History Fanfic / TheMissionStaysTheSame

''The Mission Stays the Same'' is a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' crossover written by Broken Trident. It can be found [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7436717/1/The-Mission-Stays-the-Same here]]. The original author has stated he feels he has burned out as a writer, and passed writing duties off to a new writer, Regina Dea, beginning with Chapter 21.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: One of the biggest sources of conflict is Gallardi's training and indoctrination clashing with the Citadel's open policy towards aliens of all kinds. He begins to grow out of it around Chapter 18, but he has a crisis of faith following the team's departure from Illium and an incident at the Citadel when he kills two human muggers to save a quarian. Justified in-story, as Gallardi points out just how horrific the aliens of the 41st Millennium are, and how the aliens of Mass Effect are much more friendly and less likely to eat you.

** Downplayed with Gallardi's armor, while it's made of armaplasor ceramite, it gets shredded by a point-blank ME shotgun blast when his barriers fail. Still it does it's job in protecting Gallardi's torso from becoming mangled.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Gallardi's plasma pistol can vaporize most heavy resistance the team encounters. Unfortunately, he only has three shots left (and there's the whole explode-upon-overheating thing, but that hasn't been an issue as of late). This is averted later on. Thanks to placing some trust in Mordin, Gallardi gets the rounds analyzed, so the Normandy can produce more ammo.

* ChickMagnet: Gallardi, a fit and handsome military man, attracts a lot of female attention, especially with the power sword. Mind you, a number of these women are asari, which disgusts him to no end. As Shepard says:

** Needing an extra weapon to drawback on, Gallardi takes interest in in the[[https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/M-6_Carnifex Carnifex Heavy Pistol]]. which is a pretty stout handgun in it's own right.

* HostageSituation: Chapter 17 ends with some goons holding two asari officers at gunpoint and demanding that Gallardi surrender to them. Problem is, Gallardi is an AbsoluteXenophobe and is perfectly fine with letting the Asari die. [[spoiler: Gallardi ends up saving the asari in the next chapter, even taking some injuries, showing that he is growing out of his AbsoluteXenophobe mentality]].

* LogicalWeakness: The main reason the Warp is perfectly calm in Shepard's time [[spoiler:is because the Reapers have been steadily killing all rising races before they ever manage to create any lasting disturbances. Even the daemon possessing Morinth is implied to be an extreme rarity.]]

** Maeteris during her UnstoppableRage moment is depicted as destroying entire ranks of husks in melee.

* SeenItAll: Both Gallardi and Maeteris accept the idea of Reapers quite readily. Given the horros of their universe, a race of sentient machines from beyond the galaxy isn't the strangest thing they've heard of or encountered.

* DropTheHammer: Grunt picks up a sledgehammer during the battle for Horizon. Using it to great effect as he charges in alongside Maeteris when she charges the horde of Husks.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: One of the biggest sources of conflict is Gallardi's training and conditioning clashing with the Citadel's open policy towards aliens of all kinds. He begins to grow out of it around Chapter 18, but he has a crisis of faith following the team's departure from Illium and an incident at the Citadel when he kills two human muggers to save a quarian. Justified in-story, as Gallardi points out just how horrific the aliens of the 41st Millennium are, and how the aliens of Mass Effect are much more friendly as less likely to eat you.

** Thanks to his hotshot lashun and power sword, the kinetic barriers are utterly useless against them. However Gallardi notes that they would be pretty useful with shrapnel still being a factor in combat, alongside many people in the ''Mass Effect''-verse use projectile-based firearms. The Stormtrooper is even surprised when he sees bullets being blocked by his kinetic barrier before his very eyes.

* CulturedBadass: Maeteris is actually a very good musician (it's mentioned early on she chose the Path of the Artist before becoming a Howling Banshee and then a Farseer), and she has a talent for acting and stagecraft that helps Shepard and Kasumi during their infiltration of Hock's mansion.

* GivingRadioToTheRomans: {{Downplayed}}: Gallardi gives the Systems Alliance (but ''not'' the Citadel Council) the principles for Imperial laser technology. Considering how much ME-verse combat revolves around kinetic barriers, directed energy weaponry is a major GameBreaker in this universe.
* HandCannon: Gallardi's plasma pistol (originally belonging to Inquisitor), a blast from the weapon can utterly decimate vehicles and other heavy armor.

* NothingPersonal: What Gallardi's and Maeteris' ambushers said to them once the tables were turned on them. They were a small merc band led by a turian and a Shadow Broker agent's team, respectively.

* OddFriendship: Gallardi develops one with Maeteris, since the Eldar is the closest thing to [[OnlySaneMan normality]] that he can find.

** Gallardi comes from a world that has seen only war, he's practically the most experienced out of the crew with only Maeteris beating him out. Even then combat in the ME-verse is built around kinetic barriers, something that Gallardi's weaponry is able to ignore entirely. From his hotshot lasgun, to the plasma pistol he carrier and especially his power sword.

* DropTheHammer: Grunt picks up a sledgehammer during the battle for Horizon.

* OutsideContextProblem: The main reason why Gallardi is so powerful: everything about combat in the ME-verse is built around kinetic barriers, and Gallardi's lasgun ignores them entirely.

** M'tarr communicates through a psychic link.

** When Gallardi talks about the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Techpriests, she asks if they have Holy Hand Grenades.

* ArmorIsUseless: Used and averted when it comes to the barriers, unless it comes up against the lasgun or power sword. Played straight with Gallardi's armor which, despite being made of armaplas or ceramite, gets shredded by a ME shotgun blast.
* ArtificialLimbs: Gallardi has three. He lost them during a mission on Cadia, when he was overwhelmed and tortured by daemonettes.

The author has a Q&A on her profiles revealing some thing on how he would have continued the story if he haven't lost interest, on both his [[https://www.deviantart.com/ursakar DeviantArt]] and [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3160315/Broken-Trident FanFiction.net]] accounts.

* DemonicPossession: It's revealed that a daemon of some sort has been possessing [[spoiler:Morinth]] for quite some time now. Samara and Maeteris exorcise the daemon when they catch Morinth on Omega.

** Quite a few [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]] start following or hitting on Maeteris during her trip to Illium. As an Eldar, not only does she reject their advances, she finds it annoying and degrading.

** When choosing an extra firearm to supplement his native weaponry, Gallardi comments in amusement that the weapon he has picked is called the "Carnifex" pistol. Carnifex also being the name of a rather dangerous type of Tyranid.

* DemonicPossession: It's revealed that a daemon of some sort has been possessing [[spoiler:Morinth]] for quite some time now.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: One of the biggest sources of conflict is Gallardi's training and conditioning clashing with the Citadel's open policy towards aliens of all kinds. He begins to grow out of it around Chapter 18, but he has a crisis of faith following the team's departure from Illium. Justified in-story, as Gallardi points out just how horrific the aliens of the 41st Millennium are, and how the aliens of Mass Effect are much more friendly as less likely to eat you.

* CulturedBadass: Maeteris is actually a very good musician (it's mentioned early on she chose the Path of the Musician before becoming a Howling Banshee and then a Farseer), and she has a talent for acting and stagecraft that helps Shepard and Kasumi during their infiltration of Hock's mansion.

* DrivenToSuicide: Gallardi ultimately can't reconcile his faith with saving xenos and attempts to turn a pistol on himself. Shepard wrestles him to the ground and Maeteris fakes a vision of the God Emperor to get Gallardi back on track.

** Maeteris is a Farseer, so she has quite a few powers available for use.

** The Asari seem to be developing into a race of psykers, similar to the Eldar, with the main example being a passive effect that enhances their attractiveness to other races by highlighting the similarities between said races and the Asari. Notably, the few Maeteris has found with notable active psychic potential are children that have two Asari as parents. After exorcising the daemon from Morinth, she theorizes that being an ardat-yakshi (which is more common among tose with two Asari parents) isn't a genetic disorder at all, but a side-effect of uncontrolled psychic powers interacting with the Asari melding ability.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Citadel Council seems to be drifting towards this (save Sparatus).

* TheReveal: It's implied [[spoiler:Morinth]] has been possessed by a Daemon.

* CulturedBadass: Maeteris turns out to be a very good musician.

[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 While hunting xenos as part of an Inquisition retinue]], Captain August Gallardi is forced to ally himself with [[SpaceElves Eldar]] [[{{Seer}} Farseer]] Maeteris against the Crossroads Keeper, a powerful Chaos Daemon with the knowledge of other universes beyond the Warp. Although victorious, the manipulations of the daemon see the two hurled through time and space and spat out on some unknown planet in an unfamiliar part of the galaxy.

* OutsideContextProblem: The main reason why Gallardi is so powerful: everything about combat in the ME-verse is built around the kinetic barriers, and Gallardi's lasgun ignores them entirely.

** The Asari seem to be developing into a race of psykers, similar to the Eldar, with the main example being a passive effect that enhances their attractiveness to other races by highlighting the similarities between said races and the Asari. Notably, the few Maeteris has found with notable active psychic potential are children that have two Asari as parents.

* SparedByTheAdapatation: Morinth survives her encounter with Shepard, thanks to Maeteris and Samara banishing the daemon possessing her.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Gallardi, after he [[DeliberateValuesDissonance takes risks to save the life of an Asari, and then after he kills a couple of humans in self-defence]].

** Gallardi's weapons and combat training allow him to be this at times.

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: The biggest source of conflict between Gallardi and Shepard; he's an AbsoluteXenophobe brought into a world where relationships between humans and aliens are rather commonplace. He and Shepard get into a few arguments over the issue, but are professional enough to not let it interfere with operations (the one time that their arguments did become divisive was on an entirely different matter – Shepard's drinking after a rough reunion with Liara being brought up by Gallardi, who had an experience with a hungover junior officer getting most of his unit killed). With Gallardi's CharacterDevelopment, he's begun to accept human[=/=]alien relationships a bit more.

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: The biggest source of conflict between Gallardi and Shepard; he's an AbsoluteXenophobe brought into a world where relationships between humans and aliens are rather commonplace. He and Shepard get into a few arguments over the issue, but are professional enough to not let it interfere with operations (the one time that their arguments did become divisive was on an entirely different matter – Shepard's drinking after a rough reunion with Liara being brought up by Gallardi, who had an experience with a hungover junior officer getting most of his unit killed). With Gallardi's CharacterDevelopment, he's begun to accept human[=/=]alien relationships a bit more.

[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} While hunting xenos as part of an Inquisition retinue]], Captain August Gallardi is forced to ally himself with [[SpaceElves Eldar]] [[{{Seer}} Farseer]] Maeteris against the Crossroads Keeper, a powerful Chaos Daemon with the knowledge of other universes beyond the Warp. Although victorious, the manipulations of the daemon see the two hurled through time and space and spat out on some unknown planet in an unfamiliar part of the galaxy.

''The Mission Stays the Same'' is a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' crossover written by Broken Trident. It can be found [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7436717/1/The-Mission-Stays-the-Same here]]. Unfortunately, the author has stated she feels she has burned out as a writer, and passed writing duties off to a new writer, Regina Dea, as of Chapter 21.

The Author has a Q&A on her profiles revealing some thing on how the story would have proceeded if they haven't lost interest, on both their [[https://www.deviantart.com/ursakar DeviantArt]] and [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3160315/Broken-Trident FanFiction.net]] accounts.

* HeroicBSOD: Maeteris suffers one [[spoiler: when she learns of the Eldar's descruction in a previous cycle]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Gallardi, after he [[DeliberateValuesDissonance takes risks to save the life of an Asari]].