A/N: I'm back and with a new chapter for you guys.
I can't even begin to thank everyone for their support on this story. Longer A/N at the end.
Mass effect belongs to EA and Bioware.
Chapter Six
"Alert, I am detecting Kett and pirate signatures exiting FTL."
Those words shook Sara and the crew out of their stupor from seeing the fleet. "How the hell did they find out?" Sara asked to no one in particular.
"They must have been monitoring Initiative signals and followed us," Drack answered. "Hope those guns aren't just for show. They're going to need them." he gestured to the military ships.
Sara leaned on the command console. "Suvi, how many of them are there?" she asked the science officer.
"The Kett appear to have the larger force than the pirates," She told the crew. "The pirates have a small force that's comprised of Initiative and Angaran ships."
Sara pushed herself off of the command console, "Get me the Normandy."
The Normandy
Marcus had to admit he didn't think that the human Pathfinder would be the one to greet him, he thought that the Initiative would at least send a scout ship to investigate the coordinates that he had the comms officer upload with his message. He was confused though about the Pathfinder, from the reports he read showed that the human Pathfinder was Alec Ryder but the voice of said Pathfinder is clearly a female.
Marcus once again had to be sure that who he was talking to is indeed Initiative, he never took anything he was told at face value anymore, not after that one op.
"Ava could you do a voice print analysis?" He asked Ava.
"Of course…who voice am I analyzing?" Ava asked, confused by his actions.
"The Pathfinder's."
It didn't take long for Ava to do a voice print analysis on the Pathfinder's. It was difficult as she didn't have much to work with, most of their records from the Initiative were patched together from data files and old vids that survived the Reaper War. it took Ava forty seconds to find a voice match to the Pathfinder on the comms.
"Got a match," Ava said, pride evident in her voice.
"Who am I talking to?" Marcus asked.
"Sara Ryder, daughter of Alec Ryder and big sister to Scott Ryder." She told Marcus, "also a member of the Pathfinder team as a recon specialist."
Marcus couldn't help but wonder what happened that led to her being Pathfinder.
"Sir, I'm detecting multiple ships exiting FTL," Sasha said from the co-pilots seat. Drawing Marcus from his thoughts.
"Are they Initiative?" Marcus asked Sasha while she began checking.
"No sir."
"We're being contacted by the Tempest, sir" The comms officer told Marcus from his station. Marcus nodded to the comms officer to open a channel with the Tempest.
"This is the Normandy," Marcus said over the comms.
"Normandy, the incoming ships are not friendly."
Both Sasha and Chloe turned in their seats to look at Marcus with a skeptical look on both their faces. Marcus was also skeptical, "positive?"
"Very, one group wants to kill us for unknown reasons and the other wants to kill you for your resources."
Marcus didn't like unknowns and now there are a lot of them. "I need to be sure. So I'll ask again, are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
Marcus took a deep breath before exhaling, activating both the intercom and the comms to the whole fleet. "All hands to battle stations, we have hostile incoming."
All throughout the fleet, personal were moving to their positions and getting ready for a fight. Marcus ordered the fleet into a shield formation. The military ships formed a V shape with the civilian ships gathering behind them.
"Tempest, you need to go with the civilians," Marcus said over the comms when he noticed that the Tempest didn't go with the civilian ships.
"We can help."
"My first priority is the safety of everyone and that includes you." He told the Tempest over the comms, "If you want to help, send us what you can on the hostiles." The Tempest didn't move from its spot and Marcus didn't want a civilian ship in the middle of a battle then the Tempest began moving. Marcus said a silent 'thank you' as the Tempest moved to the back of the fleet, to join the civilian ships.
"We'll send what we can but we don't have much intel."
Marcus sighed, he didn't like going into a fight without knowing his opponent first. "Alright, what can you tell us?"
"The Kett don't bother with words. They prefer a 'shoot first and don't ask questions' motto. Don't expect them to surrender either, the ones we fought didn't. The pirates were Initiative but didn't like the way things were being handled and left or were forced out. Haven't fought much of them so I don't know their capabilities."
"Thanks for the info, Tempest." Marcus said to them before closing the comms.
"We have a visual." Chloe said to Marcus.
Pirate Shuttle
Jackson sat in the co-pilots seat of the Initiative shuttle with the rest of the exiles getting ready to assault the reinforcements that have arrived to assist the Initiative. Jackson thought back to the events that led him to be in this situation.
Three hours earlier
Jackson had to admit that he didn't think that listening on Initiative signals would pay off. When he first heard the message he didn't think it was real, then the Pathfinder gets involved and his interest was piqued. Jackson figured that the Initiative must have sent a second wave of ships loaded with resources to help their outposts thrive in Andromeda.
So he recorded the message from the Admiral and headed straight for Kadara port to report to Sloan. The whole journey took only about an hour and half before he arrived in Kadara port, after docking his shuttle and paying the fee Jackson immediately went straight for Sloan's HQ. Unfortunately, the guards at the door stopped him.
"Sloan's in a meeting." One of the Krogan guards told Jackson.
"I have information that Sloan will find interesting." Jackson told the guard who just looked at him then to other guard.
"Give us the information. We'll make sure Sloan gets the info." The Krogan told him however Jackson dealt with enough pirates to know when he's being lied too.
"No, I'll give Sloan the information myself or not at all." Jackson boldly told the krogan guards who just scowled at him and his finger itching closer to the trigger for his shotgun.
"What's going on here?" A flanged voice which could only belong to a turian spoke from behind the Krogan guards. Jackson saw the Kaetus emerging from Sloan's HQ.
"This guy says he has information for Sloan." One of the Krogan guards told Kaetus, "sounds sketchy to me though."
"What information do you have?" Kaetus asked Jackson.
"Information about the Initiative that Sloan will find interesting." Jackson told Kaetus who looked at him for a minute before gesturing for him to follow him.
Kaetus led the way to Sloan's "office". Entering the room Jackson saw Sloan sitting on her throne with her back to the window, 'does she ever leave her throne?' Jackson thought to himself as he was led to Sloan. Jackson noted that Sloan had a bored expression on her face as she looked at him.
"So, you have information about the Initiative?" Sloan spoke in a bored tone, "do you know how many people come to me with information about the Initiative?" she said as Jackson stopped seven feet from her throne while Kaetus kept walking until he was by her side and stood guard.
"No," Jackson said nervously.
"A lot," Sloan told him. "And most of their information is usually outdated or doesn't yield much." She told Jackson, "so what do you have to offer?"
Jackson took a deep breath before speaking. "I have been listening in on Initiative signals and I stumbled upon a signal that I think you will find interesting." Jackson told Sloan before playing the message that he recorded earlier.
After hearing the message Sloan remained quiet until she spoke up. "That is interesting but how do we know that the message is real?" she asked Jackson.
"The Pathfinder is going to check it out. And wherever she goes interesting things tend to happen." Jackson told Sloan who just nodded in agreement.
"True she does have a knack for finding the most interesting things."
"The supplies they have could help us extend our influence from Kadara." Kaetus who remained silent throughout the conversation between Jackson and Sloan spoke up.
Sloan turned in her seat to better look at Kaetus, "well-spoken Kaetus." She told him before focusing her attention back on Jackson. "The message mentioned coordinates?"
"Yes, the Skeldah system," Jackson told her.
After he told Sloan of the location she immediately told him to wait outside until she called him. Afterwards when she called him back Sloan told him that he is being assigned to the strike force that she is putting together to attack the Initiative reinforcements without a chance for him decline. Now he sat in the co-pilots seat monitoring the tracking signal for the Tempest.
"Sloan we've arrived in the Skeldah system." Jackson overheard the Krogan battle master Aster, the Krogan in charge of leading the small strike force to attack the Initiative reinforcements.
"Good, you know what to do Aster." Jackson heard Sloan say over the comms.
"Don't worry. We'll have the resources back to Kadara in no time." Aster said, "chances are that they only have a small security force for protection."
"Good to hear."
Jackson figured Sloan cut the communication with Aster as he didn't hear anything else. Focusing on his job he found that the Tempest is already in the Skeldah system. Jackson was thankful that he bribed one of the docks workers on the Nexus to plant a tracking device on the hull of the Tempest that only he could activate and deactivate with the right codes.
"We're exiting FTL soon," the pilot said over the intercom.
"Right Sloan wants the resources that the ships are bringing." Aster said over the comms to the entire strike force. "Sloan doesn't care for Initiative personal so they're fair game. She only wants the supplies and ships. We'll board and kill anyone in our way, got it?"
One by one the pirates onboard the shuttles confirmed that they understood. Soon afterwards the strike force exited FTL.
The Normandy
With the fleet now in shield formation Marcus looked at the force of pirates that had gathered before him. Their forces mainly consisted of old Kodiak shuttles and others of various design that he didn't recognize, their force is small but he wouldn't underestimate them even though he has the superior numbers on his side.
A few seconds after the pirates arrived the other force that Sarah warned him about, the Kett. Kett ships were unique, the design of the ships looked to be organic and were heavily armed with what looked to be cannons mounted on the sides of the ships and smaller ones mounted on the nose. Some of the smaller ones looked to be fighters have a "T" shape to them. Just from looking at the design of the various ships he could tell that the ships were clearly designed for war and not much else.
Out of both the pirates and Kett forces it is clear the Kett are going to be the bigger threat with their unknown capabilities and larger force.
"Ava are there any dreadnaught class ships in the Kett forces?" Marcus asked Ava.
"Based on the data we've received from the Tempest, no." Ava replied, "from what I can tell the Kett mostly have frigates in their force."
Marcus took a breath before going to the comms officer, "broadcast a message for me." The comms officer entered some commands before nodding to Marcus. "This is Admiral Shepard stand down or we'll treat you as hostile."
Shortly after the message was broadcasted the Kett were the first to respond by opening fire on both the relief fleet and the pirates. The shields on the frigates flared blue when the rounds impacted against them, the pirate forces however didn't have shields to protect them from the rounds and so they exploded whenever the rounds hit them.
"All ships return fire," Marcus ordered the ships over the comms before making his way back to the CIC. Arriving in the CIC Marcus went straight for his command platform, the galaxy map in the center was replaced by a 3D image that showed the battle between the Kett and the pirate forces who are identified in red while his forces are green. "Get me the Kalros, Oden, and the Vakerian." Marcus told the comms officer.
The military ships in the fleet returned fire against the Kett. The Kett ships shields flared as the rounds from the military ships impacted against them while some of the smaller ships were immediately destroyed upon impact.
"Sir" the comms officer spoke drawing Marcus' attention from the battle display. Once again the center image changed to show three people. A female turian, a human male, and a female Krogan.
"Captains I'll be assigning battle groups to each of you." Marcus told the three captains, "Neeva, battle group one. Noon, Two. Thela, three." The three captains nodded as they were told their battle groups. "Battle group one will deal with the pirates, two will deal with the Kett, and three will protect the civilians. Under no circumstances are you to engage the enemy directly." Marcus looked at each of the captains, "am I understood?"
"Yes, sir." All three captains said in unison.
"We didn't fire the first shot but we will fire the last," Marcus told the captains before cutting the comms with them and refocusing on the battle. The center display once again showed the battle, "Chloe?"
"Sir."
"Make her dance." Marcus told her.
If Marcus was in the cockpit, he would've seen Chloe smile and the worried look that Sasha had when she saw Chloe smile. It is a widely known fact that Chloe does some "eccentric" maneuvers whenever she pilots the Normandy in a combat situation.
"With pleasure, sir."
The Tempest
Sara held her breath when she saw the Kett first volley at the fleet as she didn't know how much damage they could do and was surprised when the military ships were able to take the hits and return fire. Soon after the military ships returned fire on the Kett ships two of three of the largest ships in the fleet began to move away from the fleet along with a handful of ships while the third remained in front of them.
"What are those two doing?" Peebee asked to no one in particular as she viewed the battle along with everyone else in the cockpit.
"Divide and conquer," Cora said not taking her attention off of the battle in front of them.
"What?" Peebee once again asked. Drack decided to pitch in and explain it to her.
"Notice how one of the groups is attacking the pirates while the other attacks the Kett."
"Yeah…"
"That's a tactic used to attack two different enemies." Drack explained, "one group attacks one enemy while the other attacks the other." Everyone in the room began to look at Drack as he continued to explain. "That way you're not fighting both enemies at the same time."
Shortly after Drack's explanation an explosion drew everyone's attention back to the space battle. The ruins a Kett frigate could be seen among other debris that littered the area around Kett forces, but the military ships were not unscathed as some could be seen with scorch damage on the ship hulls. By now the goups in charge of protecting the civilians were now engaged in the battle with both the Kett and pirate forces that managed to evade the group attacking them.
"Look," Suvi gestured to an area of the space battle where it appeared to be a squadron of Kett fighters were going after a ship. The ship in question turned out to be the Normandy.
"Looks like the Admiral prefers to be in the fight," Drack spoke with admiration.
"That respect I hear Drack?" Vetra asked Drack who just smiled as he viewed the space battle.
"Any captain who chooses to fight alongside his men then sit in safety. Is worthy of respect."
Everyone focused back on the battle. The Normandy is being pursued by six Kett fighter trying to hit the ship, but the Normandy is the fastest ship in the Alliance Navy for a reason. The Normandy did evasive maneuvers to avoid the incoming fire from the Kett fighters, the Normandy led the fighters on a chase that ended when the Kett fighters ended flying right into incoming fire from their own ships.
"Impressive flying," Kallo said to himself.
"Incoming hostiles," SAM alerted the crew to the incoming threat. Sure enough there are several incoming pirate shuttles that managed to slip through the military ships and are now headed for them.
The Normandy
Marcus leaned on the railings on the command platform slightly, he looked at the display that showed the battle playing out around him outside in space. For their first engagement with the Kett they seemed to be doing a good job of being in a fight with them, Kett weaponry seemed to pack a punch but it's nothing their shields couldn't handle.
"The Kett seem to favor the destroy first tactic when they opened fire on us." Ava said to Marcus over their private channel.
"True but they didn't fire a second volley after their first one hit," Marcus replied while focusing on the battle. "In fact they didn't fire until we did."
"Maybe they haven't met a foe they couldn't just destroy in one shot,"
"Maybe, I don't know."
"Well one thing we have going for us," Ava said.
"What's that?" Marcus asked now curious.
"Their shields are shit."
Marcus smiled at the statement as it's true, from what he saw Kett shielding is only able to handle four shots before they give out. Focusing back on the battle Marcus saw that pirate forces are mostly gone save for a few stragglers while the Kett are still putting up a fight, 'looks like Sara was right about them not surrendering' Marcus thought to himself as he continued to oversee the battle.
"Sir!" One of the crewmen on the bridge yelled for Marcus who shifted his gaze from the display to the crewmen. "I'm picking up a large radiation signature."
"Where?" Marcus asked the him.
"It's coming from one of the pirate shuttles."
"I'm also picking up traces of element zero mixed in with the radiation." Ava said, "best guess is that one of the pirate shuttles has an eezo bomb on it."
Now Marcus is worried he had seen first-hand what an eezo bomb could do and if one of these pirates has one then things just got complicated.
Pirate Shuttle
To say Aster was beyond pissed would be an understatement. First the Initiative reinforcements turned out to be the largest fleet he had ever seen along with a large security force, then the Kett show up and attack them and the fleet. From there everything went to shit since all they had is nothing but Initiative and Angaran shuttles which had little to no defenses at all. And worst of all he didn't get to kill a single person.
"Get us as close as you can to the Pathfinders ship." Aster told the pilot of the shuttle before making his way to the back of the shuttle and to a large case that took up the rear of the shuttle. Opening the case reveled hi-explosives stolen from the Initiative and several cases of pure eezo. Aster had used eezo bombs before but this one is different because not only did the case contain explosives it also contained a nuclear rods stolen from the Nexus. The resulting blast is enough to destroy even an Alliance dreadnaught.
"If we can't get the supplies," Aster said before arming the eezo bomb, "then we kill the Pathfinder." He said as he watched the countdown.
9:59…
9:58…
9:57…
The Normandy
"Can you find which shuttle has the eezo bomb?" Marcus asked both Ava and the crewman.
"Already have," Ava said as her holo form appeared next to Marcus on the small holo display built into the command platform. Ava gestured to the display and a single red shuttle was brought into view for him to see.
"Location?"
The display showed that the shuttle is heading straight for the civilians but it seemed to be ignoring the civilian ships and heading straight for a ship, the Tempest.
"Get me the Tempest," Marcus yelled to his comms officer who began to enter commands into his holo terminal.
"Tempest here."
"Tempest you have a shuttle incoming that is carrying an eezo bomb." Marcus told the Tempest.
"Fuck."
"Tempest you need to hold your position," Marcus told them, a plan had begun to form in his head.
"You want us to stay in the path of the of the shuttle carrying a bomb?"
"Yes."
"I hope you have a good plan."
Marcus smirked after the Tempest closed the comms. "Get me the captains of the S.D's." once again the holo images of the three captains were being displayed. "We need to finish this fight before any reinforcements come. You have authorization to engage." The three captains nodded before the images disappeared. "Ava."
Ava still in her holo form looked at Marcus.
"Yes?"
"You know what to do?"
"Yup."
The Tempest
Sara watched as the shuttle carrying the eezo bomb fly closer, after Marcus telling her that a shuttle is carrying an eezo bomb and is heading straight for her ship SAM confirmed also confirmed that the shuttle heading for them is indeed carrying an eezo bomb.
"Ryder…" Drack said slowly as the shuttle flew closer.
"Hold…" Sara told Kallo nervously which didn't help the salarian as his fingers twitched as they hovered an inch above the flight controls. Then without warning the Normandy flew above them towards the shuttle and passed by them.
"What the fu…" Whatever Liam was about to say was cut by what Suvi said when she told them that the shuttle is flying away from them. Sure enough the shuttle carrying the bomb is indeed flying away from them and into the scourge.
Pirate Shuttle
"What's going on?" Aster asked the pilot when he say they were flying away from the Pathfinders ship.
"Don't know. I have no control over the shuttle." The pilot said nervously as he attempted to regain control of the shuttle but it was folly as the shuttle continued to fly towards the scourge.
"Get control back, now!" Aster shouted at the pilot.
"I'm telling you I can't I have no control." The pilot shouted back, "I'm not the one flying."
"Then who is?" Jackson asked from the co-pilots seat.
"I'm sorry about this"
Everyone in the shuttle heard the female voice through the intercom. However, they didn't have long to contemplate whose voice it belonged to as the shuttle's boosters activated accelerating them towards the scourge.
The Tempest
Sara watched as the shuttle flew straight towards the scourge and get destroyed by the sickly brown tendrils as they impaled the shuttle causing it to explode along with the eezo bomb. A bright blue light flashed within the scourge causing Sara and her crew to shield their eyes from the light when the light died down they saw a lingering blue orb where the shuttle used to be giving off a blue glow, there is also a ten-mile radius around the blue orb free of the scourge.
The scourge glowed purple whenever it came into contact with the light generated from the orb.
Sara focused her attention back on the battle just in time to see the largest ship open two bay doors and drones flew out and started to attack the Kett. The drones were unlike anything she ever saw before, the drones appeared to be orb shaped with a single opening in the front that pulsed with red light. Outer plates could be seen along with two wings that jutted out of either side of the orb. The drones shot red laser beams that destroyed the Kett fighters with ease.
The large ship reoriented itself to face one of the largest Kett ships, the nose of the ship began to glow blue before a blue beam shot out and hit the Kett ship which was immediately destroyed and the ship began to target another Kett ship. Within minutes the battle was over it only lasted ten minutes.
The only evidence of the Kett and pirate forces were the debris that could be seen floating in space.
"We're being contacted by the Normandy." Suvi said.
"Pathfinder Ryder. It's time we meet."
A/N: Again I cannot thank everyone who supported this story enough. It truly means a lot to me to know that this simple concept of a story could garner so much love and support. With that being said just thank you to everyone who took the time to read this story.
I don't have a posting schedule right now so I'll be posting chapters when I finish them and after I proofread them for any mistakes. This is also a call for a beta reader to anyone who might be interested, keep in mind that I'm still new to the site so I haven't quite figured everything out yet so I might have trouble in getting a beta.
Now I'm very bad when it comes to writing fight scenes of any nature and the space battle was a challenge for me to write, I really hope that I did a good job with it. I don't know if it's just me or did anyone else notice that the Kett have no shields at all in the ME:A. So in this story the Kett do have shields for their ships albeit weaker and they compensate for this by having weapons that do more damage.
And lastly the concept of the eezo bomb was just a random idea that I had one day. The idea behind it was to detonate explosive with pure eezo which would produce a violent chain reaction and create an explosion that is on par with a nuke. (I'm not good with the science in ME universe but I think that's actually possible.)
Sorry for my ramblings everyone. The next chapter will be up when I finish writing it.
(I noticed I mixed some dates in the last chapter so I'll be going back and fixing them.)