Prelude - A Journey Begins
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
Disclaimer: I declare that I do not own either Starcraft II or Mass Effect. Instead, Blizzard Entertainment Owns Starcraft II, and Bioware/Electronic Arts own the Mass Effect Franchise. So Please Support The Official Release! Thank You!!
Foreword
So, welcome to a third version of my basic idea for Mass Effect and Starcraft II crossover story which drops some sort of force from Starcraft II into the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. This really has come about after I noticed that there is little amount of stories that do a traditional crossover story between these two sci-fi video game franchises. As they are normally merged into a single universe and do not kick a character or such from Starcraft into the Mass Effect universe. Heck! There is nothing going the other way having such a thing happen from Mass Effect to the universe of Starcraft. Still, this idea mainly focused on James Eugene Raynor, one of the central characters of the entire franchise, and would through the powers of a fully ascended Sarah Kerrigan be sent to the universe of Mass Effect from around the time after the end of the final campaign of Starcraft II. Kerrigan would also equip Raynor with one of the more advanced Terran Combat Suits and weapons available at the time. From there he would be dropped onto Eden Prime around the start of the first game of the series and would join the whole main storyline of the series alongside a female Commander Shepard. That was the whole basic version of this idea with nothing else really added to the overall idea.
However, that changed when my muse decided to use this idea as a basis for this year's brand-new Writing Frenzy, an event that my local writing group is throwing together in place of National Novel Writing Month. Mainly due to the issues happening around the organization last year and since then. Anyways! My muse expanded on the idea and saw that while Raynor was kicked into the Mass Effect universe he wouldn't be alone. As Kerrigan would not only give Jim the needed weapons, combat suits, and other supplies but would also create a handful of needed allies to follow him. Not to mention it wouldn't be at the start of the game's story but instead would be a few years before the start of the series allowing this small team of Starcraft II characters to get settled into the universe before the events of the series begin. In the meantime, would not only fight against the Batarians but gather some local allies to their cause expanding their forces with these local recruits.
Sadly, though I started to see a few issues with the above version of this story idea, after writing two chapters for it, which soon led to a second version which did change a few things about the idea. Mainly, that is unlike the above idea which had a sort-of ascended version of Raynor spending around a century with Kerrigan wandering the universe before starting to explore alternate universes where they stumble onto the Mass Effect universe. Raynor then manages to convince Kerrigan to help the locals against the Reapers and the story begins soon afterwards. The second version has Kerrigan approach Raynor around the same time he "disappears" in the official story of the game and recruits him to be her champion in fighting against the Reapers in the Mass Effect universe which she discovered after experimenting with her powers. This idea kind of fell flat right at the halfway mark of writing the prelude chapter and while I do have a few ideas to merge a few things of the second idea with the original version my muse kind of latched on to another idea.
This idea basically abandons the whole thing with a single character or even a small group of characters from Starcraft being sent into the Mass Effect universe and sends off a small overall faction from Starcraft into Mass Effect. It also doesn't really focus on James Raynor, but instead, Emperor Valerian Mengsk, son of the previous Emperor of the Terran Dominion Arcturus Mengsk, and a small Dominion Fleet being sent over to the Mass Effect Universe. At his side would be his wife, one November Terra-Mengsk, or better known to many as the Ghost Operative Nova who is a side character from the Starcraft II first campaign storyline and would have had her own video game if things actually went through correctly. Still, this idea came from an older crossover idea that I had years ago after playing through the Legacy of the Void Campaign for the first time. Though I do admit that it was Starcraft crossing over to another popular sci-fi fandom, not Mass Effect.
The overall background to this whole thing would be that instead of siding with Gabriel Tosh during that fateful branch in the story of the Wings of Liberty Campaign Raynor and his Raiders side with Nova. However, during the course of the battle to bring down Tosh and his Specters on Avernus Station Nova would be exposed to a small amount of Terrazine from the destroyed Terrazine tanks. This does lead to her passing out which does see the Raiders evacuating her comatose self from the Station allowing Tosh to escape along with a small amount of his Specters. A bit later Nova wakes up with the vast majority of her memories no longer blocked or removed which does see her turning away from the Dominion and joining the Raiders in their own fight against the Dominion after some mental help from both Raynor and Zeratul, whose meeting with Raynor would be later on in the storyline. Then when Raynor meets with Valerian right before getting the final piece of the Xel'Naga Device Nova meets him as well and coldly tells him a few things about his father which he is not really all that surprised about. The rest of this campaign goes about as it does in canon just with Nova and a few hastily trained Raider Ghosts fighting alongside the Raiders in these final battles. Though Nova does further meet with Valerian more than a few times afterwards during these last few battles.
I do have a bit further on this version of the overall timeline about what happens to Nova and how she becomes involved with Valerian but I really do not want to make this foreword even more a lengthy thing. Still, there are a few other things that should be further explored in the story itself about not only Nova but her relationship with Valerian. As well as her time with the Raiders and her somewhat strained friendship with Raynor, and Kerrigan. I do believe that is enough talk from me and time to get to the story proper! So please do enjoy this story, and hope that it doesn't stall like the two other versions of his overall larger crossover story between that of Starcraft II and Mass Effect. With that said, welcome to Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come!
- William R. Woods
October 16, 2024
Prelude - A Journey Begins
Between the various Terrans powers both major and minor in the Koprulu Sector it is not very common for any sort of colonization outside of the sector itself. Even though the available planets to colonize and resources to claim inside the sector shrink every passing year. Instead, they turn to the likes of dedicated terraforming, sealed environmental colonies on more hostile planets, mining out large asteroids or even passing comets, or in more modern times, reclaiming abandoned or destroyed planets from the wars of the past. This is mainly due to the idea that there is nothing for the Terrans outside of the Sector or more recently, an enemy like the UED swooping in to brutally take over the less defended newly settled colonies outside of the more prosperous and defended colonies of the Koprulu Sector. Not to mention, many were scared of what they would find in the darkness of unknown space what with them already having fought against two alien races and finding out about the existence of an ancient precursor race. The question is always 'What else will we find out there? And can we survive it if attacks us?'. Then there is the UED, the United Earth Directorate, the overall nation station in charge of our race's ancient homeworld of Earth, and literally running into their own claimed space which may end up in another attempted invasion of the sector by the UED.
Taken all of this together really has prevented many of the various powers of the sector, along with their leaders, in the sector from expanding outside of the sector to even the most surveyed nearby sectors of space, like the Tursobis Sector to our western border or the Keresh Sector to our southern border, both had been thoroughly surveyed by the powers of the Sector over the years either due to the needs of the wars or other more greedy pursuits. What with the Tursobis Sector perhaps being the most famous with the Kel-Morian Combine sending several probes into the sector to search for resources during the years before the start of the Great War which lead to the settlement of a single colony right along the edge of the border between the two sectors. A colony that would be all out destroyed by the zerg during the early days of the Great War. While the Keresh Sector is literally right next to the home sector of space for the Protoss and had originally been surveyed by the Terran Dominion in the years that followed the Brood Wars in an effort to try to find the homeworld of the Protoss, Auir.
Hence, while exploration and surveying nearby space to the edges of the Koprulu Sector is somewhat accepted by many in the sector, outright colonizing new worlds in even these thoroughly explored neighboring sectors is still somewhat of a taboo subject to many of the average civilians of the sector preventing really any sort of colonization program to be launched outside of the Sector itself. Though it hasn't stopped many from putting forth various proposals for such colonization expeditions or our own creative minds…
- Taken from The Taboo of Out of Sector Colonization: The Reason Behind Such A Thing, written by Doctor Graham Diaz, University of Chau Sara, Published Circa. April, 2510CE
Open Space
Verge System, Koprulu Sector
Gamma Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy
September 7, 2512 Common Era
With an almost silent swish of noise, the large main hatchway leading into the bridge of the HMS Bucephalus opened, letting the tall golden-haired figure of Emperor Valerian Mengsk of the Terran Dominion into the beating heart of his own personal flagship. At his entrance, a trio of uniformed figures standing around the central holo table of the bridge turned and bowed shortly towards him as he approached them.
"Majesty," one of the more lavished uniformed figures, a large man, rumbled out loud drawing a nod from the even more lavishly dressed Emperor towards the man before looking over the holographic globe that dominated the central holo table. The Sovereign Class Command Battlecruiser, his personal flagship the HMS Bucephalus, along with its escorts of two Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Valor of Vardona and HMS Memory of Styrling - and a half-dozen Blizzard Class Light Cruisers were gathered along one side of the large display in a small formation of ships along with a flanking pair of simple holographic markers showing the location of the cloaked Condor Class Stealth Assault Destroyers - the HMS Griffon and HMS Unicorn - both of which were cloaked to further protect his small flotilla from anyone observing their little rendezvous in the middle of nowhere.
Then there happened to be a second larger-sized fleet of Terran ships that dominated the other half of the display. First, at the center of the fleet, there are the half-dozen Odyssey Class Large Colonial Transports, all of which had formerly been Behemoth Class Battlecruisers that had undergone a refit to make them into massively sized colonial transports for large-scale colonial expeditions or really recolonizing older colonies that had been destroyed in the Great Wars, the Brood War, or the End War. They mainly had much of their large ATS Laser removed, but kept the smaller ATA Laser Batteries, while the main Yamato Cannon was removed to make way for an over half kilometer in length passenger section which allowed two hundred thousand or so colonists to be transported in relative comfort inside a large armored transport that could defend itself if needed.
Secondly, these six large former battlecruisers were supported by a further six far smaller four hundred meters in length Titanic Class Colony Ships which carried a further several thousand or so colonists along with the needed tools and such to settle a new colony including prefabricated buildings. They are further supported by a dozen smaller, but similar in overall looks, Hercules Class Cargo Ships which carried the rest of the colonial expeditions supporting cargo including much of its initial food supply. Finally, there was the large spherical form of the Seeker Class Science Ship the HMCS A Lone Wanderer which hovered gently over the six equally large forms of the Odyssey Class Colonial Transports. They were all protected by two Minotaur Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Fearless and HMS Basilisk -, three further Blizzard Class Light Cruisers and a half-dozen smaller Valkyrie-II Class Escort Frigates. Really, an impressive-looking gathering of ships compared to the emperor's own small flotilla. All gathered together by the emperor's command to settle a new world outside of the larger Koprulu Sector. Just over a million colonists and supporting defensive military units were ready to jump into the unknown.
"Ah, the Terminus Colonial Expedition Fleet has finally arrived I see," he mentioned out loud with a small smile gracing his handsome face as he eyed the holographic renderings of the fleet as he came up alongside the holo table.
"Yes, Your Majesty, and ready for your speech," came the smooth soprano voice of Fleet Captain Stephanie Faith Harrington, the current commander of the Bucephalus. A tall and slim looking woman who was standing on the opposite side of the holo table reminding the emperor of the purpose for him to be out here along the very edge of Terran Dominion Space and the larger form of the Koprulu Sector. Oh. He had already been on one of his notable regular tours along the Fringe Colonies of the Dominion in an effort to get right in the action sort of speak and to get closer to some of his most abused subjects from the reign of his father. Still journeying this out-of-the-way system was not only just the last stop for his tour but to witness the first ever Terran Colonization Expedition to be sent outside of the Koprulu Sector and into the nearby Tursobis Sector. Something that he had ordered to be organized a few years ago was now finally realized.
"Thank you, Fleet Captain," the emperor replied to the woman with another smile on his face before focusing on the second figure gathered around the holo table who looked at the holo display with a grim frown on their face.
"Still not all that pleased by this are you, Everett?" he questioned the figure, one Brigadier Everett Vaughn, the former captain of the Bucephalus, the overall commander of this small flotilla of ships and the overall larger form of the 1st Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team, the Emperor's own personal guard force.
"I have no real issues with this whole operation my Emperor, what I do have a concern over is you being way out here along the edge of Dominion Space without at least a much larger fleet with us," the large-sized man mentioned with his earlier rumble of a voice as he frowned over at the form of his Emperor. This made the emperor sigh and shake his head for while he did understand the worries of his friend and overall man reasonable for the protection of his own presence. Not to mention his small family.
"Not to mention having the Empress and your unborn child along for this tour has not sit well with me at all," he further mentioned with now a large glower on his face looking around as if there were some hidden assassin hiding somewhere along the bridge of the overall flagship of the entire Terran Dominion Armed Forces.
Something that was quite laughable as not only was the ship's entire crew checked out by numerous means but also were constantly psionically screened for anyone trying to sneak in some sort of spy or assassin onto the emperor's chosen flagship. Not to mention several red- and gold-colored forms of Imperial Marines in heavy CMC-535 Combat Suits were spread over the entire bridge. That was not even including the handful of smaller forms in shadowed HES-09 Hostile Environment Suits that were hidden along the shadows of the large bridge, these being Dominion Imperial Shadows, soldiers able to use psionics to combat any threat. All of which were entirely loyal to the emperor. Still, there was some concern over having the vast majority of the Imperial Family of the Dominion out in this out-of-way system. As while many of the large threats to the Dominion were either destroyed entirely or now allied to them, there were still a few different threats to the emperor who would love to ambush them away from the larger Dominion Armed Forces.
"I do understand your concerns my friend, but the Empress did insist on coming along with this tour for some reason bringing with her our unborn kid. And I wasn't about to argue with her thanks to her moods," he replied to the concerned man mentioning the overall often swinging moods of his wife the Empress which did draw some light chuckles from the rest of the bridge crew. For they were all quite aware of their Empress and her various different moods due to her pregnancy.
"Speaking of the Empress sire, I would have thought she would have joined you?" questioned the final figure around the holo display, one Senior General Charlotte Ann Warfield, the Dominion's current Commander-in-Chief of the entire Dominion Armed Forces and part of the emperor's own current close staff. Also, the niece of the famous General Horace Warfield who had joined her uncle in the Dominion Military but due to her connections with the man had been imprisoned after the man's failure to stop Kerrigan or the remaining Zerg Broodmothers at Char by the orders of Valerian's father. After Valerian took the throne, he would go through the various cases his father personally got involved in and would release a good half of the people imprisoned on his father's orders. Including the whole remaining Warfield family much to his own personal horror.
"She was feeling a bit tired therefore decided to take a nap, but she shall be here when the Expedition makes its first jump towards the Tursobis Sector," he explained with a shrug and a concerned look on his face and the other three gathered around the table. For they all were quite close to the tiny Imperial Family and could be quite concerned over the tiny things about the two of them.
"Well, I do hope she and the child are alright," the figure of Fleet Captain Harrington mentioned out loud with some concern making the Emperor nod at her with his own worried smile on his face.
"Yes, pass on our concerns to her please majesty," General Warfield mentioned a moment later, making the emperor's nod at her as well before he shifted his attention back to the holographic display.
"Still cannot believe this day has finally arrived after more than a year of various people telling me that it wasn't possible, or something similar, with our current resources and manpower," he mused out loud before eying the various holographic representations of the ships of the Colonization Expedition Fleet. For indeed many inside the Dominion were against the project from the start, calling it a waste of resources and manpower to try to put down a colony outside of the sector itself. Something that was a solid concern that he had listened to, not his own thoughts on the matter. It was better than those handfuls of people saying that it was not right to put down a colony outside of the sector as it was their home and putting a foot outside of the Sector would be the end of everything.
"Well Sire, it was quite an interesting proposal to put the colony in the Terminus System, a system smack dab in the middle of a difficult to traverse nebula with its unique blend of radiation preventing anyone from warping into the nebula itself. A perfect defense and an even better fallback position if the Sector is invaded again by the UED," General Warfield replied with a soft chuckle at the whole idea for the Terminus System had been discovered by an old Confederate exploration probe before being followed by a small research expedition which found the nebula and the system hidden there in sported a somewhat decent world to fully able to be colonized, after some tweaking of course. Hence, when the plan for his Out of Sector Colonization Expedition was finally starting to make headway in the Dominion the Emperor would propose the destination as the newly named Terminus System for its target. He further explained that it would make a fine fallback point in case of any further invasion by the UED or another future enemy force.
"Not to mention the rich resources contained in the system and the idea to put a brand-new shipyard facility in the system made it quite an interesting proposal for many in the Dominion Senate. Quite an excellent idea all around sire," Brigadier Vaughn managed to rumble out with a short chuckle of his own making the emperor nod towards him with a large beaming smile at the praise. As spread out along the cargo bays of the Odyssey and Heracles Class ships were dozens of prefabricated pieces to assemble an orbital shipyard facility fully capable of building pretty much any ship in the Terran Dominion inventory from simple civilian haulers to a full-on Gorgon Class Superbattlecruiser with enough gathered resources.
"Yes, it was a good idea I admit to propose it like that but please remember ladies and gentlemen that at its core the Terminus Colony is more than a simple fallback position in case of further invasion of the Koprulu Sector, but a means to carry on the Terran Dominion in case of any sort of large scale disaster bringing down the Dominion," the Emperor explained in a more serious sounding voice looking over the figures of his three main subordinates with a grim look on his face making them all look back at him their own severe looks on their faces. They all were fully briefed about the main mission of the Terminus Colonial Expedition, the outright condition of the Terran Dominion as a nation state in case of disaster bringing the government of the Dominion down.
"On a less grim nature it does allow further exploration into the Tursobis Sector with some very interesting unknown ruins on some of the planets located there," the Emperor mentioned after several long moments of silence between them all remembering various bits of the Sector's more recent history, like the fall of Tarsonis to the Zerg Swarm, and the brief absorption of the Dominion into the UED during the course of the Brood War. Before being jolted out of these dark thoughts by the emperor's own comment making them all blink over at him in some surprise before chuckles were exchanged across the holo table between them all. All three officers were quite aware of the emperor's own passion for such things over the years having known him.
"That is quite true Sire, but you are not going to be harrying off to do such explorations yourself," the figure of the Brigadier chided the younger man with a small smile on his face making the figure of the emperor glare over at him.
"It was only the one time!" he almost whined out loud before sighing and chuckling at the older man.
"Well played General," he mentioned after a moment before focusing back on the holographic display and noticing the time at the corner of the display making him blanch in some shock before composing himself. All three officers did the same when they noticed their emperor looking at the display in some shock. A moment later all four of the gathered figures where back in their official roles of Emperor and his closest confidants.
"Well, it does look like the time for my speech is fast approaching," he commented before looking over at the Fleet Captain and nodding at her who turned herself over to her bridge's communication section.
"You heard the emperor! Get the broadcast to the entire Expedition Fleet set up as soon as possible," she ordered the men manning that section.
"Aye, ma'am!" They all called back before leaning over their combined station however before anything further happened the officers manning the ship's sensor station suddenly leaned forward in some surprise as their station started to blare at them in some warning. This drew the attention of the rest of the bridge and the four figures gathered around the central holo table. A moment later the lead sensor officer turned towards them in some form of confusion.
"Sirs! Our sensors are detecting a gathering of graviton particles and vortex warp energy," the man reported making all four figures blink in some surprise before the holo display chance from displaying a representation of gathered ships to a focused view on the location of interest. It was located roughly halfway between the two terran task forces, the Imperial Guard Flotilla and the Terminus Colonial Expedition.
"Were we expecting anyone from the Protoss to arrive for this operation?" General Warfield questioned in some confusion knowing that it was only the Protoss could currently use such energy and particles in their warp technology. Mainly thanks to their more advanced psychic powered warp technology that the terrans had barely been able to scratch at in the years since first contact between their two races.
"No. I have talked to Hierarch Artanis about my plans, but the Daelaam Union is still in the process of rebuilding Aiur and reclaiming a few of their nearby colonies in the Khaladas Sector to be all that interested in a colonial expedition," the Emperor mentioned in his own confusion at the appearance of such an anomaly for he was quite aware that the protoss of the Daelaam where quite busy trying to rebuild their civilization of the central sector of the Sigma Quadrant and the heart of the former Protoss Empire.
"Could it be the Tal'darim? I know that we have a sort of peace with the Highlord but there apparently are still some splinters of the older Tal'darim Sects around after all," Brigadier Vaughn mentioned with a scowl on his face making the others gathered around the new display to frown in some concern at this idea.
"I thought the Tal'darim didn't use graviton particles in their warp drives but a variant of solarite," questioned the Fleet Captain as she eyed the readings with a growing sense of unease, something that was starting to be shared by the rest of the ship's bridge crew.
"That is quite correct," the emperor replied with narrowed eyes, however before anything happened two things happened together. The first where the nearby guarding Imperial Shadows groaning out loud in some pain, which drew the attention of the emperor, and the second was more readings starting to appear on the holo display which was soon reported by the now panicking form of the lead sensor officer, which drew the attention of the other three senior officers.
"SIR! There is now void energy being gathered at the center of the anomaly!" the man managed to report even through his growing panic. For like many of the officers onboard the Bucephalus had been onboard during the final days of the End War when Terran, Zerg, and Protoss gathered together to finally destroy the Fallen Xel'Naga Amon in the darkness of the overall region of subspace known as the Void which powered not only the Dark Templar of the Protoss but the followers of Amon who would use such energy in their defense of their living god over the course of that battle. The Bucephalus barely managed to survive one attack during the battle, and it was only its enhanced armor and a timely application of a defensive matrix that defended the ship from the attack.
"Contact all of the ships in this system! Emergency Warp out of here now!!" the bellow of the Brigadier reached the entire bridge as he pounded a beefy head on the edge of the holo table in his overall fury and fear at what was going on. From his position helping the nearest Imperial Shadow to their feet, the emperor could only sigh as he knew from his own studies that it was way too late to do anything and closed his eyes.
'Luckily for the Dominion Arturia would make a fine Empress,' he managed to think to himself with a small sad smile on his face mentioning his distant cousin who he had managed to find out about in the years that followed the End War who he had made his direct heir. At least till the birth of his child, anyway which wouldn't happen now much to his sadness for he had truly been quite excited to become a father. He then closed his eyes in acceptance as everything went white when the gathered energy of the detected anomaly exploded outwards, and he knew nothing more as the gathered forty-five Terran ships disappeared from this universe along with the one point three million terrans onboard said ships. There was nothing to show how they disappeared or what had done the deed. As with the anomaly and its gathered energy, there was nothing really able to show what had happened here to any sort of sensor. Nothing remained… at least in this universe.
Post Chapter Notes
And that is a wrap! I am actually quite proud of this chapter outside of some of the bits in the middle of the chapter. Sigh. Still, it is quite an interesting chapter that I managed to wrangle my muse to create. The overall idea for the chapter was to bring a small fleet of the Terran Dominion, mainly a dedicated colonial fleet, from the Starcraft universe to that of the Mass Effect universe. So, no worries our loveable "Junior" Emperor Valerian is still alive and is now going to appear in the Mass Effect universe along with over one million of his people.
That does take us to the overall "how" they all got kicked into the Mass Effect universe. Well, when I originally came up with this idea it would have been a void corrupted Mass Relay that a couple of Amon's followers had been messing around with during those final hectic days of the End War. However, I did not really know how that would have worked, Void energies meeting with that of Element Zero or even how it managed to get on this side of the divide, therefore moved away from that whole idea. Instead, I kind of created my own little tech babble bit of lore to explain it with graviton particles, something seen in a few Protoss unit or ability descriptions, meeting that of vortex warp energy, my term for energy from protoss warp tech, and general void energy that when combined all together pretty much created the whole event to transfer them all over to the Mass Effect universe. I am quite proud of the whole idea! I really do not know if it would actually work, lore-wise, but sorry I have not talked with the likes of Subsourian, the Starcraft King of Lore, if it is even possible but I am pretty sure it does sound like something happened which is what I actually wanted for all of it.
Okay. Time to get to a few other main points I want to cover before I end these notes. First of all, I'm sure you can guess what the original crossover was for this idea when I originally came up with it years ago. Mainly, in the description of the Terminus System, and yeah it would be Nu! Battlestar Galactica where the Rag Tag Fleet would run into a small Terran Dominion outpost and future full Dominion Colony on the planet that they called Terminus. A fun little nod to my original crossover idea for this whole thing. It also does use a few other bits from my other Starcraft story ideas, like the Imperial Shadows, which are units that draw on training for both the Ghosts and the Spectres with some flavor from the Protoss. Originally, I had them named the Wraiths but since I am using the Emperor's Shadow unit from the Co-Op Commander for Arcturus Mengsk as a visual base for them they get a new name for this story to reflect this.
Moving on, something else I wanted to mention before I end these lengthy notes is that I am using HMS, His/Her Majesty's Ship, for the Dominion's national ship prefix instead of the semi-canon DS, Dominion Ship, or the various fanon prefixes like DNS, Dominion Naval Ship I guess. Still, it is mainly due to my love of the Honor Harrington Series which is why I am using it for this story. This further expanded with the prefix of HMCS, which is His/Her Majesty's Civilian Ship, which works for non-military ships in my mind, though I may also use HMAS as well for military auxiliary ships. Shrug. Finally, I like to point out that of the characters introduced in this chapter only Valerian and Everett Vaughn are actually canon characters. The others are original characters that I had created for an even older Starcraft idea that I had and repurposed here for this story. Yeah. The Fleet Captain is based on Honor Harrington while General Warfield is the niece of Horace Warfield. Okay. I think that is it.
With all of that said! I am going to see about getting started on the next chapter where we see this gathered fleet being rudely dropped into the Mass Effect Universe and a certain now ascended Queen Bitch of the Universe makes an appearance. Till then! Thanks for reading!
Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come
A Mass Effect and Starcraft II Crossover Story Novella
Written by,
William R. Woods
aka, "deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero"
A Mass Effect and Starcraft II Crossover Story Novella
Written by,
William R. Woods
aka, "deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero"
Foreword
So, welcome to a third version of my basic idea for Mass Effect and Starcraft II crossover story which drops some sort of force from Starcraft II into the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. This really has come about after I noticed that there is little amount of stories that do a traditional crossover story between these two sci-fi video game franchises. As they are normally merged into a single universe and do not kick a character or such from Starcraft into the Mass Effect universe. Heck! There is nothing going the other way having such a thing happen from Mass Effect to the universe of Starcraft. Still, this idea mainly focused on James Eugene Raynor, one of the central characters of the entire franchise, and would through the powers of a fully ascended Sarah Kerrigan be sent to the universe of Mass Effect from around the time after the end of the final campaign of Starcraft II. Kerrigan would also equip Raynor with one of the more advanced Terran Combat Suits and weapons available at the time. From there he would be dropped onto Eden Prime around the start of the first game of the series and would join the whole main storyline of the series alongside a female Commander Shepard. That was the whole basic version of this idea with nothing else really added to the overall idea.
However, that changed when my muse decided to use this idea as a basis for this year's brand-new Writing Frenzy, an event that my local writing group is throwing together in place of National Novel Writing Month. Mainly due to the issues happening around the organization last year and since then. Anyways! My muse expanded on the idea and saw that while Raynor was kicked into the Mass Effect universe he wouldn't be alone. As Kerrigan would not only give Jim the needed weapons, combat suits, and other supplies but would also create a handful of needed allies to follow him. Not to mention it wouldn't be at the start of the game's story but instead would be a few years before the start of the series allowing this small team of Starcraft II characters to get settled into the universe before the events of the series begin. In the meantime, would not only fight against the Batarians but gather some local allies to their cause expanding their forces with these local recruits.
Sadly, though I started to see a few issues with the above version of this story idea, after writing two chapters for it, which soon led to a second version which did change a few things about the idea. Mainly, that is unlike the above idea which had a sort-of ascended version of Raynor spending around a century with Kerrigan wandering the universe before starting to explore alternate universes where they stumble onto the Mass Effect universe. Raynor then manages to convince Kerrigan to help the locals against the Reapers and the story begins soon afterwards. The second version has Kerrigan approach Raynor around the same time he "disappears" in the official story of the game and recruits him to be her champion in fighting against the Reapers in the Mass Effect universe which she discovered after experimenting with her powers. This idea kind of fell flat right at the halfway mark of writing the prelude chapter and while I do have a few ideas to merge a few things of the second idea with the original version my muse kind of latched on to another idea.
This idea basically abandons the whole thing with a single character or even a small group of characters from Starcraft being sent into the Mass Effect universe and sends off a small overall faction from Starcraft into Mass Effect. It also doesn't really focus on James Raynor, but instead, Emperor Valerian Mengsk, son of the previous Emperor of the Terran Dominion Arcturus Mengsk, and a small Dominion Fleet being sent over to the Mass Effect Universe. At his side would be his wife, one November Terra-Mengsk, or better known to many as the Ghost Operative Nova who is a side character from the Starcraft II first campaign storyline and would have had her own video game if things actually went through correctly. Still, this idea came from an older crossover idea that I had years ago after playing through the Legacy of the Void Campaign for the first time. Though I do admit that it was Starcraft crossing over to another popular sci-fi fandom, not Mass Effect.
The overall background to this whole thing would be that instead of siding with Gabriel Tosh during that fateful branch in the story of the Wings of Liberty Campaign Raynor and his Raiders side with Nova. However, during the course of the battle to bring down Tosh and his Specters on Avernus Station Nova would be exposed to a small amount of Terrazine from the destroyed Terrazine tanks. This does lead to her passing out which does see the Raiders evacuating her comatose self from the Station allowing Tosh to escape along with a small amount of his Specters. A bit later Nova wakes up with the vast majority of her memories no longer blocked or removed which does see her turning away from the Dominion and joining the Raiders in their own fight against the Dominion after some mental help from both Raynor and Zeratul, whose meeting with Raynor would be later on in the storyline. Then when Raynor meets with Valerian right before getting the final piece of the Xel'Naga Device Nova meets him as well and coldly tells him a few things about his father which he is not really all that surprised about. The rest of this campaign goes about as it does in canon just with Nova and a few hastily trained Raider Ghosts fighting alongside the Raiders in these final battles. Though Nova does further meet with Valerian more than a few times afterwards during these last few battles.
I do have a bit further on this version of the overall timeline about what happens to Nova and how she becomes involved with Valerian but I really do not want to make this foreword even more a lengthy thing. Still, there are a few other things that should be further explored in the story itself about not only Nova but her relationship with Valerian. As well as her time with the Raiders and her somewhat strained friendship with Raynor, and Kerrigan. I do believe that is enough talk from me and time to get to the story proper! So please do enjoy this story, and hope that it doesn't stall like the two other versions of his overall larger crossover story between that of Starcraft II and Mass Effect. With that said, welcome to Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come!
- William R. Woods
October 16, 2024
Prelude - A Journey Begins
Between the various Terrans powers both major and minor in the Koprulu Sector it is not very common for any sort of colonization outside of the sector itself. Even though the available planets to colonize and resources to claim inside the sector shrink every passing year. Instead, they turn to the likes of dedicated terraforming, sealed environmental colonies on more hostile planets, mining out large asteroids or even passing comets, or in more modern times, reclaiming abandoned or destroyed planets from the wars of the past. This is mainly due to the idea that there is nothing for the Terrans outside of the Sector or more recently, an enemy like the UED swooping in to brutally take over the less defended newly settled colonies outside of the more prosperous and defended colonies of the Koprulu Sector. Not to mention, many were scared of what they would find in the darkness of unknown space what with them already having fought against two alien races and finding out about the existence of an ancient precursor race. The question is always 'What else will we find out there? And can we survive it if attacks us?'. Then there is the UED, the United Earth Directorate, the overall nation station in charge of our race's ancient homeworld of Earth, and literally running into their own claimed space which may end up in another attempted invasion of the sector by the UED.
Taken all of this together really has prevented many of the various powers of the sector, along with their leaders, in the sector from expanding outside of the sector to even the most surveyed nearby sectors of space, like the Tursobis Sector to our western border or the Keresh Sector to our southern border, both had been thoroughly surveyed by the powers of the Sector over the years either due to the needs of the wars or other more greedy pursuits. What with the Tursobis Sector perhaps being the most famous with the Kel-Morian Combine sending several probes into the sector to search for resources during the years before the start of the Great War which lead to the settlement of a single colony right along the edge of the border between the two sectors. A colony that would be all out destroyed by the zerg during the early days of the Great War. While the Keresh Sector is literally right next to the home sector of space for the Protoss and had originally been surveyed by the Terran Dominion in the years that followed the Brood Wars in an effort to try to find the homeworld of the Protoss, Auir.
Hence, while exploration and surveying nearby space to the edges of the Koprulu Sector is somewhat accepted by many in the sector, outright colonizing new worlds in even these thoroughly explored neighboring sectors is still somewhat of a taboo subject to many of the average civilians of the sector preventing really any sort of colonization program to be launched outside of the Sector itself. Though it hasn't stopped many from putting forth various proposals for such colonization expeditions or our own creative minds…
- Taken from The Taboo of Out of Sector Colonization: The Reason Behind Such A Thing, written by Doctor Graham Diaz, University of Chau Sara, Published Circa. April, 2510CE
Open Space
Verge System, Koprulu Sector
Gamma Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy
September 7, 2512 Common Era
With an almost silent swish of noise, the large main hatchway leading into the bridge of the HMS Bucephalus opened, letting the tall golden-haired figure of Emperor Valerian Mengsk of the Terran Dominion into the beating heart of his own personal flagship. At his entrance, a trio of uniformed figures standing around the central holo table of the bridge turned and bowed shortly towards him as he approached them.
"Majesty," one of the more lavished uniformed figures, a large man, rumbled out loud drawing a nod from the even more lavishly dressed Emperor towards the man before looking over the holographic globe that dominated the central holo table. The Sovereign Class Command Battlecruiser, his personal flagship the HMS Bucephalus, along with its escorts of two Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Valor of Vardona and HMS Memory of Styrling - and a half-dozen Blizzard Class Light Cruisers were gathered along one side of the large display in a small formation of ships along with a flanking pair of simple holographic markers showing the location of the cloaked Condor Class Stealth Assault Destroyers - the HMS Griffon and HMS Unicorn - both of which were cloaked to further protect his small flotilla from anyone observing their little rendezvous in the middle of nowhere.
Then there happened to be a second larger-sized fleet of Terran ships that dominated the other half of the display. First, at the center of the fleet, there are the half-dozen Odyssey Class Large Colonial Transports, all of which had formerly been Behemoth Class Battlecruisers that had undergone a refit to make them into massively sized colonial transports for large-scale colonial expeditions or really recolonizing older colonies that had been destroyed in the Great Wars, the Brood War, or the End War. They mainly had much of their large ATS Laser removed, but kept the smaller ATA Laser Batteries, while the main Yamato Cannon was removed to make way for an over half kilometer in length passenger section which allowed two hundred thousand or so colonists to be transported in relative comfort inside a large armored transport that could defend itself if needed.
Secondly, these six large former battlecruisers were supported by a further six far smaller four hundred meters in length Titanic Class Colony Ships which carried a further several thousand or so colonists along with the needed tools and such to settle a new colony including prefabricated buildings. They are further supported by a dozen smaller, but similar in overall looks, Hercules Class Cargo Ships which carried the rest of the colonial expeditions supporting cargo including much of its initial food supply. Finally, there was the large spherical form of the Seeker Class Science Ship the HMCS A Lone Wanderer which hovered gently over the six equally large forms of the Odyssey Class Colonial Transports. They were all protected by two Minotaur Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Fearless and HMS Basilisk -, three further Blizzard Class Light Cruisers and a half-dozen smaller Valkyrie-II Class Escort Frigates. Really, an impressive-looking gathering of ships compared to the emperor's own small flotilla. All gathered together by the emperor's command to settle a new world outside of the larger Koprulu Sector. Just over a million colonists and supporting defensive military units were ready to jump into the unknown.
"Ah, the Terminus Colonial Expedition Fleet has finally arrived I see," he mentioned out loud with a small smile gracing his handsome face as he eyed the holographic renderings of the fleet as he came up alongside the holo table.
"Yes, Your Majesty, and ready for your speech," came the smooth soprano voice of Fleet Captain Stephanie Faith Harrington, the current commander of the Bucephalus. A tall and slim looking woman who was standing on the opposite side of the holo table reminding the emperor of the purpose for him to be out here along the very edge of Terran Dominion Space and the larger form of the Koprulu Sector. Oh. He had already been on one of his notable regular tours along the Fringe Colonies of the Dominion in an effort to get right in the action sort of speak and to get closer to some of his most abused subjects from the reign of his father. Still journeying this out-of-the-way system was not only just the last stop for his tour but to witness the first ever Terran Colonization Expedition to be sent outside of the Koprulu Sector and into the nearby Tursobis Sector. Something that he had ordered to be organized a few years ago was now finally realized.
"Thank you, Fleet Captain," the emperor replied to the woman with another smile on his face before focusing on the second figure gathered around the holo table who looked at the holo display with a grim frown on their face.
"Still not all that pleased by this are you, Everett?" he questioned the figure, one Brigadier Everett Vaughn, the former captain of the Bucephalus, the overall commander of this small flotilla of ships and the overall larger form of the 1st Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team, the Emperor's own personal guard force.
"I have no real issues with this whole operation my Emperor, what I do have a concern over is you being way out here along the edge of Dominion Space without at least a much larger fleet with us," the large-sized man mentioned with his earlier rumble of a voice as he frowned over at the form of his Emperor. This made the emperor sigh and shake his head for while he did understand the worries of his friend and overall man reasonable for the protection of his own presence. Not to mention his small family.
"Not to mention having the Empress and your unborn child along for this tour has not sit well with me at all," he further mentioned with now a large glower on his face looking around as if there were some hidden assassin hiding somewhere along the bridge of the overall flagship of the entire Terran Dominion Armed Forces.
Something that was quite laughable as not only was the ship's entire crew checked out by numerous means but also were constantly psionically screened for anyone trying to sneak in some sort of spy or assassin onto the emperor's chosen flagship. Not to mention several red- and gold-colored forms of Imperial Marines in heavy CMC-535 Combat Suits were spread over the entire bridge. That was not even including the handful of smaller forms in shadowed HES-09 Hostile Environment Suits that were hidden along the shadows of the large bridge, these being Dominion Imperial Shadows, soldiers able to use psionics to combat any threat. All of which were entirely loyal to the emperor. Still, there was some concern over having the vast majority of the Imperial Family of the Dominion out in this out-of-way system. As while many of the large threats to the Dominion were either destroyed entirely or now allied to them, there were still a few different threats to the emperor who would love to ambush them away from the larger Dominion Armed Forces.
"I do understand your concerns my friend, but the Empress did insist on coming along with this tour for some reason bringing with her our unborn kid. And I wasn't about to argue with her thanks to her moods," he replied to the concerned man mentioning the overall often swinging moods of his wife the Empress which did draw some light chuckles from the rest of the bridge crew. For they were all quite aware of their Empress and her various different moods due to her pregnancy.
"Speaking of the Empress sire, I would have thought she would have joined you?" questioned the final figure around the holo display, one Senior General Charlotte Ann Warfield, the Dominion's current Commander-in-Chief of the entire Dominion Armed Forces and part of the emperor's own current close staff. Also, the niece of the famous General Horace Warfield who had joined her uncle in the Dominion Military but due to her connections with the man had been imprisoned after the man's failure to stop Kerrigan or the remaining Zerg Broodmothers at Char by the orders of Valerian's father. After Valerian took the throne, he would go through the various cases his father personally got involved in and would release a good half of the people imprisoned on his father's orders. Including the whole remaining Warfield family much to his own personal horror.
"She was feeling a bit tired therefore decided to take a nap, but she shall be here when the Expedition makes its first jump towards the Tursobis Sector," he explained with a shrug and a concerned look on his face and the other three gathered around the table. For they all were quite close to the tiny Imperial Family and could be quite concerned over the tiny things about the two of them.
"Well, I do hope she and the child are alright," the figure of Fleet Captain Harrington mentioned out loud with some concern making the Emperor nod at her with his own worried smile on his face.
"Yes, pass on our concerns to her please majesty," General Warfield mentioned a moment later, making the emperor's nod at her as well before he shifted his attention back to the holographic display.
"Still cannot believe this day has finally arrived after more than a year of various people telling me that it wasn't possible, or something similar, with our current resources and manpower," he mused out loud before eying the various holographic representations of the ships of the Colonization Expedition Fleet. For indeed many inside the Dominion were against the project from the start, calling it a waste of resources and manpower to try to put down a colony outside of the sector itself. Something that was a solid concern that he had listened to, not his own thoughts on the matter. It was better than those handfuls of people saying that it was not right to put down a colony outside of the sector as it was their home and putting a foot outside of the Sector would be the end of everything.
"Well Sire, it was quite an interesting proposal to put the colony in the Terminus System, a system smack dab in the middle of a difficult to traverse nebula with its unique blend of radiation preventing anyone from warping into the nebula itself. A perfect defense and an even better fallback position if the Sector is invaded again by the UED," General Warfield replied with a soft chuckle at the whole idea for the Terminus System had been discovered by an old Confederate exploration probe before being followed by a small research expedition which found the nebula and the system hidden there in sported a somewhat decent world to fully able to be colonized, after some tweaking of course. Hence, when the plan for his Out of Sector Colonization Expedition was finally starting to make headway in the Dominion the Emperor would propose the destination as the newly named Terminus System for its target. He further explained that it would make a fine fallback point in case of any further invasion by the UED or another future enemy force.
"Not to mention the rich resources contained in the system and the idea to put a brand-new shipyard facility in the system made it quite an interesting proposal for many in the Dominion Senate. Quite an excellent idea all around sire," Brigadier Vaughn managed to rumble out with a short chuckle of his own making the emperor nod towards him with a large beaming smile at the praise. As spread out along the cargo bays of the Odyssey and Heracles Class ships were dozens of prefabricated pieces to assemble an orbital shipyard facility fully capable of building pretty much any ship in the Terran Dominion inventory from simple civilian haulers to a full-on Gorgon Class Superbattlecruiser with enough gathered resources.
"Yes, it was a good idea I admit to propose it like that but please remember ladies and gentlemen that at its core the Terminus Colony is more than a simple fallback position in case of further invasion of the Koprulu Sector, but a means to carry on the Terran Dominion in case of any sort of large scale disaster bringing down the Dominion," the Emperor explained in a more serious sounding voice looking over the figures of his three main subordinates with a grim look on his face making them all look back at him their own severe looks on their faces. They all were fully briefed about the main mission of the Terminus Colonial Expedition, the outright condition of the Terran Dominion as a nation state in case of disaster bringing the government of the Dominion down.
"On a less grim nature it does allow further exploration into the Tursobis Sector with some very interesting unknown ruins on some of the planets located there," the Emperor mentioned after several long moments of silence between them all remembering various bits of the Sector's more recent history, like the fall of Tarsonis to the Zerg Swarm, and the brief absorption of the Dominion into the UED during the course of the Brood War. Before being jolted out of these dark thoughts by the emperor's own comment making them all blink over at him in some surprise before chuckles were exchanged across the holo table between them all. All three officers were quite aware of the emperor's own passion for such things over the years having known him.
"That is quite true Sire, but you are not going to be harrying off to do such explorations yourself," the figure of the Brigadier chided the younger man with a small smile on his face making the figure of the emperor glare over at him.
"It was only the one time!" he almost whined out loud before sighing and chuckling at the older man.
"Well played General," he mentioned after a moment before focusing back on the holographic display and noticing the time at the corner of the display making him blanch in some shock before composing himself. All three officers did the same when they noticed their emperor looking at the display in some shock. A moment later all four of the gathered figures where back in their official roles of Emperor and his closest confidants.
"Well, it does look like the time for my speech is fast approaching," he commented before looking over at the Fleet Captain and nodding at her who turned herself over to her bridge's communication section.
"You heard the emperor! Get the broadcast to the entire Expedition Fleet set up as soon as possible," she ordered the men manning that section.
"Aye, ma'am!" They all called back before leaning over their combined station however before anything further happened the officers manning the ship's sensor station suddenly leaned forward in some surprise as their station started to blare at them in some warning. This drew the attention of the rest of the bridge and the four figures gathered around the central holo table. A moment later the lead sensor officer turned towards them in some form of confusion.
"Sirs! Our sensors are detecting a gathering of graviton particles and vortex warp energy," the man reported making all four figures blink in some surprise before the holo display chance from displaying a representation of gathered ships to a focused view on the location of interest. It was located roughly halfway between the two terran task forces, the Imperial Guard Flotilla and the Terminus Colonial Expedition.
"Were we expecting anyone from the Protoss to arrive for this operation?" General Warfield questioned in some confusion knowing that it was only the Protoss could currently use such energy and particles in their warp technology. Mainly thanks to their more advanced psychic powered warp technology that the terrans had barely been able to scratch at in the years since first contact between their two races.
"No. I have talked to Hierarch Artanis about my plans, but the Daelaam Union is still in the process of rebuilding Aiur and reclaiming a few of their nearby colonies in the Khaladas Sector to be all that interested in a colonial expedition," the Emperor mentioned in his own confusion at the appearance of such an anomaly for he was quite aware that the protoss of the Daelaam where quite busy trying to rebuild their civilization of the central sector of the Sigma Quadrant and the heart of the former Protoss Empire.
"Could it be the Tal'darim? I know that we have a sort of peace with the Highlord but there apparently are still some splinters of the older Tal'darim Sects around after all," Brigadier Vaughn mentioned with a scowl on his face making the others gathered around the new display to frown in some concern at this idea.
"I thought the Tal'darim didn't use graviton particles in their warp drives but a variant of solarite," questioned the Fleet Captain as she eyed the readings with a growing sense of unease, something that was starting to be shared by the rest of the ship's bridge crew.
"That is quite correct," the emperor replied with narrowed eyes, however before anything happened two things happened together. The first where the nearby guarding Imperial Shadows groaning out loud in some pain, which drew the attention of the emperor, and the second was more readings starting to appear on the holo display which was soon reported by the now panicking form of the lead sensor officer, which drew the attention of the other three senior officers.
"SIR! There is now void energy being gathered at the center of the anomaly!" the man managed to report even through his growing panic. For like many of the officers onboard the Bucephalus had been onboard during the final days of the End War when Terran, Zerg, and Protoss gathered together to finally destroy the Fallen Xel'Naga Amon in the darkness of the overall region of subspace known as the Void which powered not only the Dark Templar of the Protoss but the followers of Amon who would use such energy in their defense of their living god over the course of that battle. The Bucephalus barely managed to survive one attack during the battle, and it was only its enhanced armor and a timely application of a defensive matrix that defended the ship from the attack.
"Contact all of the ships in this system! Emergency Warp out of here now!!" the bellow of the Brigadier reached the entire bridge as he pounded a beefy head on the edge of the holo table in his overall fury and fear at what was going on. From his position helping the nearest Imperial Shadow to their feet, the emperor could only sigh as he knew from his own studies that it was way too late to do anything and closed his eyes.
'Luckily for the Dominion Arturia would make a fine Empress,' he managed to think to himself with a small sad smile on his face mentioning his distant cousin who he had managed to find out about in the years that followed the End War who he had made his direct heir. At least till the birth of his child, anyway which wouldn't happen now much to his sadness for he had truly been quite excited to become a father. He then closed his eyes in acceptance as everything went white when the gathered energy of the detected anomaly exploded outwards, and he knew nothing more as the gathered forty-five Terran ships disappeared from this universe along with the one point three million terrans onboard said ships. There was nothing to show how they disappeared or what had done the deed. As with the anomaly and its gathered energy, there was nothing really able to show what had happened here to any sort of sensor. Nothing remained… at least in this universe.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes
And that is a wrap! I am actually quite proud of this chapter outside of some of the bits in the middle of the chapter. Sigh. Still, it is quite an interesting chapter that I managed to wrangle my muse to create. The overall idea for the chapter was to bring a small fleet of the Terran Dominion, mainly a dedicated colonial fleet, from the Starcraft universe to that of the Mass Effect universe. So, no worries our loveable "Junior" Emperor Valerian is still alive and is now going to appear in the Mass Effect universe along with over one million of his people.
That does take us to the overall "how" they all got kicked into the Mass Effect universe. Well, when I originally came up with this idea it would have been a void corrupted Mass Relay that a couple of Amon's followers had been messing around with during those final hectic days of the End War. However, I did not really know how that would have worked, Void energies meeting with that of Element Zero or even how it managed to get on this side of the divide, therefore moved away from that whole idea. Instead, I kind of created my own little tech babble bit of lore to explain it with graviton particles, something seen in a few Protoss unit or ability descriptions, meeting that of vortex warp energy, my term for energy from protoss warp tech, and general void energy that when combined all together pretty much created the whole event to transfer them all over to the Mass Effect universe. I am quite proud of the whole idea! I really do not know if it would actually work, lore-wise, but sorry I have not talked with the likes of Subsourian, the Starcraft King of Lore, if it is even possible but I am pretty sure it does sound like something happened which is what I actually wanted for all of it.
Okay. Time to get to a few other main points I want to cover before I end these notes. First of all, I'm sure you can guess what the original crossover was for this idea when I originally came up with it years ago. Mainly, in the description of the Terminus System, and yeah it would be Nu! Battlestar Galactica where the Rag Tag Fleet would run into a small Terran Dominion outpost and future full Dominion Colony on the planet that they called Terminus. A fun little nod to my original crossover idea for this whole thing. It also does use a few other bits from my other Starcraft story ideas, like the Imperial Shadows, which are units that draw on training for both the Ghosts and the Spectres with some flavor from the Protoss. Originally, I had them named the Wraiths but since I am using the Emperor's Shadow unit from the Co-Op Commander for Arcturus Mengsk as a visual base for them they get a new name for this story to reflect this.
Moving on, something else I wanted to mention before I end these lengthy notes is that I am using HMS, His/Her Majesty's Ship, for the Dominion's national ship prefix instead of the semi-canon DS, Dominion Ship, or the various fanon prefixes like DNS, Dominion Naval Ship I guess. Still, it is mainly due to my love of the Honor Harrington Series which is why I am using it for this story. This further expanded with the prefix of HMCS, which is His/Her Majesty's Civilian Ship, which works for non-military ships in my mind, though I may also use HMAS as well for military auxiliary ships. Shrug. Finally, I like to point out that of the characters introduced in this chapter only Valerian and Everett Vaughn are actually canon characters. The others are original characters that I had created for an even older Starcraft idea that I had and repurposed here for this story. Yeah. The Fleet Captain is based on Honor Harrington while General Warfield is the niece of Horace Warfield. Okay. I think that is it.
With all of that said! I am going to see about getting started on the next chapter where we see this gathered fleet being rudely dropped into the Mass Effect Universe and a certain now ascended Queen Bitch of the Universe makes an appearance. Till then! Thanks for reading!