throughout the galaxy, alongside their zentradi brethren. In September 2030, the first of the New Macross-class colony ships entered service. Capable of carrying millions of colonists instead of the thousands that the Megaroad ships could, the New Macross-class quickly became the cornerstone of the colonization efforts. Arguably one of the most famous of these fleets was the Macross 7, commanded by another legendary war hero, Maximillian Jenius. In 2045 they encountered a race of mysterious beings known as the Protodeviln that threatened not only the Macross 7 fleet but possibly the entire known galaxy. Thanks to the actions of Macross 7 resident and rock musician Basara Nekki, the Protodeviln returned to the dimension they had come from, never to threaten the galaxy again.
Humanity and zentradi alike continued to march onwards through the wilds of the galaxy. This expansion didn’t come without cost however. Humanity had mostly moved out into the areas of the galaxy identified by the Council as the Skyllian Verge and the Attican Traverse. This region was being developed by a race called the batarians, members of the Citadel and they were highly resentful of the intrusion. They attempted to petition the Council to declare the area a “zone of batarian interest.” The Council said that the humans had as much right to be there as they did. Because of this, the batarians cut off all contact and closed their embassy. Human colonies began to come under attack by batarian-funded pirate gangs and slavers, the worst incident of which was the raid on the colony of Mindoir. Horrified by the atrocities inflicted at Mindoir, UN Spacy conducted several assaults against pirate and slaver bases, culminating in the Siege of Torfan. This extended campaign fully illustrated UN Spacy’s combined human/zentradi war-fighting capabilities and while it impressed, and in some cases unsettled, many Council worlds, it led to humans and zentradi earning the everlasting hatred of the batarians.

The UNG also faced its own internal problems. In 2040, in what became known as the Sharon Apple Incident, several high-ranking UN Spacy officers conspired with scientists of the Macross Consortium and created not only an AI network for virtual singing idol Sharon Apple, but also one for the prototype Ghost X-9 unmanned fighter. This was against Council law, but when Sharon went off the deep end during a concert for the thirtieth anniversary of the armistice between UN Spacy and the zentradi, two test pilots from the New Edwards base on planet Eden flying the YF-19 and YF-21 prototypes from the Project: Supernova Advanced Variable Fighter competition, engaged both the X-9 and Sharon Apple, who had hypnotized the inhabitants of Macross City, Alaska with high frequency sound and holograms. Both the X-9 and Sharon were destroyed, the conspirators rooted out. However, the UNG still faced heavy sanctions from the Citadel; scars from the Geth rebellion against the quarians in 1900 AD were still felt.
In 2051, a certain UN Spacy admiral orchestrated a plot to force the military into a confrontation with the batarians. Secretly organizing a terrorist force known as Vindirance, he set them against several batarian worlds. Fortunately, before the batarians could declare war, UN Spacy’s special operations unit, VF-X Ravens, tracked the terrorists back to the admiral who then commandeered the Battle-class space stealth attack carrier Battle 13 and took it towards the batarian home world, Kar’Shan. The Ravens, their carrier Saratoga and the Macross-class SDFN-7 Enterprise pursued and were able to destroy Battle 13 before it could attack Kar’Shan. This incident, coupled with many cases of social unrest across UNG space led to the reformation of the United Nations Government into the New UNG and the UN Spacy into the New UN Spacy (N.U.N.S.).
In 2059, the Macross Frontier fleet (Macross 25) encountered the alien race known as the Vajra. An insectoid, super-dimensional life form, the Vajra aggressively attacked the Frontier fleet, just as they had done the Council centuries before. The Vajra Wars had nearly led to the toppling of Council space and it had taken the uplifting of the krogan to finally turn the tide. Frontier fought back until it was learned that a conspiracy from the Macross Galaxy fleet (Mac21) was intending to use the Vajra to basically take over the minds of all living beings in the universe. Fortunately members of the private military company Strategic Military Services discovered the source of the conspiracy and in an epic battle over the new Vajra home world, which included a surprise backup fleet made up of UN Spacy, zentradi, SMS, turian, asari and salarian ships, the Galaxy conspirators were defeated, the Battle Galaxy carrier was destroyed and the Vajra disappeared.

The year is now 2063. Some of the social unrest that prompted the development of the New UN Spacy and the reorganization of the United Government still persists. Humans and zentradi are respected, feared and derided in almost equal measures as they continue to push to have a greater role in galactic politics. There are still rogue zentradi fleets roaming the dark corners of the galaxy and other threats may lay hidden in the galactic reaches that humanity and its allies have yet to explore. Now, in an attempt to earn more legitimacy from the Council, NUNS is pushing for elite soldiers to become part of the Citadel’s SPECial Tactics and REconnaissance operatives. The Spectres.

-Macross Effect-

“Well, what about Shepard? He’s a spacer, been raised on all sorts of ships since he was young.”

“He was assigned to Eden when the Blitz occurred. Rallied the defenders and struck back at the invaders, helping to hold them long enough so that the UN Spacy forces could arrive.”

“A bona-fide war hero. We couldn’t ask for a better candidate.”

“Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?”

“That’s the only kind who can.”

“We can’t question his courage.”

“I’ll make the call.”

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Made a slight correction concerning the Citadel.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Chapters 1 and 2 are on tap today. The last of the old Gundam 00ME chapters has been converted; now I can start on brand-new chapters. Look forward to it!

SHEPARD

The distant sun shone across the white and black hull of a sleek warship as it arced over the cream and brown clouds of Jupiter. Stenciled on both sides of the ship’s 200 meter curved hull were the words UNS NORMANDY SR-1. Onboard the ship, various crewmembers in different colored uniforms went about their duties. One crewmember in particular was making his way to the bridge to watch as the ship passed through the mass relay. He was a tall man, well built with a strong jaw, a hint of goatee, sharp green eyes and red hair, kept short in the military style. His N.U.N.S. uniform was white with red trim and looked like it had just recently been laundered. This man strode onto the bridge of the ship just in time to see the pilot swinging the ship in front of Jupiter’s moons.
“Well! If it isn’t Shepard! Hey check this out. This is going to be the ride of your life. Coordinates locked. Entering fold space in five… four… three… two…” said the pilot.
There was a bright, lightning flash, and the ship accelerated and vanished from real space.
On the bridge, the pilot looked over his controls.
“Space fold… stable. Drift… just under 1500k.”
“1500k is very good,” said the Shepard, impressed.
“Very good? Did you remember to zip up your uniform when you went to the head this morning? I just jumped us across the galaxy to hit a target the equivalent size of a piece of paper! That’s more than good that’s awesome!”
“I take it someone hasn’t had their morning cup of joe?” asked the Shepard.
“Don’t mind him,” said the man seated to the pilot’s right, “Joker’s always like that.”
“Hey I just want to make sure credit is given where it’s due,” said Joker. The bridge speakers crackled to life at that moment and a deep voice said, “Joker, was the transition successful?”
“Yes captain. We’ve reached cruising speed and stealth systems are engaged,” replied Joker.
“Good. Find us a comm. buoy and link us into the network. I want updates every half-hour.”
“Captain Anderson sounds upset,” remarked Shepard.
“Only when he’s dealing with Joker,” said the other pilot with a grin.
“Ah ha ha, very funny Alenko,” said Joker darkly. The speaker chose that moment to come online again.
“And if Shepard is up there, tell him to meet me and Nihlus in the Briefing room,” said Captain Anderson.
“You heard him Shepard,” said Joker, “You better get down there, wouldn’t want to keep the Spectre waiting. I hate that guy.”
“Nihlus is a Council Spectre. So you hate him?” asked Kaidan Alenko.
“Spectres are trouble. Why is one of them onboard for a shakedown run? Doesn’t make sense,” replied Joker.
“The turians helped build the Normandy, I would say they have a right to put an observer aboard,” said Kaidan.
“Yeah that is the official story but only an idiot believes the official story,” Joker said, skeptically.
“More flying the ship, less paranoia,” said Shepard, with a grin as he clapped Joker on the back lightly and turned to leave. Turning, he walked back the way he had come from where Joker and Kaidan were sitting, past the rows of operators, took a left at the central display monitor and exited the bridge/CIC area. This ship, the Normandy, was not incredibly large, certainly nowhere near the size of the Battle-class Attack Carriers, but if you didn’t know your way around, you might just end up getting lost. Shepard’s destination was thankfully the conference area directly aft of the bridge. Captain Anderson stood in the center of the room, gazing down at the large screen built into the floor of the briefing room. Anderson was a tall man, balding, with what hair he had left turning gray. He had dark brown skin and slightly sunken eyes that nonetheless held a quick and keen intelligence in them. The turian Spectre Nihlus stood off to the side, leaning on a rail, his black and dark red armor glinting in the light. That did set off a flag in Shepard’s mind. Normally you didn’t need to wear combat armor anywhere on the ship. He nodded at Shepard in greeting.
“Shepard, how are you finding the Normandy?” asked Captain Anderson, turning to acknowledge Shepard’s entrance.
“It’s an excellent ship sir. I’m proud to be serving on her.”
“I’m glad you approve. Some were dubious of this exercise in cooperating with the turian military but NUNS needed a new class of frigate to replace the Northamptons and I think the Normandy is just the ship for the job. But that’s not the only reason we’re on this cruise.”
“Oh? And what is the reason sir?”
Anderson nodded at Nihlus, who walked over and activated the holo-monitor on the far wall, showing an image a beautiful planet that Shepard instantly recognized as Eden.
“There are two reasons we’re out here commander, one official and one unofficial. The official reason, besides a shakedown cruise, is that we’re heading to a Eden for some observation. Do you know much about the planet?”
“It’s one of humanity’s most well-developed colonies. They say it’s a paradise. It’s also where the Advanced Variable Fighter competition was held in 2040,” replied Shepard.
“Yes, Eden is one of humanity’s shining beacons, proving that you can build vibrant colonies away from Earth and protect them. Thanks to a certain discovery that they’ve made, Eden is about to become the center of galactic attention.”
“What discovery is that?”
“A few days ago, they unearthed a Protoculture, or rather I should say Prothean beacon just outside the colony,” said Captain Anderson gravely. That set Shepard to reeling somewhat.
“I knew this was more than a simple shakedown run,” said Shepard, grinning.
“This is big Shepard. The last time humanity discovered alien technology, it jumped us forward 200 years and got us involved in a war that could have wiped us out. We’re headed to Eden to make sure that no trouble is stirred up.”
“There’s also a reason that you particularly were included on this mission and that is that I’m here to observe you,” said Nihlus.
“Observe me for what?”
“You are being scouted as a possible candidate for the Spectres,” Anderson said soberly.
That electrified Shepard and his eyes widened a several notches. The Spectres were the elite agents of the Council and in the fifty years that humanity had been part of the Council they had yet to accept a human or a zentradi into their ranks.
“They want me to be a Spectre?” he said, excitement slipping through his professional veneer.
“We’re always looking for those that have the skill to join our ranks. But whereas some are slow to see your potential, others of us are not so blind. I don’t care if you’re human, zentradi or a Vajra masquerading as one. I just care that you can get the job done.”
“This will be the first of several missions with Nihlus,” said Captain Anderson, “So I’m going to need you to certify him fit to fly on a…” Just the Anderson was interrupted as Joker voice crackled over the comm.
“Captain, we’re receiving an emergency distress call from Eden Prime.”
Anderson and Shepard shared a look and then Anderson replied, “Patch it through Joker.”
The three gazed down at the large holo-screen, which blazed to life with a snowy image of NUNS marines, Cheyenne mk. II Destroids and what looked like VF-11 and VF-19 Battroids battling something that they couldn’t see. Guns roared and men screamed. They saw one brief image of what looked like a white and pink Thunderbolt landing behind the marines and heard an amplified woman’s voice yell, “Get down!” There was some more fuzzy action and then the camera panned skyward, showing an image a strange ship that looked for all the world like a squid and then cut to a blurry, snowy image of a man in a Destroid cockpit.
“This is Eden NUNS garrison, 212 platoon! If anyone can hear this message, we are under attack! Repeat we are under attack by the…” the transmission abruptly cut off into a snowstorm of static.
“Joker! How long before we can get to Eden Prime?” asked Anderson.
“We’re only a few minutes out, real-time Captain. I think it’s safe to say that we’re the first ones to respond to this transmission.”
“Look like this shake-down run just got complicated,” said Shepard.
“Get Alenko and Jenkins down to the Pilot’s Ready Room and get ready for launch,” Anderson ordered. Shepard snapped off a salute and jogged out of the door, activating his personal communicator.
“Alenko, Jenkins, suit up, we’re heading out!”

Several minutes later, Shepard, Alenko and Richard Jenkins, a young man who’d never piloted a Valkyrie in actual combat before, were strapped into their machines. Shepard, who already had his VF-22S Sturmvogel II powered up and ready to go watched as Alenko and Jenkins powered up their VF-25F Super Messiahs. Shepard’s Sturmvogel was painted in his signature color scheme of dark gray with white-trimmed red stripes. Alenko’s VF-25 was white with broad blue stripes while Jenkins’ was white and tan. As Shepard checked over his system, he saw Nihlus marching towards the launch bay doors, which were opening up to reveal a red sky choked with black smoke. The turian Spectre seemed to be wearing a specialized version of the EX-Gear system over his armor. Just then, a viewscreen on his cockpit screens opened up, revealing the face of Captain Anderson.
“We’re getting a lot of interference and heavy jamming from the colony, so we can’t really tell you what’s going on down their Shepard. I know you may want to assist the colonists but your first priority is to get that beacon.”
“And if we encounter some locals along the way?” Shepard asked.
“Help if you can but get that beacon secured. I’d be willing to bet that it’s the reason that the colony’s being attacked.”
“Nihlus!” called Jenkins, “You coming along?”
“I move faster on my own,” the turian shouted back as he extended the EX-Gear’s wings and leapt out of the hatch.
“Nihlus will scout ahead but watch your backs anyway. The mission’s yours now Shepard. Make us proud,” said Anderson
“Roger that. Sentinel Team, prepare to launch!”
The Valkyries engines roared, taxiing towards the launch catapults.
“Launch path is clear Shepard but we’re reading a lot of weapons fire, so we’ll be pulling back. We’re gonna try and find that mystery ship we saw earlier,” said Joker.
“Roger that. Sentinel Team, Launch!”
The magnetic linear accelerators fired up, launching Shepard’s Valk off the ramp and out of the ship into the smoke-choked skies of Eden to face an enemy whose strength and motivations were completely unknown. Shepard wouldn’t have it any other way.


ASHLEY


The city that the beacon had been discovered in was in ruins, blasted apart almost haphazardly. What had once been named after the scriptural Eden, was now Hell. Shepard and his team soon found out what had been responsible for the devastation they now saw around them.
Jenkins, the rookie of the group, had transformed into battroid mode and gone ahead of Shepard and Alenko when they had stopped to investigate some wreckage. Shepard saw the young Corporal’s tan and white VF-25 getting too far away and called for him to come back.
“Shepard I’m getting some strange readings here, I’m… AAH!”
Shepard whipped his battroid around to see some strange looking flying disc-shaped things shooting blue energy beams at Jenkins’ suit.
“JENKINS!” he yelled, opening fire on the flying-pod things. Bullets lanced out and speared one of them. Then Alenko was there, gunpod blazing away and the rest of the pod things were blasted out of the sky. Shepard flew over to Jenkins’ suit while Alenko went to check out the pods. Shepard instantly knew that there was nothing they could do. Jenkins’ cockpit was a smoking crater.
“Shepard, what’s Jenkins’ condition?”
“He’s gone.,” Shepard grunted, pained that he’d lost someone under his command.
“I don’t know what these things are. Computer doesn’t recognize them either,” said Alenko.
“We’ll keep an eye out. It’s our job to the finish the mission for Jenkins’ sake now as well,” replied Shepard.
They transformed their fighters into GERWALK and began to head in the direction the strange pods had come from and sure enough ran into a few more. The question of what they were was bothering Shepard right up until they saw a white and pink VF-11C Thunderbolt come flying over a line of buildings, a pair of very strange machines hot on its tail. They looked like some kind of alien fusion between a snake and a quadruped animal. Their heads glowed with some kind of sensor unit and twin weapon emplacements fired bright blue beams at the fleeing Valk. One of the quadruped’s heads flashed and a larger burst of blue energy flashed out and glanced the fighter but it righted itself and transformed into battroid mode, taking shelter behind a building. The quadrupeds opened fire on the building, relentless in their assault.
“Let’s help ‘em out,” barked Shepard.
He launched his Sturmvogel into the air, transforming it into fighter mode, sighted one of the quadrupeds and opened fire with micro-missiles. The alien machines were caught unprepared and were blown to pieces by Shepard and Kaidan. They landed their MS next to the Thunderbolt battroid. The pilot opened a comm. channel and her helmeted face appeared on Shepard’s monitor. It revealed the face of a pretty young woman with light brown skin, full lips and eyes shining in gratitude.
“Thanks, I thought I was gonna go down like the rest of my squad back there.”
“Anytime, miss…?” asked Shepard.
“Williams. Master Sergeant Ashley Williams of the two-ten.”
“I’m Commander Shepard and this is First Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. Do you have any idea what these unknowns are Sergeant?”
“Hardly unknown though we weren’t prepared for them,” said Ashley sourly, “They’re geth.”
“Geth?” exclaimed Kaidan, “But how can that be? The geth haven’t been outside of the Perseus Veil in two hundred years.”
“Well they’re here now,” Ashley shot back, “Came screaming out of the sky in the biggest dreadnought I’ve ever seen.”
“Chief,” said Shepard urgently, “We need to stop this attack before more soldiers and civilians get killed. We need to find the Prothean beacon and get it away from the colony. If that’s what they’re after, it should draw the geth away. We could use an extra gun at our side.”
Williams was a few seconds too long answering for Shepard’s liking but he chalked it up to her stressed out condition.
“All right, I’ll go with you. Follow me to the beacon.” Ashley suited action to words and launched her fighter, turning in the direction she had come from. Shepard and Kaidan took off after her. After a few geth-free minutes, they arrived at what Shepard presumed was the dig site. Ashley landed right next to a circular indent in the ground that had lots of archeological equipment piled up around it and exclaimed, “The beacon! It’s gone!”
“Did the geth take it?” asked Kaidan.
“No, there’s no signs of geth activity,” said Shepard, scanning the area.
“If they did move the beacon, where would they move it to?” asked Kaidan.
“The spaceport is the only place I can think of, “ replied Ashley, “They would want to get it off planet, like you said.”
“Let’s go then,” said Shepard. Their engines flared and they shot off towards the city spaceport.

At the spaceport Nihlus was beginning to lose his cool. He’d nearly been killed more times than he cared to count by the geth and was actually glad that Shepard and his team where headed in this direction. Currently he was sneaking up on what he thought was a lone geth. He rounded a corner and blinked in surprise. It wasn’t a geth but another turian, one he knew.
“Saren?” he said.
Saren was a very tall turian, with grey skin. This much Nihlus remembered about his old friend and comrade. It was his eyes and his armor that had changed dramatically from the last time Nihlus had seen him. Saren’s eyes were a strange electric blue, perhaps cybernetic replacements? His armor looked almost geth-like.
“What are you doing here? You weren’t assigned to this mission.”
“I was passing through the system and it looked like you could use a hand,” Saren replied casually. Nihlus accepted that explanation. After all they were both Spectres, it wasn’t entirely uncommon for Spectres to bump into each other. Nihlus could not think of, or even want to comprehend any sort of duplicity on Saren’s part. Saren was sworn to uphold the laws of the Council, to defend the citizens of the galaxy.
“This is bad. I can’t believe the geth have shown up here after all this time. I’m glad you are here Saren. I could use your help completing my mission.” Nihlus trusted Saren with his life as he would trust any of the other Spectres. That’s why he turned his back on Saren, why he didn’t see him draw his gun and aim it at the back of Nihlus’s head.
“Don’t worry old friend, I have everything under control.”
Bang.

As Shepard’s team flew over a rise, four of the geth quadrupeds opened fire on them. The three pilots dodged the bright blue beams and returned fire from their gunpods. Clearing the wreckage of the destroyed geth, they came to a stop next to the outer buildings of the spaceport.
“We’ll have to go in on foot from here,” said Ashley, “The spaceport is too crowded and we don’t want to crush or blow up any soldiers or civs that are hiding around here.”
They climbed down from their suits using cables that extended from an arm next to their cockpits. Once on the ground, Shepard and Kaidan drew heavy pistols while Ashley had brought an assault rifle with her.
“Let’s go,” Shepard said gruffly.
As they rounded a stack of shipping crates, they saw a horrifying sight. It seemed that the geth had set up some strange machines in a courtyard and there were bodies impaled on giant spikes that extended a full eight feet into the air from the bases of these alien machines.
“What the… what the hell are those things?” said Ashley staring at the bodies in open-mouthed horror. Before Shepard or Kaidan could speculate any further, the machines came to life. The spikes retracted and the bodies were lowered until they slumped on the rounded tops of the machines. Looking at them closer, the three of them could see that these weren’t normal bodies. They had turned grey and black, all the clothes having vanished from their persons. The bodies’ hair was gone too and they had strange protuberances all over them, like badly installed cybernetic implants. Suddenly they began to move, slowly, jerkily, like puppets on strings. They opened electric blue eyes and stared unblinkingly at the three pilots. They let out a horrible moaning sound, like a human voice with an electronic buzz, and lurched towards them, charging with arms outstretched. Kaidan was strongly reminded of a zombie movie.
Shepard raised his weapon at one that had leapt to get at Ashley and nailed it in the head. Ashley stared at the thing at he feet and then turned to Shepard.
“Whatever they are they’re not human anymore,” he said grimly opening fire on another one, “Kill ‘em!” It didn’t take long.
“This is… monstrous,” muttered Kaidan as they gazed at the carnage they had wrought.
“The question is, why would the geth do this?” said Ashley.
“We can find out later, after we get the beacon off this rock. Let’s move team.”
“Yes sir!” said both Kaidan and Ashley.

They rounded a corner into the loading yard and came upon another body, thankfully not one of the strange cyborg-zombies from before. Shepard uttered an oath and dashed to the fallen man’s side. As Shepard and Kaidan caught up with her, they realized that the body was that of a turian.
“Is that…?” asked Kaidan.
“Yeah, it’s Nihlus. Dammit, the geth must have got him,” replied Shepard
There was a clattering and the three whipped their guns in the direction of the noise.
“Don’t shoot!” cried a man as he stumbled out from behind the crates, hands in the air.
“You idiot! Sneaking up on us like that could have gotten you killed! What were you doing back there?” snapped Shepard.
“I was hiding from the geth when I saw your turian friend come into the yard. There aren’t any turians on Eden so I wanted to see what he was doing… that’s when I saw the other one.”
“What other one?” asked Ashley, as miffed as Shepard was that this redneck had nearly got shot by them through his carelessness.
“There was another turian here. Your friend called him Saren. He seemed to know him because he turned his back on Saren. And then Saren… killed him. Shot him right in the back. Probably would have killed me too if he’d seen me. Is that what’s going on here? Are the turians invading us?!”
“Of course not,” retorted Shepard, “Now, did you see anything else, like maybe an ancient Protoculture beacon?”
“Yeah, that Saren guy loaded it up on the monorail and took it to the landing pads. Can… can I leave? I need to get away from here.”
Shepard waved the redneck off and turned to Kaidan and Ashley.
“Assuming he actually saw what he told us, let’s get over to those landing pads double time.”
Just as he said this there was a blast of noise, like the engines of large starship taking off. The ground trembled and Kaidan yelled, “Look!”
Shepard turned and saw what he had previously thought of as some kind of strange tower near the spaceport rising into the air. Only it wasn’t a tower but the upper half of the strange alien ship they had seen in the distress call. It rose into the sky, a strange, unsettling drone emanating from it and then picked up speed, hurtling upwards until it was gone from sight.
“That was… did you see the size of that thing!” Ashley yelled.
“Forget about it, let’s move!” cried Shepard. They crossed the loading yard without incident and climbed aboard one of the monorail cars, programming it to take them to the landing pads… and the mysterious beacon.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

It is with regret that I announce the cancellation of this story. After playing through the Macross 30 PS3 game, I've just kind of lost interest in doing this crossover. It is certainly NOT because of a certain review I received. And no, I won't be returning to the old Gundam/Mass Effect format either. This story is done for good.

I'd like to the thank the people who were so good to me while I was working on this and hopefully you'll find my newer offering to your liking. I'm still going to be working in the Mass Effect genre and my new story is going to have an interesting twist. Hopefully, I'll see you there.