Mass Exodus
Chapter 6
The Batarian cruiser Righteous Indignation entered the Theseus system in a flash of light. It's computer slowing it down and allowing the ship to fall into orbit around the second planet, Feros. The ships captain looked over the readouts on his control panel. The planet was cold, dusty and almost uninhabitable. Only the Humans would be stupid enough to try and live there. Not even the Prothean ruins made it worth the effort. They'd all been picked clean by scavengers and looters years ago. But there were Humans there, enough for a quick but profitable smash and grab.
"Captain Gorak." His first mate made his presence known. "We have detected some very unusual signatures around the planet."
Gorak turned to the officer. A shrewd man named Butar who'd served with Gorak for many years. "Explain." He demanded.
"First we noticed that Feros has a new moon of some kind. Second we noticed that this system is crawling with what we think are Geth."
Gorak gave his officer a hard look. "Geth?"
Butar nodded. "Geth."
"A new moon?"
Butar nodded again. "We think so sir. The Geth are crawling all over it. It should be coming into view now." He motioned to the main screen, which still showed the horizon of Feros.
"This had better impress... me..." Goraks mouth fell open. His eyes widened as the 'moon' came into view. "Land me on that right now." He ordered.
o0o
The Geth platform scanned the surrounding area as it was gently lowered into place. Designation; The Titan was nowhere near it at the moment, it was safe. Its cloaking field flickered slightly as it disconnected from the cable which had lowered it down from the roof of the dome. Almost three kilometres up. Almost three tons of wire was needed to get just one platform down safely.
Report: Update: Designation; The Titan location: Sector three heading west.
If Geth were capable of panicking the platform would have done. Consensus was that The Titan could not see through the Geth's cloaking field, but no chances were being taken. The platform moved swiftly and quietly into the nearby undergrowth.
The ground began to shake rhythmically. Slowing the shaking got more and more intense, before The Titan stepped into view. At almost twenty eight foot tall it truly was titanic. It was mostly humanoid except for the head, which was bulbous at the bottom and tapered like a drop of water, and the pair of wing like protrusions on it's back. It was theorised that these contained some form of aerial for remote control.
Scans showed it was constructed from the same material as the rest of the ship. That coupled with the fact it had been observed easily carrying almost three tons of water had lead to a quick calculation on the part of the Geth. Survival if engaged by The Titan for any single Geth platform was 199,420,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one against. This increased to fifteen to one for a colossus. And up to one to one for orbital assets. In all cases the odds of any single platform destroying The Titan was zero to one.
Impossible.
The Titan stepped past the bush the platform was hiding in. It was carrying a huge pitcher of water. The Geth had been observing The Titan for almost twelve hours and in that time it had been performing one duty, tending the vegetation. The Geth were very interested in what kind of civilisation would create such a monster, and then use it for gardening.
o0o
The Righteous Indignation shuddered as it landed on the, whatever it was. Doors along it's length opened. Dozens of troopers and engineers in hard suits ran across it's smooth surface to the edge of the closest dome. Captain Gorak looked over his troops as they set up the portable barricades to form a perimeter around the engineers. The engineers themselves began to line up the long beams that would become the huge supports for an air tight environment.
"No! Up against the wall!" He shouted through his comm. "We need to be able to get through that wall without de-pressurising the alien ship!" The engineers nodded as the orders Gorak received from high command rang in his ears. 'Establish a beachhead. Capture anyone you find. Take all the technology you find.' When he told them about his discovery he knew he would be going up in the world. If he could only secure his prize.
It wasn't long before the first part of the tent was complete. "Seal complete." Said the lead engineer of the comm. Gorak stepped into the first areas rudimentary airlock that had been constructed next to the dome wall. The second door in front of him opened and he walked through into a cramped space. He motioned to a pair of engineers to get out. They replaced him in the airlock chamber. The door closed leaving him with his chief engineer.
"Have you found out why we can't scan through this stuff yet?" He asked.
The chief engineer, a small, squirrelly man, replied. "No. But once we get some samples of it I should be able to figure it out." As he said this he hefted a large circular saw up to the wall of the ship. With a grin he hit the power switch and thrust the spinning blade into the wall. The small room was suddenly filled with light, sparks and smoke. A few moments later the light dimmed, and the sparks stopped. Gorak's heaving and vision returned and showed him a dismayed engineer looking at the wall, which wasn't even blackened by the treatment it had just received.
The Engineer looked down at his cutter. Which had an utterly ruined disk spinning lazily in it. "Hmm?"
Gorak's radio crackled. "Captain. Admiral Khoran has arrived with, holy shit that's like half the fleet!"
"Officer! You will observe proper discipline when using official channels!" Growled Gorak.
"Yes sir." Apologised the officer. "He has arrived with the third, fourth and sixth task groups. And he wants you to brief him personally when he gets down there. His ETA is half an hour."
"That should give us time to finish the shelter." Muttered Gorak to himself. "Tell Admiral Khoran I'm looking forward to his arrival."
"Yes sir." Answered the officer before closing the line.
Gorak looked back to the engineer who was inspecting where he had done nothing to the wall. "You have an hour to cut through that." He told him.
The engineer looked up at Gorak, then back to the wall. He opened up a channel on his comm unit. "Bring me one the large tungsten gears, a two foot mass effect core, a ceramic steel axle and the engine from that bike we picked up."
o0o
The Geth observed the Batarian fleet arrive. They had contacted Nazara and Saren had told them to ignore the Batarians unless engaged. But they were to step up their efforts of finding and subduing the crew of the huge ship. They were told Nazara would be arriving soon.
The Geth continued to observe The Titan closely, gaining more knowledge all the time. And it had been concluded that The Titan could not see them. They had not stopped their cautionary practises around it. But it made exploration of the ship easier and safer.
They had now deployed enough platforms into the dome that they could leave three hunter platforms to watch it's movements permanently. Leaving another ten standard platforms to explore the ship properly. The Geth ships had used their scanners to map out the interior to a reasonable degree of accuracy, but that didn't tell them much about what was actually in the rooms themselves. What fascinated the Geth was the recent increase in power in one of the larger chambers deep in the aft of the ship. The platforms made quick time in getting there.
0
When the Geth arrived in the dark chamber they found exactly what they had been hoping to find. People.
Row upon row of people. In pods. They appeared to be in some kind of suspended animation. They were unmoving, not even breathing. But scanners detected increased amounts of power being directed into the pods. They were powering up, perhaps to release their occupants? Messages were sent to the ships waiting on top of the dome. "Bring sedatives."
0
To any normal creature, being put into a stasis field was the end. Time was stopped for them, with no way for them to ever escape. But you can be broken out of a stasis field. It just required an immense amount of energy to do it.
So when Iyanna had laid down in her stasis pod, she was not worried. She knew that when the time was right the guardian would activate the Craftworlds start-up procedure and she would be awoken from her unnatural state. But as the stasis field crackled and died, she felt it. The affects of her trip though the warp hit her. She felt like a knife had been rammed through her skull.
Had she been cognisant she would have theorised that the warp could effect her through even the stasis field, it's not like time had ever been a problem for the warp before. The warp had affected her through the stasis field, but she was only feeling the effects of it's touch now. And she was an Eldar, so it hurt. It really hurt. She could feel the Slaanesh's rage at being cheated. And it felt horrific.
So when she felt a syringe pump something into her neck and sedate her, she was actually rather grateful.
o0o
Deep in the bowels of the craftworld Iyanden. Where nothing should be moving or living, someone stomped angrily through black corridors. The lack of light did not impede his progress. He had long since memorised the layout of this place, he knew exactly where he should tread, where he should turn and where the lock on the door was. Passing his hand over the activation crystal, the circular door in front of him slid open silently. And the deep quiet of the corridor was replaced by the sound of wet drops hitting stone.
He stepped into the cavern. Ordinarily it would be used for training aspect warriors, teaching them how to move silently and fight in the dark. But now it was just a silent, empty cave. Or almost empty. Now Lokas could see. Scattered around the cavern were the small purple lamps of his Masque. Around each lamp were ten or so of his fellow Harlequins. He walked passed them purposefully, heading towards the largest lamp, which had only five people sitting in it's light.
The first he noticed was Laebala, the de-facto leader of the Death Jesters. Next to her was Celsys the senior Shadowseer, easily the oldest member of the Masque, and possibly the wisest. Next to her were Chadriel and Fueban, two of the three Troupe Masters, Twilight and Dark respectively. The last figure was Isendad, the Great Harlequin. The leader of the Masque. It was he Lokas was here to talk to.
Lokas gracefully lowered himself to the floor opposite Isendad. A few moments of silence passed before Isendad decided to address Lokas. "So, Troupe Master of the light, you have returned from your sojourn to the surface."
"I have Great Harlequin." Responded Lokas in a respectful tone.
"What did you see?"
Lokas sighed dramatically. "The soulless machines continue to evade the Guardian. More of them pour through the hole the managed to make in the great dome. But what's worse is they discovered where the council of Iyanden were held in stasis. When Iyanna awoke they sedated her and the rest of the council."
"You didn't stop them?" Asked Fueban angrily.
Lokas shrugged. "They were many, I was one." He turned back to Isendad. "But if I gather my Troupe I could stop them in a heartbeat. With your permission Isendad."
"No." Spoke Celsys. "It is not our fate to rescue the world."
"We cannot do nothing." Insisted Lokas.
Celsys laughed. "When the time comes we shall act and play our parts. But ultimately, for now. We are but the players in someone else's story."
"But what if the find the children?" Asked Laebala, with uncharacteristic seriousness.
Isendad answered before Celsys could speak. "Then we will act. I will not risk innocence for the sake of someone else's story."
Celsys' response died in her throat. The group looked to where she was staring. She, He, It, walked out of the shadows. Their great, black coat billowed behind them. Their hood concealed their face, the only part visible were the two great horns that jutted from the mask they were wearing. Lokas felt his skin crawl as the Solitaire stalked past the group. No one knew where they were going, and no one dared ask.
o0o
Gorak stood outside the small facility his team of engineers had built. Soon it would be a sprawling military base. He watched as dozens of shuttles ferried down extra materials, tools and people. But their was only one he was anticipating. He saw the larger, grander shuttle exit the docking bay of the huge carrier. That was almost certainly Admiral Khoran's. It reached the surface at a brisk pace and landed directly in front of Gorak.
The side door opened to reveal the almost regal figure of the admiral. His hard suit was noticeably finer than even Gorak's. He bowed to the admiral as he stepped off the shuttle and up to Gorak. "Admiral. It is an honour to have you overseeing this operation." Said Gorak. And he meant it, Khoran was a legend in the Batarian military.
Khoran stepped past Gorak without saying a word. He scanned the facility Gorak's engineers had built. He swallowed nervously. Would Khoran approve? He turned back to Gorak. "You have done well Captain." He told him in a voice hardened by years of bellowing orders. "Now take me to where you intend to break through the wall."
"Of course Admiral." Said Gorak with relief.
0
Gorak opened the final door and allowed Khoran to step through first. They both marvelled at the bizarre device being constructed in front of them. It consisted of a large engine on the end of a telescopic arm. On top the engine was a mass effect core spinning furiously, presumably to make the final part of the device easier to move around. Because the final part was a huge tungsten gear, almost five feet across. His engineer had informed him is was a 'hypoid, bevelled gear'. Gorak didn't know what that meant and was afraid to ask. There were only so many hours in the day. Overall the whole thing looked like a large, mutated drill.
"Is that tungsten?" Asked Khoran. Now the admiral had removed his helmet Gorak could see the famous facial scar Khoran had gotten during his first tour of duty. I stretched down from his forehead, through both his left eyes. The bottom was a milky white, the top was just missing completely.
"It is." Answered the engineer impressed.
Khoran nodded. "I think I see what you're trying to achieve."
The engineer smiled. "We will be using the gear to bore a hole through the wall. Well more accurately melt a hole through."
Khoran continued to nod. "Are you sure the tungsten won't melt?"
The engineer tapped the wall. "Unless this is made of pure carbon. No."
Khoran ran his finger tips down the wall. "How long will this take?" He asked.
The engineer shrugged. "Well we've taken some sonic readings and we think the wall is only two meters thick. So once we start we should be able to give a time frame. But until we work out how quickly we can cut through this stuff I can't even guess."
"Very well, carry on." Said Khoran before turning on his heels and stepping out of the room. "Captain. With me." He called. Gorak quickly followed him.
o0o
Oladra smiled internally as she finished shovelling handfuls of dirt around the tree she had just planted. Carefully she pressed the earth down, packing in the tender roots. She looked around for the water she had carried to this spot, but she couldn't see it. She concentrated, shifted her vision around. Her world expanded from a formless grey void with only a single tree to a glittering black expanse where she could see all the life around her, no matter how small.
The lump of teeming lights told her exactly where the water was. She reached out her hand and felt the edge of the huge pitcher she was using to ferry the water about. She sifter her vision again, back to the formless grey void. But this time their was no tree, only the pitcher of water. And the watering can. To a living Eldar this can was very large and unwieldy. To Oladra and her wraithlord body, it was tiny. She carefully filled the watering can and stepped back to where she remembered the tree being. She showered water over the area, soaking the ground.
She smiled inwardly again. Soon the craftworld would wake. She had activated the start-up procedure, as instructed. Now it was just a matter of time before the Spiritseer's took her soul and returned it to the Infinity Circuit. So she could return to her eternal sleep.
o0o
Gorak watched the screen with apprehension. The huge tungsten gear began to spin. Made impossibly light by the mass effect field surrounding it, soon it reached a frightening speed, becoming little more than a grey blur. Even though he was over ten meters away from the device he could feel the floor vibrating from the frightening forces his engineer was messing with.
"How fast is that going?" He asked the engineer. Worry in his voice.
The engineer looked at the readout on his omni-tool. "Around thirty seven thousand RPM."
Gorak cleared his throat. "I'm not going to lie. This seems really dangerous."
The engineer shrugged. "Why do you think we're in another room. There's all sorts of things that could go wrong. The gear could shatter and explode, the substance the walls are made of could explode under the conditions we're exposing it to, It could be highly reactive under the conditions we're exposing it to..."
Admiral Khoran spoke before Gorak could. "I take it that's why you filled the room with argon?" He asked.
"Yes admiral." Answered the engineer, impressed. He looked back to his omni-tool. "I think we can begin." He said ominously. He tapped out a command and watched the spinning gear as it was pressed into the wall. The camera switched to thermal viewing and the three of them watched the heat in the room increase. "I think it's working." Muttered the engineer in amazement.
"It's over a thousand degrees in there!" Complained Gorak. "Isn't that dangerous."
"No." Khoran told him. "The walls of our modular facilities can take much higher temperatures."
"So." Said the engineer who had been doing some quick mathematics on his omni-tool. "I think we should be through that wall in roughly twelve hours."
Khoran turned to Gorak. "I want all SIU members ready for insertion in six hours." He told him.
"Yes captain."
