A little update (and I'm sure most of you have read at least parts of it already):

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9156000/1/And-the-Meek-Shall-Inherit-the-Galaxy

It's a (sometimes hilarious) fic where mankind is adorably overpowered, but it's tempered by the fact that the Citadel doesn't hurr durr their way through the fic in ignorance and actually adapts. It's that fic where Humanity's first contact is with the Quarians, and uh naturally, I guess, they become besties. If you're not a fan of Random!Immediate!Human!Badassery, avoid.

It's not the best fic, maybe a 4/5 fic on its best day, but I still find myself excited when I see it updates, but note than I am partial to badass!biotic!Shepard.

The beginning is quite boring to be honest, but it gets decent-to-good pretty quick.

Based on the trash on my favorites list, I'd say this is definitely worth a spot on yours. Is it great? Nah. Is it worth the 5 minutes spent reading on an update? Definitely.

 

First Contact Author: Animus of Masada An asari exploration vessel discovers Earth in the 2030's...and the first contact scenario has incredible implications for both species. What does humanity look like through alien eyes? Where do they go from here? /-AU: no Reapers, completely disconnected from the plot of the games, but mostly faithful to the setting. Told from many points of view.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Sci-Fi - Chapters: 16 - Words: 51,333 - Reviews: 1,029 - Favs: 1,386 - Follows: 1,512 - Updated: 04-10-13 - Published: 08-12-11 - id: 727854

What it says on the tin.

 

I remember laughing a lot during the first chapter, but it gradually became, dunno, slightly stilted. I don't think I've up to date with the chapters, but I did like the first few. A lot.

Spoiler

"This is Destiny 4, transmitting to whatever alien presence might be listening, if you're out there: Look, baby, this whole silent stalker thing is really creeping us out. When are you going to come out and play?"

The only fic that did a different first contact and carried on in an interesting way is the Second Contact, surprisingly enough.

 

So, it's been about a year since this bitch has had any traffic, long enough for some new stories to get written and discovered, and I'm jonesing for some new ME stories.

Also, I FINALLY got around to reading Interstitium. If you like Mass Effect and reading Mass Effect stories, read that fuckin' story pronto.

Anyway, here's one I've been following recently. It's not really new, but meh. It's annoyingly hard to find something that looks readable that doesn't advertise as being some domestic story following the end of the reaper war.

It's pretty angsty, and a silly amount of time is spent with Liara and Shepard being awkward as fuck. It's a story in the quasi military/science "create a perfect human weapon regardless of what it does to the human" vein. It actually follows Shepard from the beginning details the author's twist on Mindoir, and Shepard on Akuze before moving on into the main game. It's well written enough for my standards, but as always on that case, YMMV. It's pretty all right.

So, hook me up?

 

It's one hell of a crossover, that's for sure, but I enjoyed it and felt like sharing. Most likely other people will find it average at best. For those who aren't familiar with it, this is a Planescape: Torment/Mass Effect crossover.

And holy shit, I tried giving that Mass Effect Human Revolution a go, but it got way too convoluted for me. I keep losing track of what's happening with every new chapter and reading all the stuff that happened before it is tedious. I mean, I could understand if the guy mixed up ME and DX a bit, but he's mixed in more than just that. I think there's stuff from at least 6-7 other different settings, the most easily recognizable ones being Metal Gear Rising and Front Mission.

Not to mention that I found it disappointing how the story wasn't even about Shepard, but rather Adam Jensen.

 

That's Spacebattles for you.

 

What? Was it run like a quest of some sorts and then the story portions got pasted onto FFN?

 

No, I think he's talking about how reference crazy it got.

The problem with the story was a matter of pacing. He just kept adding on more and more shit to keep track of that went in all sorts of different ways and as a reader I was just overwhelmed. It was fifty settings put into one... which doesn't work unless you're doing a massive series with stand alone books.

 

Most of the crossover stuff is actually totally unnecessary - they were expys, and could just as well have been avoided...and yes, pacing was problematic.

It's a real shame, because the story isn't bad - I liked it - but it isn't the sheer awesome that a real Deus Ex/ME crossover could have been. Garrus and Jensen on the Citadel remains the best part of the story, Illium was fun, and even the parts of Noveria where they are in Dosadi before things go full retard are awesome. A focus on that instead of the fantastical shit would be been absolutely glorious.

I was okay with Jensen taking the place of Shepard though. Her death brought home than canon was out the fucking window, and he's an interesting character on his own - more interesting than the average Shepard is actually. Also, Jensen and Garrus being buddy cops was fucking beautiful and deserves being mentioned again. I would have read a whole story of them going around the galaxy, doing their thing while a Shepard did theirs, with maybe the occasional intersection.

 

A "quest?" No. It's just completely disorganized, badly characterized, full to the brim with references and in-jokes and generally retarded. I.e. the average Spacebattles dreck. I read that over a year ago and it still pisses me off thinking about it.

 

The [soundtrack] bits annoyed the shit out of me as well.

Does anyone actually do that? I mean, listen to the song listed.

 

Didn't see any of the following linked, so I'll drop some fics. The first two are self-inserts, and I understand that not everyone is into that genre. Thing is though, ME SIs aren't half-bad and the ones I linked are actually really good stories.

Masses to Masses and sequels. I'm actually re-reading the first one now. Good stuff.

Mass Effect: Massive Shock. OCs are pretty cool and there are some hilarious moments.

Keeping Score. A funny oneshot.

Blue: Cerulean is well written and it's an interesting take on PostWar!Shepard. There's a sequel, but it hasn't been updated in months.

 

Hellhound's pretty decent, IIRC. Though it's dead.

Summary: AU. After Mindoir, a young Shepard, disillusioned with both the Alliance and the Council, decides to take up Miranda's offer to join Cerberus. Once he becomes 18, he joins the Alliance as a mole. MShep/Miri.

 

Well, drat, that seems like an interesting premise, but what's the point in reading if it's abandoned? I mean, if it's really good, I get hyped about reading the next chapter, then the one after that and then I come to the end where it just stops abruptly without a satisfactory conclusion.

Also, does anyone know if someone's currently writing a Mass Effect/Eclipse Phase crossover? There is that one that can be found via Google as the first result of a search for such, but other than that and a couple of threads from /tg/'s archives, there's nothing.

 

This one was fun. I don't hide the fact that i'm not the biggest fan of post-war ME stories, but this one was engaging.

Pity that it has been lying dormant for a long time.

 

Don't get me started on that shit. I feel especially bitter about it, because I recomended it and it got into Library, before it went to shit. In the beggining it was very good. Cop drama on the Citadel was interesting and well writen, even if you disregard the plot being completly lifted from Kojima's Snatcher. And then it went a slipery slope, with more and more shotouts to characters from other Squar Enix series and by the time they got their token Asari in place of Liara it went into total shit. I will just quote myself on this.

 

Eh, don't blame yourself. In the beginning, it was really, really good, even though Shepard wasn't a relevant character, but rather a plot-hook to push us onward. And then suddenly, eldritch powers from before last Thursday pop up and take a shit on everything.

I forgot that character existed for the last 10 or so chapters, if not more. I mean, he obviously planned for her and Jensen to interact a bit more often, but then it just got lost in the overall chaos that he's created in this mesh of crossovers.

And yeah, the metaphysical, reality-bending powers that Benezia and the rest of that bunch wield is just a bit too much, even for something like Mass Effect with the indoctrination and all.

 

Well, it hasn't updated since 2012, so I assume it's dead.

That said, I remember there being some very interesting character interactions between Miranda and Shepard. What's there is good. I don't remember all that much of the plot apart from Shepard slowly becoming a Cerberus agent. There wasn't much of a cliffhanger, I think, at the end.

It's worth reading if you can deal with its unfinished state.

 

Yeah, keeping in mind that I read Hellhound like 2 years ago, I remember it was pretty good. Definitely had the most promise of any ME fic I've read - still annoyed that it was abandoned. For that reason you might not want to read it, but it's still 60k words and pretty good - though from what I remember a lot of that is spent on training. Cerberus!Shepard was really interesting though, as were his interactions with Miranda.

I wish there more good ME fics, considering it has a pretty interesting universe. I think the category suffers from Bioware's fanbase sometimes like Dragon Age does though - lots of people playing for their waifu Tali/Garrus/whatever, who just write shitty fics about the Normandy crew chilling out in space and screwing all the time.

Consuming Direct Control, which Jon recommended on the previous page, is a pretty good ME/Prototype crossover but that also got abandoned.

Crysis Effect is a ME/Crysis crossover, as the name implies. It's definitely barely recommendable (I remember the OC main character brought Mary Sue to whole new levels) but it's long, finished and has a sequel that is apparently still updating that I haven't kept up with.

 

The Mission Stays the Same by Ursakar reviews A joke of Chaos daemon sent two unlikely allies - an Eldar Farseer and an Imperial Storm trooper, through the Warp and into another Universe. In this place, everything is alien to them. Except for one thing - war. War is something they know very well.Crossover - Warhammer & Mass Effect - Rated: M - English - Sci-Fi/Adventure - Chapters: 19 - Words: 259,050 - Reviews: 1310 - Favs: 1,562 - Follows: 1,620 - Updated: Jun 7 - Published: Oct 4, 2011 - Shepard (F)

One of my favorite WH40K crossovers ever written.


Mass Effect: Mythos by Omniscent1 reviews A crossover between Mass Effect and Cthulhutech. Humanity has won the Aeon War and has since expanded and thrived. How will the galaxy fare with this new power?Crossover - Cthulhu Mythos & Mass Effect - Rated: M - English - Sci-Fi/Adventure - Chapters: 12 - Words: 73,672 - Reviews: 416 - Favs: 753 - Follows: 789 - Updated: Jun 14 - Published: Jun 5, 2013 - Shepard (M)

Crossover with CthulhuTech, the thing to understand is that there is no intention of dumbing down Humanity/Nazadi forces to give parity to Council Races. Humans survived Aeon War, and are a whole lot meaner than canon Humanity. This isn't so much a curbstomb as a 'Oh Fuck no, not another alien menace!'


Silly but Killy reviews What if there were no Humans in Mass Effect? What if there were Orks instead? The Council would have a lot less sleep, for one thing.Crossover - Warhammer & Mass Effect - Rated: T - English - Humor/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 4 - Words: 9,461 - Reviews: 92 - Favs: 90 - Follows: 123 - Updated: Aug 4 - Published: Jul 30

YMMV - Orks instead of humanity and the whole story is in Ork-speech.