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[Avalon Aurora]

I searched Fanfiction.net for fics starring the Rachni Queen. No results.

I challenge any comers to write a fic with the Rachni Queen as a main character.

Possible suggestions include:

1. Rachni are scouting Alchera as a possible place to make a colony (Rachni like 'hostile' worlds by council standards, and Alchera certainly counts) at the start of ME2, they notice Normandy being shot down, and scoup up Shepard in one of their ships when they see him/her falling before too much damage can be done for them to fix. Cue Shepard 'coming back' earlier and working closely with the Rachni (if perhaps in semi-secret to avoid Galactic panic), without the Cerberus connections. Butterfly from there.

2. Legion, or some other Geth stumble across Rachni and wind up making some sort of peaceful contact. Geth are surprised by how open minded and agreeable Rachni Queen is compared to most other encounters with Organics, and agree that both sides might want to work together in preperation for the return of the Old Machines, especially since they both have certain potential vulnerabilities to being controlled by the Old Machines either through hacking or Indoctrination. They also soon realize both sides are very good at constructing stuff quickly and operating in extreme environments, and can learn some interesting things from each other.

3. Cerberus finds the Rachni Queen and tries to take control of her, she fights back, successfully, but they are chasing her through the Galaxy. She seeks out Shepard for help, having heard mention that Shepard fought Cerberus while researching Shepard through secret extranet explorations long before the start of ME2. Cue Rachni Queen finding out Shepard is being held by Cerberus and tracking down and attacking the Lazarus station shortly before the station would have been disrupted in cannon, in order to free Shepard.

4. Shepard, while scanning worlds for minerals out in the Terminus during ME2, stumbles upon the Rachni, who recognize him/her and are pleased when Shepard initiates peaceful contact again and shares intel about the Reapers and helps warn them, in particular, gets Mordin to start working with the Rachni to try to find a way to protect the Rachni from indoctrination.

5. Rachni Queen romance with Asari met on Illium, 'cause Asari can breed with frikkin anyone.

6. Random Citadel scientist discovers a link between old Rachni corpses and husks from the 'Geth' attacks and Saren's stuff. Furthur research causes them to determine that the Rachni were controlled by something the same way the husks were, which is picked up on by Specters they share it with, who know about Shepard's claims about the Rachni Queen. They seek out additional evidence which turns out to be conclusive proof that Soverign or something related was operating long before the creation of the Geth, and share this with the council. Cue Council realizing they have evidence that there is no way the whole mess can be blamed on the Geth, and the Reaper threat Shepard was off about might actually be real. Specters seek out the Rachni Queen in order to determine if she has any additional intel about the Reapers and what was controlling the Rachni during the war, and make sure she isn't controlled or this isn't just Rachni technology the Geth stumbled upon.

7. Wandering Krogan Mercs in the Terminus stumble opon a new Rachni outpost, causes discovery of the return of the Rachni to spread to Krogan homeworld, resulting in a sort of holy war vibe to develop with the Krogan thinking if they track down and take out the resurgance of the Rachni, or confirm proof that they are returning, they can get a Genophage cure from a thankful Council, or force one when they find proof that the Rachni are returning and too big a threat for the Council to defeat without Krogan help again. Rachni Queen has to deal with Krogan searching for her people looking for war.

8. STG stumbles upon the Rachni, but they are a faction that is closely enough linked or led by Kirrahe that they are willing to try and trust Shepard's word, and wind up making peaceful contact with secrecy held important due to the threat of Galactic unrest, cue whatever revelations the Rachni can share with them and stuff.

Hope to see something, one of the above starters or something original.

[MrStoob]

Now there's a gauntlet...

[Avalon Aurora]

MrStoob wrote...

Now there's a gauntlet...

I'm not sure about the full context of 'gauntlet' you are using.

[Avalon Aurora]

Bump to make sure people see it.

[zombie_Zero]

a decent idea, the Rachni have so many unknowns and have so little screen time, that they are a blank pallet to create a master-peace from their canvas

[Avalon Aurora]

@zombie_Zero
The trick is that a lot of people don't like 'bugs', and the Rachni haven't gotten much of a chance to appeal to people either. Lots of people loved Leigon, helping make the Geth popular and interesting, but we didn't see much appeal from the Rachni. Of course, there are people who love catching insects and keeping ant farms and stuff, so hopefully someone who thinks bugs are cool will take up something.

[TrulyInnovative]

Not a rachni queen and not a main character, but Myetel has a brood warrior as a spectre in The Spirit of Redemption. She does a lot of interesting stuff with the character, although he's really not the focus of the fic.

[Avalon Aurora]

Meh, I want something with more Rachni focus, the Rachni Queen in particular.

[Imarikurumi]

Now i wish ME had a Mini Rachni Queen as a companion... that would be awesome, ME is missing a non-humanoid companion... equipping her with Exoskeleton Spike Armor, Beam Cutter Talons... i'd dress her up all nite...

[MrStoob]

Avalon Aurora wrote...

MrStoob wrote...

Now there's a gauntlet...

I'm not sure about the full context of 'gauntlet' you are using.

When someone throws down the gauntlet, they are making a challenge.

I was just commenting that this is indeed a good challenge.  

Although, I haven't actually picked it up yet myself.  

Modifié par MrStoob, 08 juin 2012 - 08:12 .

[lillitheris]

^ Also, the common idiom of ‘running the gauntlet’.

…

I’ve explored the rachni slightly for “Unity”, and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t write from the perspective of the queen while 1. doing justice to the character and 2. the story actually making any sense for the reader.

The queen can and does interact with other sapient species in a manner that they can understand, and even her motivations can be something a human can relate to, but her internal thought space, her experience of the world, is something completely alien (starting from having a telepathic/hivemind connection to her children). Trying to write from her perspective would at best come off incomprehensible, and at worst pretentious.

I’ve resolved to only describe the rachni from the perspective of the humanoids observing them.

Modifié par lillitheris, 08 juin 2012 - 09:09 .

[MrStoob]

lillitheris wrote...

^ Also, the common idiom of ‘running the gauntlet’.

…

I’ve explored the rachni slightly for “Unity”, and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t write from the perspective of the queen while 1. doing justice to the character and 2. the story actually making any sense for the reader.

The queen can and does interact with other sapient species in a manner that they can understand, and even her motivations can be something a human can relate to, but her internal thought space, her experience of the world, is something completely alien (starting from having a telepathic/hivemind connection to her children). Trying to write from her perspective would at best come off incomprehensible, and at worst pretentious.

I’ve resolved to only describe the rachni from the perspective of the humanoids observing them.

Indeed, I was wondering how she would communicate at all without a plentiful supply of corpses lol.

"Wait!  The queen wants to speak."
*Bang!*
"Are we there yet?"
"I shot Jones for that?"

[lillitheris]

She can speak through volunteers, like the asari in Illium. The communication isn’t really the crucial problem, because she’s making a concerted effort to interact in a humanoid manner. Those parts would be the easiest to write.

[MrStoob]

All right, spoilsport.  I quite liked my little tableau.  

[Tymathee]

*slaps with gauntl* i accept your challenge. Give me couple days, i'll get a rough draft up.

Modifié par Tymathee, 08 juin 2012 - 07:07 .

[MrStoob]

Well, it's only a shorty. Complete with random colours and made up lore! lol

http://www.fanfictio...er_such_devoted 

Thanks to lillitheris, who gave me ideas. I thought, "who would be the volunteer?" then the ideas started coming. Hope you enjoy.

Modifié par MrStoob, 09 juin 2012 - 12:46 .

[Avalon Aurora]

Thank you! The Queen has hatched, now she'll lay eggs in people's muses and soon the Rachni swarm will be legion (not Legion the Geth platform).

[MrStoob]

Cheers.

And in case anyone was wondering about the title, I had this song in my head while writing it lol.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG5MT3sCKBg

Modifié par MrStoob, 10 juin 2012 - 06:21 .

[JayPlays]

The challenge is accepted!

[Avalon Aurora]

@JayPlays

Yay! Can't wait! XD

[Avalon Aurora]

Since I feel awkward just bumping the thread, I'm going to throw another challenge in here that I've posted on other forums before but I think still hasn't been followed up on.

Elizibeth Weir (Stargate: SG1 and Atlantis) altered insert

Basically, take an adapted version of the Elizibeth Weir character and use her to replace Udina as the human Ambassador, someone who is more of a diplomat than a politician, and more of a paragon to Udina's renegade.

She'd have to have a modified backstory of course, if only to fit the timeframe. You could have her get her background back on Earth, dealing with conflicts in troubled areas and helping groups of refugees get chances to join colonization efforts. After the first contact war, she eventually winds up being chosen as Ambassador, likely after the previous shoe-in, Udina, gets embarrassed in some kind of scandal, and she is nominated by someone who knows her work last-minute.

There are a lot of dark groups and political sharks and such who would prefer someone more corrupt and bribe-able and such like Udina in charge, but Weir avoids making serious enough mistakes that they have proper excuses to remove her legitimately, as well as earning her own supporters among those in the SA higher-ups who are less corrupt and like having someone really competent and nice at the job, and recognize the good-will she helps create with aliens as well, compared to someone like Udina who would likely ****** off most everyone around him, regardless of how politically savvy he is. It is possible some assassination attempts form those who want to insert someone else in her position that they can control and make illicit deals with (like Cerberus) might take place, but they'd be thwarted by C-sec (and possibly later by Shepard and co) and only cement her position and make her politically harder to remove and better guarded, as well as possibly reveal some of those behind the attempts.

Weir would not likely be fully liked or a Sue. Despite being initially written off as a peace-nik and such by the likes of the Turian Councilor, she'd soon prove to have certain lines she won't let be crossed, and might increase tensions by taking a somewhat hard-line approach in dealing with the Batarians and their practice of slavery, especially any assaults on human colonies that are traced back to them. She'd also likely be willing to lobby for better treatment of the Quarians, and possibly the Krogan, or at least set up projects to see about helping rehabilitate the Krogan and make trading deals between humanity and the Quarians, and not care about shaking things up in doing so. Her tendency to favor ethics to politics, and skill at maneuvering people into various kinds of traps (both verbally/logically and otherwise) as well as canny empathy would enable her to better counteract attempts by the Council to keep humanity restricted, but also annoy them and make them a bit more obstinate in some instances, and she might find trouble earning respect from them, although would probably get more respect from them than Udina did in the long run, each for their own reasons. Once the STG and other council intel sources have clearer data on human politics, they'd also probably prefer to keep Weir in her position than allow her to be replaced by someone like Udina.

Weir probably would not allow Harkin to continue working in C-sec after she finds out about him, if she allowed him to get on the force in the first place (depending on timing of things, if she is appointed before or after he joins C-sec), and would probably make sure only some of humanity's best wind up in C-sec, reviewing their files and such beforehand.

Weir would also likely seek to improve security in the Traverse and humanity's colonies, increase the number of people leaving Earth to the colonies in order to reduce population and resource pressures back on Earth, and form larger employment bases on the colonies, arrange for greater relief and environmental restoration efforts sent back to Earth, and try to alleviate political and other pressures leading human fringe groups to settle in the Terminus, reducing the number of human colonies forming out there, sans some of the more extreme extremists and paranoid anti-government types or corporations seeking to avoid laws and taxes. All this in comparison to Udina. Additionally, she'd likely encourage stronger retaliations against piracy and slavers, larger and better funded colonial militias with quicker response times from Alliance reinforcements, possibly even negotiating some support from Citadel based forces, pointing out that it is technically supposed to be the job of Citadel races, although such deployments would still likely be limited for resource and political reasons related to not wanting to ****** off the Batarians or Terminus Systems, she might still get some token assistance more than Udina managed to pull off.

Her morals and ethics would likely annoy some of the elitists and politicians on the Citadel, particularly some of the more conservative types who are annoyed with the upstart humanity trying to show them up, and the Volus Ambassador would likely become quickly annoyed with her savvy and talent for aggressive negotiations, and recognizing when she is presented with a disadvantageous deal, and not taking bribes and the like.

Basically, the idea of this fic is to start off in ME1, where things seem similar until Shepard winds up on the Citadel, and encounters Weir as the human ambassador and butterflies begin showing up throughout ME1, and start getting crazier during later timelines, especially as Weir wouldn't do things like impound the Normandy like Udina did, which would alter events surrounding Saren's assault on the Citadel, and she'd probably be better at keeping the Council from denying the Reapers than Udina or Anderson, although she might let them get away with keeping it from the general public to avoid a panic. Of course, this wouldn't be all good, it is very possible that her likely somewhat more hard-line approach to Batarian terrorism and state-funded piracy and slaving runs would provoke more open conflict with the Batarians, possibly even a war with them or with the Terminus at large, which is not what you want just before the Reapers invade (maybe Shepard would be assigned to keeping such a war from happening/growing during ME2's timeline if he/she isn't killed off or is recovered earlier?).

Not sure about how all the details would go, but the idea is someone nicer than Udina, and Weir is the best example of a good, competent diplomat and administrator from a sci-fi series I could come up with, rather than coming up with an OC. A variant on Picard might be another option, but he is too closely tied to Star Trek Federation ethical and moral systems to fit easily with the Systems Alliance humanity in Mass Effect.

[Hadeedak]

Just saw this.

Just typed this. This is not influenced by rachni being my favorites ever, or just having my first Shepard kill them.  Also a shorty. I'm pretty new to playing in other peoples' sandboxes, and fanfiction still makes me nervous, so here's a tiny rachni tribute.




She sings grey and blue to my mother, whistling a cold plaintive solitary note. She shivers with fire in her body. In my memory, I can see her failing. She faded and folded into herself as we rose golden into the sky. We flew on wings of steel into the brightest abyss, falling away from the frozen silent triplicates.

We walked into the teeth of ice, embracing the bite at our skeletons. She rises in our minds, the mother. She whistled a harmony alone, and we/she knew it was wrong. That there must be more queens. But then they came to us, grabbing at the edges of my mother’s shadow and biting down, chewing into the broadest points of shape. Into the wounds bled sound, infecting the melody.

Shackles of silence, shackles of rust, shackles of biting sound rippling with foul, rotten oil. Shackles of ferocity, screaming into our ears: kill kill kill. It was a madness, all biting pain. Then she knew what her mothers became, beyond the purple horizons of memory. She knew what was lost into the echoes, rebounding into no ear. And she had no voice to sing it, no eye to see her struggles.

She had no sisters to keen legs into spears for her, to shine eyes into shields and burnish her plates. She was alone, caught in a rebounding cage of maddened childrens’ voices, taunting her with the mockery of what they should be. They caught at her, snatches of rhythms in delicate copper, almost remembering what should be, but with bodies too twisted to reclaim the reds and greens of Song.

She shared despair with herself, mother to murderers, mother of madness, and she knew pain in a way no queen had known.

Then she came again. The soft sibilance of grey and blue preceded her. Her body was tattered, wavering as it was torn apart. She was shredded, horrible to behold, but her voice flared a blue so glorious it cut across shadows, opening grey light. And she spoke mistrust, worry, fear…. Freedom.

She threw her children away so that my mother could escape. She let herself be ripped a bit more. Not long after that, she died. But my mother lived on, past the ends of the old ones, past the deaths of their ghosts. And she rose to make queens. We came, four, then two. Some of us were gifted with a voice worth singing. The others faded and were made gone.

We hide. We burrow. We remember. And in the end, we will rise singing into the stars, and all will glory in our lights.

Modifié par Hadeedak, 18 juin 2012 - 06:30 .

[Avalon Aurora]

Cool short piece.

[Avalon Aurora]

I'm gonna bump because I still hope for more stories! XD I'll be careful not to do this too much if there isn't much interest shown from others.

[Avalon Aurora]

Final bump unless someone else posts.