Ron the True Fan: Do I LOOK like Gene Roddenberry, or that I work for Paramount or CBS?! Tell the bloodsucking lawyers to piss off!
Defera Sector - near VZA-4001
It had been an ordinary patrol mission - patrol the Defera Sector, protecting the neutral Deferi against potential Breen Aggression.
That had changed when the USS Raging Tempest, a Sao Paulo-Class Tactical Escort, had run into a Borg Fleet moving through the sector.
On the Bridge, the Captain of the ship, Captain Takeshi Yamato, was doing what he did best - commanding his ship from the Helm Console while he flew rings around the Borg Ships.
"Matt, give me Emergency Power to the Engines!" Takeshi ordered as he closed in on a group of Probes. "Tholra, I want the Cannons on Scatter Volley Mode and a full Spread of Quantum Torpedoes!"
Matthew Williams, his Chief Engineer, replied with an "Aye, Captain," as he went to work, while Tholra, a Xindi-Reptilian who had recently joined the crew after the cessation of hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, nodded and keyed up the requisite fire patterns.
As the ship closed to firing range, Takeshi pulled the trigger on his Manual Steering Column, his Quad Phaser Cannons spraying out a cone of fire at the approaching Probes, shredding their shields even as thirty-five Quantum Torpedoes shot out, detonating in clusters around the shieldless Probes and completely destroying them.
Two spheres locked their weapons onto the Raging Tempest before firing, hitting the 150 meter long ship with plasma-infused disruptor beams. The most dangerous threat, however, was fast approaching: a tactical cube, which the Tempest could not handle alone. It locked a tractor beam onto the Sao Paulo, intent on doing what the Borg did best. While obvious, the Borg decided to make their intentions known. "We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."
Takeshi snarled at the Tactical Cube on the viewscreen. "We'll see about that," he growled. "Kim! Polarize the Hull Plating!"
His Science Officer - really more Sensor Operator, given that the Sao Paulo was a warship with limited science capabilities - nodded, magnetically polarizing the hull plating, and breaking the ship free of the tractor, as Takeshi turned the ship around and sped away from the Tactical Cube. Still, they needed reinforcements if they were going to take it out.
One of the spheres fired on the Tempest before four quantum torpedoes hit the Borg pseudo-cruiser, destroying it before a Sovereign-class starship flew through the ship's debris, providing support to the beleaguered escort. "This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the Ra-Cailum," her Captain said over the comms. "Need a hand, Captain?"
"Much obliged, Captain Pinkerton!" Takeshi replied. "That Tactical Cube is the biggest threat right now!"
"Commence strafing runs on the cube while we keep their attention focused on us," Pinkerton ordered. "You've taken quite a few hits, so I would think you'll be happy about that."
"Understood!" Takeshi replied, grinning. "Let's show these clankers what we can do!"
The larger Ra-cailum fired a volley of photon torpedoes from the forward saucer and engineering section torpedo launchers, showering the cube with a large number of red balls of death that impacted and exploded inside the hull of the tactical cube.
"Your culture will adapt to service us." the Borg said. "Resistance is futile."
The Sovereign's deflector lit up before firing a beam at the cube, creating a Tyken's Rift that only affected enemy starships. This was a new feature of the multirole deflector dish, as creating a Tyken's Rift was not only highly risky, but damn near impossible to do outside nature.
Of course, the Borg tried to dissipate the rift through weapons fire, firing plasma beams and torpedoes into the rift. This had an unusual side effect, though…
"Oh, shit. Get the fuck out of here!" The energy readings were growing, as well as a familiar signature being registered on their sensors. And there was only one thing that signature belonged to. The Enterprise-D had encountered something like this in 2370, a year before the ship was lost. Worf, in the shuttlecraft Curie, was transposed and jumped from universe to universe until the anomaly was sealed and he returned to his proper reality. Before either ship could escape, the Tyken's rift expanded in white light, enveloping the tactical cube, the Raging Tempest and the Ra-Cailum.
Meanwhile, in another universe…
Systems Alliance Stealth Frigate Normandy, approaching Eden Prime
"Engaging Stealth Systems," Pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau said over the intercom as the SSV Normandy descended into the atmosphere of the Systems Alliance colony of Eden Prime, flying over what looked like a research dig. "Someone was doing some serious digging here, Captain."
A massive understatement, as there were holes that made craters back on Earth look tiny. Several buildings were on fire, although the main complex was untouched. It seemed whoever was attacking wanted the place intact.
In the Cargo/Deployment Bay of the ship, the ship's Captain, Anderson, was briefing a team of four soldiers, two male and two female. All were wearing what was classified as 'Onyx' Armor, though the two women had a red stripe along the right arm, and 'N7' Markings above their left breasts. One of the women also had a sword strapped to her back. Also in the bay was a Turian, making his own preparations.
"Your team's the muscle in this operation, Commander," Anderson was saying to the lead soldier, one of the women. "Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site."
"What about survivors?" the soldier, Commander Nicole Shepard, Candidate to become the first human in the Spectres, asked. "Someone had to've survived this attack."
"Survivors are secondary, Shepard," Anderson told her. "The beacon's your top priority."
"We are approaching drop point one," Joker reported, as the bay doors began opening.
One of the humans looked at the only Turian there. "Nihlus? You coming with us?" the soldier asked.
The Turian shook his head. While he would have liked to accompany the human team and see how they handled themselves, he had a mission to fulfill. "I move faster on my own." He jumped out of the prototype stealth ship, moving as fast as possible.
"Nihlus will scout out ahead," Anderson informed. "He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission. Otherwise, I want radio silence."
"We've got his back, Captain!" Shepard replied. The other woman nodded.
"Approaching drop point two," Joker reported.
The team of humans rushed off the ship, jumping off the forward hatch and landing on the ground running. Other than what little indigenous life was on the planet before the colony was set up, there wasn't a damn thing down there. "Stay close," Shepard ordered. "Whatever's attacking the colony might - Jenkins, don't rush ahead!"
The man in question walked toward a crossroads, flanked by a pair of rocks. "Commander, I'm from Eden Prime," he said. "I know the place better than-" Jenkins was interrupted mid-sentence as two drones shot him in the back, sending him sprawling to the ground.
The remaining three quickly retaliated, opening fire with their pistols and quickly downing the drones.
Once the drones were down, the remaining male, Kaidan Alenko, went up to Jenkins, checked his status through his Omni-tool, then reached out to shut the Private's eyes. "Ripped right through his shields," Kaidan reported as he stood up. "He never had a chance."
"We'll see that he receives a proper service after the mission is complete," Shepard replied. "But I need you to stay focused."
"Normandy to Shepard," Anderson said over the comm. "We're picking something up in high orbit. It might be enemy reinforcements, so keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you, because we're going to investigate."
Shepard simply clicked her comm twice, showing acknowledgement. Had to be important if Anderson was breaking radio silence to let her know. She then turned to her two remaining teammates: Kaidan and Lieutenant Hitomi Yamato. "Let's move out. We need to get to the dig site ASAP."
Eden Prime - high orbit
Two starships emerged from a rift, one being almost 700 meters long while the other was barely a quarter of that size.
In the smaller starship, Takeshi groaned as he regained consciousness, shaking his head as he found himself on the Bridge, at the Helm Console as per usual. "Wh… where are we…?" he asked. "Kim, you got anything?"
Kim shook her head to clear the cobwebs as she looked at the displays.
"Oh, shit," she replied. "Captain, according to the computer… we're on the other side of the galaxy." While nowhere near as powerful as the computers on the larger Ra-Cailum, (the cores on the Ra-Cailum were 8 decks high while the Raging Tempest's were MUCH smaller) they were powerful enough to calculate their current location. "We're also on auxiliary power: the dilithium matrix shut down."
THAT was going to be a problem. The Defiant-Class (and all of her subtypes, which included the Sao Paulo-Class Raging Tempest) only had two fusion reactors. That was barely enough to power one of the two phaser arrays.
"Damn, that isn't good," Takeshi replied. "Matt, can you get the Warp Core up and running again?"
"It's going to take a while," Matt replied, as he stood up and began heading out of the Bridge to get to Main Engineering. "I'm going to need time to recrystallize the dilithium, and that's if the crystals are intact. Until then, we're non-combatant: we're going to need that Sovereign out there to protect us."
"Do what you can," Takeshi replied. "I feel like a sitting duck drifting almost powerless like this."
"Ra-Cailum to Raging Tempest," Ron's voice said as it came over the airwaves. "Captain Yamato, are you alive over there, or do I have to send over a crew?"
Takeshi chuckled. The Ra-Cailum had more fusion reactors than the Tempest did, so it was like nothing had changed. That was the main reason the Enterprise-E was more than capable of fighting the Scimitar back in 2379, despite losing warp power. "We're alive," Takeshi replied, "but we're on auxiliary power only - wherever that rift sent us, it shut down our Warp Core in the process."
"Same on our end, Captain," Ron informed. "How many torpedoes do you have left?" and now Takeshi was regretting using so many Quantum Torpedoes. While they could make the torpedoes using the right materials and equipment, (Voyager proved that much during its' run through the Delta Quadrant) Quantums were a bitch to produce on a starship. He was going to have to tone down the torpedo spamming.
"Checking inventory…" Takeshi reported, before wincing. "We've got about 50 left - not quite as bad as I was afraid of, but still not good."
"We'll have to start producing photons on a massive scale if we can't get back home," Ron replied. "Hold it, we've got a contact on sensors: looks to be using thermal stealth technology." A poor man's cloaking device if there ever was one. Thermal stealth was good against heat sensors, but useless against every other type of scanning technology. The romulans invented the modern cloaking device as they knew it back in the 2100s, although it was very primitive compared to the perfected version used by the T'liss-class warbird that fought the Enterprise back in 2266, which shielded them from ALL sensor technology, to a point. That cycle continued until 2379, with the perfect cloak of the Reman Warbird Scimitar.
"Who in the galaxy uses thermal stealth technology in this day and age?" Takeshi asked. "Cloaking devices are widespread enough that they can be used on anything, and are likely much cheaper than thermal stealth..."
"Don't know, don't care," Ron replied. "We're going to contact the ship. How much power do you have for weapons in case they start shooting at us?"
"On auxiliary power alone, we've got barely enough to power one Phaser Array," Takeshi informed. "My Chief Engineer's working on the problem, but no clue about whether we'll be getting main power back any time soon."
"I'll send my chief engineer over as soon as possible if need be," Ron replied. "I'll patch you in to our hail to the unknown." A brief tone was heard. "Attention, unidentified vessel: this is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the Federation starship Ra-Cailum. Identify yourself and your intent, or we will be forced to defend ourselves."
There was a moment of silence before the reply came. "This is Captain David Anderson of the Systems Alliance Frigate Normandy," the other ship's captain said. "We noticed your… arrival here, and decided to investigate - you are currently in Systems Alliance territory, after all."
"Well, shit," Ron replied. "Sorry about just popping up, but we didn't have much of a choice, Captain. Mind explaining what the hell is going on?"
"Eden Prime, the world below us, is one of our colonies," Anderson replied. "And currently it is under attack - who is behind it, or why, we don't know yet."
Takeshi had a feeling that Ron was going to be ordering them into action. While not worded in the same manner, that WAS a distress call, and regulations stated that if you receive a distress call, you answer it. "Captain Yamato, remind me to have a talk with the boys at Utopia Planitia when we get back about adding more powerful reactors to Defiant-type TacEscs," he said. "I'll launch a flight of Peregrines to cover the Raging Tempest: we're going in to assist."
"Understood," Takeshi replied. "I'll also get a ground team ready - we're likely going to need to deal with the attackers on the ground as well as up here."
The Ra-Cailum's shuttlebay doors opened, deploying a flight of Peregrine-Class fighters. "If you've barely got enough power for phasers, you won't have enough for the transporters," Ron said. "I'll have two of my best pilots escort your team down to the surface. Good luck, Captain. Ra-Cailum out." The Sovereign-Class starship fired her impulse engines, heading for the enemy ships attacking the planet.
"Understood," Takeshi replied, before turning to his Security Chief. "Linda, you're in charge of the ground team," he informed her. "Use the Cyclone to get down to the surface, and take the Assault Squad with you - we can't spare any engineers, but have Mogire send one of her Medics with you as well."
Takeshi's Security Chief, Commander Linda Allster-Yamato, nodded. "You've got it, Takeshi," she said. "Good luck up here." She then left the Bridge, to gather her team and get to the shuttle bay.
Takeshi spared a moment to watch her leave, slightly worried about her - natural, because, even though he knew she could hold her own, she was still his wife - before turning back to the helm. He then opened a channel with Engineering. "Bridge to Engineering. Matt, what's it look like down there?"
"The dilithium crystals are going to need to be recrystallized," came the reply. "It's a good thing Captain Scott developed that process back in the 23rd Century, otherwise we'd be screwed. It's still going to take time, so we've got to sit this one out." Meanwhile, the Ra-Cailum was going to be fighting whoever the hell was attacking alone.
Takeshi sighed. "Understood, Matt," he said. "Hurry it up as best you can, but make sure it still gets done properly. Bridge out."
Meanwhile, Linda and her team, including a Doctor and Nurse trained for field ops, loaded into the Cyclone, the Raging Tempest's Type-10 Shuttlecraft. Once they were aboard, the doors for the Raging Tempest's small shuttlebay opened, and they launched, a pair of Peregrine Fighters escorting them down to the surface.
Eden Prime - surface
Ashley Williams was having a VERY bad day. The assholes attacking the colony (whom she finally identified as the Geth) were taking the colonists to these giant spikes and impaling all of them on the damn things. Some of her squadmates ended up the same way. 'A little help would be nice!'
At that point, the two Geth Troopers that were chasing her directed their attention to the top of the ridge, where three Alliance troopers, including two that looked like N7s, had appeared. One of the N7s took cover up there, drawing an M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle, while the other N7 drew a sword - looked a bit like a katana - then vanished in the flicker of pseudomotion indicating a Biotic Charge, landing directly in front of the Geth before striking out with her sword.
'Well, at least I'm not dead,' she thought, as the Geth were quickly dealt with, slaughtered by a combination of bullets and biotic powers. "Thanks for the assist. Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams of the 212th. Well, not anymore, seeing as I'm the only one left."
"Are you wounded, Williams?" the N7 sniper asked, as the four all gathered together.
"A few scrapes and burns, but nothing serious," Ashley informed. "I know what we're fighting, though: it's the Geth."
"The Geth?" the swordswoman asked. "But they haven't been seen outside the Veil in years."
"I don't know why, but they're here regardless, ma'am," Ashley replied. Before anything more could be said…
"Normandy to Shepard," came over the comms.
The sniper raised her hand to the comm button on her helmet. "Shepard here," she said. "What is it?"
"We've identified the contacts," Anderson replied. "They seem to be friendly, seeing as one of them wants to help take care of the ships in orbit attacking. They've sent down a team to assist you in securing the colony as well. There's… something else, as well."
"What is it?" Shepard asked, somewhat curious as to what else there was.
"I don't know how, Shepard, but they detected us long before we could get in visual range," Anderson informed. "You and I know that shouldn't be possible."
Shepard's eyes widened at that. "They saw through the stealth systems?" she asked, incredulously.
"Like an owl spotting a mouse before it struck," Anderson replied. "They offered to help us as soon as we told them our situation, though: one of the ships is heading toward the ships attacking the colony."
"Speaking of the attack, sir, I've linked up with one of the survivors," Shepard informed. "She's identified the attackers as Geth."
"But we haven't seen them outside the Veil in - never mind," Anderson responded. "The Ra-Cailum, one of the ships, is moving in to engage the Geth fleet. Press on to the beacon, Shepard: the second team will rendezvous with you somewhere en route."
"Understood, sir," Shepard replied. "Ground team, out." She then turned to Ashley. "Williams, you still good to go?"
"Ready, willing, and vengeful, Commander. give the word."
Shepard then subconsciously voiced the words of another great leader. "The word is given. Let's go."
Shuttlecraft Cyclone, attached to USS Raging Tempest
The Type-10 shuttle moved toward the nearest landing point, still under escort by the Peregrines. Their job, so they informed Linda, was to provide RFCAS. she had NO idea what that meant.
"Peregrine 1 to Cyclone," the lead pilot told her. "We're approaching the landing point."
"Understood," Linda replied. "Once we land, we'll link up with local defenders or the ground team from the Normandy, whichever we run into first." She turned to her team. "Everyone ready?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the Assault Squaddies and Medics replied as one.
The Chafee-type shuttle landed, followed by the opening of the doors and the debarking of the assault team, who ran into their enemy two minutes after they landed: robots of some kind, using assault rifles of unknown make and design.
The assault team opened up with their weapons - primarily Phaser Rifles and Pulsewave Assault Weapons, though Linda herself was using a TR-116B, and striking like the sniper she was. They went through the enemy in seconds.
"Take the weapons," Linda ordered. "Once we get back to the ships, we can have the Ra-Cailum's labs look them over, see how they work. Try to salvage some of the robots, too - would be interesting to see how similar they are to androids in our universe. Once that's done, let's get moving again."
"Yes, ma'am." Two of the robots were carried into the Cyclone, as well as several of the rifles, although they didn't seem to work anymore. "Commander, my tricorder's picking up two lifesigns: unknown. Think we should check them out?"
"Yes," Linda replied. "They could be survivors. Stay cautious, though."
Linda gestured the team forward, heading for the two lifeforms' general location. After a minute or so, they discovered the lifeforms: two of them, wearing armor of some kind.
"Saren?" the first one asked, apparently having just seen the other one.
The second figure, apparently called 'Saren', looked similar to the first, but he had cybernetic components that almost made Linda think of the Borg. He turned to face the first. "Nihlus," he said.
"This isn't your mission, Saren," Nihlus remarked, lowering his weapon. "What are you doing here?"
"The Council thought you could use some help on this one," Saren replied, placing a hand on Nihlus' shoulder, then walking past him. Linda could tell that something was amiss, but wasn't sure what…
"I wasn't expecting to find the Geth here," Nihlus said. "The situation's bad."
"Don't worry," Saren replied, drawing his pistol - and pointing it at Nihlus' head. "I have it under contr-"
Before Saren could finish, though, Linda had snapped off a shot from her TR-116, the bullet apparently being stopped by his shields, but the sound of the shields blocking the shot drew Nihlus' attention, and he turned to see Saren pointing the pistol at him.
"What the hell? Why did you-" Saren roared in rage before trying to shoot him again, but Nihlus dodged while the rest of the team fired their phaser rifles at Saren. This drew fire from the robots in hiding.
Saren retreated, dodging the fire from the phaser rifles as the team was forced to reorient on the Geth, even as Nihlus added his own fire to the equation. At the same time, the bodies on the spikes dropped to the ground, reverted into zombie-esque machines that took a lot of weapons fire to bring down.
"What the hell are those things?!" one of the team asked.
"Set your phasers to maximum!" Linda ordered. "That might be the only way to take them down!" The sound of an impulse engine got their attention as Peregrine 1 flew overhead, firing off plasma charges that exploded FAR too close for Linda's comfort, but making sure that Nihlus, whoever he was, was safe. Speaking of the man, he made his way to Linda's position, confused as all hell, judging by the look on his alien face.
"Good to see you alright," Linda told him when he got there. "Wasn't about to let him shoot you in the back like he'd apparently been planning on."
"Thank you," Nihlus replied, "but I'm curious: who are you? You're not Alliance, but you're clearly human."
"Commander Linda Allster-Yamato, from the Federation Starship Raging Tempest," she replied. "We're… not from around here…"
Nihlus gave her the 'no shit' look. "Clearly," he said. "Nihlus Kryik, Spectre, Citadel Council. I owe you for saving my ass, but I DO want an explanation as to who the hell you people are later!"
"You'll get it!" Linda said as she fired at the Husks with her TR-116B before realizing the weapon was damn near useless against targets that were already dead. She drew her phaser pistol, firing it at the dead bodies that were now trying to kill them.
At that point, Shepard's team crested the ridge nearest the spaceport, and ran down the slope, their own guns firing on the Husks.
"I wonder what took them so long!" Nihlus said. "Commander, tell your team to-" Peregrine 1 strafed the ground with pulse cannon fire just as he spoke, vaporizing whatever was left. "Well… that was… new."
Linda then realized what 'RFCAS' meant: Really Fucking Close Air Support. "I think it's probably a specialty of theirs," she remarked. "Anyway, let's go join them - we'll need to swap notes, then go after that Saren person."
"That's not going to be easy," Nihlus remarked. "He's a Spectre like I am, but he DID try to kill me, so that'll work against him. Here's hoping your ship can stop the Geth from escaping, as well as Saren." Oh, how little he knew.
The two groups then converged. "Good to see you're alright, Nihlus," Shepard remarked.
"Likewise. Mind introducing me to your friends?" One of the group looked at the Starfleet personnel, VERY confused. "That's not Alliance issue and I've never seen any of you before."
"Commander Linda Allster-Yamato, from the Federation Starship Raging Tempest," Linda replied. "Not enough time for the full run-down, but I'll try to sum up what most likely happened as best I can: Any of you familiar with the concept of parallel universes?"
Nihlus looked at Linda, then Shepard and back again. The humans clearly had some idea, although they were just as disbelieving as he was. He'd never even heard of that concept before. "Could someone please explain what that means?"
"It's a long story, and we don't exactly have time to tell it, Nihlus," Shepard informed. "What happened?"
"I came across another Spectre," Nihlus replied. "Saren, one of the best. Though apparently he's gone rogue, because he tried to kill me by shooting me in the back - Commander Allster-Yamato here kept him from doing that - and he seems to be working with the Geth."
"Well, we've got a name for those robots now," Linda remarked. "We might as well help you on your mission: that's kind of why we were sent down here in the first place."
"The more the merrier, Commander," Shepard replied. "Follow us."
USS Ra-Cailum - Eden Prime orbit (BGM: Hell March from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3) (brackets indicate time placement)
[00:00]
"Captain, they're not responding to hails," the Tactical Officer, an Andorian female named Corpsa, reported. "Phasers are fully armed, but the capacitors won't last long without main power."
"That's fine, Lieutenant," Ron replied. "Lock onto the closest target and unleash hell."
[00:26]
The Ra-Cailum's phaser array fired a beam of red-orange nadion particle energy at a Geth destroyer, their kinetic barriers unable to take the strain of a two-second barrage before the titanium-armored warship was hacked in half before it exploded.
"Whoops," Ron remarked. "Fire at will."
[00:46]
Two more destroyers vectored to intercept, but the Ra-Cailum easily hacked them apart with minimal effort before focusing on a large cruiser.
"It's like we're fighting children," Ron said. "See if we can't disable one of them."
[01:30]
The Sovereign-Class ship fired two beams at a Geth destroyer, effectively removing it from play before cutting another one in half, leaving the power core intact.
"Captain, there's a large ship moving to intercept us," Corpsa reported. "It's a lot more powerful then the others."
Ron nodded to acknowledge Corpsa's report. "On screen," he ordered
[01:45 onwards]
The ship looked a little bit like a squid, though with only five tentacles instead of ten. It also looked decidedly evil.
"Even the Klingons have better taste in starship design," Ron remarked. "Fire phasers. I want that ship disabled."
The 685 meter long Ra-Cailum fired at the squid, as Ron quickly coined the ship. The 'shields' held up slightly better than the Geth, but the phasers still made contact with the hull, forming massive scars on the ship's hull.
"Phaser power down to 50%, Captain!" Corpsa reported. "Should I start using the torpedoes?"
"Negative," Ron replied. "Continue phaser fire. These people use titanium for hull plating: a photon would destroy the ship."
The squid quickly made its escape, though the Phasers continued carving into its hull, even slicing off a tentacle before it escaped into Mass Effect-Based FTL.
"THAT'S going to leave a mark," Ron remarked. "Sonja, Mitod, work on the dilithium issue: I want this ship at full power before we have to leave again."
The Ra-Cailum's chief engineer, Sonja Henderson, mockingly saluted before dragging her Orion assistant into the turbolift in order to fix their dilithium crystal problem.
"Corpsa, open a channel to the ground team: put me through to Commander Yamato."
"Yes, sir," she replied, before setting up the channel. "Channel open."
"Commander Yamato, this is Captain Pinkerton: how's the situation on the ground? Can I have my Peregrines back?"
"We've cleared most of the attackers - and apparently they're called Geth," Linda reported. "Still one problem, though: the leader of this attack, someone named Saren, is headed to the Spaceport after something important - we're in pursuit in conjunction with forces from the Normandy."
Ron scowled. "Send the coordinates to us," he ordered. "I'll send a team to stop him before he escapes. Corpsa, take weapons offline and prep an away team. We'll beam down there and take this asshole out." Unlike the Raging Tempest, the Ra-Cailum still had excess amounts of power to use, so they could afford to use the transporters. "Riza, you're in command until I get back." His sister and helmsman nodded back as he left the bridge, heading to the transporter room.
Eden Prime - Spaceport
The Cargo Train carrying Saren arrived at the Spaceport, and he stepped off amidst a crowd of Geth Troopers. Approaching one, he said, "Set the charges. Destroy the entire colony. Leave no evidence that we were here."
That said, he then stepped up to the Prothean Beacon, and was lifted into the air as the Beacon gave him its knowledge…
Seconds later, the sound of energy gained the attention of the Geth as five humans, all armed with oddly shaped rifles, appeared out of nowhere. One of them raised his weapon toward Saren, who dropped to the ground shortly after they appeared. "Hey, cockbite!"
Saren barely had a chance to blink as he was hit with a bolt of orange-red energy, knocking him back.
The human blinked. "Thought that would knock your ass down," he said. "Higher setting, then."
Saren ran as the human began firing his rifle at the Turian, barely missing with each shot. "Get back here, you asshole!"
Unfortunately for the human, Saren managed to escape, a small ship quickly carrying him away from Eden Prime. At around the same time, the second cargo train pulled up, allowing the Normandy and Raging Tempest teams to enter the spaceport.
Kaidan saw the object first. "Demolition Charges!" he called out. "The Geth must have planted them!"
"Hurry!" Ashley said. "We have to find them all and shut them down!"
Ron sighed before firing his phaser rifle at the charge, vaporizing it. "Yamato, set those weapons to maximum: we don't have time to learn how to disarm the damn things! Gentlemen, clear the way!"
"Aye, sir!"
The Ra-Cailum security team split off, heading in different directions as Ron approached Linda. "Report."
"From what I've been told, the Geth are what these people call 'synthetics'," Linda replied. "Artificial life created several hundred years ago by a race known as the Quarians. They were meant to serve as menial labor, but became self-aware and rebelled, driving the Quarians off of their homeworld. The Geth territory is in an area called the Perseus Veil, and no ship that goes in ever comes out. The Geth themselves haven't emerged from the Veil in over two hundred years, so their appearing to attack a colony world like this is surprising just about all the locals."
"Like us detecting a stealth ship or ripping apart aforementioned Geth fleet," Ron commented.
The Normandy party all looked at Ron in shock. "What?" he asked.
"Detecting the Normandy aside, how could you 'rip apart' a Geth Fleet?" Shepard asked. "Just who are you people?"
Ron hefted the type-3 mod 2 phaser rifle onto his shoulder before smiling. "Captain Ronald Pinkerton, commanding officer of the United Federation of Planets starship Ra-Cailum. Anything else, you'll have to wait for, miss…?"
Before Shepard could introduce herself, she looked over Ron's shoulder to see Ashley approaching the Beacon. She could see the Beacon start to pulse with light, and it seemed to start drawing Ashley in. Shepard bolted forward, brushing past Ron as she ran up to Ashley, grabbed her, and threw her away from the Beacon… though this meant that now Shepard was caught in its 'pull'.
"Oh, fucking wonderful: psionic technology! I thought we wouldn't have to deal with this shit after Camus II!" Ron set his phaser rifle to maximum power with truly automatic fire, intending to destroy the beacon and reduce it to subatomic pieces. He took aim and opened fire.
The Beacon disintegrated after about five hits, but it had already deposited its knowledge into Shepard's mind, and she collapsed to the deck, unconscious.
Nihlus ran up to her, checking on her condition. "She's alright, just unconscious," he informed. "We need to get her to a medbay, though, just to make sure the Beacon didn't do any mental damage."
The Starfleet officer sighed. "Best place is the Ra-Cailum's sickbay: we've got more experience dealing with this shit." Ron tapped his comm badge. "Pinkerton to Ra-Cailum: seven to beam directly to sick bay."
As the rest of the Normandy party wondered who Ron was talking to, and what he meant by 'Beam', they, along with Ron and Linda, vanished from the planet's surface in columns of light.
They reappeared in a room that reminded them of the Normandy's medical bay, but FAR more advanced, from the look of things. A woman with spots on her head, descending downward through her 2373-era uniform, walked in from the office to the side. "Well, this is new," the woman said. "Never seen one of him before."
"Rutia, you've got a patient," Ron reported. "I suggest you get to work."
She noticed Shepard's unconscious body on the deck. "I see," she said. "Someone help me get her on a biobed!"
As some other crewmen came in to help Rutia lift Shepard onto a biobed, Nihlus looked around. "This is… amazing," he said. "More advanced than any Systems Alliance or Citadel medical facility… are you from the future or something?"
"Or something," Linda replied. "Judging by your reaction when I mentioned it earlier, I presume you haven't heard of the concept of alternate universes."
Nihlus nodded. "Turians are very military in tradition," he said. "We focus on what we can see and leave the thinking to Salarians. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew."
"We came up with the idea back in the 1920s and discarded it as an interesting piece of storytelling, but that's it!" Kaidan remarked.
Ron and Linda shared a look before saying three words. "You fucking wish."
Linda then turned to Nihlus again. "OK, short, simple version with example: Presume you went to a restaurant for breakfast, with multiple items on the menu for you to choose from. You choose one item. Somewhere out there, is another universe, another timeline, where you chose a different item on that menu. This applies to every choice that has ever been made - there is a timeline that exists for each option in that choice, and the resulting consequences. We come from one of these alternates, but there's likely been quite a few splits between ours and yours."
"Here's one that'll give you nightmares: a universe where humans conquered their area of the galaxy and basically ran a totalitarian empire that conquers everything that gets in their way. Believe me, that's not just a possibility: we've run into that universe."
Nihlus blinked. "I… see…" he said. "Well, that's definitely a new one to me…"
"A wise person once said: 'The truth is stranger than fiction'," Linda remarked. "Of course, said wise person had no idea just how right he was."
"We'll beam you back to your ship as soon as your CO is awake," Ron informed. "Gives us time to repair our power core, at least: we're running off aux power, and I'd rather have warp drive back before we go home."
Nihlus blinked at that. "Warp drive?" he asked. "Is that your form of FTL?"
Before Linda could give them an abridged answer, Ron covered her mouth. "Prime Directive, Commander: we tell them nothing about our technology." He sighed before removing his hand and facing the natives. "Our story is going to be a bitch to explain, and I'd rather say it to the leaders in your government, just to get the message across. Is that fair?"
Nihlus nodded. "It is - I'll need to get to the Citadel anyway, to report that Saren's gone rogue, as well as the loss of the beacon - and no matter what it was doing, you shouldn't have destroyed it, Captain."
"Why not?" Linda asked. "I gather that Captain Pinkerton is rather pragmatic about these things, so I would like to know why he shouldn't have destroyed it."
The woman with the sword spoke up then. "It wasn't one of ours - it belonged to an ancient race known as the Protheans," she said. "They apparently vanished 50,000 years ago, but they left remnants all over the place - just about everything used in our galaxy is based on Prothean Technology in some form."
Ron rolled his eyes. "I'll give you access to our database, with restricted access, so you don't try to download anything important. History files for the most part. Starfleet's had a LOT of run-ins with psionic technology in the past: ALL hostile. I did what my training told me to do."
Nihlus nodded. "I can understand that, even if I don't necessarily agree with it," he replied. "Still, if you use a different form of FTL… are there no Mass Relays in your universe?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and I can't answer any questions relating to our technology," Ron informed
"Why not?" Nihlus asked.
"Starfleet General Order One: 'Starfleet officers are forbidden to interfere in the development, be it social, technological or otherwise, of a culture'. It is our highest law, punishable by everything but the death penalty."
The woman with the sword spoke up again. "Sounds like a policy the Salarians should have had when dealing with the Krogans," she said. "I mean, between uplifting them into society and hitting them with the genophage, they 'interfered' rather heavily…"
The doctor walked back over, grabbing several medical tools. "Remind me to take a look at this 'genophage' later. Might be able to do something about it. Not that you'll LET me, but I know you LOVE the condom rule."
"If you are able to do something about the Genophage, I know the Krogans'll love you for it," the woman with the sword remarked. "I'd like something done about it, too - messing with a species' fertility rates is just wrong, especially when you're taking one that breeds like rabbits and making them not breed like rabbits. They're a very violent race, always going into battle, so their high birth rate kept things in check… with the genophage, though, their numbers are plummeting."
The two Starfleet officers facepalmed before Ron tapped his commbadge again. "Pinkerton to Henderson: do we have main power back, yet?"
"Just a minute, boss," Sonja's voice replied. "No, THAT one goes there, THIS one goes here!" Suddenly, the lights lit up to full intensity. "There! Warp drive and main power are back online! Now, I'm going to go take a look at one of those ships out there."
"Have fun," Ron replied. "Pinkerton out." He tapped it again to shut it off. "Well, feel free to walk about the ship," he said to their guests. "If there's a locked door, it's shut for a good fucking reason. Am I clear?"
They nodded.
"I should get back to the ground," Linda said. "Get back to the rest of my team, then get back to our shuttle once the Spaceport is cleared - don't want to leave the shuttle behind, after all."
"You DO realize I could have it beamed back to your ship." A common thought was that things larger than a living being could not be transported. That was wrong, as shuttlecraft were often beamed back to their ships if they couldn't fly back up for any reason. The most memorable attempt to do so involved the Enterprise-D, although that was foiled by the Q.
"Well, that could work, too," Linda said after a moment. "Should still return to my team on the ground, or if they're done clearing explosives, get back to my own ship."
"I presume you know the way to the transporter room?" Ron asked.
"Standard Sovereign-Class ship," Linda replied with a smile. "Hard not to know."
"Have fun on the ground," Ron said. "I'll go check in with my chief engineer. God knows I don't get enough work around here." Ron left sick bay, leaving the Alliance team and the Spectre to their own devices.
The three Alliance soldiers and the Turian Spectre looked at each other. "So…" the woman with the sword began, "we need to have someone get back to the Normandy to fill in Captain Anderson, someone to take a look around, someone to get back to the ground and help clearing the charges, and someone to stay here and keep an eye on Shepard. Who wants what?"
Nihlus made the decision to take a look around the ship. "That answers that," the woman remarked. "Gunny, keep an eye on the Commander. Alenko, you head back to the ground. I'll report back to Captain Anderson."
"Yes, Ma'am," they replied, as the group split up, the woman with the sword and Kaidan getting guides to the Transporter Room.
SSV Normandy
David Anderson wasn't expecting a column of light to deposit one of his N7s on the bridge. "WHAT THE HELL?!"
Hitomi shrugged. "Those guys have some very interesting technology, Captain," she said. "I mean, they've got beam weapons, point-to-point transportation systems, and what looks like medical technology far more advanced than our own."
Anderson blinked at that list. "Do you think they can give us some of that technology?" He wasn't a pro-humanist, but anything that improved life in the galaxy period he was all for.
"Well, the guy in charge of the large ship certainly wouldn't allow it," she replied. "Apparently their government has a policy against interfering societally and technologically with another culture, and he seems to be the type to stick to the regs like glue. If we want any of it, we might need to find someone who plays more fast and loose."
Anderson sighed. "What about Shepard? How is she?"
"Unconscious," Hitomi reported. "The medics on the big ship - the captain called it the Ra-Cailum - are patching her up. They've got some experience with this kind of technology, although I don't think they use ME or Eezo at all."
Anderson nodded. He'd gotten a brief report of what had happened on the ground with the Beacon before they'd been taken to the other ship. "So, do you know where they came from?" he asked.
"According to them, an alternate universe," Hitomi said. "And yes, I know that sounds far-fetched, but they didn't have any Turians, Asari, Salarians, Quarians, Krogan, or any of the races we know onboard, and they had several races I couldn't identify. Add in the fact they don't use Eezo, or ME-based tech, and the alternate universe theory does make a decent degree of sense."
"Damn. We're going to need to get to the Citadel to make our report about this. Can those ships go with us? I need to know if they can use the mass relays."
"Without Eezo, I don't think they can, but the fact they have their own form of FTL means it might be faster than what we use to get around within a system, when not using a Relay," Hitomi replied. "Nihlus needs to make a report, too - the one leading the attack wasn't a Geth - he was a Turian. Nihlus called him Saren."
Anderson scowled, and tried to restrain himself from making an outburst. He knew Saren, and that meant he couldn't be objective about this, truth or not.
"He tried to kill Nihlus, but a team saved him before he got the chance," Hitomi continued. "I think that'll work in our favor."
"Good," Anderson replied. "I want a status report from our teams on the ground before we head out. Get our people back on the Normandy, Lieutenant."
"Aye, sir."
USS Raging Tempest
Matt had been quite the Miracle Worker, getting the Warp Core back online shortly after Sonja had on the Ra-Cailum, but with much fewer staff compared to the engineer of the Sovereign-Class Ship. So, by the time the charges were all cleared from the Spaceport, the Cyclone was beamed back into the Shuttlebay, and the ground team was ready to beam back.
Takeshi met them all in the Transporter Room. "Welcome back, everyone, and good work," he said. "Heard that things got rather hectic down there.
"Hectic was right," Linda replied. "I'll fill you in more thoroughly later, but we should start getting ready to go - they'll be needing to go to a place they call the Citadel to make a report, and I think Captain Pinkerton is wanting to go along."
"Right," Takeshi replied. "Speaking of Captain Pinkerton, what's your impression of him?"
"He's a decent guy, but focused on the regs," she replied. "Brought up the Prime Directive a few times, and didn't seem to like people who violated it for any reason." She paused. "Seems uptight enough that I think he might need a girlfriend."
Takeshi chuckled a little bit. Linda knew what she was talking about - she had been rather uptight on regs before she'd started her relationship with Takeshi. "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there," he said. "I'll have Matt double-check everything, make sure we're ready to go whenever the others are ready. See you in our quarters tonight?"
"Sure," Linda replied, with a bit of a sultry grin. "See you then."
They all headed out of the Transporter Room at that point, Takeshi heading to the Bridge while Linda and her team headed down to the Armory to store their equipment.
When he arrived, the comm station was indicating they were hailed by the Ra-Cailum. Clearly, Ron wanted to tell them something.
Takeshi went over to the Comm station, activating it. "Raging Tempest here," Takeshi said. "What's up?"
"Sonja's run an analysis of the power cores from the Geth ships," Ron informed. "We can use them to connect to this 'mass relay' network in order to get across the galaxy. While I'm sure we can make quick warp jumps, I'd rather keep our true capabilities in the dark."
"Understood," Takeshi replied. "Send over one of these power cores, and instructions for how to link them to our ships - I'll get Matt on installing them right away. You informed the locals about this?"
"I don't think they didn't notice them being beaming onto the Ra-Cailum," Ron said. "I'll have one of the modded cores beamed to your ship once the modifications are complete."
"We'll be waiting for them," Takeshi informed. "Raging Tempest, out."
"We'll have it ready in a few hours. I'll have an engineering crew ready to begin the installation when it's done. Ra-Cailum out." The transmission ended, and Takeshi looked out the viewscreen. Strange new worlds and plenty of new civilizations.
Takeshi may have been more warrior than explorer, having been raised under the traditions of the Japanese Samurai, but he was definitely looking forward to seeing what this new universe had to offer.
Ron the True Fan: Bet you didn't see this coming.
Takeshi Yamato: There have been a few Trek/ME Crossovers out there, and I have wanted to try one, but when you count all the stories I'm working on with Ron, 117Jorn, DragonKnightRyu, Patriot-112, Titanic-X, and Xamusel, we have a backlog the size of Kentucky. That's not even counting the Beta Work I do for CSS. Stravag!
Ron the True Fan: But we've got a bit of a problem: Jorn is busy working with his new job, so we can't work on fics like STF. So, well…
Takeshi Yamato: We had to do something that didn't involve Jorn - backlog or no backlog. It was Ron's idea to do an STO/ME Crossover, so here we are.
Ron the True Fan: Same rules as STF: we're following the rules of the TV series instead of the game, which makes our job much easier. You know what that means from me: more Trek history trivia!
Takeshi Yamato: There will be some things we borrow from STO - Attack Patterns, firing patterns, and some of the different ground weapon types. Think of it as a… blend… of the TV series and the game.
Ron the true fan: Prepare for the Anderson Treatment! Until then...
Both: Ja Ne!