What if war of the worlds was just a little bit different…

I don't own anything from the mass effect universe or from war of the worlds, please leave reviews and ideas, I'm keen to hear what you all think.

(Chapter 1)

No one would have believed in the closing years of the 19th Century that as we were exploring our planet so too was our galaxy being explored. Few men thought and even fewer believed that there could be life on other planets, and yet across the vast timeless whorls of space, minds infinitely superior to our own regarded this galaxy with curious eyes. And slowly but surely they drew their plans for exploration.

Admiral Andrius Tarquin surveyed his vessel, the council had bestowed upon him the honour of leading an expedition through a relay to explore the rest of the galaxy. The ship placed under his command was the famed Destiny Ascension, the ship which had first discovered the citadel and the current flagship of the citadel fleet. The council had decreed that the expedition would consist of all three of the council races as well as teams from other races such as the Elcor and Volus. The Salarians made up most of the scientific contingent on board as well as a handful of STG recovery units. The Asari as well as providing the ship, also provided some Prothean experts along with researchers. The Turian Hierarchy provided most of the muscle and security as well as the best scouts and intelligence gathering teams. The Council had even submitted two Spectres and Asari and a Turian to the crew.

"Sir!" Tarquin turned to find himself looking straight into the bright blue eyes of his second in command, an experienced female named Felcina Vakarian who was had spent her life serving the Hierarchy, she was a little taller than the average female Turian but had already made a name for herself as an expert sniper and at having considerable flexibility when it came to sparring, Tarquin noticed how the icy blue of her eyes was complemented by the cobalt blue of her clan markings. Tarquin himself was a little on the short side, but his distinguished military career more than made up for his lack of height, when sparring he found that his longer reach was able to counteract Felcina's impressive skills. "Yes commander?" he asked briskly, shaking himself out of his observations. "Sir, we are ready to depart, all cargo and crew are aboard." She paused meaningfully and Tarquin arched one of his brow-plates, "Is there anything else commander?" Felcina leant forward and produced a data pad, handing it too him as if it were an unstable nuclear weapon, "This came from the council just as we were sealing the doors sir. The courier said it was sealed orders, not to be opened until we were past relay 314." Tarquin nodded and immediately marched across the bridge to the vessels impressive safe. He placed the datapad inside then sealed the safe with a time lock on it. He turned to face the bridge and was faced with a sea of professional yet expectant faces, this was the first multi-species expedition ever attempted into un-known areas of the galaxy, not only that, they were aboard one of the largest and most famous vessels in the galaxy and it was all under his command. "Spirits," he thought, "This is it!" He turned to face the helmsman, a light blue Asari commando, "All engines forward!" he called, "Follow course to relay 314."

A few days later the Destiny Ascension approached Relay 314, the Turian 7th fleet was patrolling the surrounding area ensuring that nothing could come crawling through from the other side of the relay. Tarquin held his breath as the Ascension began her approach run, he felt the familiar tingle running through his plates and the deck shifting beneath his feet as the ship surged forward, the blue light enveloping every surface the vessel was slung through space.

Later, when the ship had successfully passed through the relay and was passing through a new solar system, the ship's safe released a loud beep and released the time lock, the whole bridge quieted as Tarquin opened it and withdrew the datapad. He stood and turned to the assembled officers and the two spectres. He activated the pad and read through the orders, his brow plates knitting together in consternation. He finished reading then put the datapad down, putting his hands behind his back he walked to the end of the table and turned to face the room. "It seems," he stated matter-of-factly, "That the council has detected an anomaly indicative of a large Prothean beacon in a solar system three relay jumps from here, they have authorized us to investigate and if possible retrieve the information in the beacon itself. According to the council this is one of the largest collections of prothean data we've ever encountered." A whisper of surprise ran around the table as the assembled beings considered the consequences of such a find. "Right!" snapped Tarquin jumping into full general mode, "Get to your stations, and prepare to activate the following relays!"

Village of Horsell, North of London 1895

Constable Brian Hacket smiled as he walked his beat in the village of Horsell, he's grown up here as a small boy when the village was barely a blip on the map. Now the village had a station, the small rifle factory which provided a lot of jobs and post office. The village even had its own telegraph of all things! Yes times were changing but Hacket didn't mind. He was at home here on the cobbled streets of the village and the green fields and farms surrounding it. He had to admit though that some of the changes weren't all welcome. That new astronomer fellow, Ogilvy, his name was, was attracting strange sorts, and due to more people arriving to work in the rail yard and the factory, the local police force had gone from one sergeant and two constables to a chief constable, two sergeants and eight or so constables, it wasn't right having these new comers come in and start causing trouble, it had reached a point where there was talk of the police being issued with those new-fangled penny-farthing contraptions. Hacket shook his head at the thought and continued his beat down the main street towards the train station, the evening train from London was just pulling in with the evening papers and a few supplies for the local shops. As he passed the haberdashers he turned to look at himself in the window, a tall young man, square shoulders but a long face with piercing blue eyes staring out from under the rim of his helmet stared back at him. He chuckled at his moment of vanity and the eyes went from piercing to jovial, scrunching up at the corners as he turned to continue his beat passed the new doctors surgery which his shiny new horseless carriage outside, his mouth twisted slightly as he remembered it was called an automobile, he sighed, yes things certainly were changing

Mars 1895

"Sir!" the Salarian in charge of analysing the prothean archives came running into the bridge so fast Tarquin thought for a moment that the archives were destroyed or some other calamity was afoot. "Alright" he growled his sub harmonics trilling with unease, "Slow down and tell me what's happened, are the archives alright?"

"Yes yes" snapped the Salarian, "Archive recovery goes as planned, however, startling discovery has been made. Planet next in orbit around system's sun is heavily populated, populace appears to have access to electricity judging from distant observations. Strongly request permission to launch probes to see if species can be uplifted!" Tarquin held up a taloned hand to stop the high speed flow of information. He didn't really care for a new species, there was already enough tension in the galaxy what with the Krogan, Vorcha and Batarians, but by the same token, if he didn't give permission he knew from experience that the STG would go down to the planet anyway and then the tarct would really hit the ventilation. "Very well," he sighed. "Three probes are to be launched. They can stay in orbit." The Salarian practically jumped for glee and sprinted out of the room without another word. Tarquin sat in his cabin and quietly begged the spirits he wouldn't regret this decision.

A few days later the probes were launch from the red planet's surface. Due to a strange anomaly in the planet's atmosphere the probes glowed distinctly green as they were launched and approached the blue and green planet. While the Salarians and even some of the Asari were keen to find out what they could about this planet and its native species, Tarquin was not so keen. Especially when sirens started to blare through the bridge and technicians announced that the second probe had fallen out of orbit and was going to impact in the heavily industrialised islands off the planets largest land mass. As techs and scientists scurried around getting in the way, Tarquin, with Felcina by his side calmly asked if the probe could be destroyed, The short answer was no, the probes signal receiver was destroyed by a small asteroid hence why it had fallen out of orbit in the first place. Tarquin ground his teeth, struggling to contain his rapidly mounting frustration and turned to Felcina, "Take a dropship and retrieve the probe, as quickly as possible, it seems to have landed near an isolated village so you shouldn't receive too much interference from the locals." "Yes sir," said Felcina her mandible flaring into a wide grin, obviously struggling to maintain her excitement as she hurried from the cabin to make preparations. Tarquin put his head in his hands, "Mad Salarians trying to study a new species, a second in command who is far too eager to explore, faulty probes and Trillions of miles from friendly space, it just couldn't get any worse than this.

Village of Horsell England

"It just couldn't get any worse than this" thought Hacket as he hurried across Horsell common. That bloody toss Ogilvy had had to tell everyone about those green things he'd seen coming from mars with that telescope of his, and he'd had to insist that it was little Martian men. It sounded like a penny dreadful but there was no denying that there was a bloody great hole in the middle of the village common, and that there was a fairly large metal cylinder in said hole. He himself he didn't believe in Martians or things from other planets but here he was going to examine while the other constables kept the crowds of gawkers at bay, since news of the strange cylinder's landing had been broadcast on the telegraph, the curious and so called scientific experts had arrived en masse, every guest room in the village was full. The crowd had become so big in only 24 hours that the chief constable had called for the local regiment to come out and help maintain order. Hacket had a friend in the regiment, a young maxim gunner by the name of Charlie Sanders they'd gone to school together and had been best mates, they still were, though they couldn't catch up to much nowadays, but there was Sanders now setting up that fancy mechanical gun of his. Hacket didn't pretend to know too much about military hardware but he could easily tell that if any blood sucking Martian appeared out of that metal tube, that maxim and the light field gun that was being set up in the trees at the edge of the common would make it think twice.

As he approached the cylinder in the hole, Hacket looked at his companions, two young privates barely dry behind the ears from the regiment, Ogilvy and an older man who'd introduced himself as a journalist who lived locally. He sighed, if anything did come out of that hole he doubted they'd have much of a chance to get out of the way. The Chief constable (Who'd decided it'd be better for all if he stayed at a safe distance away) had been kind enough to provide him with a hurricane lamp and a revolver to compliment his truncheon. As Hacket reached the edge of the hole, he turned to the others. As he opened his mouth to speak however he noticed the looks of shock on their faces as they looked at something above him. He turned and gasped. Another vessel was coming down, but instead of just falling, this one seemed to slow its descent. "Run!" he yelled, his voice cracking in a way that was not becoming for a constable, "Get back!" the two privates and the journalist dutifully legged it back to the cover of the trees but Ogilvy just stood there transfixed, Hacket didn't have time to go back for him as the strange vessel suddenly shot white hot flame from its underside instantly incinerating the astronomer. Hacket was left coughing in the dust thrown up by the vessel, his face and black uniform dusty and smeared. He didn't hear the screams of the fleeing civilians or the shouts of the regimental NCOs rallying their men. The vessel was sitting right in front of him, right on top of the strange metal cylinder in the hole. In a daze he felt himself drawing his revolver and walking towards to still glowing sides of the ship. When he was a few feet away and the heat was almost unbearable he drew himself to his full height. "In the name of Queen Victoria and the Law," he heard himself bellow, "I demand you come fourth!" "Come fourth? What is this, la dee da Shakespeare?" In the silence which followed Hacket realized that he was alone, the nearest humans were in the trees and had a bloody huge gun pointed right at the strange vessel in front of him. Suddenly the air was rent by the sound of metal grinding and a panel in the side of the strange craft opened, falling to the ground to form a sort of ramp. And standing at the top of the ramp was a very tall, terrifying looking creature clad in a suit of armour, the creature seemed much taller than a human and seemed to have only three fingers instead of five, but more importantly it held a rather large gun, the type of gun that made Hacket's revolver and truncheon seem decidedly irrelevant. "Oh Bugger!" thought Hacket "It just got worse!"