AEON EFFECT (Mass Effect / Trinity Crossover)

[DragonCobolt]

Name

Tigershark "Ti" Shepard

Order

Project Minerva (formerly 5th Legion)

Spoiler: Base Attributes

ATTRIBUTES

​	Physical Attribute​	#​	Mental Attribute​	#​	Social Attribute​	#​
Power​	Might​	*****​	Intelligence​	**​	Presence​	*****​
Finesse​	Dexterity​	*​	Cunning​	**​	Manipulation​	*​
Resistance​	Stamina​	***​	Resolve​	**​	Composure​	****​

Psi​	3​	PP​	10/10​	Initiative​	2​	Momentum​	Varies​	Defense​	1+5d​	XP: 6​
Range​	Short/Medium​	Size​	1 or 2​	Duration​	Minutes/Hours​	Attune​	Medium Range​	Soft/Hard Armor​	3​	2​

SKILLS

Skills [Specialty]​	Rating​	Tricks​	Skills [Specialty]​	Rating​	Tricks​
Aim​	***​	Gun Tool (can spend 1 momentum to add Aim to related skill checks by using a gun to help out.)​	Athletics​	​	​
Close Combat​	***​	Deadly Strike (when using mixed actions in melee combat, use the higher pool rather than the smaller.)​	Command​	​	​
Culture​	​	​	Empathy​	***​	Cold Read (spend 1 momentum to learn a detail about someone you just met)​
Enigmas​	​	​	Humanities​	​	​
Integrity​	​	​	Larceny​	​	​
Medicine​	​	​	Persuasion​	***​	Devilishly Good Looking (spend 1 momentum to shift an NPC's attitude up by 1 towards you)​
Pilot​	***​	VARG Pilot (When in combat, piloting checks do not count as against your maximum number of actions.)​	Science​	​	​
Survival​	​	​	Technology​	​	​

PATHS

�

PATHS​	SKILLS​	CONTACT​	ACCESS​
Oceanic (*)​	Culture, Empathy, Survival, Technology​	Mom/Dad​	Scientists​
EDGES​	Amphibious or Aquatic Conversion (**/**), Artistic Talent (*-***), Big Hearted (*), Hardy (*-***), Increased Tolerance (*-***)), Library (*-***)​	CONTACT​	ACCESS​
VARG Pilot (*)​	Aim, Close Combat, Pilot, Technology​	Cpt. Anderson​
EDGES​	Ambidextrous (*), Cool Under Fire (**), Demolitions Training (*-***), Direction Sense (*), Hair Trigger Reflexes (*), Ms. Fix It (**), Patron (*-***), Tough Cookie (**)​	CONTACT​	ACCESS​
Section Minerva (*)​	Empathy, Integrity, Larceny, Persuasion​	Director Udina​	Minerva Agents​
EDGES​	Alternate Identity (*-**), Covert (*-***), Iron Will (*-***), Self-Reliance (*-*****), Striking (**)​
EDGES​	EFFECT​	DOTS​
Aquatic Conversation​	Converted eyes can see in low light without penalty, can speak underwater with high frequency emissions, can endure -20 C without discomfort, can breathe water as well as air, gains 1 level of Soft Armor, moves at Speed Scale 2 while in the water, has sonar out to "far" range. DRAWBACKS: Requires x3 water per day to survive, suffers +2 complication with social checks with people who are disturbed by hot, muscular shark girls (racists, bigots, and general dickheads who you don't wanna be friends with anyway.) ​	**​
Ms. Fix It​	Can add a second skill to repair and reverse engineering rolls as Enhancement, if it is related to the device in question (I.E, using Pilot to augment a Tech check to repair a VARG.)​	**​
Striking​	She's hot! ...very hot. +2e to all social checks.​	**​
Favored Mode​	She gains +2e to all Transmog rolls, enhancing her ability to transform her body into anything she wills. This can be added as successes to rolls, or can be used to increase her Psi stat for the purposes of range, radius, and duration.​	**​
Enhanced Tolerance​	She is exceptionally good at attuning to psi-active biological technology. She adds +2 to her Tolerance limit.

Health level​	Status​	Health level​	Status​	Health level​	Status​
Hard Armor​	​	Bruised​	​	Maimed​	​
Hard Armor​	​	Injured​	​	Taken Out​	​

Spoiler: Biokinetic Powers

(+1 Cost, +1 Diff per dot above your Mode Dots)

MODES​	BIOKINESIS​
Basic Powers	Biosense (Cost: 0 | Duration: [Duration] | Effect: Can detect all living creatures within short range. Can screen out microbes, mammals, humans, and other things you don't want to sense per success.​
Adaption (-) [*]	Resist [*] (Cost: 0 | Duration: Instant | Effect: Reduce damage from toxins, irritants, and diseases by [Mode] dots. Can spend successes to add +1 to reduction per success. Also, cleans sense automatically! Acclimatize [**] (Cost: 0 | Duration: [Mode Dots] x [Duration] | Effect: Suffer no penalties from high or low gravity that isn't Extreme, ignore all environmental damage with the hourly tag. Reduce damage from other environments by 1 per success spent and, if reduced to 0, downgrade them from continuous to minutes, for example. Metabolic Control [***] (Cost: 1 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Change the rate of one part of your biology. Healing time can be sped up by [Mode Dots]+Successes. For things like intiative, reaction times, and so on, it is increased or decreased by [Mode Dots]/2, +/- 1 per 1 success spent. Can spend 2s to impact a second quality as well. Adapt [****] (Cost: 2 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Upgrades Acclimatize so it works against continuous automatically by just spending the cost for Adapt! Survive [*****] (Cost: 3 | Duration: [Mode] Scenes | Effect: Success increases both inflict damage and reduce indirect damage by [Mode] dots. Furthermore, can roll Psi+Adaption to regenerate injuries.​
Psychomorphing (**)[*]	Adjust [*] (Cost: 0 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Can move physical dots around equal to [Mode Dots] + Successes. So, 1s can move 3 points from Might to Dexterity! Enhance [**] (Cost: 1 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] or 1 week or 1 month | Effect: May add +1 to physical attributes per success, up to a max of 5. Can purchase physical edges temporarily. If she commits 1 Psi Point for a week she can go without water. For a month, she can go without food. She can increase her running or swimming speed scale by +1 to a maximum of 3. Compartmentalize [***] (Cost: 1 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Don't leave fingerprints, shed hair, or leave any tracks behind. Increase the diff to track by [Mode.] Can format with a bioapp by combining it with your body, reducing its Tolerance Requirement by 1 (can store up to Psi Dots apps.)) Overcome [****] (Cost: 2 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Gain an Enhancement to all dice rolls that can be improved by mercurial shapeshifting (joints can bend anywhere, pheromones can be released, and so on) equal to [Mode.] Perfection [*****] (Cost: 3 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Works like Enhance, but your physical stats have the new max of 7 and you can enhance physical and mental stats as well!​
Transmogrify (**)[*]	Plasticity [*] (Cost: 0 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Can stretch limbs out a number of meters equal to [Mode] dots. Can slip through gaps no wider than [10-Mode] centimeters by squeeshing. Can form glider wings. Gross Manipulation [**] (Cost: 0 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Modifies her body to produce a specific effect. For 1s, gain enhancement equal to [mode]/2 for any non-combat action (E.G, making climbing claws to climbing!) For 2s, grow extra limbs to use as you will! Can grow extra sensory organs for 1s (eyes on fingers, for example.) If growing weapons, gain a number of points equal to [Mode]+Successes that can be spent on the following fun things! Melee weapons with Brutal (1), Deadly (1), Entangle (2), Grapple (1), Piercing (1), Pushing (1), Quality (2 or 3), Reach (1), Shield (2), Weighted (1.) For armor, it's Complete (3), Composite (2), Defensive (2), Hard (1), or Soft (1, 2) Transformation [***] (Cost: 1 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Transfooooorm! Cosmetic changes are 1s, 1s = 10% change in height or weight, Physical Sex is 2s, Copying someone is 1s if you have a psionic connection to them. Impersonating someone without is 4s. Chimera [****] (Cost: 2 | Duration: [Mode] x [Duration] | Effect: Can gain +1 enhancement per success to any sense by adding new, sexy senses (bat ears!?), can add +1 to running or swimming speed scale per success, can add +1 to flying scale for 2 successes (to a maximum of speed scale 4.) Can remove aquatic conversion for duration. Can create ranged weapons, similarly to above. Can make these changes permanent with XP. Imbue Instinct [*****] (Cost: 3 | Duration: [Mode] x Hours | Effect: Gain a bonus for a number of mixed actions equal to her Psi, adding +1e to all of those actions per 2 successes on the roll. Only those actions gain these enhancements. Can separate out one wound box worth of flesh (cannot use her armor for this) and send it out to do her crimes for her! Furthermore, can use any previous Transmog power to modify her size up to Size 2 (big old bear) or down to Size 0 (cat size).​

Spoiler: Equipment and VARG

Tolerance: 8/8

N7 Combat Armor
Tags: Active Camo [2] (+2e to all stealth checks), Complete (3) [Protects against all forms of damage], Hard Armor [3] (+2 hard armor), Powered [0] (so long as it remains powered, +2e to all might checks), Soft Armor [2] (+2 to soft armor)

M5 Predator Kinetic Pistol
Tags: Brutal [1] (-1s required for critical hits), Concealable [2] (+2e to conceal it), Destructive [2] (Ignores 2 armor and blows through walls with ease), Quality [3] (Adds +2e to use), Ranged [Melee to Close Range] [1] (Can be fired in melee to close range without penalty)

Steinhardt MI-CC: A military issue minicomp, with communication and computing technology. Basically, a space phone from space.

Interface Augmentation Device (IAD), Biokinesis: Adds +1 to all Biokinetic Modes for the purposes of duration and effect but NOT for dice. Adds +1 to Psi for all factors save Psi Points for rolling Biokinesis. Tolerance Requirement: 3

M35 Mako Class V(acuum) A(ssault) and R(econnaissance) G(ear)
GENERAL
Sensor Range: Long (+2e to all perception checks) with LANS (can detect Quantum Flux and Biotic Powers)
Life Support: 1 Year | Tolerance Requirement: 5
Strength Enhancement: Count as Scale 2 for strength (+2e per scale above the target). Suffer +1 complication for dealing with anything smaller.
Armor: 2 Soft, 2 Hard | Health: -1/-1/-2/-2/-4

HARDPOINTS
Shoulder Mounted M-290 Revenant Coilgun
Scale: 2 | Total Enhancement: +6e
Tags: Automatic [2] (Can add +2e by emptying the magazine), Destructive [2] (ignores 2 armor and blows through walls with ease), Hardpoint [2] (+1e and uses a hardpoint), Major [0] (counts as size 1), Ranged [Close to Medium] (can be used at these range without penalty), VARG-Scale [+1e, count as one scale higher)

Wrist Mounted M-451 Firestorm Laser Cannon
Scale: 2 | Total Enhancement: +5e
Tags: Beam [1] (can strike every target within close range of the target), Destructive [2] (see above), Hardpoint [2] (see above), Ranged [Close to Medium] (see above), VARG-Scale (see above)

Back Mounted ML-77 Smart Missile Launcher
Scale: 2 | Total Enhancement: +5e
Tags: Hardpoint [2] (see above), Incendiary [2] (on a critical hit, sets the target on fire instead of doing extra damage), Massive Explosive (ranged) [3] (Kabooms everyone in a medium radius), Ranged [Short-Long] (See above), VARG-Scale (see above)

COMPONENTS
Weapons [4]: Has a major weapon in a hardpoint, and two minor weapons in the other hardpoints.
Biomorphic Array [3]: Provides +4 to transmog rolls, and +2 dots to the Transmog mode for the purposes of powers, allows for the powers to be used on the Mako.
Tools [1]: A set of manipulators for field repairs
SPECIAL MOVES
System Damage: Spend 1s from a defensive roll to replace an injury to one of your hardpoints
Advantageous Assault: Spend 1s while attacking to blow apart scenery into Light Cover or Complicated Terrain. 2s will make heavy cover or difficult terrain.

Spoiler: Relationships

Jenny: 1 Romance
Kaiden: 1 Friendship
Ashley: 1 Friendship

 

[Matsci]

[X] Check out C-Sec

As much as ACAB, you can take advantage of that. If someone like a Spectre is on station, C-Sec is gunna be tracking them.

Also GARRUS GARRUS GARRUS GARRUS

 

[F0lkL0re]

[X] Check out C-Sec

 

[Doccer]

[X] Check out C-Sec

As much as ACAB, you can take advantage of that. If someone like a Spectre is on station, C-Sec is gunna be tracking them.

Also GARRUS GARRUS GARRUS GARRUS

Click to shrink...

Well of course we gonna get dat bro. But first Tali's life is on a timer damnit.

 

[Crayak]

[X] Visit the Shadow Broker

 

[Doccer]

Adhoc vote count started by Doccer on Mar 7, 2022 at 8:04 AM, finished with 17 posts and 14 votes.

• ---

  9 people have voted

  [X] Visit the Shadow Broker

  • Parzival95
  • Legion0047
  • ThatGazzer
  • The Lowtide
  • Vanestus
  • Lord Sia
  • Doccer
  • Legionman
  • Crayak

  5 people have voted

  [X] Check out C-Sec

  • CrabTravelLLC
  • Some_guy_161
  • Silor
  • Matsci
  • F0lkL0re

 

[Martenzo]

[X] Visit the Shadow Broker

 

[DragonCobolt]

You shrug.

"Might as well check out this Barla Von guy. If he's so interested in us," you say, grinning.

The others nodded.

"Can we bring our guns?" Ash asks. "Cause it sounds like a trap."

"This is a multispecies city that serves as the beating hub of intergalactic politics, home to countless millions, surrounded by the uncaring void and the place where the Citadel Council and dozens of ambassadors make their homes!" you say, then draw your pistol, the whirring and clicking of it unfolding and reading itself, the barrel locking into place. "Of course we can bring our guns."

"Shepard..." Udina's voice is a rumbling warning, like a thunderhead in the distance.

"The little guns," you say.

Ash sighs, then pulls her Avenger off her back and shrugs. "We'll always have the shotguns."

Udina looks increasingly pained.

"They're tiny shotguns, right Gunny?" you mutter to her.

She grins. "Of course, XO."

***​

You were born in the underwater cities of Oceania, smoothly transitioning from mirror pools of the dark luminescence of life at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. You had stepped out into the eerie and beautiful liberated megalopolises of the northern continent of Khantz Lu Ge, where the mad aberrants that had ruled over those people for decades had made cities of stone and glass and shimmering fires that never moved or burned. You had once gotten absolutely hammered in on the foothills of Olympus Mons, and seen god while the infinite, stretching plains of Mars reached outwards. You had breathed the air of the biodomes on Luna, and watched the Earthrise in the most perfectly maintained park on Lowell City.

Each and every single one those places felt faintly tawdry and small next to the Presidium.

Terraced gardens, with brilliant, alien green grass analogue spread along the entire ring surface, with lakes and rivers artfully built between them. Soaring white pathways made of the same ageless material as the rest of the Citadel connected place to place, and skycars made of the same elegant and mature technology that the whole galaxy seemed to thrive on whirred by overhead - they looked more...finished and steady than the vehicles of Earth's skies. Like humans were just trying to figure out how flying cars worked, while these people knew to their nuts and their bolts. Which...was perfectly logical on one hand, the Council had been intact when the Roman Republic hadn't begun to slide from oligarchy to despotism and, eventually, to their rebirth as the Empire.

They had been standing here, on this Citadel, and looking out at the galaxy when Xenophon had marched into and then out of the vast Persian Empire.

They had been centuries old when the third Olmec period had begun in Mesoamerica - and had been firmly established before Columbus had begun his genocidal project.

No fucking shit, they had better flying cars than you did.

...but on the other hand, it still felt...

Wrong.

Humbling.

Irritating.

Irksome.

All of the above! Flying cars had been passé on Earth before the early oughts were over. Your cars should have been at least on par - not ugly, squat things compared to what was soaring by overhead.

The tech was one thing though. The other was the aliens. In the time it took you and your party of friends to walk out of the elevator and out into the actual Presidium, you'd seen four completely new species, which your omni-tool's facial recognition software pegged as a Hanar, a Drell, a Batarian, and a Chromatic. You beamed as you walked past them - even if the Chromatic gave you what you were fairly sure was a stink-eye. You weren't entirely sure, considering how...well, of the four species you'd seen, half of them diverged wildly from the anthroform. A Drell and a Batarian were more human than not - yes, the Drell looked like a scaled lizardman with midnight black eyes, and yes, the Batarian had what appeared to be nine or twelve nostrils, but the Hanar? The Hanar was a floating jellyfish.

The Chromatic, meanwhile, was a hunched forward, digitigrade cross between a living sea sponge (their heads were narrow, tube shaped, and had no definable eyes or mouths) and a crocodile (their leathery hides glistened faintly and they had heavy claws - though, they did lack tails.) They had what appeared to be several bright, neon colored light-patterns that shimmered along their bodies, and they had eyes like a potato: Spots all over their bodies.

That should have made the stinkeye hard to really see, but...still.

"Do Chromatics not like us?" you ask Kaiden as your group started above the river and came out into a clearing that had a large statue of solid looking stone, carved into the form of an alien you also did not recognize.

"Definitely not," Kaiden said, quietly. "I sensed a lot of anger and hostility. Same from the Batarian."

"Well, yeah, we've been sniping at Batarians for real estate for ten years now," you say, frowning. "I thought they were a rogue state, though."

Jenny snorted. "And the FSA back on Earth aren't part of the UN security council. They still get to travel, don't they?"

You shrug. "Good point..." you noticed a small informational kiosk next to the statue, with a faintly Asari looking SI standing beside it. At least...you thought the holographic projection was an SI. Feeling faintly uneasy, remembering the cars overhead, you stepped over. "Uh, sorry if this is rude - you are an SI? A Sufficient Intelligence, I mean."

"Yes, though the preferred nomenclature in the Citadel is that of a Virtual Intelligence," the holographic Asari said, inclining her head. "My name is Avina. Do you wish a tour of the local area?"

You nod. "Yeah, uh, actually, we're trying to find the economics district..."

"The Market District is down that route," Avina said, gesturing with one arm while a map appeared as well. "A brisk walk will see you there in under ten minuets. Alternatively, I can call an auto-cab for you if you wish." You held up your hand and shook your head - and the SI or...VI or whatever you wanted to call it was clever enough to read the negatory gesture. She did add, in a chipper, cheerful voice: "Do you wish a tour of the local area?"

You were about say no, but Jen was looking at you with Puppy Dog Eyes.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease," she whispered. "I love tacky tourism! The tackier, the better!"

You sighed, then crossed your arms over your chest, then turned back to Avina. "All right," you say. "Please, give us the tour."

Avina inclined her head again - but then seemed to skip a frame. "Pardon me, guest user, but I am attempting to resolve a discrepancy in my programming. Are you Commander Tigershark Shepard?" She sounded politely curious - but you'd already figured it out and chuckled quietly.

"Yes, I'm human," you say. "Aquas are human, we just look weird."

"Understood, Commander Shepard," Avina said. "This statue commemorates the brave warriors of the Krogan Emergence - during the year 80 CE by your calendar, the Citadel Council had come under attack by a hostile alien species known as the Rachni. With the entire galaxy under threat and the situation dire, the Salarians worked to uplift the Krogan species from their planet. The Krogan proved most effective soldiers and by the year 300 CE, the Rachni had been hunted to extinction by the Krogan."

You eyed the Krogan statue. If the statue was accurate, they were kinda ugly looking beasts with wide, flat faces and curved, rhino-like heads. You frowned, slightly. "Were the Rachni sentient?"

"The biology of the Rachni has been studied intensively, but the sentience of independent Rachni soldiers and workers remains in some doubt - however, their Queens were most definitely agreed upon to be sentient, directing their creations with biokinetic and telepathic powers, making them one of the few species to ever exhibit two modes of psionic potential," Avina said.

"Huh," Jenny said, frowning. "Well, that's at least one bug-eyed monster we don't have to worry about. The Rachni were bugs, right?"

"That is correct, Miss Slider," Avina said.

"Well, there you go!" Jenny said. "So, the Krogan Emergence are part of the Council now?"

"The Citadel Council is made up of three species - the Asari, the Salarians, and the Turians," Avina said.

Jenny snorted. "Right, I mean an affiliate government."

"The Krogan Emergence is not an affiliate government of the Citadel Council," Avina said.

Jenny frowned, then look at you. Ash crossed her arms over her chest. Kaiden huffed out a quiet 'huh.' He cocked his head and stepped forward and Avina transferred her attention to him as well. "Why not?" he asked.

"The Krogan Rebellions, a period of unrest and upheaval lasting from 701 CE to 810 CE, ended the Krogan Emergence and led to the introduction of the Turian Hierarchy into the Citadel Council," Avina said. "It has led to repeated calls for this statue to be removed, but none have been numerous enough to lead to any decisive action."

"What caused the rebellions?" Kaiden asked.

"No offense, LT, but don't we have some shadowy guy to talk to?" Ash mutters.

You have to admit, she has a point. "Hey, guys, we can get a full history lesson later - uh, Avina, can you upload your historical summery to our omni-tools?" You ask, holding up your arm. The hologram smiles and then makes the little 'finger flick' gesture that most people use when they are trying to get their computer terminals to transmit data and information to others. You slapped Kaiden on the shoulder as you walked past. He was already beginning to skim through it.

"Seems like they have a cycle going on here," he says, scrolling through it.

"What makes me curious is the fact no one's properly psychic," Ash says, shaking her head. "I didn't know being able to use more than one mode made us intergalctic freaks."

Jenny snorts. "You think that's bad - wait until you hear about how many aliens are novas."

Kaiden reads as he walks: "The Krogan wanted colonies in several systems at the edge of Salarian and Asari space - they got the Rachni planets, but it looks like the Rachni mostly preferred to live on VEnusians and Mercurian planets. For some reason, the Krogan wanted some garden worlds..."

"Ah, I think we're here," you say, stopping before a small door that leads into a niche office. The rest of the market stretches out beyond - kiosks and stalls with dozens of people coming to buy and sell, each seemingly a different species. A Hanar bobs on by, carrying several bags in its tentacles, while you see a pair of huge, elephantine looking Elcor gently thudding along, their paniers stuffed with what appears to be produce being sold by a peppy looking Turian, with a Chromatic standing beside her.

"How many aliens?"

You blinked, then turned and saw Ash was frowning at Jenny, who grinned and held up her hand and formed a zero with her fingers and her thumb, then smacked her lips.

"Well, that's a relief," Ash says.

"Hey!"

The door to Barla Von's office opens as you step up to it. Barla Von himself is a Volus - a small, squat looking species that looks a bit like someone decided to let a steel balloon walk and talk. They were from some high pressure world, you knew that much, and as you stepped in, you heard the hiss and click of Von's breather, even as he gestured you forward with one of his stubby, three fingered hands. "Welcome, Norça-Clan."

You chuckled, quietly. "Norça-Clan?"

"Are you not a member of-" hiss, BREATH "-the human psychic order Nova Força Nacional?"

You grin, shaking your head. "I hope your information on the Citadel's better than your information from Earth - because, no, I was never part of Norça. I joined the Legions as an unknowing latent, and tested positive for biokinetics, then transferred over to Sudamérica long enough to get dipped in the Biokinetic Prometheus Chamber. From there, I moved into the System Alliance military when we signed the charter." You grin, then spread your hands. "Earth! It's confusing!"

Hiss. BREATH. "Yes. Quite."

You found there was a chair waiting for you - but none for anyone else. You remained standing. "So...you have information to sell?"

"I do," Von said. "I know of several individuals who you will wish to speak to, all of whom have intelligence on what you are interested in. This information is brought to me by the spies and information networks of the Shadow Broker - a high repute-" hiss BREATH- "-source on galactic politics. As his agent on the Citadel, it is my prerogative to sell it to you..."

"Really?" you ask. "Information broker seems more like something you'd want me to come to you for, not the other way around."

"Normally...yes, maybe," Von said. "However, I have-" HISS. Breath. "-been instructed to approach you with the goal of selling you whatever it is you require - in exchange for...your..." Hiss. Breath. "Genetic structure."

Your brow knitted.

"What?" Jenny asked, frowning. Her voice was sharp.

"Humanity is new on the galactic stage," Von explained, pausing to gasp for air in his suit. "Your abilities...remarkable. No known species have exhibited the breadth of psionic potential...the ability of quantum manipulation...let alone...both at once. It is inevitable that someone will get access to this material. The Shadow Broker wishes to control who..." Hiss. Breath. "...gets it first. There are billions of humans, with hundreds of thousands of them traveling, immigrating, colonizing. You can't prevent it."

You frown.

Jenny gives you a look that says 'well, he has a point.'

...floating somewhere in your brain is what Councilor Sparatus said.

Something about 'cloned replicants.'

---
What do you say?
[ ] Fine...here, have my blood.
[ ] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it useless for genetic information.)
[ ] No. Sorry, not gonna do it. Got any other way we can buy this information?
[ ] Think as loudly as you can 'Kaiden, rip it out of this shady fucker's head.'
[ ] Write In

 

[ThatGazzer]

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it useless for genetic information.)

If someone is gonna try to make evil clones, it ain't gonna be of us!

 

[Martenzo]

[X] No. Sorry, not gonna do it. Got any other way we can buy this information?

Yeah... giving him our own blood is right out, but I don't think it's a good idea to make an enemy of the Shadow Broker this early into the story by trying to cheat him, either. And I wouldn't be surprised if Barla Von scans the sample with an omni tool right away.

@DragonCobolt To be clear, is the biokinesis option an attempt to make the blood sample a useless blood-like batch of biological ooze, or will it be us trying to turn it into a "random" blood sample that still comes off as a sample of Oceanic blood when tested but is not usable for cloning us, specificially?

 

[Parzival95]

[X] Fine...here, have my blood.

Hell guys, Shepard ended up fighting an "evil" clone later anyway, I'm totally down to have a full clone saga.

 

[Phant0m5]

Jenny snorts. "You think that's bad - wait until you hear about how many aliens are novas."

...

"How many aliens?"

You blinked, then turned and saw Ash was frowning at Jenny, who grinned and held up her hand and formed a zero with her fingers and her thumb, then smacked her lips.

"Well, that's a relief," Ash says.

Click to shrink...

Bluh. This. This is my one biggest gripe with every single crossover and "fusion" fic I've ever seen in Mass Effect. Where are the alien Novas?

Spoiler: general rant about Mass Effect crossovers

I get that the setting should still be recognizable. I do. And there comes a point in trying to actually fuse two different settings that you basically get an unrelated third setting that a lot of people aren't super happy with, so you... don't do that. Things remain at least a little bit separated for whatever in-universe reason.

But this also results in a whole lot of "humans are super special" HFY crap. And I hate that. I really, truly, absolutely loathe and despise HFY in a fusion fic because, if whatever story elements of the crossover universe are enough to make humans special on a galactic scale, the settings are insufficiently fused. If the Mass Effect species evolved and advanced in the same universe the crossover-humans did, with the same laws of physics and the same ancient ruins lying around and the same general fabric of reality... why has nothing significantly changed for them, compared to the canon timeline?

One of my favorite things about this quest, the thing that got me to follow it in the first place (though I've been lurking until now), is that you did a really good job with the fusion. It's still been recognizably Mass Effect, but you've just... integrated the crossover in a bunch of little ways that made perfect sense. Like Asari being universally psychic, instead of "just" having their canon abilities, even if it's just single-modal.

But... still. Where are the alien Novas, the multi-modal psychics? Even if they were, like, super, mega rare, that would make (some) sense. But zero...?

 

[DragonCobolt]

@DragonCobolt To be clear, is the biokinesis option an attempt to make the blood sample a useless blood-like batch of biological ooze, or will it be us trying to turn it into a "random" blood sample that still comes off as a sample of Oceanic blood when tested but is not usable for cloning us, specificially?

Click to shrink...

It'd be genetic information that, for all he knows, is definitely human but, when further examined, turn out to be, like...a skunk or something.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Bluh. This. This is my one biggest gripe with every single crossover and "fusion" fic I've ever seen in Mass Effect. Where are the alien Novas?

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Literally any response I make would be a huge spoiler, so, I'm just gonna say...

You can fuck Wrex. That's a thing you can do in this quest. You can kiss him, right on his big wide face!

 

[Martenzo]

It'd be genetic information that, for all he knows, is definitely human but, when further examined, turn out to be, like...a skunk or something.

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Fair enough. So it is a straight "we're conning the Shadow Broker" option that he'll definitely figure out eventually, when he secures legitimate samples if not sooner. Yeah, gonna stick with my original vote.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Oh, but yeah, @Phant0m5 one thing, I wanna make clear, with too many commas: definitely going to try and lean away from the...absiolutely fucking preposterous amounts of human wank that Mass Effect has.

Like...

We're ON PAR with the galaxy's best navies from a technical perspective less than THIRTY YEARS after discovering mass effect technology EVEN EXISTS, fucking what?

 

[Silor]

[X] Fine...here, have my blood.

Evil clones are hot .

 

[dragonkid11]

We have two options, be sensible and don't donate our blood.

Or donate our blood so we could have an evil clone fight later on.

Hmm this is a very hard choice indeed...

 

[Phant0m5]

Oh, but yeah, @Phant0m5 one thing, I wanna make clear, with too many commas: definitely going to try and lean away from the...absiolutely fucking preposterous amounts of human wank that Mass Effect has.

Like...

We're ON PAR with the galaxy's best navies from a technical perspective less than THIRTY YEARS after discovering mass effect technology EVEN EXISTS, fucking what?

Click to shrink...

Ah, we were not.

I'll spoiler the rest of this because canon Mass Effect is kind of tangential to the quest, but... we very much were not anyone's equal before perhaps about Mass Effect 2.

Either way, thanks for letting us know, and I for one am very glad we're not going that route in the quest.

Spoiler

Before getting access to the galactic trade network, we were using museum pieces. We don't have much in the way of details about that, except that the Turians on-site at First Contact explicitly stated that. But there was one example in hard numbers: By First Contact in canon, human ships could go 50c, or 0.14 light-years per day. Citadel ships do roughly 15ly/d, which is quite the discrepancy.

Also, we mustered effectively half our entire space navy to push back... the first responders to a single patrol fleet. This disparity actually continues into the canon present-day, as the human navy is comparable to the Citadel fleet. Not the Turians, or Asari, or even the Hanar; we're compared to the Space!UN security forces, while actual Space!America/China/UK looms offscreen.

... yeah, the Council? Space!UN. Which is why even after we nominally have their support in ME3, we need to actually deal with the nations that are backing the councilors. They aren't actually the center of the galaxy.

This ties in neatly to the fact that we can't adequately defend our own claimed territory, instead relying on colonies to call for help and coming in with a mobile defense fleet to use as a hammer. The rest of the galaxy can actually garrison their claimed territory, along with their trillions(!!!) of people.

This is also why we couldn't supply any ships to the Citadel Defense Fleet, which is required of all Council member nations, after getting membership ourselves. We just... had no ships to spare. Being a prerequisite to membership it might have even gotten us kicked off the Council, eventually, except then ME3 happened so who knows.

So, why are humans even relevant to the canon story if A- we consistently have the worst tech in the series right up until Mass Effect 1, B- our entire population is a rounding error?

We got the prominence and recognition we did in canon by bluffing our asses off. See that fleet that chased off your patrols reinforcements? That's uh, yeah, the tip of the iceberg! Definitely! No need to look any closer! And if anyone actually figured it out we had already got concessions and were already pretty well situated, diplomatically and economically.

And that was made explicit in Andromeda. Yes, it fits as a fan theory to patch over the discrepancies, but we're actually told while collecting Dad!Ryder's memories that the Alliance leadership wanted Ryder to back off on his AI research... because they couldn't afford any scrutiny, because they were pushing for as many concessions as possible before the Council realized the depth of their bluffing.

 

[10ebbor10]

It is inevitable that someone will get access to this material

Click to shrink...

You can download it for free. It's on the internet.

Download the complete genome for an organism

And yeah, the internet got blown up, but I doubt that they locked this stuff down. It's too easy to get and pretty important for healthcare.

Edit :
Anyway, let's not pick the first offer. He has made it obvious that there are hundreds of thousands of ways that he can get human DNA, yet also got a specific request to get Shepherd's DNA specifically.

[X] Demand a better deal, if he wants your DNA specifically so badly. What else can he offer.
-[x] Partially transform some of your blood. It'll resemble you so it's but the markers will make it obvious if they try to mess with you later.

 

[Crayak]

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it useless for genetic information.)

 

[Lord Sia]

But... still. Where are the alien Novas, the multi-modal psychics? Even if they were, like, super, mega rare, that would make (some) sense. But zero...?

Click to shrink...

Well, there's actually a good canon explanation from the Trinity-verse, which comes back to why the founding psions are called "proxies"

Spoiler: proxies for what?

Turns out there's a species which basically exist as psychic clouds in the noetic field. Aberrants - or more accurately quantum powers - fuck up that field, which is BAD for them.
So what do they do? They create proxies, giving humanity a way to fight back, while at the same time artificially limiting humanity's potential as a psychic species by locking psions into a single mode each.
It's also insinuated that this was not an incontroversial action, and that the all-photokinetic Chromatics being so hostile is part of a splinter factions efforts to curb the spread of humanity.
Th ey may or may not have been involved in stoking the flames during the Aberrant war, YMMV and it's been a while since I read the relevant books.

So, yeah, kind of HFY but in a way that paints a target on our species.
[X] No. Sorry, not gonna do it. Got any other way we can buy this information?

 

[Doccer]

of the above! Flying cars had been passé on Earth before the early oughts were over.

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Early oughts?
My autocorrect kept trying to alter that word twice.

Chromatic

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A wut now? What is a Chromatic?
Is that some deep lore Mass Effect or Aeon?

"How many aliens?"

You blinked, then turned and saw Ash was frowning at Jenny, who grinned and held up her hand and formed a zero with her fingers and her thumb, then smacked her lips.

Click to shrink...

Wut? What was she asking?

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it a baseline Tigershark.)

 

[OctarineShrike]

A wut now? What is a Chromatic?
Is that some deep lore Mass Effect or Aeon?

Click to shrink...

They're an Aeonverse alien species.

 

[SweetJackal]

Wut? What was she asking?

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it a baseline Tigershark.)

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Jenny made the comment "Now ask me how many Aliens are Novas" a bit further up the page, this was a follow through.

I like this option.

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it a baseline Tigershark.)

[X] Demand a better deal, if he wants your DNA specifically so badly. What else can he offer.

 

[Ave Anathema]

[X] Fine, here, have my blood. (Use biokinesis to make it a baseline Tigershark.)