Year: 1285 CE
Location: End of the Road, unlicensed space station, Terminus Systems
The bar was rowdy and the patrons were drunk, a good sign for both patrons, owners and also those who wished to speak without being heard.
"You know the stories about ghost ships right? Treasure beyond belief just waiting for brave souls to claim it, or so they say." The human was short and twitchy, in more respected and law abiding space he would have been laughed out of any bar, if he was even allowed to land his rather dubious looking ship in the first place, but good information was hard to come by on the fringes of civilization and often the words of madmen changed the balance of power out here.
The Salarian he addressed, one Zerlan by name, had only agreed to meet out of pure desperation, out here debt collectors didn't send polite messages, rather they sent hitmen. Without some kind of major cash infusion soon, he and his crew would end up as an example to the next idiot willing to borrow from gangsters.
"Lack of evidence for this belief, unlikely to result in profitable salvage trip. More likely this is an attempt to get my vessel to an isolated area before selling our location to pirates, you will not receive payment for this information." He turned and began to slide out of the booth before the human even opened his mouth, only to hear a slightly drunken mumble "but I do have evidence, physical evidence. Meet me in 1 standard hour at Golden Stallion, my ship. It's berthing bay 12, you can't miss her, she's the prettiest damn ship on the station."
Of course a human would be late, and of course a human would give his vessel such a false and frankly, ludicrous name. The Golden Stallion was neither golden, nor was it much of a ship to be honest, even painted with garish yellow, it couldn't hide the older make of the vessel and the jury rigged repairs that kept the void from claiming it. "Over 1.25 standard hours has passed human, the evidence, hand it over." The salarian couldn't hide his impatience anymore, if this job didn't pan out then his time would be better spent fleeing this cluster entirely, preferably before bullets started flying.
"Now hold your horses, the ol' Stallion here needs time, especially pulling data from her memory cores, but I got both video and physical evidence here for you" he said with a grin, pulling out an old tablet style device, clearly obsolete, and in the other hand a chunk of unfamiliar metal. Giving off the Salarian equivalent of a sigh, he quickly passed his omnitool over the metal before freezing entirely, "report: material unknown". Within seconds the data passed to his ship, Kalaheren and its Asari pilot. "Lisere, analysis is needed on this immediately. May represent potential payday, maybe enough to pay off our debt."
The lazy and what many would consider seductive, voice came back moments later "ship's computer has nothing on it, even after connecting with extranet. It's like nothing I've ever seen, has elements similar to steel, titanium along with some unknowns in it. Where in the name of the Goddess did you find this information?" The human's grin grew even wider, he already knew he had them hook, line, and sinker, a term neither aliens would be familiar with.
"If you think that's impressive, you and your lover girl there really need to watch this video, picked it up from one of my probes I left in the system." The screen flickered on, displaying nothing but the cold void and the pale lights from stars, a rather ordinary scene until something seemed to start tearing a hole. Lightning of all green and black hues and colors that had no name could be seen rippling and flowing as this crack widened, as he stared as this the Salarian's eyes started hurting and a headache began to assail him out of the blue. Something was coming out of that rip, it could only be a prow of some vessel and it was massive, ornate, baroque even. Before it fully emerged the hole seemed to simply snap shut, cleaving the prow clean off in a perfect cut. The vid cut off into dead silence, only to be broken by the Salarian "Where is it".
The human's grin by this point was bigger than a Krogan's; it's just beyond the Vallhalan Threshold, about a week's FTL travel coreward, deep space, now as far as payment goes I think tha…" The human's voice cut off rapidly as Zerlan emptied a pistol into his brainpan, no sense in letting him go and sell the information to competition now was there? Life was cheap out here, and another body in a back alley deal gone wrong was typical, especially if that body belonged to the newest upstart race in the galaxy.
Maximillian stirred from his command throne as yet another alarm sounded. How could this be happening? The gods themselves had whispered to him in his dream, had revealed their plans in the way blood fell from sacrificial victims, had shown him the path to future glories, had shown him the path to a new conquest and did he not deserve it? He was the Archon of the Blood Eagles, the terror of the Gallium Sector, allied with the fallen angels of a legion better left unnamed, commander of three great void ships which preyed on the fatted merchant vessels and frail worlds of the false emperor. Was commander of three vessels, the warp damned Inquisitor had seen to that already, sending the Torment of Slaves to her death and handing Blackest Night a fatal wound before she entered the portal. The favor of the gods was fickle indeed, he thought as lance fire washed over Indomitable Wrath's void shields. No matter, it was far too late for the Inquisitor and his precious navy to stop him, the gate had opened and the path was clear, a new galaxy lay before him and he intended to drown in blood.
A small flash and she was gone, right through that massive xenos artifact, and with her went a decade long hunt throughout the surrounding sector. The cogitator's screen cracked as Inquisitor Braeburn's fist hammered it
"This is unacceptable, completely and utterly unacceptable, prepare to follow them through I will not allow that arch heretic to escape the Emperor's justice." The ship's captain paled "Inquisitor, with all due respect usage of xenos technology is heresy! Not to mention we know not where that structure will take us." A bolt pistol seemed to materialize in front of the captain's face, "I will do whatever is necessary to defeat the enemies of the Imperium, even if it damns me to the depths of the warp. Inform Battlegroup Icarus that they are no longer needed, then you will take this ship through that structure or I will find a replacement who will, am I understood?"
The admiral watched as a flicker of witchlight indicated Inquisitor Braeburn's departure, a departure with one of his naval vessels under rather dubious claims of Inquisitorial authority. "Comms, inform the astropath I need to send a priority one message to the naval Inquisitorial attaché from my office." Seething, he quickly left the command deck, an Inquisitor who willingly used xenos technology did not fit the rumors and myths he knew of the Emperor's most holy Inquisition, perhaps this Braeburn's superiors would be most interested in his activities as of late.
One of the many millions of ice chunks that floated in the system's outer reaches suddenly shuddered as ancient machinery, dormant for tens of thousands of years activated. A faint signal was sent out, unceasing and unyielding, a warning cry to its creators that something had dared to use one of their tools, had dared to rise above their station and to use that which was not to be used.
The Kalaheren flashed into deep space, finally exiting FTL to find their treasure, a treasure that was far more than they could have ever dreamed of. They were silent for moment, the shock of what they saw far outdid the grainy vid and chunk of hull they had seen. As usual, Lisere broke the silence "By the Goddess, if this is just a chunk of it, how big must the whole thing be, a kilometer? More?" It could certainly approach that size, perhaps more but that might take calculation better suited to the ship's computer.
"Not important, scan for survivors and tags. Have to make sure no one else can claim the wreck." What was to be done with survivors was left unsaid, both Zerlan and Lisere knew that out here in the fringe, life was cheap and having a gun to the back of your own head made the lives of others even cheaper.
"Negative on life signs, but get this some of the info I'm picking indicates that this ship was human, or at least humans were on its crew. Bodies are a mix of humans and what appears to be highly mutated humans, weird though, mutations aren't consistent with regular biology or mutations associated with humans."
Zerlan paused momentarily, this was unsettling and impossible. How could humans have constructed such a massive vessel, a vessel which didn't match any Alliance designs, and was fairly far away from normal Alliance operation areas and that wasn't even touching on the subject of the mutations. He had a dozen ideas as to why, all of the more disturbing than the last, either way this was the payday they were looking for and a potential political powder keg.
"Hey! Get this, that thing has absolutely no element zero in it! Not to mention, this ship is over five thousand years old. What the hell is going on out here?" A cold wave of uncertainly slowly crept down his spine as he met his worried pilots eyes. A broad shouldered Turian poked his head around the corner, a look of disdain crossing his face with the mention of humans.
"That's impossible, humans are brand new to space, this thing predates the formation of the Citadel Council. Not to mention that this is clearly a warship based on the guns and what appears to be battle damage. Why would anyone need guns that big?" A troublesome problem indeed, a human warship the likes of which has never been seen predating the galactic power structure with no element zero based technology. Silea, the aforementioned Turian, had the gleam of a treasure hunter in his eye, "Just imagine the kind of money we're could get for this, we could buy a moon with this kind of find. Also, Lisere there's a large flashing symbol on the screen, I take it that's a bad thing?"
With a jump, she turned back towards her display, "major power spikes all over the board unknown energies, somethings happening a couple thousand kilometers out. I'll bring in close to the wreck and we'll shut everything down, I don't think this is a friendly deep space storm." In the distance reality tore open in a screaming protest and the black hulk of the Indomitable Wrath crawled forth, ready to reap souls in the names of foul gods and things better left unsaid.