The Unsung Hero: Redux

Prologue

(Post date: 3/7/13)

A/N: I'M BACK BITCHES!

Main A/N at the end.

The Unsung Hero – Adapted From James Anderson

The heroes of legend
So great and powerful
Their stories will live
Well beyond their years
But what about the unsung one

The one who pushed the hero on
Does he not deserve praise
Destiny may not have chosen him
Fate must have overlooked him
But he too fought

Most importantly, he sacrificed
He lost as much if not more
Than the hero thought

Nothing can be done alone
This too often is forgotten
Focus given to the chosen
Rather than the one who chose

Sacrifice is not worth any cost
If it is not done by the ones who chose
A simple, yet immense decision

Sometimes the greater hero isn't the destined one
It is the one that stood by the hero
Never regretting the choice they made
But simply pushed forward toward their goal

Never again overlook the companion
For something important will be missed
That may be lost forever

Time can be a funny thing. I once thought it was only a matter of time before I died. Now though? I'm not so sure I can die. At least not before I find the answer I've been looking for...

After the prevention of Ceph Stage Three in 2047, humanity got it's act together. CELL was annihilated, in more ways than one could imagine. The infrastructure they left behind, the technology they created thanks to their research on the Ceph, lead to what many experts called a 'Second Scientific Revolution'. With the wireless energy transfer satellite network still intact, all it took was the reactivation of some nuclear power plants and things got back to semi normal.

I let myself slip into memory though, the events of the Liberty Dome shouldn't be told through my eyes. Not yet anyway. Psycho and Strickland eventually found me, claimed it the ultimate irony at where I ended up. I simply told them that it makes sense that where I first lost my humanity, I also regained it. Naturally Psycho was his usual self, claimed I could have taken the suit off at any point. Strickland though said I needed to get involved in the rebuilding process, take part.

After what I'd been through though, I turned her down. Even with the amount of Ceph exosuits and other miscellaneous tech to go over, the nanosuits were still the best bet anyone had at a short term solution to solving the mysteries of Ceph technology.

Luckily for me, I didn't have my suit anymore. Free fall through atmosphere from orbit would do that. Again Psycho said I had it easy compared to him. I let him have his moment of glory. He and I were the only 'known' previous wearers of nanosuits. Our brotherhood was mostly destroyed. If only he knew.

Like I said, time can be a funny thing. Before I knew it, Psycho was dead. Died of natural causes in his bed. Over a hundred and twenty years old. A statue of him was erected somewhere in London after the funeral, both for him and for all of the nanosuit operatives killed in action or murdered by CELL. They forgot a few names though when I went to pay my respects.

Living as long as I have, it gives you a certain perspective on things. Sure humanities knowledge about the physical realm, from the atoms that make us to the cosmic unreachables, expanded but that didn't matter in the scheme of things.

Humanity has always proven itself to be it's own worst enemy, even when confronted by something as powerful as the Ceph. Wars still broke out over trivial things. Political parties and regimes flow and ebb. I knew it was only a matter of time before we ran into the Ceph again, so I planned. Gathered those few who could join the cause together and organized ourselves for the long haul. The brotherhood, while diminished, still stood.

Earth, for all her gifts to us, began to get too crowded after awhile. Space finally became our last resort. Installations built on the moon years ago were reactivated and brought on line. Mars came a few decades after that. Soon the human race began to spread our wings in our home system. Scouring the seemingly infinite asteroids and moons for precious ores.

All the while, nearly every scientist on Earth studied what they had on hand about the nanosuits. Their combat capabilities too great to be ignored by militaries, their medical applications sought after by pharmaceutical corporations. Everyone had something they wanted from an original nanosuit, but they all had to start from scratch. Hargreave and Rasch, it seems, were very good at destroying all evidence of their work with Ceph DNA and nanotech.

All the more reason for me and the others to stay in the shadows. As soon as we could, we left Earth. I changed my face a bit to throw off any cursory identification searches, and went to Mars. Leave it to humans to create amazing computer technologies that have the simplest means to get around them.

By the time the Prothean info cache was found, I had changed my face again. I was there as the lead scientists decoded the monolith's information stream. The tech was of a completely different type than previously gathered samples of Ceph technology. That didn't mean jack shit to me though. Sooner or later, we would encounter them again. This just meant that there were other aliens out there.

Naturally when the existence of yet another race of aliens became public, humans did the predictable thing. Everything from riots and suicide to sending messages in any way possible beyond the solar system. Then when the huge mass relay was discovered, there was a debate as to if it should be opened.

Many argued that it was Pandora's box, and once opened it could never be sealed. Some said it was just another ploy by the Ceph, while others said it would allow humanity to escape any potential second invasion.

For good or ill, it was opened.

The data cache and the relay allowed humanity to expand even faster than before. Previous FTL attempts had come up quite short, the energy required to even attempt to duplicate the Ceph's Einstein-Rosen bridge were insane, even with the whole planet's energy production poured into it. The science behind it, even crazier than the energy it took. In the end, it made for a helluva fireworks show.

New mass effect physics lead to a particular increase in gauss weaponry. Recoil was reduced dramatically while still increasing the range, speed, and power of the rounds, while allowing for smaller power packs to be used. With out the need for incredibly advanced power cells, hybrid gauss/mass effect based weapons began to take off. The trade off in increased thermal energy was a non-issue, as thermal energy transfer technology was one of the few things humanity had managed to create themselves from studying Ceph tech.

Things went well for another few years, humanity managed to find and colonize at least a dozen new worlds thanks to the expansive mass relay system. The brotherhood and I tried to be everywhere at once, going to new sections of space when a relay was opened, but after all we're only human. Luckily, I managed to find a few more friends to help us out.

What was left of the nanosuit brotherhood and our new members all too quickly appointed me as the leader of our growing group. Our purpose, to be there as humanity expands, on the look out for a second Ceph encounter, and eradicate it before it could begin.

We didn't find the Ceph though, not right away.

2157. Shanxi. Humanities Second Contact with an alien species.

I wasn't there when the fighting started, but when I went in with the 2nd Fleet, I saw only opportunity. The aliens used similar mass effect technology, but as to be expected they used it differently. They also had a working knowledge of the galaxy and the relays. Having as many alien allies as possible would only make the Ceph's job of eradicating us, again, that much harder.

When the Systems Alliance was created shortly after the discovery of the Mars Prothean ruins, the world's leading military minds had one common goal. To create a space-borne naval armada that would allow humanity to not only expand it's sphere of influence, but to fight against the Ceph with everything we had.

That kind of drive in space ship weapons design was something that threw the new aliens for a loop. They did not expect ships that fired rounds that exploded in gigantic plasma bursts or created micro singularities. Neither did they expect those rounds in a massive broadside barrage.

They also didn't expect the other technology humanity had developed to combat any future Ceph. Mechanized heavy armor with integrated heavy weapons that were also capable of running as fast as their escort vehicles. Wireless energy transfer towers that would rapidly recharge a depleted kinetic barrier capacitor, gauss rifles that had fire power better suited for a vehicle being wielded by one man. Nannites that allowed for small miracles to occur in the human body. Synthetic muscle that doubled as flexible armor. Swarms of expendable drones controlled by a few humans connected to a computer in a bunker far below.

The aliens had occupied Shanxi for three months, and they paid for it while there. The arrival of the 2nd Fleet took out the interest owed. Humanity arrived on the galactic stage and in a big way.

The aliens that occupied Shanxi, Turians, had done so because of some old law made by a group called the Council. It only took me a few minutes of scanning their extranet to see the whole picture. Galactic civilization, save for humanity, depends upon the recovery of ancient Prothean data caches and use of the mass relays to advance themselves. They had effectively backed themselves up into a corner technologically speaking as every single thing they had used element zero to generate the mass effect in some way. They were also afraid to push their boundaries, fearing the potential consequences, while being ignorant of their own faults.

So when humanity showed up with a combination of Ceph, Prothean, and good ol' Terran technology as well as previous experience with a hostile alien species, we were regarded with awe and suspicion. Some didn't believe the facts of the Ceph Incursion, after all it's hard to believe something if not offered some form of solid evidence. Even the limited Ceph DNA and tech samples handed to the Council were not enough. They had never seen the Ceph before now, and likely wouldn't believe the threat they posed unless they faced it themselves.

That didn't matter though, they saw the huge gap in technology humanity had over them, and they made demands and pleas simultaneously. They wanted the Alliance to limit it's use of its incredibly powerful ships, as well as discontinue some of it's neural computer intelligence research. However, they also pleaded for access to the wondrous medigel and wireless energy transfer technology.

Thankfully, human and alien politics were nearly the same. Humanity was able to keep it's superior ship weaponry as long as Council officials could take stock of the Alliance's current neural computer intelligence research as well as purchasing a contract for the major pharmaceuticals to produce enough medigel for the entire galaxy. In return, humanity would be a part of the Citadel races as long as the Alliance agreed to use it's impressive fleet to patrol the troublesome Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge border sectors with the Turians in joint maneuvers. Talks would be renewed at a later date for a more 'advanced' technology exchange.

There were of course other deals made individually with the other species, but on the whole humanity set itself up nicely.

The brotherhood and I though kept up our search for any potential signs of the Ceph. I got into a few rough spots here and there, mainly because the power of modern weapons took a little getting used to in a straight up fire fight, but for the most part I remained off the grid and only a rumor floating on the extranet.

When you live as long as I do though, you end up giving out a few IOU's as well as taking some. A few days back member of the brotherhood sent me a message saying that one of my IOU's was calling me in, back to Earth.

I reviewed the forwarded message in the restroom of the shuttle I'm currently on, one more time out of habit to be sure I had everything down.

'Phoenix

We have a 'special' situation going on. We got one of our own elected as a Spectre candidate. I need you to ensure nothing goes wrong on the op.

- Hackett'

After closing the omnitool's message screen, I looked up into the mirror of the restroom. With a bit of focus, my old face resurfaced. Dark skin, strong jaw line, naturally bald, deep bass of a voice.

The face of Prophet was back, and exiting the restroom, I glanced to the shuttles view port. There I could see one of the many orbital ship yards that orbited the planet Earth. Many of them held cruisers in various states of construction. However, one of them was away from the rest with most of the equipment arms retracted. Crews floated amongst the yard arms, moving crates that weighed hundreds of pounds into the gleaming frigate's belly hangar bay single handedly in zero-g.

"Attention all passengers, we will be arriving at the mooring station for the SSV Normandy momentarily. Please retake your seats and await confirmation of docking."

I took a seat next to some young blonde haired kid, he didn't even notice the changes I made since I got up. One sure sign of a FNG. That and he was staring googly eyed out at our destination. I sighed and relaxed into my seat.

Looking around, I noticed the man across the aisle from me giving me an appraisal. Good, at least someone on this ship knows what's going on around them. One thing I never did agree on was the complete integration of the armed forces for the Alliance. Each nation had it's specialties and quirks to offer, and they were lost in the merge. In the end, I guess they made up for it with their Interplanetary Combative Training courses. Got into a bar fight once with what I guessed to be an N6, real hot head he was. Good, but undisciplined and easy to bait.

With the shuttle docking, the rest of the passengers got up and made for the exit with their gear. I waited to let them all pass. I had no gear to worry about anyway. The man who gave me the once over though waited as well, and it was then I noticed the N7 emblem on his sweater. I ran my own profiling on him, his service history, old social networking profiles, extranet searches, everything he ever did I could see. The marker Hackett called in this time around made sense now.

I smiled for moment, barely nodding in this Lieutenant Commander Shepard's direction. He regarded me for a moment before going on his way as well, neither approving or disapproving of my presence, merely acknowledging it.

I merely smirked to myself, glanced around the empty cabin, then activated my cloak and followed behind him.

As I did, I could only think one thing.

Prophet hasn't been entirely forgotten.

A/N:

Yup... The author of the first of the Crysis/Mass Effect story here on FF is back with the revised version! This is just something to whet your appetites as I continue my work on the overarching plot. As you can already tell, it's going to be quite a bit different than the original fic I had posted.

From what I have planned out now, I'd like to think of it as being a 'true' crossover. It won't simply be a Crysis based humanity going through Mass Effect events, or a single Crysis character coming into Mass Effect, or anything of the sort. The elements that make both games great will come together to create one cohesive whole.

For those of you who will inevitably ask, yes that does include the eventual ending of this series.

I'd like to take this moment to thank LEGION001 for his sort-of beta-reading he does for all of my work. He's been a huge help, especially in the planning portion of TUH:R!

As always, I have to iterate this.

I DO NOT KNOW WHEN THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP!

I have a hectic real life that I have to work around first before I write. I still have to plan this fic out in it's entirety through the end of the first game's events. I also have my other fic, Evolution, to work on as well.

So please, do not leave reviews asking when the next chapter will be up. Rather, leave reviews that will encourage me to keep writing even when I don't feel like it! Constructive support goes a long way in my book!

Final note I promise. This Saturday is my birthday, so I will be spending the next three days partying it up with my friends. Reviews and PM's responding to said reviews will probably occur on Monday. Just a heads up.

Thanks everyone! I hope you all will enjoy the upcoming ride! I know I will!

~DN7