Authors note

This is the first of three revised chapters, I'll be re-writing the chapters after the third to make for a more cohesive story. The old flashbacks are gone and more interesting/grounded ones are in their place. Please comment your thoughts on the new revised versions, storyline wise they aren't different until post chapter three, anything from chapter one through three is just edited better grammatically and punctually.

'The design is somewhat reminiscent of the archive we found on Mars.'

The scientist pointed out points of interest on the holographic image of the dual pronged device.

'So these Protheans. We're they the ones who built it?' asked the man next to him.

'From what we know, it's hard to say. It's more than likely though.'

A man in a navy uniform walked out of the shadows. He rubbed a gold ring up and down his ring finger and rubbed his thumb over a ruby cross imbedded in it.

'Does it have a name?'

'The only information we've been able to recover along with the schematics were the words, Mass and relay.'

'Mass Relay?'

'My head engineers theorize it could be related to the Mass drives discovered in the archive.'

'I'll inform the Grand Master, he'll be the one to pass down judgment.'

The scientist nodded and the broad man disappeared back into the shadows in silence. The ghostly glow of the orange display shimmered over the puzzled scientist and as he walked away the display shut down and the room felt silent; black and silent.

Three Months later
S.S.V Juno

The ship seemed to sit still in the darkness, only visible by the pulsing gold veins running through its hull. In the vast expanse of black a small blue orb shone in the distance, growing brighter as the ship drew closer.

'We'll be in IFF range in 3 minutes,' said the pilot.

His hands hovered over two circular seals with degree angles projected over them, controlling lateral and non-lateral thrust. The semi-circular bridge centered on a round holo-table with an image of the Mass Relay projected over it.

'Are we totally sure the ship isn't going to implode when we hit the relay?' asked the ships first officer.

His navy uniform trimmed with gold stuck out from the white lab coats around him. The Red Cross on the uniforms left breast pad was something all the uniforms bore, the symbol of power and authority.

'All of the simulations we have conducted suggest the drive we have engineered will broadcast a Prothean IFF, allowing us safe passage through the relay,' explained a young scientist.

The round door leading onto the bridge slid across and a tall, broad man walked onto the bridge with an aura of order emanating from him. He wore the ring of a Master Templar on his ring finger and looked like Goliath himself.

'Master Grissom, how went the meeting with the Grand Master?'

'Well thank you. You must be Hackett, my new first officer?'

Hackett shook Grissom's hand. Their uniforms matched in every way except for the Templar cross on either of Grissom's shoulders. Hackett noticed the leather gauntlet on Grissom's left forearm, underneath it was a steel blade for silent killing; something Hackett longed for.

'Yes, sir. I've just arrived.'

Grissom stood at the tables end looking out of the panoramic viewport at the closing mass relay in astonishment.

'Such a strange piece of technology. Weightless space travel? Who would've thought?'

'An amazing feat. It's pushed our technology forward decades,' added Hackett.

'More like centuries,' said another scientist.

'Are we ready?' asked Grissom.

'The last of the ice has been collected and Sol station have successfully brought the relay online,' replied the scientist at Grissom's left.

Thin metal rings revolved around a pulsing blue core of element zero. The arms extending outward seemed to pulse white in sync with the pulse of the core.

'We are green to hit the relay. Beginning final approach, sending Prothean IFF now,' announced the pilot as he maneuvered the ship to curve around in front of the relay.

The massive, ancient device dwarfed the Juno like a human to an ant. The bridge fell silent as the crew were enthralled by the enormity of it.

'How will we know if the IFF is accepted?' asked Hackett.

'We'll be jumped,' replied one of the oldest of the three scientists.

A sudden blue field encompassed the ship and the velocity speeds on the pilots console began to climb exponentially. The matte black abyss turned into a convulsing tunnel of light. The velocity meter fizzed like fat on a frying pan as the speeds they were travelling at exceeded its limit. Suddenly the tunnel exploded into a new, unexplored system.

'Analysis?' asked Hackett.

'Just as we expected. The relay is exactly the same as ours.'

'Any idea where we are?'

A map of the Milky Way galaxy came up over the table showing their location, the Arcturus stream; 37 light years from Earth.

'That is truly remarkable.'

12 years later

The newly named Arcturus prime relay pulsed bright and a series of vessels thumped into the system. The 5 kilometer wide station sat in empty space, 30,000 kilometers from the tip of the relay. The fresh Black mirrored hull of the SSV Aconcagua reflected the ancient light of the stars. The 3 kilometer long Archimedes class ship was fresh from space dock at Arcturus station and ready for its first deep space assignment. The ship past off the inbound fleets port side continued onto pass the mass relay.

'You nervous Newton?' asked Officer Reid

'No sir. It's a funny feeling to be on such a big mission,' replied Lieutenant Newton.

'We jump in, activate the relay and hit it. Simple as that,' smiled Reid.

'You really think it will be that simple?' wondered Newton.

'Of course not.'

Newton smirked as the ships Jump core wound up and they jumped into a rush of light flowing over the ship. The triangular hull of the ship orbited around a massive sphere with glowing gold circles at either of its poles and matching gold veins running around it.

'It's a relatively short jump, it shouldn't take us long,' said Reid.

'Tell me again why we don't have any support ships?'

'The Aconcagua was built to operate independently. Its state of the art point defense systems and energy shields give us the same effectiveness as a small pursuit fleet,' replied Reid.

'You say that like we need the weaponry and shields.'

'The galaxy is massive, who knows what could be lying around the next corner,' smirked Reid.

The jump core wound down and the ship fell into a new and alien system. The Pilot and the lieutenants that flanked him began scanning the system for a Mass relay. The long range sensors sounded off in an echoing pinging sound. The sensors suddenly began to flicker and fault as they entered into an energy cloud.

'Adjust the sensors to scan for large element zero signatures.'

The navigations officer adjusted the sensors to a lower frequency to reduce the amount of interference and an element zero signature blipped into existence on the screen.

'Got it. 3 AU's off our starboard bow.'

Reid switched the holo-table on and the signature appeared as a pulsing blue dot. Suddenly the whir of a siren rang through the ship. Newton jumped at the sudden clang of the echoing siren.

'Report!' cried Reid over the siren.

'The energy cloud is starting to eat away the hull!,' cried the science officer.

'Raise the shields. And turn that damn alarm off!'

A series of golden hexagons built a spherical shield around the ship before becoming transparent.

'Maximum sub light to the relay,' ordered Reid.

'Yes, sir. ETA is 1 hour.'

50 minutes later

'I can't believe they put you out here after that,' sighed Reid.

'It wasn't a bad bleed…'

'A bleed is a bleed. That kind of side effect from animus training can cause lifelong debilitating issues.'

The animus program had been adapted and advanced since the fall of the Assassin. Most Animi are small devices such as eyewear for live simulation training for Alliance and certain ones are large tubular cases used for long range communications.

'Officer Reid, we've just cleared the energy cloud and are registering another element zero signature about 100,000 kilometers off our aft,' came a voice over the rooms comm.

'I'm on my way,' replied Reid.

He grabbed Newton's arm and yanked him onto his feet. Newton looked at his commander in bewilderment.

'Your letting me stay on active duty?'

'You're my first officer. I'll break'ya in kid,' smiled Reid.

The door to the bridge rolled over and they walked onto the bridge. The small blue dot pulsed, slowly moving in seemingly lifeless planet.

'What is it?' asked Newton.

'Probably an asteroid. Ignore it. Are we ready to activate the relay?'

'Doctor Marcel is priming the activation key now,' replied a lieutenant.

Reid and Newton stood at either side of the holo-table watching the relay draw closer. Marcel stood on the starboard side of the bridge at a console.

'We can send the key anytime now,' he announced.

'Send it now,' ordered Reid.

The white lights along the relay began to pulse to life and the rings around the glowing blue orb began to move.

Suddenly a hollow knock rang through the ship and by chance Reid caught sight of the small blue dot disappearing from the map.

'What just happened?' asked Reid.

'Residual thermal signature points to the activation of a Prothean FTL drive,' explained Marcel.

'Protheans?'

Reid looked at Newton with a look of astonishment. They hadn't encountered any Protheans on the dozens of planets they had catalogued, none that were alive. For all intents and purposes the Protheans were extinct. Suddenly the sound arose again and the small dot re-appeared a mere 20,000 kilometers off their aft.

'Tactical analysis!' cried Newton in a spur of adrenaline.

'500 meters in length, several Prothean mass accelerator cannons and kinetic shields,' replied Marcel.

'Raise shields,' ordered Reid.

'Already up, sir.'

An image of a long ship with small segmented wings protruding from the main body and thick metallic rods extending from the bow of it. The ship suddenly shook, a loud crash echoed through the ship before the alarm began to ring again.

'Their firing, shields are holding steady!'

'Turn that damn alarm off!' yelled Reid.

The alarm stopped and another explosion shook the ship ever slightly. The shields absorbed the explosions but some of the residual shock made it through.

'What's our play?' asked Newton.

'Let's break into their ships database,' thought Reid.

'We've never used the Prothean virus before.'

'What is there to it? Upload it, wait for the data to upload and hot tail it out of here.'

Reid nodded to Marcel to send the virus. The ship rattled again, Marcel sent the virus and watched it barge through fire walls and infest the enemy's database like rapidly spreading roots. Marcel gasped at the rapid file recovery and as the completion toggle filled and flashed green Marcel paused.

'Data received and archived,' he announced.

'That was fast? Helmsman, get us out of here.'

Later that day

Three white silhouettes formed into Officer Reid, Master Grissom and Master Hackett. Their gridded silhouettes turned into their suede blue uniforms lined with gold cotton. The brown leather gauntlets on the Masters left forearms signified their supremacy over all others.

'Officer Reid, Master Hackett; I'm glad to see you both again,' greeted Grissom.

'Likewise,' replied Hackett.

'I trust the data we recovered was put to good use?'

Reid was no stranger to Master Templar oppression. The rings they wore were Eden tech; able to bend the mind of those around them to do their bidding.

'Of course. The data was in an alien language but luckily we found a reference key in the Prothean archive, linked to a young race called Turians.'

'What else do we have on them?' asked Reid.

'Everything. Deployment information, ship statistics. Even the location of a large space station they call the Citadel.'

A fourth silhouette began to form, taking the shape of a tall and broad man. As his image clarified the breath in Reid's lungs was sucked out in the blink of an eye. The man's chestnut skin was scarred and his head was covered in thick black hair, combed back into a short mullet. His uniform was different to all the others. Black suede with the red Templar cross on the left breast plate.

'A Marshall?'

'My name is Marshall David Anderson, use it,' snarled Anderson.

'You're to link up with the second fleet commanded by Master Drescher, there Marshall Anderson will be transferred to your ship,' explained Grissom.

'And then?'

'And then you will await further orders from us, understand.'

'Yes Masters.'

The simulation shut down in a flurry of grids and fragmented shapes to turn into an open square room off the bridge. Reid turned around and walked out of the room onto the bridge. Marshalls were war assets created by severe genetic modification to hollow out their bones and reinforce them with a light weight Titanium – Tungsten alloy. Light as a feather but stronger than steel.

'How did the convening go?' asked Newton.

'A little different,' replied Reid.

Reid undid the top button on his jacket leant on the holo-table as sweat poured from his pores; his life just got a whole lot more complicated