Chapter One: The Reaper Invasion
Hunting was nothing new to me, and neither was shooting a gun. You do what you have to to survive out here. If you couldn't teach yourself to hunt and shoot, you starved. Simple as that.
I lined up the shot on the deer from my hiding spot in some bushes about one hundred meters from it's position. I aimed about a milimeter from the deer's heart, and pulled the trigger.
BANG
The shot landed exactly where I wanted it to, and the deer fell down. Dead.
I ejected the spent round from my M1903 Springfield rifle, and slung the rifle over my shoulder as I got up. Flicking the safty on in the process. They tended to come in handy when you didn't want to shoot yourself in the foot.
Checking my surroundings for danger, I pulled out my hunting knife and began to cut the deer open.
Your probably wondering what I'm doing gutting a deer with a knife and wielding a 20th Century bolt-action rifle in the mid 22nd century. It's a long story, so I'll tell you later.
Once I got what I needed from the deer, I started heading back to the old 21st Century log cabin I had found eight years ago. It was a nice place. Well insulated, had Central Heating and Cooling as well. So that was nice. It was in oddly good condition when I'd found it. No holes in the floors, ceiling, or walls, no mold or anything growing in the place. It was even free of water damage. It was truly, a remarkable discovery.
But I hadn't expected to find a collection of music from the mid 20th, to the early 21st Century in the basement. It was filled with albums from every artist in that time period, As well as an old set of instruments from that time as well.
Over the past eight years, I've grown to love music. Not only because it was the only form of entertainment available to me at the time, but also because I've always had a dream of playing in a band. So, I decided to start one.
It was technically only me and Kei, a friend I had picked up eight years ago, but I'd found some old machines that could be programmed to do tasks such as play an instrument. So I'd programmed them to do just that.
We still had yet to be known by the masses, but that didn't stop us from playing.
As the cabin came into view, I got this weird feeling. Like something really bad was about to happen. I ignored it though, and managed to push it out of my mind.
Entering the cabin, I rested my rifle on a nearby wall, and began to take my coat off.
"Kei? I'm home," I called out.
"Jul? What took you so long? And you forgot your phone again," Came the reply.
I hung my coat up on a nearby rack, and picked up my rifle. "I did? Damn, sorry. And what do you mean 'Where have I been'? I was out my normal amount of time"
I heard the patter of footsteps as my little friend came into view on the stairs. I say little, but he was about my age, eighteen. His name was Kei, an anthropomorphic red fox I had found eight years ago on the streets. He was about three feet tall, and had short stubby legs, as well as light green eyes. He had a glove on his right arm that reached from his hand to his forearm. It was a device called an Omni-tool.
I had one as well, though it was on my left arm instead.
Omni-tools are handheld devices that combine a computer microframe, minifacturing fabricator, and sensor analysis pack. An Omni-tool can be used to analyze and adjust the functionality of most standard equipment, including weapons and armor, from a distance.
Almost everyone on Earth didn't have one unless they were rich. And even though we lived near a metropolis, we weren't exactly rich. The only reason we had Omni-tools was because of a contact in the military.
Kei looked very nervous at this point. I was concerned.
"Jul, I think we're under attack," He said.
"Under attack? From what?" I asked.
He motioned for me to follow him as he ran back upstairs. "Come on, I'll show you"
Running after him, he lead me to his room and pointed out the window. What I saw chilled me to the bone.
Multiple giant ships, at least two kilometers in length, landed all around Salt Lake City. They were shooting some kind of powerful laser, and making this awful earsplitting sound.
"That sound!" I yelled. "It's like the one described from the attack on Eden Prime!"
My vision went black, and I was knocked to the ground. I screamed, but couldn't hear it.
When my vision came back, I was in a room just behind a group of people standing in front of a hologram of one of the ships we had seen outside.
"You are not Saren," Spoke the hologram in a monotone voice.
I wasn't sure if it was speaking to me, or the group. But my question was quickly answered.
A turian, one of the three in the group, the others being a quarian and a human, spoke up. "What is that? Some sort of VI interface?"
The hologram swiftly answered. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind. Fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding"
"I don't think this is a VI..." The turian said.
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I, am Sovereign," The hologram responded.
The human finally spoke up. "Sovereign isn't just some Reaper ship Saren found, it's an actual Reaper"
Sovereign didn't seem amused. "Reaper. A lable created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply, are"
"The Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago. You couldn't have been there, it's impossible!" The turian exclaimed.
Almost matter-of-factly, Sovereign continued. "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades, you wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us: You, are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We, are the end of everything"
"Whatever your plan is, it's going to fail. I'll make sure of that," The human stoically said.
"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken," Sovereign assured them.
"Cycle? What cycle?" The quarian exclaimed.
"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the Mass Relays. They merely found them. The legacy of my kind," Sovereign answered.
"Why would you construct the Mass Relays then leave them for someone else to find?" The human asked.
"Your civilization is based on the technology of the Mass Relays. Our technology. By using it, your society devolpes along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exsist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it," Sovereign answered.
"They're harvasting us! Letting us advance to the level they need, then wiping us out!" The quarian exclaimed.
The human seemed to be at the end of his patience. "Your not even alive. Not really. Your just a machine, and machines can be broken!"
Sovereign seemed almost disapointed in them as he spoke. "Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange, is over"
There was an explosion, and my vision went black again. When I could finally see again, I was on my ass in front of the window I was looking out of. Kei was in front of me, looking very concerned. "Jul? Are you there? Are you okay?"
I stood up and looked out the window. "Reapers..."
"Reapers?" Kei asked.
I turned around and went to the door. "No time to explain. We need to get to the armory," I motioned for him to follow, and he did without a word.
When we got downstairs, I pulled the lever that opened the hidden wall to the armory.
"Seriously Jul, what's going on?" Kei asked.
I kept on walking at a steady pace as I spoke. "The start of a galactic wide extinction event if we don't do something"
Kei seemed nervous. He was fumbling with his hands as he walked. "What do you mean? Why would the galaxy be extinguished of life?"
"You remember how the Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yeah?"
I swiftly continued. "Well, they didn't just disappear. They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines. The Reapers"
"The Reapers? Are you saying?"
I nodded. "Yes, the ships outside are them. It's our turn to be exterminated"
Reaching the armory door, I punched in the code to open it. It swiftly opened a second later. Revealing a large cache of weapons and armor. Most notably, Specter-grade gear.
Our 'contact' just so happened to be a Specter with money to burn. We, just so happened to be one of his clients. And thus we got the gear.
It was technically illegal, but what the law didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
Now you might be wondering why I just don't use this weaponry on my hunts. Well, it's illegal to own Alliance-grade or Specter-grade equipment unless you are military or ex-military. You could be fined up to five hundred thousand credits, and be sentenced up to fifty years in jail.
Grabbing the Specter equipment which consisted of two Kovalyov assault rifles, two HMWSG shotguns, two HMWP pistols, two HMWSR sniper rifles, sixteen grenades, eight each, and two Predator H heavy armor sets, we headed back upstairs.
"So what's the plan?" Kei asked.
I scrached my head. "I'm not sure yet. A head on attack would be suicide. But-" Catching something out of the corner of my eye, I unholstered my pistol. But dropped my guard when I realized it was just an orb of light.
"How did we miss that?" Kei asked.
"Not sure," I replied.
I felt almost drawn to the orb. It was almost as if something was making me reach out and touch it. But when I did, I was blown back and my vision was knocked out again. This time, I was out cold.
