Authors Note: So, here we are again with another bit of Chaos Effect!
I began Dawning as an interim project before starting Chaos Effect II. It's set in various time periods, both before and after First Contact. As a heads up, CE:D is going to be a lot shorter than my CE:FC or CE2. Look at it as a miniseries of sorts, filling in bits of backstory and the like. The chapters are short and the series is short. On the bright side, I should be able to update Dawning more often.
If you haven't read Chaos Effect:First Contact, be warned. There are serious spoilers here, but more than anything it probably won't make a whole lot of sense. I'd humbly suggest that you go take a gander at CE:FC if you haven't already. ;)
Small print: As always, the Mass Effect Universe is the creation and property of Bioware and EA. The Chaos Effect story and characters are mine.
Let us waste no more time!
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Chapter 1 – Foundations
Camo & Krooked – Make the Call
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The date was March 2009. The 517th Commando unit was on standard patrol. Well, standard by any traditional definition – the AMF Akina was coasting through uncharted space well past Council jurisdiction, well past any colonies or any remnants of civilization. Hell, not even pirates dared to venture out that far.
Then again, the 517th wasn't exactly known to follow the rules. Kaira T'Suni had always caused problems in citadel space, operating just outside of Council jurisdiction, following her code rather than the pacts that divorced the Terminus from internal space. That was why the Council had chosen her to investigate an unidentified, static signal originating from an uncharted sector.
In all likelihood, it was a faulty reading caused by outdated equipment. There had been no sign of resources in that sector, so only minimal funding had been provided; the teams responsible for monitoring the vast sector were operating on old equipment that was obsolete on all fronts. Either way, it was a convenient opportunity for the Council to send T'Suni out and not have to worry about her stirring up trouble.
"Any updates?" The Spectre asked, making her way into the Akina's cockpit and leaning on the back of the pilot's chair and staring ahead into space. She was hopeful, but unconvinced that they would actually find anything. In all odds, the mission was just another wild varren hunt from the Council. Even at that, the Council had simply sent them coordinates to investigate.
"Nothing yet." Evitha T'Vanalia shook her head, adjusting in the chair and leaning on her right elbow as she scanned over various haptic panels and readings. "Do you really think we'll find anything?"
Kaira shook her head as she wandered over to the long-range sensors. "I doubt it, but it's hard to tell now. Then again, we are dealing with unexplored space."
"I suppose so." The pilot conceded. She had learned to expect the unexpected when Kaira was in charge. Several decades of experience had seasoned her to the Spectre's antics, and the altercations that resulted from them. "On the bright side, I doubt any mercs would follow us out this far."
The commander took a closer look at one section of LADAR scan. Something caught her eye. "Can you run a closer scan on bearing 24 starboard, elevation 10?"
"Copy." Evitha responded, leaning forward in her seat and running through console several commands. After a second, she added: "Try that."
Kaira was silent for several seconds, watching the display closely. "There. Is that a relay? An active relay?"
"Hmm…" The pilot muttered, leaning half out of her chair and taking a closer look at the scan results. "Frequencies match up. Heat signatures line up, too."
"Take us in for a closer look. I want constant updates on local scans. If this is some sort of trap…" The Spectre shook her head. "Just be ready to raise shields and activate weapon systems."
"Understood." Evitha nodded, leaning forward and beginning to run through commands and haptic panels. The ship's thrusters activated in short bursts, changing the course and then equalizing everything out.
"Let me know if anything changes." Kaira said as she stepped away. "I'm going to make sure the squad is ready to go."
xxxx
"Commander." Rana acknowledged with a nod, looking up from a console in the engineering bay, pausing her work for just long enough to make eye contact. "I have nearly broken the Red Suns encryption. I doubt it shall be longer than a few hours before I have usable information from their databanks."
Like usual, the engineering bay was empty except for the younger engineer. Despite her time with the squad, Rana seldom left engineering. It showed, too. There were boxes of parts perched precariously on shelves, omni-tools scattered about in various states of disassembly, and a few unfinished, undistinguishable projects lay around. Kaira didn't ask questions. The young engineer was trustworthy and a hard worker; she always got projects done ahead of schedule. More often than not, the commander had to tell Rana to stop working and go get some sleep or food.
"Nice work, Rana." The Spectre nodded, pacing slowly. "I actually came here about something else."
"Really?" The engineer perked up, stopping her work entirely and blurting out a few ideas: "Do you have more decryption work? Perhaps I need to edit Red Suns weapon orders again?"
"No, no. It's nothing like that. It doesn't have anything to do with any mercenaries." Kaira began, giving the younger Asari time to process and think.
"Ah… my apologies then." T'Lan rubbed her forehead nervously. She was curious; the commander always had interesting jobs. But she was always worried that she couldn't get things done in time. "I am out of guesses, but I am intrigued to know what you're are considering."
Kaira nodded, smiling a little. "We might have just found an uncharted relay." She paused, chuckling as the engineers eyes widened. "I thought you might want to run initial scans on it. See if it's been used lately, how long it's been active. That type of thing."
"I-I-I – yes!" Rana stammered. "I have hoped to see an uncharted relay. We studied them for a entire semester in the University, but never had the opportunity for field work. Theories suggest that the mass effect fields surrounding them take on a different shape after long periods without usage. I have never been able to witness the effect firsthand, but…"
"Good." Kaira replied. "We're still a few hours away, but I thought I'd let you know… in case you need time to get ready or anything."
"Of course. Thank you for this opportunity."
Kaira just gave the engineer a pat on the shoulder. "Any time. It's not every day you get to scan a quiet relay."
Rana just shook her head, still thinking about the possibilities. "Do we have any idea where it leads to? Or what might have activated it?"
The commander just shook her head. "Nope. It's completely uncharted. Unless you can identify it and match it up to pre-rebellion records, it's a new entity."
"I suppose that is true. And this far into unmapped space, it is unlikely that it drifted out of place." Rana could barely contain herself. She had studied less active relays, but there were none left in the known galaxy. "I still cannot believe that we have found a relay. It has been nearly 130 years since the last discovery was documented…" She paused. "Do you think the relay is responsible for the erratic signal that brought us here?"
"Hopefully you'll be able to tell us when we get actual scans on it." Kaira shrugged. "You're the specialist here."
"That is not entirely accurate –" Rana quickly protested. "I only studied relays for a few weeks. Most of my time was devoted to new systems. Omni-tools, programming, and the like."
"Remember when you were able to track pirates based on relay disturbances?" Kaira pointed out. "I'd say you're qualified."
Rana looked down. She still couldn't take compliments from the commander. Not even after almost fifteen years on the 517th. and she certainly didn't know how to respond. "I…thank you."
Kaira nodded once. "Your technical skills are nothing to put down, Rana. You're one of the most talented coders I know."
"Along the lines of coding… I had a request." Rana began, looking back to the commander.
"I'll see what I can do."
"I would like to start designing custom firmware for our omni-tools. None of the market options provide enough expandability, and real-time cracking programs are becoming more prevalent. Having unique firmware would allow us more flexibility and offer more protection in the field."
"You…can do that?" Kaira asked, raising her brow. Omni-tool software had always been a part of the squad budget. "I'm not doubting your abilities, but that's a considerable undertaking."
"I have accepted that." Rana nodded, fairly certain that she would have time to work on such a project. But it was something she wanted to do. "I will make certain that it does not interfere with priority work."
Kaira just watched the younger commando for several seconds, scanning her face. Seeing how much she actually wanted to take such a big project on. "Alright. You have my bidding to start. Let me know how it goes."
"Thank you, commander." Rana nodded eagerly, smiling broadly and briefly. "I will do my very best."
"I don't doubt it."
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"I hope you can put all your weapons back together in time if need be." Kaira regarded the arms specialist suspiciously. The armory was particularly messy this time, several sniper rifles torn down completely, a shotgun broken in half, accelerator coils in a disorderly stack that was about to tip over, but that didn't generally bother Kaira. The fact that weapons remained in disassembled state as long as possible, on the other hand, bothered her.
"What?" Delina just shrugged, nonchalant about it all. Sure, she had a few projects going on. "I could put all of these back together in five minutes tops."
Kaira shook her head and stifled a heavy sigh. As good as Delina was in combat, she still refused to behave like a normal commando. For Kaira, that was a small price to pay. Yet she also knew that all of their weapons were in working order to begin with and still the arms specialist tore most of their firearms apart and ordered aftermarket components. "Delina… we've been over this before. Are weapon mods really necessary at this intensity?"
"Why not?" Delina countered, shrugging and hiding a smirk. "It gives us an edge. And it can't do any harm."
The Spectre folded her arms and regarded Delina skeptically. "Last week you had a heatsink blow up in the middle of a fight."
The arms specialist just snorted and waved the concern away. "That was a faulty unit. It was going to give out regardless of any mods. I'll go ahead and blame Tryton for that one."
"Or maybe the time that you broke… what was it? 15 accelerator coils trying to spec out your HK?" Kaira continued, calmly pushing the issue.
"Oh come on." Delina rolled her eyes. "You're fussing about nothing. Nobody got hurt, and I was able to fix it on my own time. Besides, it was only 13 coils."
"Right." Kaira tried not to scowl. 13 or 15, the point remained. "I understand you want to mod our weapons. But I can't keep budgeting these costly mistakes. Despite how it may seem, my resources are limited."
"Really?" T'Kasan raised her brow in sneaking interest, her voice as much playful as it was malicious. "Last time I checked, your boyfriend could get mil-spec components for dirt off a varren."
"Give it a rest." The commander warned quietly. She had been working with Delina longer than she had been with Tahre Matroclus. And she had yet to see the end of the subordinate commando's teasing. Well, it was more taunting.
"What?" Delina drawled with overly feigned innocence. "He still get anything for you, can't he?"
"Give it a rest." Kaira warned, almost growling.
"Alright then." Finally Delina relented. Where most Asari could take a hint, she insisted on pressing an issue. So Kaira usually had to keep her in line. In the seconds of silence, Delina just folded her arms and leaned back against a bench, trying to fight back a stupid smirk. "So since you're here, do you want a quick report on weapon condition?"
Kaira agreed begrudgingly.
"Welllll…" Delina began, rubbing her hands together and walking over to another bench and looking at a disassembled assault rifle. Kaira's SG17a, to be specific. "Remember the problems you had with this thing stuttering with every burst?" The arms specialist picked up an accelerator coil and paused long enough for Kaira to nod. "Well, it turns out the space pyjac at Synerge got the polarity wrong on the third coil."
"How come it didn't just blow up?" Kaira asked, cocking her head as she took the coil and inspected it closer.
"I dunno." Delina shrugged. "But I'm replacing them with Havok coils."
Kaira was skeptical. "Are you sure that'll work?"
"Sure. It'll take a little bit of modding, but I'll make it work. They're kinda similar."
"Alright… that's your call. So long as it works, and doesn't blow up in my face… I have no grounds to complain."
Delina raised her brow inquisitively. To her, that sounded like a standing offer.
"That doesn't mean you can go completely overboard." Kaira quickly clarified, picking up on the arms specialist's impish ambition.
"Aww." Delina feigned hurt and pouted for a second. But she was hardly torn up. Actually, she was already trying to envision how to retrofit the Havok coils into a Synerge rifle. She'd never liked the Synerge coils – they always seemed flimsy and prone to overheating.
"There's another thing." Kaira began, clasping her hands behind her back and pacing again. "We've found a new relay."
The arms specialist nearly dropped the coil that she was holding and sputtered for a few seconds. "What? Where? Where does it go? Can we find out?"
The commander was slightly surprised by the outbreak of enthusiasm. It was unlike Delina to show so much excitement. Then again, the arms specialist had always wanted to venture off into various, uncharted sectors of the Galactic Rim. Time and time again she had begged the commander to see how far the Akina could go on a tank of gas. Kaira explained. "We're closing in on it now. It'll probably be a while before we can get a proper reading, and there's no way to tell if the other side is active."
"Ok. Yeah. I get it. I'll get our weapons up to spec. Just in case we need to do a ground mission any time soon. I mean, you never know."
"You don't." Kaira replied simply, not wanting to get the younger commando too stirred up but not wanting to crush her hopes and dreams. "We'll meet in the combat center when we get closer."
"Right-O." Delina nodded. "So… how do you feel about explosive rounds?"
xxxx
"Evitha, can you bring the relay up on our main scanners?" Kaira asked, leaning onto the edge of the holo-projector and using the intercom to contact the pilot.
"Sure thing, commander. Bringing them up now."
Kaira just watched as the 3D form of the mass relay sprang up in holographic form, rather pixilated as the scan completed. She glanced at the other two members of their ground team; the yellow light highlighted their complexions. Both were excited about, or at least interested in, the relay. And as the scan gained more clarity their attention intensified.
But Kaira's mind was already wandering. There were possibilities. It could have been a trap, and ships could leap out and ambush them as they idled a short distance from the relay. There were implications. What was on the other side? How would it affect the galaxy? There were ramifications. If she alerted the Council, they would fuss and shut it down. If she didn't… they were even less predictable.
"Commander…" Rana began, not looking up from her omni-tool as she scanned over columns of raw data. "The relay connection is fully active, signature 258. According to the energy levels, the opposite relay is linked and the corridor is traversable. I am acquiring the transit vectors now."
"Aw hell yeah." Delina beamed, banging her head once out of eagerness. "Any sign of traffic? Anyone we can shoot?"
"I…" Rana began to protest, then trailed off as she continued her analysis. "There seems to be no disturbance to the mass effect fields. If other ships have activated the link, it has not been recently."
"So, Kaira…" Delina began, looking to the commander hopefully.
The Spectre just shook her head. "It's generally a bad idea to jump through unexplored relays."
Delina let out a loud groan of disappointment.
"Commander…" Rana started, rather mumbling as she inspected the data downloaded from the relay. "Somebody wrote specific coordinates into the relay cache. T'Vanalia, I am forwarding them to you now."
"Got 'em." The pilot responded, still over the intercom. "Bringing them up on nav display." There was a pause. "So… they match up with our grid network. Looks like a planetary system on the other side of the relay. Nine major planets circling a star."
Kaira was suspicious of the added info. "Rana, do relays usually carry this sort of info?"
"I… no, not as far as I know. We did not research relay storage extensively, but… from what I understood, it is nearly impossible to alter the information that they carry." The engineer replied, looking up for a minute.
"I mean the coordinates. Why are they on there? Someone had to tamper with it."
"I do not know…" Rana began, working through more data. "I may be able to trace the data… and at least tell you when it was entered."
"Do that. Something's off here." Kaira shook her head as she looked at the holo of the relay.
"Yeah? And?" Delina asked suddenly. "I say we go see what's on the other end. If anyone tries to give us trouble, we fuck them up."
Kaira didn't bother mentioning that they were just a light frigate. The extent to which they could 'fuck up' hostile ships was severely limited.
"Goddess… have I lost my bearings?" Rana muttered, wildly scrolling through the relay data for a moment before looking at Kaira and stating, "The coordinate info has erased itself. I see now that it was loaded with tracers… as soon as I accessed it, self-deletion protocols were activated."
"We still have the info on board… it's not completely gone." Evitha piped up on the intercom.
"Rana, this is serious. Is there anything else that we downloaded that poses a threat to the Akina's mainframe?" Kaira asked, able to smooth the alarm out of her voice.
"No." Rana closed her omni-tool and looked at the relay holo curiously. "The only protocols were contained in the relay copy of the data. I can see no other malicious files."
"So then…why delete the original? We've got the location data." Kaira shrugged and looked at Rana for an answer.
"I've got it." Delina suddenly piped up. "Whoever put that data there only wanted it to be used once. To give explorers an edge."
Kaira was about to discount the arms specialist's crackpot theory, but Rana replied first: "I am inclined to agree with Delina. It was a very specific code, designed for a single usage."
"Alright. Say that is the case. Can you tell who wrote it?" Kaira asked.
Rana brought her omni-tool up and spent a few seconds tearing through a clunky UI. "I do not recognize the language. It was engineered to be compatible with our systems, but… it matches none of our scripting. Perhaps it was added by the same people who built the relays."
Kaira was quiet for several seconds, thinking through the outcomes of each potential decision.
"Come on, Kaira…" Delina pressed. "We've never gotten to do something like this before. Don't you wanna know what's on the other side?"
"That depends," Kaira replied, "On what awaits us on the other side."
"There's only one way to find out." Delina pointed out, folding her arms and watching the commander intently. "And besides, if there's trouble on the other side… you don't really want to leave it for somebody else to find, right?"
"I would also add that we seldom have the opportunity to chart new areas of space." Rana added, voice quiet. "I do not mean for my personal interest to affect your judgment, but… it is an incredible opportunity."
Kaira stared at the holo for several minutes. She couldn't deny her own curiosity, but there was much more on the line. Finally she spoke: "Evitha…"
"Yes Commander?"
"Take us through the relay."
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