This story starts near the end. It's a concept that was inspired by the Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC. It helps me reconcile the one, glaring and almost unforgivable problem with the Reaper Cycle storyline. You'll see what I mean later on. Just a head's up none of these characters are from Mass Effect so there will be no spoilers. If you haven't played any of the Mass Effect games pick up the collection and play it. Play it now!
"This is amazing! We're actually going to meet God!" Hawkins shouted. The ship's computer had just called over the intercom that they had found Jarsius IV and were on final approach to achieve stable orbit. Yuliens and the rest of the rag tag squad sat up nervously in their acceleration couches.
"Your definition of God is historically vague and lacking in explicit details so I have a hard time understanding how you can draw such a conclusion based on the available data." The Alloran, Unessis answered. Her race had given up religion long ago, back when humans were still using wax candles to light their homes. Yuliens shook his head and dismissed the inevitable discussion as a worthy distraction. His race, the Galatans didn't have much use for religion either, they were too busy making weapons that could kill things in new and inventive ways.
"But that's just it, we do know what God is. Creator of all life, all things. This race we're going to see might have created all life in the universe as we know it. That means we can finally put the question to rest. God is real!" Hawkins continued. Like most humans Hawkins had little use for science and had devoted her life to religion. Yuliens didn't like it but Hawkins was good with a gun and for this mission that was more important than her belief system so he tolerated it. Besides, who was Yuliens to decide what what the human should or should not believe?
"Well then you can be the one kiss your God's ass enough to make the Harvesters stop killing us all." Keklin shouted. His race, the Medibringle had taken the brunt of the Harvester's initial assault. Their homeworld now was a barely habitable pile of rock floating in space. Less than 100,000 were estimated to have survived. Yulien's race was next in the way but they had the strongest military of all the alliance races and so were able to hold out long enough for the other races to get involved. Despite all nine races committing every weapon at their disposal the Harvesters were simply too strong. Without some outside intervention of some kind it was only a matter of time before all nine militaries collapsed due to attrition. They were at Jarsius IV because someone had found that this was where the Harvesters had originated from, they were hoping to appeal to the Havester's leadership and get them to stop the genocide. It was a long shot but it was the only tactic they had left.
"God doesn't work that way. He has a plan and this is surely a part of it I know it." Hawkins continued. Yuliens had to admire her conviction despite her blindness to the facts.
"Some plan. Kill everything and enslave whoever lives. What the kind of asshole is this God of yours?" Keklin answered. Yuliens could no longer stand by and watch, this was getting hostile.
"Save it for the Harvesters Keklin. We'll do no good fighting amongst ourselves." Yuliens barked. Keklin growled but said nothing. Hawkins, though dejected also remained silent.
"Stable orbit achieved. We'll be over the landing site in T Minus 5 minutes and counting." the intercom sounded.
"What's the enemy makeup?" Yuliens asked.
"None sir. We're not detecting any hostile ships or weapons around the landing site." the computer's voice answered.
"Double check your scans. That is highly improbable." Unessis answered.
"The scans are accurate. No weapons of any kind have been detected or deployed in answer to our presence." the computer responded.
"No weapons? Why?" Hawkins asked.
"I don't like it." Keklin added.
"Neither do I but leave your weapons behind. Just because we can't detect them doesn't mean they don't have any. Right now they don't perceive us as a threat and I'd like to keep it that way." Yuliens ordered putting his shotgun in the rack.
"Are you out of your... what word do you use?" Keklin asked Hawkins.
"Are you our of your fucking mind?" Hawkins finished for Keklin.
"That's the one I was looking for." Keklin grinned and patted Hawkins on the shoulder. Despite their disagreements about religious topics Hawkins and Keklin were good friends. Something about how well humans curse appealed to the big Medibringle.
"I'm deadly serious and if you don't like it then you can stay on board and wait. Otherwise, suit up and meet me in the shuttle bay in three minutes." Yuliens left the staging area without waiting for a response.
Yuliens understood their apprehension but even he had to face facts. Assault rifles weren't going to do any kind of appreciable damage to the leaders of the Harvesters. Hell railguns barely dented those monster's hulls. He doubted highly that any weapons they could carry by hand would save them if the Harvester's leaders suddenly decided to become hostile. Yuliens powered up the shuttle's drive systems while he waited for the rest of his squad. He had given them three minutes to join him but they arrived in just over two. He couldn't help but smile, they were committed till the end and they were going to see it through.
"Take your seats everybody. 60 seconds till drop." Yuliens ordered strapping himself into the pilot's chair. The rest of the squad sat behind him on either side of the cramped shuttle. There wasn't much room despite the fact that they took up less than half the shuttle's capacity. Yuliens looked at the intercom switch and for the umpteenth time wondered why it existed on the minuscule craft. All he had to do was turn his head and everyone could hear him.
The drop and subsequent flight to the surface of the planet was uneventful but the sights that greeted them when they exited the shuttle were another matter entirely. Massive skyscrapers that had to be a kilometer high or even higher stood all around them. And yet nature was everywhere. Vines of unknown species grew across walkways and up and down the sides of the giant monoliths. Trees of just about every known type grew at all elevations. Some of the buildings had so many plants growing on them were it not for the few tell tale signs of technology one could be forgiven for assuming the buildings were natural.
"What is this place?" Unessis asked.
"Paradise." Hawkins replied. The two women looked at each other.
"I hate to admit it but she's right. Why didn't this style of construction develop amongst any of us?" Yuliens asked staring at the high buildings.
"Because like all new species you were too proud of your technology to consider it." a voice spoke from no where and yet seemed to come from every direction at once.
"Show yourselves! Who am I addressing?" Yuliens demanded with more conviction than he felt.
"The signal is telepathic." Unessis told him.
"I was afraid of that." Keklin answered her shaking his huge head.
"We are who you would call the Harvesters." the voice answered.
"Oh great." Hawkins shouted throwing her hands in the air. She tried desperately to maintain her composure but Yuliens could see a tear forming on her cheek. The hens had willingly walked into the foxes' den.
"Then you probably know why we are here. Why have you not taken us?" Yuliens asked.
"Your presence here is irrelevant." the voice answered.
"Your brethren are, at this very moment tearing our species civilizations apart. Once they have torn down our cities they enslave our peoples. We have come to you to stop this before all that we know and are is destroyed." Unessis appealed to the voice.
"We know of your plight. We have watched this cycle many times. The outcome is certain and unchanging. Your appeal is irrelevant." the voice replied.
"Then you approve? Why? Why are you allowing the genocide of every intelligent race?" Yuliens asked.
"Not every. The galaxy has 4.2 X 10 to the 12th stars and more of them have planets than don't. By our best calculation there are 7.54 X 10 the 14th stellar bodies that can be inhabited by all of the intelligent species in the galaxy both known and unknown." the voice told them.
"You said the outcome is certain and unchanging but I say to hell with that. We'll fucking change it with or without you." Keklin growled.
"You can not. Your power is infinitesimal compared to the Harvesters and even they can not change the cycle." the voice replied.
"You mean the Harvesters have dissenters among their ranks?" Hawkins asked hopefully.
"No. The Harvesters as you call them are united in their quest to subjugate all intelligent races. They can not. They have attempted many times and the outcome as always has been failure. They have tried to account for every possible permutation in their calculations but always new variables appear that can not be corrected. This cycle is no different. They will fail." the voice informed them.
"How can you be so sure?" Yuliens asked.
"It is mathematically certain. The galaxy contains, by our best estimates 6.74 X 10 to the 7th intelligent species."
"What percentage of those species are space fairing?" Unessis asked.
"100." the voice answered.
"6.7 million space fairing species?" Yuliens asked.
"But... but we spent 1,000 years traveling the stars before we made first contact." Hawkins looked incredulous. Keklin also looked shocked.
"The galaxy is vast. Too vast for any one species to traverse or conquer all of it. Our estimates show that at the Harvesters current strength only half a dozen species at most can be subjugated and even then not for very long. Your appeal to us is irrelevant. The outcome is certain and can not be changed." the voice told them.
"So what then? Are you just going to let our races die?" Keklin roared.
"The loss of your races is unfortunate but the cycle can not be changed. The Harvesters will fail. Whether in your lifetime or another's is irrelevant."
"This is bullshit! How can you just sit and watch your own kind slaughter innocent species and think it's 'irrelevant?'" when she said the last word Hawkins held up two fingers on either hand in a gesture that made no sense to Yuliens. He was going to have to ask her about it someday if they lived long enough.
"We are incapable of stopping them. We tired but no intelligent species can be controlled." the voice replied.
"Then destroy them. It's not a difficult equation." Keklin roared.
"We can not. They are us. We are them. To destroy them is to destroy ourselves."
"We've found evidence that the Harvesters work through some kind of hive mind like certain insects. Disrupt any part of that hive and the hive itself can not function and collapses. The only way the Harvesters can be destroyed is if you destroy all Harvesters everywhere." Unessis added.
"We can't even destroy the Harvesters that are attacking our homes much less all of them." Yuliens shook his head.
"And to do so would make us no better than them." Hawkins added.
"Come on, let's get off this rock. We've got a war to win and we're wasting our time here." Yuliens ordered. The squad left the planet wondering what their future held. Would they survive to the end of this cycle or would some other species have to be the ones to stop the Harvesters?