Mass Effect
A small ship cautiously approached the Mass Relay, trying to get as close to it without triggering it. It came to a stop and two beams of light began to play over it. Inside Captain Lou Andersdottir moved her hands away from the controls, before sliding her chair back and getting out. She looked about the bridge and said, "Okay everybody, all personnel that are not part of the hacking/scrying team or engineering has four hours of free time, so smoke 'em if you got 'em." She then proceeded to walk out of the bridge. She went down to deck two, which contained the Rec area/mess-hall and crew quarters. She and her Co-pilot had quarters one deck one near the bridge. She mused about deck three being the deck where engineering was.
She got her lunch and returned to the bridge. When she sat back down in her seat on the bridge, She pondered what she was doing here hacking an ancient navicomp [i] while trying to stay far enough away not to trigger it. After the Shanxi-Theta system was settled there was an outcry that humanity was moving too fast and that we could stumble upon a was-like race of aliens that would take offense and attack. With the intent of (a) Conquering humanity or exterminating us. They were divided into three camps. The Isolationists, who wanted to destroy the Relays. Of course the amount of energy that would be released was estimated to be equal to a nova, which would destroy the system it was in. Then there was the Fortress Coalition, who wanted to build fortifications around the Mass Relays so that any invading force would get a nasty surprise. Finally, there was the Frontiersmen, People who wanted to use the Relays to explore. Andersdottir smiled as she ate. If things went differently, She'd either be setting demolition charges, or sitting where she was board out of her skull waiting for hostile that might not even exist. It was the brainchild of a descendant of Eintstien that proposed the current procedure. The first step was to hack a Relay's Navicomp to find the location of the next Relay. The second step was then to use the jump-drive to jump to the system. The Scout-ship would then do a preliminary exploration of the system before heading back to the Relay and activate it for the return trip.
Which was why she was here close but not too close to a Mass Relay. She just finished her lunch when the Navicomp signaled that it had just got the the jump plot done. She tossed the carton into the trash slot, then moved moved her seat back to the controls. Commander Ran Yaminaka came in with the rest if the bridge crew. Once they had taken their seats, they began powering up their Jump-drive. Ran looked at her and said, "What do you think we'll find this time?" Lou smiled at him as she replied, "If our luck hold true, another garden world." Thomson at the engineering station chuckled before announcing, "Jump in 5,... 4,... 3,... 2,... 1,..."
Explorer 7 one of twelve exploration ship made by fusing reverse-engineered Prothean Tech, reverse-engineered Atlantian Tech, and regular tech, vanished from the Shanxi-Theta system.
General Desolas stepped on in to the CIC of his ship with a cup of goren. His small patrol group had just entered the system with a dormant Mass Relay and had began a slow flight through the system. "Sensors. Scan the system. I don't want any surprises biting us in the ass because we were complacent." He ordered. "Patrol fan out, standard intrasystem routes." The eight destroyers, and four frigates that made up the patrol group spread out and began to move through the system. Desolas took a gulp of Goren and stood on his command platform watch the holomap of the system. He was surprised when a yellow dot appeared on it moments before a sensor operator reported, "Unknown ship detected." The Turian general frowned before saying, "Scan Relay 314."
"Scanning."
"Has the Relay been activated?"
"Negative. However they got here they didn't use the Relay"
Desoles frowned then decided to watch the unknown. He assigned one of his patrol to keep an eye on newcomer as he ordered the communications Officer, "Send a message to High Command with the following message, 'Have detected ship of unknown configuration and design. Relay remains inactive and ship has begun to move in system. Requesting orders.' and send our scans of the ship with it."
Desolis watched as the unknown moved through the system. As it move he noted it was heading to innermost planet of the system. "Tell the Gladius to do an FTL flyby of that ship doing scans of it as they pass." He toldthe comm officer. "I need some intel on it." The Comm Officer nodded an relayed the order. One of frigates jumped to FTL speeds and flew by the unknown ship. After it had rejoined the patrol General Desolis began reviewing the data. He had the data Dled to a PADD and went to his quarters to study the data and make sense of the day. He had just got to the door leading to the stair to the crew deck when Colonel Victus, his first officer calmly called out, "Sir Priority One Message from Palaven Command. Routed it to your Quaters." Desolis nodded and rerouted his course to his quarters. Once there, he turned on a secure reciever and got his retna scanned. When he could see whoever was sending the message, He got the surprise of his life.
"Primarch!" He said as he snapped to attansion. "At ease." The primarch said. "Now what do you know of the unknown so far." Desolis nodded and took a calming breath before saying, "We came out of the relay as planned for a simple patrol but when we arrived we detected a small frigate was already in the system. I ordered Relay 314 scanned to see if it was activated and found it still dormant." Primarch Fedorian nodded then said, "What else." He commented. Desolis then said, "The unknown then began to move towards the first planet. I had one of my frigates do an FTL flyby to get a detailed scan of it. I was just about to go over the data when you called. Sir." The Primarch nodded before saying, "What is your opinion General?" Desolis released the breath he wasn't aware he was holding and said, "From what we have so far, they intend to explore this system then activate the Relay for their return trip. Ironically, they are unknowingly following Citidel law as they would know what was on the otherside of Relay 314." Fedorian's mandibles flared out in a smile as he said, "My thoughts exactly. Your orders as of this momment are to monotor them, keeping track of which worlds they send probes to and how many of each. Then you are to send me a COMPLETE report to me which I'll forward to the cousil."
As the Primarch's holo faded Desollas rised the PADD and began to review all the Data they had on the unknown. He hoped that the Turian race would be chosen by the counsul to lead the first contact team a Peaceful first contact would be a change of pace to the hard one the Turian Hirearchy usually has.
Lou Skillfully guided Explorer Seven through the system. They had gotten a scar a few days ago when the sensors briefly registered a ship moving extremely fast and lost it a moment later. Ever scince then her rogue senses had been screaming that they were being watched. Having grown up om the mean streets of Los Angeles, she had become an accomplished city-bound rogue. Not listening to her trapsense was something she did without it somehow biting her in some way or another. She looked towards the Science/magic station and at the tall, slender dark elf wearing mirror shades to counter his race's disability and said, "Nabikii [ii] ? Could you scry the system?" The Drow Wizardess looked up from the scanner and replied, "It'll take the rest of my shift but yes. What am I looking for?"
"Other ships."
Nabikii nodded and called her relief before walking a cabinat that had a specially prepared sheet of ice. Once it was exposed she uttered the Scry spell and began to gaze into it's frozen depths. Though to everybody else the Eberronian Drow was staring at a slab of ice, Nabikii was looking at the outside as if she was flying through the vaccume of space. She found the Frigate that had been tasked to follow them almost imediately. It took thirty minutes more to find the rest of the ship as they were loosely clustered near an active Mass Relay. She ended the spell and said, "We grew a tail and there are nine other ships in the system."
"Damn!" was all Captain Anderdottir could think to say.
iNavigation Computer
iiOne of The Author's Characters on DDO
