Unknown to the crew of the Incursion, the 'object' was in fact a Mass Relay. Massive objects left behind by an unknown alien race that allows for near instantaneous travel across unimaginable distances by manipulating the relative space between two relays.
The material that allows the relay to function is known as 'Element Zero' to the races that have established themselves upon the technologies of relay builders. A material known to the UNCS as the elusive 'Dark Matter'. Dark matter it is thought to be responsible for all the mass that is unaccounted for in the universe.
When a ship wishes to pass through a relay it must simply approach and transmit the approximate mass of the ship to be send through. Be it a single ship or multiple. The 'Drift Factor" is a phenomena were ships do not consistently land near a relay but can 'Drift' into the area around it. This is not due to limitations in the relay itself, as thought by many races, but in fact due to the miscalculated mass given to the relay. The more accurate the mass given, the more accurate the jump.
Once the relay has a given mass it proceeds to create a 'tunnel' between the two relays, adding only enough power to send the ships to their destination. This is why when the Incursion sent the 'signal' to the relay did it activate. They were simply sending a number, the mass of the unknown contacts, in a form that the relay recognizes. Unfortunately, even the combined mass of the unknowns still did not add up to what would be required to successfully 'jump' the Incursion.
…
Unknown Space: The Incursion
The Incursion was violently thrown back out into real space, vast amounts of kinetic energy being transferred directly into the ship's hull from the massive deceleration as it slowed back down to sub light speeds. Residual energy from the 'tunnel' electrifying the hull and causing systems across the ship to shut down in an attempt to prevent catastrophic failure of key electronics. Ironically, the electrifying of the hull caused it to heat up, allowing it to bend slightly as the ship attempted to absorb the forward momentum, preventing it from being completely ripped apart.
"Damage report!" yelled Anderson, trying to be heard over the yelling filling the now manned bridge. Technically, a frigate with a A.I wouldn't need any kind of bridge crew beyond the Captain himself ,in order to give authorization for various actions. But having a crew had its advantages in specific situations, this one being the best example.
"Unknown damage, sir!" yelled a console operator to the side, "Main computer systems offline, redundant systems are all that's running right now!"
With the main computer banks offline, Asya, was effectively dead until it was repaired or reactivated, depending on the damage done.
"Get the pelican's into space now! For all we know we might be surrounded by hostiles, and I don't want to get caught not knowing what's out there!", said the Captain.
A 'Pelican" is the UNSC drop ship, built for ferrying people and supplies from one ground location to another, or from space to ground and vice versa. Normally the only space bound operations a Pelican would perform is transport from ship to ship. But as frigate class ships don't carry Longsword fighter they can be used as scouting ships in desperate situations.
"Alpha and Beta Pelicans launched, Charlie has not left the hanger," called a different operator.
"Equipment issues?" Anderson inquired.
"No sir, the pilot is having issues," he replied.
"Whatever we can deal with it later, now is not the time. Do we have visuals!" he called.
"Coming in now, sir," he said, "What the hell?" he added quietly.
An image of the ship appeared, showing only minor damage. But it was the space around the ship that was interesting, in the fact that nothing was there.
"Where are we?" some one said.
"Short range sensors are coming back online, lets see if we cant enlarge our field of vision," said the sensor operator, momentarily pausing, "Captain, we aren't detecting any stars within a one light year radius."
The image of the ship slowly shrunk as the view screen zoomed out farther, showing only more nothing. It was clear where they were. The interstellar void, the large expanse of empty space between star systems.
"Is it possible this is the location it was supposed to bring us too?" asked Anderson.
"Doubtful sir, their ships appeared next to a second object and were undamaged," said a different operator, "Based on the size of the ship's we encountered it is possible that it couldn't handle a ship this size."
'That would explain why their ships were so small,' though Anderson, 'But that doesn't help us now.'
"Have damage control teams begin repairs, and have a medic sent to the hangers to help the pilot of the third pelican," he ordered, "Prioritize the main computer banks, see if we cant get Asya back online."
"Sir, the pilots problems aren't medical," said an officer, "He simply refuses to pilot it."
"You're joking," asked Anderson, not believing what he was hearing.
"No sir, pilots name is Jeff Moreau, call sign 'Joker'," replied the officer.
"XO Pressly, you have the bridge," he said, "I'll deal with this myself," he said, before leaving the bridge to deal with this uncooperative pilot.
"Yes sir," replied Pressly, "I'll keep your spot warm," he said jokingly.
Pressly was the Executive Officer aboard the Memory before it was destroyed. He was extremely angry until after he learned he was being stationed on a advanced warship being given the mission to investigate the hostiles. It gave him plenty of opportunities for revenge along the way. He himself was almost fifty years old, with white hair in the few spots were he still had any.
Looking around, Pressly saw the many of the operators looking at him, "Carry on," he said, and the work immediately resumed.
…
The Incursion: Aft Hanger
"HELL NO," yelled Joker, "IM NOT FLYING THAT DAM THING."
Those were the first words Anderson heard when he entered the hanger. Being yelled by, who he assumed, was the problem pilot.
"IT'S DAM WELL INSULTING TO EXPECT ME TOO," he continued yelling, oblivious to the Captain entering.
"ATTENTION," Anderson yelled. Not something he normally liked to do, but it seemed like the only way to get his attention.
"WHAT," he yelled, immediately shutting up upon seeing the Captain. "Captain," he said saluting, obviously trying to keep what ever sense of professionalism he had left. "What can I do for you,?" he asked, grinning.
"You can tell me exactly why you refuse you pilot the pelican, and you can do it now," he said, not wanting to deal with his antics, any more then necessary.
"Well you see Captain," he paused, "Well, uh…."
"I'm waiting private," he said.
"That's it exactly!" he exclaimed, "I'm a PRIVATE for gods sake! Less then a week ago I was the head pilot onboard the Memory. I can fly anything in the UNSC fleet and even most of the Covenant's fleet! And now you want me to fly a PELICAN. That's… that's just insulting!"
"No, what's insulting is your tone right now!" he said, voice raised, "I get that you don't like it, but your going to have to live with it. Pilots are in short supply so your going to have to do your job. Besides, we are currently scouting a new, space faring, species. Who knows, we might find some alien ship for you to fly."
That last part immediately grabbed Jokers attention. The though of being the first person to fly an entirely new kind of ship was too much to resist.
"Really?" he asked, "You would let me fly an alien space ship?"
"As you said," he responded, "You were the head pilot. Aside Asya, you're the best we have."
Anderson always believed in the phrase "You catch more fly's with honey then vinegar". He preferred to lead people by respect rather then fear. This way of viewing his command had kept him and his crew's alive up until this point.
"Yes Captain," he replied eagerly.
"If that's taken care of, I need you to help with the repair work. Go talk to the head of the Damage Control teams for instructions," he said.
His grin faded lightly at the prospect of doing work, but for this opportunity he was ready to suck it up and get to work.
"Yes Captain," he said, less eagerly then before.
"Good, I'll be returning to the bridge then," he said before departing, leaving Joker standing there fantasizing about flying some alien ships.
…
The Incursion: Outside the Ship
"Ok, that's it," said the first repairman, "The last plates finished."
The repairman really didn't like working with the new 'Photo Reactive Plating'. They were easy to break and extremely hard to repair due to the alien component's used in their construction. But with that finished he had only one more thing to fix. The long range broadcast nodes.
Normal means of communication, radio and point to point laser's, don't work for communication over long distances because these signals only move at light speed. Not even nearly the speeds required for communication from one star to another.
This is why the node works in tandem with the slipspace drives. By opening a microscopic slipspace rupture, then broadcasting a signal into it allows the communication to reach speeds of light years a second in real space. Well any communication system could technically receive signals from slipspace, it requires extremely advanced systems to send signals that will remain intact over long distances.
This is why it was a very large problem when the repair team moved to the other section of the ship to find that it had been, literally, ripped in half by the extreme deceleration that the ship had experienced previously, with parts of it simply missing.
"Oh no…" said the second repair man, and with good reason, it was one of the only parts of the ship that couldn't be repaired, only replaced.
The Incursion: Bridge
Anderson was pleased. The repairs were going quickly and estimates put Asya being back online less in then an hour, and long range sensors were currently doing a broad scan of the surround space. With all going well they could be on their way in less then three hours.
"Captain, we have a report from the 2nd repair team," said the communications officer, "They say the long range communication node has been destroyed beyond repair."
Silence fell upon the bridge at that news, everyone knew what that meant. They couldn't send messages back to UNSC space. But the worst part was the problem with returning to UNSC space.
The orders for the Incursion, when it needed to return to UNSC space, were simple. Send prior notice to allow time to have the HAVOC mines be shutdown. Without this it was more likely that the defences would simply reduce them to radioactive ash.
"Are they sure its beyond repair?" Pressly asked, not wanting to accept that they were effectively stranded.
"They report parts of it having broken off the ship," he replied sighing, "There's no chance to fix it."
Minutes pasted in silence as the crew stood, or in some cases sat, in silence.
"It doesn't mater," Anderson said, "We will continue our mission as planned. We will find out why these people attacked us. And we WILL find a safe way home."
Slowly the people in the bridge resumed their normal activities, though with much less vigour then before.
…
The Incursion: One Hour Later
"Mainframe is ready to being reset sequences Captain," said the maintenance officer, "Shall we proceed?"
"Yes, the sooner Asya's back online the better," he responded.
"Super cooling systems online, beginning start up," called the operator, "Mainframe online, A.I. program running now."
Slowly the holotable display changed to show Asya's avatar developing from the bottom up. A crude, but effect, way of displaying the progress of the boot sequence. Once it finally finished compiling Asya's avatar there way a slight pause. Then she blinked, looking around briefly.
Anderson had though long and hard about the argument on AI's emotions. Some people though it was simply their programming, and others believed that they truly become self aware. He himself was somewhere in the middle of the two arguments.
"Captain?" said Asya, "How long was I out?"
Normally there would be no need for external input to inform the AI as it could simply look into the recorded logs of the ship. But because the mainframe was down, leaving only secondary systems, no logs were kept in order to save storage space.
"Approximately two hours," he answered, "And there have been some complications since then."
"Like?" asked Asya.
"The broadcast node was damaged beyond repair once we arrived," he said, "And we are currently situated in the interstellar void."
"Good to know you guys aren't entirely helpless without me," she said smirking.
"Did I ever say we weren't?" he replied.
"Good point," she said, "So, were do we start?"
"Long range sensors are already mapping the local area, if you could lend your skills to speeding up that process, it would be much appreciated," he asked.
"Sure, the scans are almost done already, it just needs to be compiled into a workable star chart," she said, "Give me a few moments."
With both the mainframe and the ship's AI online, creating a star chart out of the available data was simple, and in less then thirty seconds they had a fully viable, albeit short range, star chart.
"Captain, I'm not finding any of our usual navigational pulsars," she said, "We could be anywhere in the galaxy right now without knowing how that object works."
The chart itself only showed ten light-years in any given direction, with only three systems in that area.
"So, a one in three chance of landing in the proper system, assuming any of them were we want to be," noted Pressly, "How do we decide were to go?"
"Well, the third cluster has two planets in the habitable zone. It's possible some of them are in fact inhabited, and we could use them as starting point's for exploration into the space around them," commented Anderson.
"Captain, if I may," asked Asya, "If we assume that the object only moved us in a strait line then it's very possible that just continuing to travel in the same direction we were will lead us to the systems with a second object."
"Can you focus the long range sensors in that direction to search for a system?" asked Pressly, "Or do we simply hope we run into one along the way?"
"I already began scanning in that direction, and have in fact detected a system," she said before pausing, "The only problem is that its over sixty light-years away."
"So our options are either to hope that the nearest planet is inhabited, or to take a chance that our direction didn't change, and spend a week in slipspace too find out," said Anderson.
"It's also possible that neither would lead us to anything," added Pressly.
"Dammed if we do, dammed if we don't," remarked Anderson, sighing he said, "I say we continue moving forward, towards the distant system. Finding a second object may is our only way home, and thus, should be considered top priority."
"Hmm, it's a good point. I agree," said Pressly, "We need to prioritize finding a way back, even if we cant use it."
"Sarita, plot a course and enter slipspace when ready," he said, sighing it was going to be a long week.
"Yes Captain," she said, secretly pleased that her idea was chosen as the course of action.
It was decided to not equip the Incursion with Cryo Sleep Pods, for multiple reasons. One, advances made in slipspace travel from the 'Doorway' on earth, leading to the ark, has allowed ships to travel longer distances in half the time. Two, the room required to fit enough for the entire crew would have severely limited cargo space and crew quarters for when they were not in Cryo Sleep.
Well this was a good idea tactically, it would lead to some very boring and very long stretches of uneventful time spent traveling from cluster to cluster, as trips could still take many weeks to complete.
…
The Incursion: Four Days Later
As predicted, the days of travel in slipspace had begun to get on he crew members nerves. Open fighting was uncommon, but having large arguments over the smallest of things were not. Two crew members had already been confined to their quarters' too cool off, all about an argument over a small amount of fresh fruit found in the cargo hold. But on this day, the fourth of the seven, did a very significant event occur.
It was an argument between the two ODST team leaders, one John Sheppard, originally posted to the Incursion and one Ashley Williams, team leader posted on the Memory before being transferred to the Incursion after the destruction of aforementioned ship.
"I were here FIRST, therefore it belongs to me," yelled Sheppard, "Why is that so hard for you to understand!"
"It doesn't mater who was here first!" replied Ashley, "All that maters is who has the better the better skills, and between the two of us, that's ME!"
Ashley was a tall woman with brown eyes, and long black hair. Hair that was always kept in a bun to conform to strictly to military protocol. But if you could use any phrase to describe her, it would be 'Sticks to protocol' due to her no nonsense approach to life. If you omit her violent tendencies.
"If your team is so great then why did mine get assigned to an advanced stealth warship, and not yours!" he countered.
"Oh that's it!" she said, getting into a fighting stance, "Lets settle this once and for all!"
"Your on girly!" taunted Sheppard, getting into his own stance.
"Nock it off you two!" yelled one Kaidan Alenko, member of Sheppard's ODST team, moving between the two in an attempt to stop any fighting before it began.
"No!" yelled Sheppard, "We finish this now!"
"Then finish it without fighting!" he said, "There are better ways to solve your differences then hitting each other!"
"Oh, did you have something in mind?" asked Ashley, not dropping her stance.
"In fact, I do," said Kaidan, "Follow me."
…
The Incursion: Rec Room Ten Minutes Later
"Rules are simple, once your chips are gone, your out. Last man remaining wins.," said Kaidan, shuffling the cards as he spoke, "I'll deal."
It was decided to settle the argument in the most civilized manor possible, a game of Texas Hold'em.
"How can we be sure you wont rig it for your choice?" asked Ashley.
"I'm not going to rig it simply because I DON'T CARE" he said, raising his voice slightly as he spoke, " It's a dumb argument over a even dumber thing! Am I the only person who realises this?"
"Just deal," said Sheppard, eager to get started.
"Fine," he said, before dealing the cards, beginning the game.
The game went on for hour's, each person conserving their chip's refusing to give up any ground to the other team. Slowly a crowd began to form around the group, as it was the only form of entertainment to had on the ship. As time passed the people began to lose chips to either Sheppard or Ashley, as the two of them were leading the game. The people watching the game began to place their bets, on individual player, with Sheppard and Ashley being the favourites.
That was when the first player was eliminated. A man named Matvey Rolan, a man of Russian decent, part of Ashley's team. Cheers were heard from members of the crew who had been stationed onboard from the beginning of the ships existence, having gotten to know Sheppard and his team. Well the opposite was also true, Boo's being heard from crew members having been rescued from the Memory.
As time moved on, player after player was eliminated leaving only Sheppard and Ashley.
Both of them nearly equal pile of chip, and Sheppard wtich a smug grin on his face. Kaidan dealt the next hand.
'Three and a two, spades.' he though, 'I can work with this'
Eyeing Ashley, he slowly push a pile of chips forward totalling over ten thousand dollars, over half of his total available.
"I raise," he said, watching her face for any tell that might help him discern her hand. But to his dismay, her calm, collected image didn't falter.
"I'll call," she replied, pushing forward an equal amount of chips.
The flop was put down, a three of hearts, six of spades, and a five of diamonds.
'Excellent,' though Sheppard, grin not leaving his face, as to do so would be a bigger tell then leaving it, 'This could end right here'.
This time he only moved a pile of chips amounting to two thousand dollars in an attempt to bait Ashley into betting higher. It seemed to work, seeing as what she did next.
"All in," she said, pushing all the chips in front of her into the pile. Gasp's being heard from everyone watching the event.
Grinning the entire time, Sheppard also pushed his pile into the center, confident in his ability to win.
With both players all in the betting was over, the winner of this would be the winner of it all. So all that was left was to put down the remaining cards, then see who's hand was better. After the flop came the turn, a three of diamonds.
'I've got her now!' though Sheppard.
Then came the river the 5th and last card, a king of club's.
"That's it, show'em and lets get this stupid thing over with," said Kaidan.
Sheppard flipped his card's first, grinning like a mad man.
"Three of a kind," he declared. Looking to see the look of defeat in Ashley's face, much to his dismay it still retained the look of indifference it had since the beginning of the round.
Slowly Ashley moved her hands towards her cards, flipping them the first one to reveal a queen of hearts.
"Your going to have to do better then that," remarked Sheppard, grin still ever present on his face. But still she remained unresponsive to anything Sheppard did. Much to his annoyance.
Finally, she flipped the second card. A three of clubs. Sheppard's face immediately went blank, looking over the cards on the table.
'A draw?' he though, but that was when he remember the queen he had been mocking.
"Three of a kind, queen high," she said triumphantly, her stoic face finally breaking, "I win."
Seeing the look on Sheppard's face many of the watching stopped talking. All eyes were on him as they waited to see his reaction to the outcome.
"Well," he said, "You win fair and square, commander," the last part being added after a slight pause.
From the start the argument had been over who would become the leader of the ODST on the ship. Sheppard claimed it as his, he was here first. By his logic, this means it is his. Well Ashley said she should be in command, because she could flat out do a better job at it.
"But remember," he said, grin returning to his face, "One mistake and ill be there to take it back," he said well putting his hand forward.
"You can try," she said, smiling as she shook his hand, "But then you would have to fight me for it."
The crowed cheered as it became obvious a fight wouldn't break out.
…
The Incursion: Bridge, Three Days Later
"Captain," said Asya, "We are coming out of slipspace."
"Music to my ears Asya," replied Anderson.
The table changed to display the star system they were entering. One star, five planets and two small, relative to the planets, object's that was producing large gravity fields.
"Looks like we picked right Captain," she said, "Gravity fields match that of the first object."
"Good to know," added Pressly, "That we are a little less lost in space."
"Any activity in the area?" asked Anderson.
"There is a small group of ship orbiting the second planet," she replied, "There appears to be a large complex on the surface, next to what appears to be a city. It is likely a base of some kind."
"How many ship?" asked Pressly.
"Five of the medium size ships, and three of the larger sized ships. Due to the larger ships being known to carry fighters, I would estimate a total of seventeen ships of various sizes."
"It's less then before," said Anderson, "But I still don't want to risk a fight."
"Well, maybe we should," Pressly said, "If there are a larger number of military ships in orbit, then its possible it a military base. We could use some info from it."
"We can't be sure they don't have extra ships on the planet," said Anderson, "Not to mention the fact that once they get in close there's little we can do stop them from destroying us."
"What about the cloak?" asked Pressly, "If it works as advertised, and these people cant detect our ship, we could simply move into orbit and send an ODST team down to infiltrate the complex."
"It is possible, if they couldn't detect the Blackbird then there is little chance they could detect us, even with out systems damaged," added Asya, "And we could use some more complete chart's of the area."
"We have no idea what kind of weapons these people use for ground combat, we could be sending out people to the slaughter," said Anderson, obviously not liking the plan at all, "Not to mention we don't have a clue how to read their language, or even what it looks like for that mater."
"All the more reason to go in," replied Asya, "If the team could establish a remote connection I could try to decode the language at the same time as finding some Intel."
"Not to mention," added Pressly, "That there is a good chance that this wont be the only time it comes down to a gun fight. And it might not be under any better circumstances. They could use some experience before the 'shit hit's the fan' as the saying goes."
"Fine," said Anderson, clearly seeing that he had been out played by the two, "Tell the ODST commander to report to the briefing room, we have an attack to plan."
…
The Incursion: Briefing Room, Twenty Minute's Later
Both Ashley and Sheppard sat in the briefing room waiting for Anderson to arrive. They had decided that Sheppard would, for at least the time being act as a sort of 'vice commander' to the ODST on the ship, and as such should be included in any plans.
Anderson noticed this immediately as he came into the room. He had, of course, heard of their little bet. He didn't mind, both were qualified to lead the ODST. So however they decided who would command was fine with him. Having the loser act as a commander made sense as they could still provide valuable input on any plans being made.
"I trust you both read over the files well you were waiting?" he asked, already knowing that they had.
"Yes," replied Ashley, "And we have already come up with our version of the plan."
This, on the other hand, surprised him. He knew both of them would act professional no mater who won, but he still expected some kind of hostility between them.
"Well then," he said, sitting down, "Lets hear it."
"Asya, can you bring up the pictures of the complex," she asked.
The floor itself flashed white, before dimming and forming into the shapes and objects that made up the complex. All the walls in the briefing room had the capability of displaying images, though the floor and wall being the most common. The roof only being used for displaying ships in their relative position to the Incursion in space engagement replays. It was for this reason that the room was dubbed the 'Poor mans Holodeck' by some of the engineers onboard the ship.
"There are two main objective's as we see it," said Ashley, "First we need to get into the building itself, find a terminal or whatever they use in place of one, and find a way to link it to our computers."
"We also have to disable the AA Guns defending the complex, if we don't do this the pelicans would be shot down as they attempted to retrieve us from the planet," finished Sheppard, "So our plan is to go in as two teams."
"My team," started Ashley, "Will be disabling the AA Guns, well Sheppard and his team enter the complex."
"Assuming we don't run into many complications," said Sheppard, "We should be ready for extraction within two hours."
"The only problem is the pelican itself," added Ashley, "It isn't equipped for any kind the stealth actions. The moment we dock with the Incursion there's a high chance it's going to be lit up by enemy ships."
"You let us worry about that," Anderson said, standing, "The plan is sound, if not a bit vague, but seeing as you don't know what to expect down there I cant expect anymore. Prep your men, you drop within the hour.
…
Authors Note:
lightly shorter then the first chapter, I know but this will be made up for in the next chapter, I promise.
One review said that I might have gotten the scale of the mass effect ships wrong. My reasoning for my choices is simple. A Longsword Fighter is over 64 meters long. This is what many people don't know, they are actually huge ships seeing as a 747 Jetliner is only 76 meters long. Now from what I saw in the game, and this may open to interpretation, the Normandy (A frigate) was in no way bigger then a 747. Therefore nearly equal in size to a Longsword Fighter
And about his other point, yes the UNSC could still have large amount's of production plants and ship yards. But it would still take years to rebuild anything resembling a real fleet. And the UNSC in my story is smashed is because everyone else seems to make theirs, to quote an other reviewer, an "Unstoppable Juggernaut of Destruction".
As for Joker. Well, I just don't see the UNSC not having a cure to his disease.
To "Robo Reader 21". The mass effect wiki, in the 'Trans-Relay Assaults' section it says "If told told to move a million metric tons of mass, the relay will scan the approach..." and so on. To me, this means it does, in fact, need to be sent a signal of some kind. As for stranding it in the half way through, yes, its likely that it wouldn't, but this is simply me playing with concepts not explored in the Mass Effect games.
As for the Normandy being 50 Meters long, I did read this somewhere, but I couldn't remember a source. If you have it, send it to me so I can source my claims.
Estimated Release Date of Next Chapter: Released
Title: Of Mice and Men