Chapter 7: Red Skies at Morning

The more I look back on this moment, the more I realize just how unavoidable some things later on were. Like bumping into the Batarian Hegemony. I wonder if there was a time we could've gone with a friendlier approach. The more I think about what actually happened, the more I distort my view on the council races. Each one, despite being at the pinnacle of society, continues to search for methods to give them leverage over the others, or ways to further push down the other races they consider out of their little circle.

April 5 2044

07 hrs/56 min/12 sec

TAC Resolute, main bridge

Shipmaster Camitilia Narrian flicked her mandibles in irritation. They had found the camp with the unknown prisoners just minutes before the attackers escaped. The bodies were still warm, but their assailants were nowhere to be seen. Now, she had to report to the Executor back on the Citadel about the missing prisoners. She walked up to the broadcast screen on the deck, and the screen came to life, showing an annoyed Executor at the other end.

"I just read the report, Shipmaster Narrian. Is it accurate?" He asked.

"Yes, Executor. As thoroughly we checked the camp, we found no genetic trace of the inhabitants. Not even the bodies could give us any insight as to the weapons they used. We left the bodies for the Hegemony to collect," she answered.

"A shame really. Given this behavior, do you think it was these 'Collectors'?"

"It was suggested among some of the troops, but due to a complete lack of evidence, we don't know. If what little we know about the Collectors is true, they most likely are. Their sense for leaving no evidence, their mysterious tech, and their unending search for strange specimens of various races all point to them. However, this is too far out from the Terminus System that is the kicker. It makes no sense that they'd come this far to risk. If they were to go beyond the borders of the Terminus, they would've done so through mercenaries, who never are this clean."

"I see. Return to the Citadel, I'll have to interview the men who were on the trade party. Also, watch your back. We've got silhouettes on the horizon, and we don't know whose."

08 hrs/59 min/45 sec Local Time

Attican Beta/Hercules/Eletania

Amory yawned as he exited the mass accelerator and approached Eletania's orbit. He glanced as the flames danced around the ship's barriers from entry friction, and he watched them disperse, as they got lower into the atmosphere. He glances over his HUD as a notice lit up, showing the Sergeant calling.

"Amory, Fredrick here. Scouts weren't beaten too much during lockup and are recovering back here. How are things up there?"

"Tired, but we're almost at the forward post of Eletania. I'll be calling them in a moment," Amory replied. Boy, was he in need of a nap.

"Good. Keep your eyes on the prize, you'll get some rest, soon enough."

Amory turned back to his controls. Reaching over, he activates his long-range com-booster. "Eletania Front, this is Private Johnson, coming into port with two rescued POWs, we request permission to land."

Permission granted. Welcome home, boys.

The outpost was set on top of a plateau, with ramps down the side for mining vehicles to travel to and from the mines. Fortunately, the team hadn't been called here for any bug hunts, or any of the new systems for a matter of fact. The outpost itself was composed of a long, tall wall with turrets every twelve meters, and the inside was composed of various warehouses, barracks, hangers, and repair docks. He slowly brought in the gunship to rest on the hanger floor.

07 hrs/45 min/56 min Local Time

Aldrin Space Port

General Sokolov walked over to the diagram table with a coffee in one hand, and a data pad in the other. He was taking a sip from his cup when the table buzzed with an incoming call. Tapping the table, he sees a projected image of Sergeant Müller standing attentively and with his helmet.

Mission accomplished, general. The scouts, and all their equipment have been retrieved; all evidence pertaining our presence at the enemy camp has been erased, and all possible potential witnesses were eliminated without setting off the alarm or having anyone alert others of our presence. We escaped just as an unidentified ship touched down with the base.

"Good work, Sergeant. Considering your capabilities as a leader of your team, your persistence on getting the job done, and ability to help other divisions in the field, I'm promoting you to Lieutenant, understood?" the general responded with a wide grin.

The new Lieutenant's face lit up. Thank you general. I will not let you down.

"Good. Get some rest, you've earned it," he said, ending the call. He proceeded to turn to the window, overlooking the spaceport and the rising sun in the distance.

10 hrs/13 min/02 sec Local Time

Eletania, forward outpost

Captain Oliver personally interviewed the scouts, concerning their capture, and their experience with the aliens. Lieutenant Müller and his team were all at the barracks, sawing off the exhaustion from their mission. They may have been the best human soldiers this side of the universe, but they were only kids. Whatever was coming their way, they needed to be up and ready to defend.

In the meantime, the guys at the tech lab were running neural scans of one of the dead aliens, hopefully to understand their language if they were going to combat them. Scans and salvaged pieces of the tech they found were interesting to say the most. They expected the first alien race to encounter to be more sophisticated, or technologically adapted than they were, given they were probably space faring long before they were. But their computers and shields seemed to be rudimentary to say at most, given how easy it was to bypass all security. In addition, their weapons, unlike the particle weapons, utilized small fragments of metal accelerated via dark matter. At most, their shields would have no trouble handling incoming shots. Even if the shields were down, each shot would do very little to their armor as a whole, unless they concentrated fire on a single spot, or they utilized one of the ammo variants it came with. However, their weapons did essentially allow limitless ammo, so long as the main chamber didn't overheat.

Finally, the aliens seen getting off the visiting ship didn't seem to resemble any of the pigheads, and more like evolved raptors. Müller's team didn't stay around long enough to investigate who they were. They already had two scouts in-tow, a pighead body, and some sample weapons. The team came incredibly close to being spotted.

Regardless of what the kids could've done, they found a string with a lot of attachments at that base.

15 hrs/39 min/18 sec Local Time

Citadel, Executor's Office

The doors to his office opened up, revealing Shipmaster Narrian just behind. "Come in, shipmaster. Have a seat," he welcomed, gesturing towards the front of his desk.

She strode in and took a seat in front of him. "What do you plan to do about the situation?"

Leaning forward and looking off to the side, he responds cautiously, "Nothing for now. I just contacted the Hegemony concerning the raid. Now they're out for blood and are investigating nearby systems. I don't want to be caught in the middle of this just yet. We'll evaluate the outcome first before we act. If this is some sort of… infestation, and these things start a war with the Batarians, we may have to step in before the Batarians are wiped from existence."

"I honestly don't know why we should stick our necks out for the Batarians. If they were driven into extinction, I wouldn't feel sorry at all. They haven't done themselves any favors, and sure as hell aren't doing anything to improve relations. Look at their track record for reference. Hell, they still keep slaves around because it is part of their 'heritage' as a species," Camitilia ranted bitterly.

The Executor continued to avoid eye contact. "I know," he replied. "We are the first, and last lines of defense for this galaxy. The galaxy looks to us to deal with pirate scum, and other threats. Even though no one cares about the fate of the Batarians, we simply can't let them go extinct because they couldn't let go of old ideals. Putting it like that, we aren't much different, considering all those old shells back on Pavalen. If worse turns for worse, we may have to save them."

The shipmaster groaned in annoyance. "Understood, executor."

12 hrs/12 min/02 sec Local Time

Eletania, forward outpost

Fredrick was the first of his crew to wake up. Never had a nap felt so good before, he didn't even bother to strip off his armor. He quickly got up, ate lunch, and went to the control tower of the base. Captain Oliver had long since finished his review with the scouts and had long since sent the interview back to Sololov back on Khonsu. The captain turned to face Fredrick. "Lieutenant Müller. I'd heard of your recent promotion," he greeted. "It's great to hear that at least one of the finest soldiers Humanity has is finally rising in the ranks."

Smirking with pride, Fredrick replied, "No need for congratulations, captain. Rank doesn't mean shit. What does is getting the job done efficiently, and with minimal cost."

"If only the rest of the regiment were as effective as you, lieutenant."

"If we had more jars back on Delta Station, they would," Fredrick joked.

Suddenly, a voice called from the other side of the tower. "Sir! Unidentified cruisers just came into the system."

The two walked over to the source of the sound. It was a navigations officer looking at a projection of the system and any entities within it. Captain Oliver looked at the new blips showing on the grid. "Any idea who they are?" he asked.

"No attack cruiser of our design. However, their identification system resembles that of the scans Müller's team found," the navigations officer responded.

"Thank you for the alert, officer. Inform the rest of the base of the possible impending attack. Müller, get you and your team ready for defense. I'll be sending word back to the capital about the attack," the captain ordered.

Nodding, Fredrick put on his helmet and returned to the barracks. Half of them had already awoken from their after-mission rest. "Heads up, guys! A bunch of pigmen just came into the system. Gear up, and let's put them in their place."

Those who were still sleeping had snapped awake and were replacing their armor. For the last few hours however, Amory had actually spent time repainting his normally gray and blue armor a bright shade of red. Fredrick had never seen the bastard look so smug in his life. "What do you think about the paint job, boss?

Fredrick honestly had no answer. He couldn't care what color his teammates painted their armor with. Teammates?

Fredrick snaps his fingers, points at Amory, and says, "Actually, you're on to something. Forget what regs say about armor customization, guys! You can paint your armor!"

"Does that mean I can go black with purple stripes, Fredrick?" Lauren asked eagerly.

"Does chrome plates with yellow trim look good?" Ivan asked.

"Military camo, using different shades of gray. 'Nuff said," Mary said simply.

"Blue dragon scales. That'd be fun to paint," Henry chuckled.

"Orange and gray. What about you, Fredrick?" Nolan asked.

"Well, since the lot of you seem to loose me a lot in combat, I'll take white plates with maroon stripes," he responded simply.

"Did you really mean what you said about regs, boss?" Amory asked.

"Well, we pull this next show off, then I'd say we've most definitely earned the merits to our customized armor patterns," Fredrick announced smiling. The team rushed out of the barracks with a series of celebrating hollers.

12 hrs/46 min/43 sec

"Captain, this is Lieutenant Müller reporting. My men have moved everyone into the mines and are beginning to power equipment down," Fredrick reported.

Good, lieutenant. Looks like they've already investigated the other planets and are entering Eletania's orbit. All miners have bunked in the mines and we have moved all units to the mines till the skies are clear again. If worse comes to worse, be ready to mobilize.

We've got a new problem, command. Those cruisers overhead are already setting up for an orbital bombardment on the outpost. Are you sure everyone's gotten out? Amory asked from his ship, miles away in an ambush position.

Unfortunately not, just stick to the plan, private. There's nothing we can do for them. Just stay low or stick to the mines. Hopefully, they'll just bomb the outpost and leave. We've left enough equipment behind; they'll think they've caught us with our pants down.

"Are you sure their shields and armor will yield? And are you confident it's too late to prevent this conflict from happening?" Fredrick asked.

Son, it's our only chance if they catch on. Besides, you very well saw the response yourself; negotiation is out of the question. They're angry, and they are in no mood to discuss. The general will be by to pick us up. The coms went silent as everyone quietly watched the forward outpost flattened in the distance by shell after shell of explosives. Anyone who failed to get out in time was reduced to ashes.

"You sure that talk about armor paint wasn't too early, Fredrick?" Nolan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A collapsed mine isn't going to kill us; we have plenty of light, food, and supplies to last us for months on end should we have to cave the tunnels in. Mary, you still out there? Are they moving?" Fredrick answered, trying to comfort his team.

Looks like they are heading out of the planet orbit. Maybe they really did think we're reduced to ashes.

"Even if they did, we could still potentially send our apologies for what we did back on Trebin, and get past this debacle on the right foot," he said with a light, smug grin. Fredrick returned to what was left of the outpost with several other search parties, taking scale of the damage. In reality, Fredrick didn't have any hope that the issue at hand wouldn't be resolved without bloodshed. For that next week, he had been rushing from system to system, narrowly driving off the invaders from small camps, that weren't even composing of any militia. The fights all began to strike home when the aliens finally, and unsuspectingly transported into the Ra System.