AN: Ugh. I don't know why but I always have issues coming up with believable and understandable combat situations in my head for some reason. I can think out the sequence of events just fine but the finer points always give me problems. But when I finally do get things down, they're fairly decent.
Now then. I won't be revealing things too soon and I ask everyone to be patient with the overall plot development. Things will eventually move towards certain directions in due time. I ask that everyone be patient with me and my slow thought process on making things progress. I tend to overthink each scenario in my head and look at it as best as I can before committing to plot lines in general. I'm not going to do anything sensational just for the sake of being dramatic. There are plenty of stories that do that and get themselves stuck in massive plot holes over time. I'll be taking my time in general and making sure things are moving smoothly and in a believable sense overall.
When it comes to unimportant individuals who at least need a name in the short term will be given a randomly generated name. I'm not going to put effort into making up names for races that have wonky names here people. The Mass Effect universe is in its canon story state until things start butterflying from Voyager's and Infinity's influence. The timeline will be revealed in this chapter finally. I cannot for the life of me find any exact date on the start of the games. Just the damn year. If anyone can enlighten me that would be swell.
Chapter 4: Batarian shenanigans
Fotin Sonbelok was NOT having a good day. Half an hour earlier was a different story. It was going pretty damn good in his opinion as he had just finished up with his personal slaves. He had wanted to get his own slave mining operation started off on a good note, not the disaster it now turned out to be.
"I WANT THOSE FUCKING ENGINES BACK ONLINE NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL FEED YOU TO A FUCKING KROGAN!" Fotin bellowed out in rage at his bridge crew. They were cowering in fear as he had been known to actually do such things to insubordinate crew members before.
"We can't… sir. There's nothing to fix at all. That… beam… they hit us with literally burned them away…" The unfortunate engineer who spoke up suddenly found himself with a new air hole punched through his skull. Courtesy of Fotin who just so happened to find a convenient outlet for his rage.
After all the effort he had put into stealing these two ships from a group of migrant Quarians to bolster his own small fleet, this just had to happen out in a supposedly uninhabited system. "I thought you said that ship didn't have any eezo readings at all!"
His sensor officer shakily spoke up. "I-it doesn't, sir. Its shield system shouldn't be possible without it…"
"I don't want excuses you little shit!" Fotin then directed his ire at the next engineer he set his eyes on. "GET THIS FUCKING SCRAP HEAP MOVING!"
Upon scanning the oddly designed ship earlier and finding no eezo readings coming from it at all, Fotin decided to capture it and sell off its crew and keep the ship. What he didn't expect was for the ship to have shielding and exceptionally powerful energy weapons. Getting stranded all the way out here this far out in the Terminus Systems wasn't his idea of a good day. He had wanted to personally choose where he started his first slave mining operation himself. 'What a wonderful idea that turned out to be.' Fotin thought sourly to himself.
The Quarians he had stolen these ships from were now 'employed' at an abandoned mined out resource satellite that he had converted into a small shipyard. It had ironically also been a former Quarian operation nearly a hundred years ago as well. How nice of them to leave him a perfectly good and well suited hunk of rock for him to use for his purposes. The two ships he had 'acquired' were oddly enough the least in need of major repairs at the moment. So Fotin had opted to use them for his current exploratory endeavour.
The Quarians had just finished up salvaging these two ships from a scrap heap in return for a decade of servitude to the owner who ran the salvage and repair business. They had been on their way back to the migrant fleet when they had been ambushed and outnumbered by Fotin's small fleet of ships. Because they didn't have enough members of their group to go around, they had crewed the two repaired ships with the bare essentials to get them moving. The freighter that they had been using as a home and for travel was unarmed and unable to do anything against such odds.
The Turian cruiser was 153 years old and well past its usefulness to anyone in general despite having a mostly intact structure. Quarian ingenuity, however, scoffed at that notion as they worked tirelessly on it so they could bring it back as a gift to the flotilla. It had been bought and used by an outer colony of the Turian Hierarchy for local defense well past its expiration date. They had eventually sold it to a salvage yard and it had found itself the target of a group of Quarians.
The Asari frigate was even older at nearly 240 years old. It had been the personal ship of an asari matriarch for its entire operational life. Nearly all of its internal components had been removed at one point or another. The Quarians, however, were able to salvage and repair parts here and there to be used as replacements. The ship would be considered a frankenstein of different parts if one were to really look at it. They had somehow managed to get the thing working and spaceworthy once again.
Right now, Fotin only had a few of the suit rats onboard each ship at the moment while the rest of them were servicing and overhauling his ships back at base. The cheap labor they would provide would be a boon to his overall profits as he saw it. The only thing left on his mind now was getting out of the royally screwed situation he now found himself and his ships in.
"SIR!" The sensor officer called out. "There's a… black hole forming above that ship!"
Fotin growled menacingly at his sensor officer. "That had better be a joke you piece of…" Fotin trailed off as the view screen near his captains chair was dominated by a black portal with swirling blue white light encircling it opening above the alien ship. He froze as an absolutely massive ship disgorged itself from the black void. He was caught utterly speechless and slack jawed by the sight of the gargantuan block of grey metal that now occupied his screen.
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Roland, for the time being, was busying himself by pouring over the data he had taken from the pirates ship systems. He looked to Captain Lasky with a somewhat confused look on his face. "Uh… sir… the people of this galaxy are pretty damn paranoid when it comes to AI."
"Meaning?" Captain Lasky asked.
"Meaning, there are laws outright banning AI's in all forms. Their development and even the hardware used to run an AI is illegal." Roland's expression then cleared as he took on a smug look. "Coincidentally, they were utterly defenseless against my intrusion. What meager defenses they had were amateurish at best." His shoulders shrugged in mirth. "Honestly, it was like I was up against an infant in the digital sense here. Their computing may be accelerated by their mass effect technology base, but without true quantum computing they're at a disadvantage against us."
"Well, that's one advantage we can count on here." Captain Lasky nodded in satisfaction. "Is there anything else that we need to take into account before we commence with boarding actions?"
Roland then snapped his fingers as several camera feeds popped up on the holotable. "I've got full access to all of their systems, sir." He crossed his arms as he looked from screen to screen. "The majority of aliens on that ship are called Batarians, sir. They've got a few 'Quarians' enslaved as engineers on both of their ships." Roland brought up a camera feed with the Quarians working feverishly under gun point on the ships systems. "Every Quarian is equipped with an environment suit to protect them from infection."
Captain Lasky looked at the screens as he considered his options. "Infection? Are their immune systems weak against pathogens carried by these… Batarians?"
"In general, their immune systems are weak against everything, sir. It's an aftereffect of their species' current dilemma and evolution in all actuality." Roland answered. "I can go over their history if you'd like, sir."
"Later, Roland. Let's focus on clearing out those ships and rescuing any slaves that we can." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked at all the information that Roland had displayed. "Make sure that our boarding teams are carrying portable sterile field generators just in case any of these Quarians are injured in the crossfire. Can't have them getting sick on our account, now can we?"
"Yes sir!" Roland saluted as he kept watch over the camera feeds.
UNSC Infinity
S-Deck
Commander Palmer had finished her briefing with Captain Lasky and Roland before heading down to the Infinity's S-Deck. Overall, she wasn't that worried about the coming boarding actions. The two ships only had token security forces on board at the moment since this was just an exploratory mission for them. The only thing that she was worried about were the slaves that were aboard both ships. These Quarians had sickly dispositions overall and would require care if they were going to pull them out of their mess without incident.
She overlooked the gathered fire teams that would be heading over to the larger ship. Now known as a Turian cruiser. The thing was barely even frigate weight by UNSC standards. "Listen up! Pirates have decided to grace us with their immaculate presence and promptly fired on our fellow humans over on Voyager upon arriving in system. Because Voyager lacks the forces to do so, it's fallen on us to rid this galaxy of these… Batarian pirates." Commander Palmer then took on a more serious stance. "Not only are they pirates, they're slavers. The worst of the worst. They look down upon all other races as beneath them." She paused for a moment to let that sink in. "Let's show these four eyed freaks how wrong that they are!"
USS Voyager
Bridge
Captain Kathryn Janeway currently had a puzzled expression on her face as herself and her bridge crew looked over the data that had been sent to them. One blaring thing that stood out was the date according to the human civilization here. It was 2183 on their calendar. Several other things just didn't add up after everything had be categorized and analyzed. The alien object that they had discovered in system turned out to be a Mass Relay according to the Codex. What stood out the most was that the Mass Relay that they had found had been buried in its current state for far longer than the Protheans had supposedly lived long ago.
"For a galactic government that's supposedly been around for as long as they have, this 'Citadel Council' hasn't advanced very far, have they?" Ensign Paris voiced his opinion on what they had so far reviewed.
Tuvok thought on the logic of that comment as he spoke up. "This mass effect, it pervades nearly every aspect of their society as a whole. Yet, there have not been any significant advances in its overall use in far too long. One would think that technological advances in other fields would have occurred by now."
Ensign Kim was busy looking over the engineering aspect of mass effects technological base overall. "Their ships are granted a high degree of maneuverability due to element zeros mass altering properties. Due to its ease of use and simplistic designs, they haven't seen a need to pursue other methods of space travel." He paused and then thought out loud. "They may use antimatter, but it's highly inefficient in its execution."
Captain Janeway pondered on what they had learned so far. "We may have to search this system for some of this element zero. Its properties could be useful in the long run."
She was then interrupted as Tuvok called out. "Captain, we are being hailed by the Infinity."
"On screen."
"Captain Janeway. We're about to start our boarding actions against the pirates."
Captain Janeway nodded. "Alright. Are your boarding teams capable of handling this on their own?"
"Our Spartan fireteams are more than ready to handle these pirates, Captain. The weapons they field shouldn't be much of a threat overall in their low numbers. The only thing we really have to worry about are the slaves that they have onboard their ships. The pirates may end up using them as human shields."
Captain Janeway was worried about something like that coming up. She then made up her mind on the subject. "Captain? Voyager is equipped with transporter technology. We can beam out the slaves before you start your operation. That way they'll be out of the crossfire and safe."
"Transporters? As in teleportation?"
"Yes Captain. The shields their ships are equipped with do not interfere with the process. So we'll make things easier on your Spartans if you'll let us." Captain Janeway offered.
"The technology your ship has keeps throwing surprises at as at every turn it seems." Captain Lasky seemed to laugh for a moment. "Be careful though. They may react poorly to suddenly being teleported onto your ship." He gestured down to Roland. "The Quarian slaves have very weak immune systems overall. I'll have Roland link our intel on their systems over to Voyager so you can see what's happening inside their ships."
"Much appreciated, Captain. Mr Tuvok. Bring up the data Infinity has linked to Voyager." Captain Janeway ordered.
The main screen was then filled with numerous camera feeds from both ships. "Ugh, talk about ugly." Ensign Paris commented out loud as he caught sight of one of the Batarians.
"Mr Tuvok. Have a security team and the Doctor join us in cargo bay 2." Captain Janeway then directed her attention back to Captain Lasky. "We'll let you know once we've safely beamed all of their slaves and prisoners on board, Captain."
"This certainly makes things easier on us, Captain. Thank you. Infinity, out."
USS Voyager
Cargo Bay 2
After the assembled security team along with the Doctor had arrived at Cargo Bay 2, Captain Janeway was more than ready to rescue the slaves aboard both ships. "Mr Tuvok? Are all preparations complete?"
Tuvok observed his security team and the room in general. "Yes, Captain. We are ready for their arrival."
"Doctor? Have you looked over the data on the Quarians that we obtained?" Captain Janeway asked.
"I have. Their physiology utilizes a dextro-protein base instead of our own levo-protein base. Their already weak immune systems were further weakened by the sterile environments that they've lived in for the past 300 years. I've taken appropriate measures to be prepared to tend to any wounds or infections that they may have." The Doctor answered.
"Good." Captain Janeway then tapped her comm badge. "Transporter room? Have you located all the slaves aboard both of the pirate ships?"
"Yes, Captain. We're ready to beam them out on your mark."
Captain Janeway nodded to herself. "Everyone ready?" A chorus of 'Yes, Captain.' "Energize."
The room was then filled with the standing silhouettes of twenty individuals, along with three more that were laying on the floor. Once the transportation process had finished, all of the standing forms were revealed to be the Quarians. The unfortunate three that were laying on the floor were completely naked. One human woman and two blue skinned Asari. They were covered in bruises and lacerations of varying degrees.
Utter confusion was the first and foremost reaction of all the Quarians. As far as they knew, they had just been working at gunpoint on anything that they could bring back online. Surprised Khelish was all that was heard in Cargo Bay 2.
"Computer. Translate." Captain Janeway ordered.
Once their confusion had run its course, the group of Quarians then took notice of the humans that were gathered at one side of the room they now found themselves in. One of the Quarians stepped forward and seemed to take charge of the group. "Where are we? The last thing we knew we were being forced to work for those bosh'tets on our own stolen ships."
"My name is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship USS Voyager. You're aboard my ship now. Are there any injuries or infections that need to be attended to among your group at the moment?" Captain Janeway answered.
"Thankfully, no. We were more useful to them if we were able to work." He seemed to sigh in relief as another female Quarian hugged him from the side. "Our nightmare is finally over."
The Doctor walked forward and started scanning the three naked women on the floor. "Transporter room. I need a site to site transfer to the medical bay." He then looked to Captain Janeway. "They're worse off than they look. They have multiple internal injuries that need immediate attention."
"Understood, Doctor." Captain Janeway then looked back to the Quarians. "Our friends over on the UNSC Infinity are going to clear out your ships of the Batarian Pirates. If you need anything in the meantime, you only need ask." She then walked out of the Cargo Bay as a couple of the security staff stood by to watch over the freed Quarians.
"I don't know how they did this. But, we're safe now." The lead Quarian said to the group around him.
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Roland was looking over the readings Infinity's sensors could currently see regarding Voyager. "Huh…" He then looked up to Captain Lasky. "I just detected a weird energy spike inside both of those ships, sir. It happened simultaneously. So I assume that that was Voyager beaming out the slaves."
Captain Lasky nodded. "Alright. How are the Batarian pirates handling the situation now that their slaves are gone."
"See for yourself, sir." Roland then gestured to the side as he brought up all the relevant camera feeds.
Captain Lasky raised an eyebrow with a crooked smile as he looked over the chaos that filled the screens. "Let's see how this 'Fotin Sonbelok' likes having the tables turned on him for a change."
"Voyager is hailing us, sir." Roland stated.
"Captain Janeway? I imagine the energy spike we detected was your doing?" Captain Lasky queried.
"Yes Captain. We've successfully beamed all slaves and prisoners aboard and are treating them for injuries."
"Thank you, Captain. This makes it all the easier on my Spartans to do their jobs without having to worry about collateral damage. We'll do our best to leave the ships as intact as we can. The Quarians deserve to get their ships back at the least." Captain Lasky reassured.
"Understood, Captain. We'll do what we can on our end for them for the time being."
Captain Lasky then stood straight as he readied himself for his crews first combat op in this new reality. "Commander Palmer. You have permission to commence boarding ops."
"Gladly, sir."
"Roland. Jam their sensors and lock them out of their own systems." Captain Lasky ordered. "Let's give them a friendly UNSC greeting, shall we?"
Roland smiled wickedly as he waved aside the camera feeds. "With pleasure, sir. Beginning operation sucker punch." Captain Lasky gave Roland a somewhat amused look that said 'Really?' "Sorry. Couldn't help the irony of giving the op that name." Roland laughed to himself as Captain Lasky shook his head.
Stolen Turian cruiser
Bridge
Utter silence. That's what gripped the bridge as the Batarians came to terms with what had just happened. "What do you mean they just disappeared?!" Fotin asked with a forced expression on his face.
The officer in charge of managing all of the slaves on board shivered in fear as he started to speak up. "U-um… none of the slaves are in range of our systems anymore. They're not on the ship…"
Fotin growled as he turned around and stomped over to his private quarters. Upon opening the door, he was graced with the distinct sight of an empty bed and a lack of his three personal slaves. He snarled as his rage kept building. He was about to turn around and strangle the nearest fool that was in reach before all of the lights went out. Fotin roared in rage as everything just kept building up against him. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!"
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Captain Lasky watched patiently as the flight of Pelicans and Broadsword interceptors made their way towards the stolen ships. He huffed a laugh as he observed the display of coordination and force approach the disabled ships. "There's no kill like overkill. Right, Roland?"
"You got that right, sir. Why take our chances at all when we're so far from home I say." Roland said as he casually shrugged.
"Commander Palmer. Don't take any unnecessary risks on this op. We don't know if they have any of these 'biotics' on board at the moment." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked over the loadouts all the Spartan fireteams were equipped with. "Capture their leader if you're able to. If not, be sure to give him an appropriate greeting from the UNSC."
"Understood, sir. We'll teach these freaks a thing or two about respecting humanity."
"See to it that you do, Palmer." Captain Lasky then directed his attention to Roland. "Roland. Set out the welcoming mat, if you would be so kind."
"Yes Sir!" Roland then snapped his fingers as several of Infinity's outer camera feeds showed the airlocks and cargo hangers of both ships. The doors opened and bodies were sucked out into death's embrace in the cold vacuum of space. "Oops. Guess they shouldn't have been so close to the airlocks." Roland laughed in morbid amusement.
USS Voyager
Bridge
The bridge crew of Voyager watched the grim fates the unlucky pirates near the airlocks were subjected to. Captain Janeway looked on with a resigned expression. After going over all of the information that Roland had sent over on the pirate crews aboard those ships had made up their minds. This had to be done. These pirates were scum and nothing less. The only good thing that would come of this was that they had saved those enslaved by the Batarians.
They looked on in silent detachment as they all knew what came next for those left aboard. "They all knew something like this might happen in their line of work. Their own poor choices in life led to this gruesome outcome." Captain Janeway commented as she shook her head. "Doctor? How are your new patients doing?"
"I've stabilized the human woman easily enough. The two Asari women took a little bit longer due to my unfamiliarity with their physiology, but I've managed to stabilize them as well." The Doctor's reply came through the ships comms. "I've made a disturbing discovery though."
"What have you found, Doctor?"
"They have enslavement chips imbedded in their skulls. No worries though. I will remove them once they've recovered from their injuries sufficiently."
Captain Janeway sighed as the pirates weren't making things any easier on themselves in the slightest. "As if these pirates couldn't do anything worse, they go ahead and prove me wrong." She looked around at all the expressions of her crew. The looks of anger and shock steeled her resolve. "Once the Infinity has finished clearing out those ships, let's get to work bringing them back into working order. The Quarians the pirates stole them from shouldn't have to suffer any more than they already have."
Turian cruiser
Lower decks
"BRING DOWN THAT BARRIER!" One of the Batarians yelled out as he fired into the shield that was being projected in front of the apparent armored mech that was marching its way towards his group. The mass accelerated sand grain sized bits of metal did little more than be deflected off to the sides as they tried to breach the hardlight shield. Another one of the mechs looked to be priming a grenade before it tossed the sizeable explosive around the edge of the barrier and right next to the group of Batarians in cover.
"GRENADE!" The shout didn't come soon enough as the grenade designed to take out Covenant energy shields and nanolaminate armor exploded with enough force to knock them all off their feet. The shrapnel breached their kinetic barriers with ease and shredded through their armor. Several of the closer Batarians were lucky enough to have been killed quickly while the others suffered in agony as they realized they had been dismembered by the high explosive.
Fireteam Crimson quickly cleared the room and took out any survivors as they assessed the effectiveness of their gear against this universes weapons and armor. "Their shields are shit compared to what Covenant Elites are equipped with." One member commented.
"The armor is pretty low quality too." Another stated as he grabbed an arm off the floor and squeezed. A screeching sound was heard for a split second before a crack sounded out. The morbid display confirmed what they had reviewed in their mission briefing. The weapons of this universe may have a high degree of potential energy, but they can be deflected without the bullets imparting much of that energy with relative ease with the right shielding and armor.
"Faster isn't always better when it comes to projectiles. A sand grain isn't going to do much if it just punches straight through without expending any of that force on the target." The combat engineer said as he looked over his suits readouts on his hardlight shields performance.
"Fireteam Crimson. Sitrep." Commander Palmer called out over the comms.
"We just finished clearing out the lower decks, Commander." Crimson's lead replied.
"Music to my ears, boys. Proceed to exfil." Palmer ordered.
"Yes Ma'am."
Turian cruiser
Bridge
Panic was starting to set in. He had really stepped in it this time with whoever these aliens were. All of his ships systems just wouldn't respond as muffled sounds of combat made their way through the deck. He couldn't even get comms to work to get any kind of update from his ships security. Fotin Sonbelok felt fear. Real fear. This was honestly the first time that something hadn't gone his way in a very long time.
The sounds of combat ended quickly after they had begun. These aliens were either very fast in taking out his crew, or they had fallen against the might of Batarian weapons. He sincerely hoped it was the latter and not the former. To his fear, the sounds of heavy armored footsteps were heard just outside of the bridges sealed doors.
The doors suddenly opened to nothing. The red emergency lights didn't help much in showing the bridge crew anything that was in the connecting hallway. A slight shimmer was moving its way into the room that went unnoticed as the Batarians watched for intruders. All of their attention was forward as the active camouflage cloaked Spartan made his way behind all of the Batarians on the bridge.
"Confirmed. Fotin Sonbelok is standing in the doorway into his private quarters." The cloaked Spartan said over suit comms to Commander Palmer.
"Good. Let's start the show, shall we." Commander Palmer said as she gave the green light to clear the bridge.
The cloaked Spartan moved forward silently and drew his combat knife. Coming up to the rearmost Batarian, he drove his knife into the back of the alien and yanked his chin up and to the side. Quietly setting the body down, he pulled out his silenced M7 smg and took aim. As its bullets were caseless, he didn't have to worry about the empty casings falling on the ground and making noise. Two pfts came from the end of the weapon as he fired on the next unarmored Batarian. The armor piercing semi explosive bullets punched into the Batarians skull and exploded with gruesome results. The resulting splatter startled and terrified the Batarians in the path of the spray.
Utter chaos ensued as the Batarians frantically looked around for their assailant. The next sound they heard was that of a metal canister clattering onto the floor in their midst. A blinding flash and deafening boom stunned the group as the rest of the breach team flooded into the open doorway. It was over in seconds as the disoriented Batarians offered no resistance to the ruthless efficiency the Spartan team afforded them.
"All targets down. All except one." The cloaked Spartan reported over their comms as he pointed to Fotin's personal quarters.
Fotin had ducked back into his room right before the flashbang had gone off. It spared him from getting blinded but the blast still deafened him. "Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Fotin shook his head to try to clear his senses. "Did I stumble on a secret special forces training ground or something?!"
His next words died in his throat as a large armored figure uncloaked in front of him holding a weapon pointed squarely into his chest. "I'll never fuckin talk! You'll just have to kill me!" Fotin pulled his pistol up from his side only to have it grabbed in a lightning fast movement and held in an impossibly strong grip. He triggered the omni blade of his omni tool and struck forward only to have another armored figure grab his wrist from the side.
"Neat toy." Commander Palmer said as she looked down at the pirate scum. Fotin growled in as menacing a manner as he could. "Cute. It thinks it can intimidate me." Before Fotin could think to do anything else a quick movement from the Spartan and pain was all he could remember.
AN: I think I could've done the combat scenes better in my opinion. Now, before everyone goes and jumps at me saying that my depiction of mass effect weapons is wrong you should understand physics first. Which bioware apparently didn't when they thought up how their weapons would work. There are plenty of discussions out there explaining how they really wouldn't be all that effective in general in the small arms department. But that's not the main issue here. The Quarians didn't really question their situation fully due to shock and being freed. They'll be very curious as to how they were rescued in the next chapter. The pirate base assault comes next chapter and after that, well, you'll find out.
For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.