9Avengers of Mass Effect
Shanxi arc chapter 1
Quick note: I apologize for this beforehand, but after doing some studying up on systems alliance military doctrine, I realized that as soon as a colonies outwards communications network is disabled and the enemy doesn't hold themselves to something similar to a Geneva conventions style agreement in regards to the treatment of civilians in wartime, both the colony, the colonial garrison and the its remaining population are done for.
This is because the alliance mainly uses garrisons to slow down the enemy and gain information on them, not to actually fight head on against a well-armed force and have a chance at winning. Because of this I'm changing the strategy a bit by giving all colonies a 100 to 200% larger garrison, depending on how big the garrison was to begin with.
Also the strategy in space used by the Systems Alliance… yeah they only work if you either A: don't care about the opponent occupying your territories and potentially killing off the population of your colonies, or B you own a large amount of sparsely populated territory in the direction the opponent will be coming from and thus have a full day or longer to react after the early warning systems go off before the opponent reaches a target of any importance.
The reason for this is simple: Mass Relays are extreme chokepoints in ME space warfare, since the region from where attackers will come from can be easily determined. The problem with the Systems Alliance strategy in regards to this is that while this initially gives the colonies defenders an advantage, it also means that if the Systems Alliance fleet arrives after the colonial defence force has already been taken down. (Which considering in canon that is usually only 2 or 3 ships at most colonies not all that surprising.)
Disclaimer: I do not own either mass effect or the marvel cinematic universe, if I did I would not be writing this story, but making changes to the games or sitting beside Stan Lee during his moments in the movies.
'' Talk'' is regular oral communication/talking out loud
'TALK' Is mental communication such as telepathy or communication with things that are controlled through brain waves. Might also be used in situations dealing with possession by some kind of being/force.
Planet: Shanxi, Location: roughly 30 kilometres north of the capital city
Tony POV
This would have been one hell of a lot easier if I hadn't been cocky and lost flight control early on in this fight, what the fuck? Since when is that guy strong enough to rip trees out of the ground and throw them with even more ease then Rogers throws his shield?!
Luckily his aim is off when throwing anything other than his main weapon, since he can't control them with his mind. Hmm he's lined up so that if I hit that tree he damaged while deflecting one of my blasts now it should fall on him, let's hope that that works.
Lining up my shot at the tree while behind my own sparse cover I manage to hit it and the energy blast took it down, sending it falling towards Corvus Glave, who somehow managed to dodged it.
However this does give me an opportunity. Stepping out from behind my own cover, aiming the Uni-beam at him before firing, and there now there is a giant hole in his torso. Now a last blast to the face should finish him off, there done. Turning around I see Thanos preparing to strike the death blow to Rogers, the energy around whom seemed to glow brighter right now.
Just what is it with that energy? Never mind, I need to go in and save him, in this situation he's our only hope of holding against Thanos for any length of time, considering my suit is fucked and Barnes is still busy with Loki. If we make it out of this alive though, Rogers owes me big time.
Thanos POV
And there he is down on the ground, the so called undefeatable hero of that primitive planet. Though to be honest their defences and the weapons wielded by their defenders were overall anything but primitive, but I digress. Now all I need to do to finish off this man and also the hopes of these people is gather some energy in my hand and send it crashing down into his chest.
Hmm it was a nice bit of a fight, and a bit more difficult than I made it look on the outside while also controlling Loki, but with the gauntlet working fully or with me not having to control Loki, I would have slaughtered him... wait a second. Why am I suddenly flying through the air? And then crashing into something very painfully?!
What, crashing into that tree hurt somehow... how can that be? I'm the mad titan, a God, crashing into something as weak as an overgrown piece of shrubbery should not have been able to hurt me. ''Thanos you will not live to terrorize those I care about, you will die here, on this planet, in this dimension even if it is the last thing I do!''
And then my vision was suddenly filled with a shield with a star in its centre slamming into my face, while stinging beams of energy slammed into me from multiple sides. Damn these fools, why can they not realize the righteousness of my cause!
Steve POV (moments earlier)
When I came to Thanos was still gathering energy in his hand, and seemed distracted by his thoughts on something, good. Then he will not see this coming. My body was changing slightly, though not too much of it outwardly, but my muscles now felt stronger, as if I was put through another project like the one that made me into a super-soldier originally.
The damaged vibranium semi-shield on my left hand was also replaced by a replica of the shield I knew all too well and had fought with for years, though this time around I could actually feel it, and use it as a conductor for energy and fire attacks, like Thor did with lightning when he still had his hammer
Gathering all the energy I thought the shield could withstand, I slammed it into Thanos face with my left hand alone, and he went flying backwards with at least one of his bones broken, and hit a very big, sturdy looking tree. Only after he hit it I saw that it was not a tree, but a painted very big rock... I will find out why that was later, though I have a good idea, but for now I'll just take him down.
''Thanos you will not live to terrorize those I care about, you will die here, on this planet, in this dimension even if it is the last thing I do!'' I jumped forward, shield in front of me held with my left hand once again, diverting raw energy to my legs to get more power behind the hit, and after hitting his face, I kicked him in the chest while using his body to perform a flip out of range while stark sent some energy blasts into his face.
Bucky POV (at the same time Steve was coming to)
I grabbed Loki by the should and forcefully turned him so he could see Steve and Thanos, also immediately unbalancing him, while using my metal arm to keep him in place. ''Look Loki, watch this, we need you to fight it, otherwise he will die, and he is the only one of us to even stand the slightest chance in a physical one on one fight against Thanos, we need you to come back to us, for Thor for your people.''
While saying this he hit Loki in the back of the head, which caused him to fall down for a moment, but he got back up within seconds, by this point in time his eyes had gone back to their natural colour instead of the zombie bright blue.
Suddenly Steve started shimmering, the small shield on his left arm changed back into his old shield, which then started glowing and flew towards Thanos face so fast I could barely follow it, the hit sent the mad destroyer flying back towards the forest, with the big tree he would hit changing into stone within the blink of an eye.
''Thank you. the assistance of you and the others is very nice, now how can I help take down this monster?'' ''I don't think we were ever formally introduced, James Buchannan Barnes'' ''Loki Odinsson''
''Can you magically create a close quarters or ranged weapon that can actually pierce his Thanos skin, it would be nice to actually be able to damage him and Steve might be in need of assistance. Though he does seem to do alright currently, but I don't know how long it will last since this has never happened before.''
''I can create a dagger that will penetrate his skin, it won't go very deep though because of him soaking both in his power as a 'God' with dozens if not hundreds of millions of followers and more recently the power of some of the infinity stones. I myself will be ranged support, the combination of our fight and fighting off the Titans influence has left me exhausted.''
He said this while creating and giving me a 10 inch dagger. I nodded in thanks before replying before replying. ''Thank you and noted.'' After which I charged forward to assist my old friend. Because who better to help the worlds stalwart defender then his brother in all but blood?
Tony POV
Ok, I can now fly short distances with those quick repairs I did, but with the damage the suit has received, I'm still more of an artillery piece or long ranged support rather than having the actual ability to fight Thanos while going close to him. Hmm this tree branch should be nearly strong enough to hold the Hulk standing on it, little old me in this armour will be no problem.
Let's see, currently Rogers is in the way, wait since when does he have his old shield back? Doesn't really matter currently I'll ask him after Thanos is dead. A near whispered ''Fire'' can be heard over my comms, coming from Barnes, who was now charging forward with a big knife in his hands, and I happily complied with it.
Hitting Thanos in the face directly in his left eye, while Loki teleported a dozen yards or so to his left and hit his arm with some kind of ice blast it seemed? No matter, probably related to him having Ice Giants in the family tree.
Rogers meanwhile uses a blind punch that Thanos threw with his gauntlet clad left hand by dodging it, then grabbing it and slamming his shield harshly against the arm, probably breaking some of the bones in it. Meanwhile Barnes manages to get close enough to slash Thanos already wounded left arm multiple times with his knife, while trying to take rip the gauntlet off his arm.
Thanos POV
No, this cannot be, but if I die here then they will die with me! I use whatever strength I have left to close the portal to back home, causing the magical recorder to disappear and the stones in the gauntlet to become even weaker, and I try to concentrate enough to use it as a bomb.
Damnit Loki freezes my neck before I can finish it, after which Rogers starts gathering energy in his free hand ''This is for everyone that has suffered because of you Thanos'' After this there is only darkness, I feel nothing nor see anything anymore except for 1 blue crystallite being that laughs at me and says ''You had this coming for a long time 'master' ''
Loki POV
Finally the monster is dead but, why do I feel so weak all of a sudden? I look over to Rogers and he seems to be having the same problem. I hear Stark curse ''Shit, this is fucking unbelievable. The son of a bitch managed to close the portal just before he died, Loki, do you know how to recreate it?'' What. We cannot go back? I cannot go back to my brother? My people? Now that they have finally accepted me? Now that I have finally truly redeemed myself?
I need to focus, focus on getting back, we have the infinity stone of space here, I should be able to fix the portal in less than a day. ''Let me see how much power there is left in the stones, we should be able to use them to recreate a return portal.'' I sent a power reading spell which took some out of me, which is strange, normally this should not take that much energy, probably because of the exhaustion.
What no, no this can't be, this cannot be right! This is a partially completed infinity gauntlet with multiple stones in it, it should not have less than half the power that the Tesseract had on its own when I used it years ago!
Wait a moment... Thanos said we were in another dimension. That means that the reality stones are most likely much weaker here because they cannot draw upon the universes power. Same with me and Captain Rogers, we are both away from our main power source, the ones that believe in us/have faith in us.
Apparently my realization showed on my face because Captain Rogers spoke up ''Loki, is there something wrong with the portal? Also can you explain why I feel so much weaker than mere moments ago, and why the stones lost most of their glow and feeling of power?'' I sighed, well they would find out when I couldn't get the portal going anyways.
''There is a big problem currently that affects both us and the stones. The reason why you lost most of your power, why I lost some of my power and why the stones feel so much weaker, is because we are in another dimension.''
Barnes seemed a bit surprised ''What do you mean the reason why they lost power is because we are in another dimension?'' Both Stark and Rogers seemed to realize why ''It is because most of the power both Rogers and the Stones were getting was a form of continues supply from our dimension, with the portal closed, there is no connection that either of them can get power from.
Most of Loki's power on the other hand stems from people that religiously believed in him in the past, because of which he still has a big part of his power. However due to the recent re-emergence of belief in the Asgardian Pantheon he's still cut off from a regular power supply from back home.'' reasoned Stark.
''Partially yes Stark, but also because this dimension apparently never had a being that truly resembled the idea of a 'Loki', or any other member of the Asgardian pantheon really. This causes me to get some power from the small amount of people that still believe in either the idea of me or the pantheon in general, which is currently strengthening me.
Do not ask me how I know this, I do not know how I got the information myself, which is very irritating.'' I scanned the stones a second time, and now they were slightly stronger. The difference was extremely small, a difference roughly the size of 1 in a million, but it was more powerful now then it was with my last scan.
I repeat the process, which caused the others to be intrigued about what was happening ''I had to double check, but apparently there is a good news. At the very least the space stone is regenerating some power, it is extremely slow, but it is happening.'' All three of them seemed understandably relieved.
''Ok, how fast are we talking about until it gets to the necessary amount of power? A few days? A few weeks? A few months?'' seeing that I hadn't answered yet Rogers became a bit more anxious ''a few years?''.
I did some rough calculations and then replied ''At this rate, unless we decide to use any of the stones or the gauntlet itself, it will take slightly more than 10 years. If we use either the gauntlet any of the stones outside of the space stone, it will take slightly more than 12 years.
While they look dissatisfied with this, I sadly enough have to be the bringer of even more bad news. ''However, if we use the space stone for any reason, it could be set back to 40 possibly even 50 years before we can create a portal that not only reaches our dimension but is also stable enough for us to not instantly die upon arrival and well directed enough that we arrive in our own dimension, and not just some random other dimension.''
3rd person POV, Shanxi military headquarters moments after the portal appeared
A young officer that oversaw the satellite footage, both outwards into space and the inward satellites aimed at the planet itself, was running through the base towards the war room of the base. She burst through, while inside there was a meeting going on between General Williams, Colonel Miller of the Shanxi militia and Captain Smith, the commanding officer of the small Systems Alliance flotilla defending Shanxi.
This flotilla had recently been re-enforced with the regional Systems Alliance quick reaction flotilla after the start of the hostilities with aliens in the area and went from 3 ships, consisting 2 frigates and 1 cruiser, to a 15 ship big defence flotillia of 2 cruisers, 8 frigates and 5 corvettes.
This was however not enough to calm the personnel operating from the planet since they had lost contact with a flotilla of 20 Chinese exploration and warships hours ago and hadn't heard of them yet, meaning that chances were high of the flotilla having died in battle against another group of said earlier mentioned hostile alien force after they killed the first group of enemies.
Another problem with this situation being that most of the flotilla that had gone through the relay had been part of the Chinese element of the defensive flotilla near Shanxi, including its commanding officer. This meant that they couldn't just think of the enemy victory as a fluke caused by an incompetent commander or bad crews on the Chinese part, since they all knew the man was a capable and experienced officer, with the crew of at the very least his flagship also having been some of the best the Chinese could field.
General Williams POV
I was surprised by 2nd lieutenant Anderson bursting into the room like that, she was supposed to have been at her post currently and knew better then to intrude without reason. I hope something didn't go wrong badly.
''General, Colonel, Captain, I apologize to all three of you for bursting into this meeting like that, but we currently have a situation going on groundside, some kind of blue portal opened up on the surface of the planet, and 6 individuals have stepped out, with at least 2 of them being clearly non-human, 1 human, and of the last three we are unsure if they are human or not.''
What. ''They also seem to be in 2 groups of 3 that are on opposing sides of a conflict, I'll patch the current live data through now'' She patched the data through to the big screen on the side of the war room, with everyone in the room watching the feed intently in silence.
(A portion of the battle is being shown, starting from the beginning of this chapter)
''Did anybody else notice that the black haired male that seemed to get a change of heart during the battle was wearing old Norse style clothing while the seeming leader of the group that won is wearing what seems to be a heavily customised mid 21st century combat suit.'' Could be heard from one of the soldiers in the room, sergeant Aragorn I believe.
''No, I was more focused on the fact that at the very least some of these people are genetically enhanced to much greater level than even those new Siberian Biotic Legions and Heavy Assault Legions the Russians and Australians are fielding respectively, seen by the fact that they were throwing relatively big trees around as if it were sticks, shooting energy blasts out of what seemed to be their bare hands, creating knives out of thin air and somehow to top it all off transforming their weapons between entirely different forms.
And after this at least one of them is still more then fine enough to move at a speed similar to those earlier mention Russian and Australian non-human super-soldier legions. How the fuck did your mind go to their sense of style before processing all this information sergeant.
And this all within a day after we've made hostile contact with some kind of alien life-forms that decided they just didn't like us and didn't even bother explaining the reasoning as to why they have such a problem with us.''
That reaction was at least partially sarcastic, which is completely unlike myself, but I couldn't help it. We were watching multiple humans and aliens duke it out less than 100 kilometres away from the capital city on this planet, and he had noticed the clothing styles rather than the fact that those same beings could potentially throw buildings around with their bare hands without having to put much effort into that action.
This was going to be a disaster if it ended up becoming a fight. Sigh, as if my hope of this being a nicely peaceful if somewhat boring assignment wasn't already stomped on enough by hostile alien contact just one relay away. Just what have I done to deserve this kind of assignment?
And that's it for now, thank you all for reading this, please leave constructive commentary behind about what I write if you do leave commentary behind, I will not read things that are only shouting about how bad this story is without actually giving the reason(s) why my writing is so bad to deserve said statements. Thank you all. Next chapter will have more of the Shanxi garrisons reaction to this, and also show interaction between the two groups. Will also show Tony's reaction to the idea of mass effect technology. See you all next chapter. Authors note 26-3-2019: And I'm finally done rewriting this chapter. If any beta-reader reads this and is interested in assisting me with this, please message me, it is taking me way too long to do this for my liking because of how hard it is to pick up on your own mistakes in written works.