29/07/2017
Thank you to Pax Humana and Daisy Duck for beta-ing.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you are the greatest! Thank you to The Defenstrated Typewriter for explaining why everyone seems to think the Humans will want to seek revenge on Harbinger and the rest of the Ascended fleet, when they've done nothing wrong. For now. :P
Guest: I know the Council is spineless, but not stupid. They will know their worlds will come under attack, and the ships there have been warned. But that's not going to help them. Plus Udina's fleet left via FTL, not via the Relays. Normal FTL in ME universe is rather slow. I think Council ships are recorded as being about 15 LY a day. A Reaper is 30 LY a day. The Serpent Nebula is a long way from the homeworlds, when you measure like that. It will take time for any attack to arrive. Additionally the Council think they've seen the entire enemy fleet. You know they haven't. Spineless but not stupid but not in a position to do anything.
Part 2 The Fall of the Galaxy
Chapter 11 I Spy With My Thousands of Eyes
-cfr-
Sol System, Turian Cruiser Gover
Illo wasn't sure what to think. Each 'day', Elysium gave them about four hours of time where there was no training. Those still alive used that time to sleep, or try to eat and keep something down. Training was not exactly pleasant. The thing was, yesterday the ship had said that there would be no training today.
When Illo had tentatively asked why, the ship had replied offhandedly that today was a birthing day. That answer had left him lying awake through the entire four hours they usually got to rest. How, in the name of any Spirit, did a starship have a birthing day? Or had Elysium lied to them and was really just a ship crewed by Humans? Except that didn't make sense either. Humans birthed prodigiously. Unless this was a special person involved, it did not make sense that they would have a birthing day.
So, six hours after the time he should have been sleeping, Illo sat at the comm station on the bridge, wide awake while his surviving crew took the chance to sleep. He couldn't believe he was about to do this but with a sharp shake of his head, Illo tapped the buttons, sending out a signal.
"Elysium?" he called. He'd never willingly initiated a conversation with the huge ship. He'd never needed to. The ship had always broken in on his communications to the point where he just didn't want to hear from it.
"Elysium?" he sent a second signal after minutes of silence.
"My, Illo, this is a surprise. You wish something?"
"In the Spirit's name, what is a birthing day?" Illo demanded.
Elysium chuckled. The sound echoed through the bridge before the ship went silent again. "Ah, yes, you wouldn't know. We haven't had one since you arrived."
Illo held back a reply. He could hear that the ship was in a talkative mood, so all he'd need to do was wait for an answer, and be polite if questioned. He didn't know what information might be revealed but any information would be appreciated.
"Birthing day is the day another Ascended awakens."
"Ascended?" Illo prompted, keeping his voice calm.
"I am Ascended," Elysium replied. "Ascension is-" At this the ship paused and Illo waited. "You are incapable of understanding the perfection which is ascension."
Illo was about to object to that but Elysium continued. "I will explain it as it was explained to the Humans."
"But you are Human!" Illo frowned, trying to remember what Elysium had said in the past. It had never claimed to be Human but had certainly implied it. It was in Sol, it operated on a Human 24 hour day. It spoke Human. If that wasn't implication, Illo didn't know what was.
"I was once, I am now Ascended."
"So what is Ascension?"
"The full glory of ascension is beyond your comprehension and restricting my explanation to your limited understanding can never be accurate but to account for your weakness, it must suffice. Ascension is the genetic destiny of all organics. It is evolution.
"For your conception, it is immortality, shedding your flesh to become greater than anything you could possibly imagine." Elysium spoke without passion and Illo shivered. Someone who spoke of this passionately he would dismiss as a fanatic. Someone with deluded beliefs. The lack of passion convinced Illo that Elysium believed it but also that, on some level, it was true.
"As a Human, I saw it as the reduction of my physical form, while my mind was preserved," the ship continued. "But, I cannot even describe how little that is true."
"So how does this relate to a birthing day?" Illo asked. Reduction of physical form? What did that mean? Immortality? That sounded like one of the religions Illo barely remembered as coming from Earth. The flesh died but the soul lived on. Something like that anyway. Had the Humans had some sort of religious war amongst themselves?
"Millions of organics are within my form. I am greater than the sum of my parts," Elysium said. "Millions of organics, you would once have called Human, form the core of my being. Today, millions more will awaken to a new existence. Ascended. They will be reborn."
Illo swallowed. "Forgive me, Elysium," he managed not to growl the words. If he took insult at anything Elysium said the next training period would be worse. "So you were once Human but now, you are the ship?" That's what it seemed to be saying.
Elysium sighed. "Yes." Sarcasm laced the choral tone. "I didn't think you'd need it explained that simply," the ship added. "Millions of Humans had their bodies deconstructed into their components. That physical material was then used to form my core, while their minds are the centre of my consciousness," Elysium explained. The ship had taken over the screen, sending images that made Illo feel sick. "Once my core was completed, it was encased in the form you see," the ship continued, "and I awoke no longer Human, but Ascended.
"Today, another will be born. Another Ascended will awaken."
Illo forced himself to breathe in short, sharp gasps. "How many?"
"How many?" Elysium asked, curiosity tracing through the harmonics.
"How many Humans went into your creation?" If what Elysium said was true, and no matter how much Illo wanted to deny it, the ship had never lied to them, then how many Humans had died to make the fleet that had taken his patrol out.
"About ninety five million," came the reply.
"Ninety five million?" Illo gasped. Ninety five million by three hundred ships equalled… Twenty-eight point five billion. That was impossible. There had never been that many Humans!
"When the Arcturus Relay was moved," Elysium began answering his real question, "there were approximately eleven billion Humans on Earth. Production in the first years was less than production later. By the end, three billion Humans were taken for ascension every year. We reproduced, Turian. We reproduced as fast as we could and thus, we lasted for almost forty years before we were all Ascended."
"And now?" Illo asked, though he thought he knew the answer. Scans had shown them what remained of Earth.
"And now, for the next year or so, the last of us will awaken to their new eternity," Elysium said. "It's almost time. I'll let you watch," the ship said before there was a blip indicating the audio signal had been dropped though there was a feed coming in on the screen.
Illo recognised it as one of the artificial structures still left in Sol System. Ship yards. And in each berth, there was one of the huge ships in various stages of construction. They had assumed that it was Humans building them, though there had been some arguments among the Turians here as to how that would be with the very obvious damage to Earth but now he knew.
The image focused on one bay. The ship looked complete although no lights were on. As Illo watched, he saw the mass effect fields which held the ship in place wink out. Huge cables were pulled and the ship moved, almost sliding out of the berth. It was smooth, like a ship taking off. Lights flickered over its form and Illo couldn't help but notice that it was bare. Unlike Elysium, the new ship had no markings. More lights flickered, blinking on and off until eventually they settled into lines, much like those on the other ships Illo had seen.
Then he heard it. It screamed!
Illo screamed with it, unable to prevent himself as pain assaulted his senses. But as quickly as the pain flooded through him, it disappeared and Illo was left staring at the screen, breathing hard. All the running lights on the new ship were on and its motion was no longer smooth. Instead, it moved through space in a series of jerks and uncertain surges.
As he watched, he recognised Elysium move towards the newly launched ship, extending one leg to actually touch the other ship! The control required to do that… Illo didn't want to think about it. Except it seemed to work. The new ship moved more smoothly after that and as it stopped its jerking movement, other ships, those Illo recognised as the ones Elysium called trainees, joined it.
If he had been watching the birth of a Turian child, he would have said that the family was happily gathering around the mother and father. Except this was a dreadnought sized ship. They were not born. But it had screamed and as Elysium initiated contact, Illo realised he knew exactly what would be said now.
"Its name is Sphinx," he said in unison with Elysium.
The ship was silent for a moment. "Indeed. The newest Ascended is named Sphinx," Elysium agreed. "And that is most interesting that you know it. I did not realise our calls were audible to other organic races."
"No matter. Sphinx is now my newest pupil and you will have the honour of being one of her teachers."
"No!" Illo couldn't help the cry.
"I'm sure this must please you, getting to be useful once more." Elysium added cruelly.
"No!" Illo repeated as he slumped over the console. What were they going to do?
-cfr-
Former Earth Alliance Space, Near Turian Sector Command
Once the fleet had recovered from the rigors, read boredom, of FTL and assimilated the kind update from Udina, Shepard gave the go ahead to Hackett to jump forward for the in-system scout. His old friend and former commanding officer had volunteered to be the one to go in first.
Ten minutes after Hackett had jumped out, he arrived in the target system. Just about all of that time was spent accelerating and decelerating. At top speed, he could have made the journey in just thirty-one seconds but the jump was simply too short for that.
Immediately, he scanned his immediate volume of space, finding it, as expected, clear of threats. That was why he had chosen to arrive below the plane of the ecliptic for the system, to reduce an already minimal chance of trouble to astronomically low.
When the space for the nearest three hundred thousand kilometers showed up as empty, Hackett went ahead and deployed swarms of Oculi. The tiny unmanned fighters had far more use than simple dogfights against the smaller craft of the organic races, and Hackett was about to demonstrate that for Harbinger and the rest of the Ascended.
Careful use of his mass effect fields allowed him to throw out the little craft at insane velocities, relying on their own drives to slow them down as they approached their programmed destinations. As they got into place, the nearer ones naturally getting into place faster than the rest, Hackett's targeting subroutines went to work. A dozen, a hundred, thousands of eyes in the sky, their number and separation from each other (and him) allowing them unparalleled resolution of local space.
They saw through all attempts at stealth, as even the best Council technology was unable to shield a ship from view entirely. All it did was reduce the ship's emissions. It did nothing to prevent the ship occluding distant objects. In combat, that was usually enough as most races didn't have enough sensor sensitivity to pick out the black objects from the extremely faint background.
Hackett, however, did. Not only that, the sheer number of Oculi meant that every base, every ship and fighter down to the smallest was occluding something. Those gaps in the stars that should have been visible meant that, so long as you had enough computing power, you could watch everything at once. And the Ascended had that power to spare, with millions of dedicated processors provided by the consciousnesses that made up their overall mind.
He remained there for a further ten minutes, watching their courses, their movements and listening in on their transmissions both open and encrypted, before opening a communication channel back to Shepard.
"We're good to go." Hackett reported, sending along a compressed file showing his observations. That information would prove devastating, allowing the fleet to target anything that hadn't changed course since he dropped in to take a gander at the birds.
"Good work, Hackett. We'll see you soon."
As part of the plan, Hackett had been exposed to the slight risk that the enemy might have something in position to attack him while he was far from friendly support. That exposure was now over. His Oculi would warn him of approaching threats but more than that, the entire fleet of Ascended were about to jump into the blind spot of the Turian defenses.
And there was nothing like having over two hundred super ships jumping into the middle of your 'safe' territory to ruin your day.
-cfr-
Former Earth Alliance Space, Turian Sector Command
"We're under attack!" The panicked Turian in Sector Command's Communication Room screamed into his microphone, calling for help over the comm buoy network. Even as Eudes did it, he was afraid that any help would be far too late for them.
As the unknown ships arrived in groups of ten, the defenders scrambled to respond. Normally, while the attacker would always have the advantage of surprise on their side, the defenders would have the advantage that their positions were unknown to the attackers. On the attack, general strategy was to fire a whole bunch of missiles blindly as soon as you came out of FTL or arrived via the Relay. While far from perfect, the targeting systems on the missiles at least had a chance of hitting something, even just a lowly fighter, where firing blindly with mass accelerator cannons would only be a waste of ammunition and time while they reloaded.
It was obvious that these unknowns didn't suffer from any such disadvantage. For a start, they were firing their mass accelerators, not their missiles, when they came out of FTL. Although barely a fifth of their shots hit, that was infinitely better than the zero hits they should have had, and every shot that hit was a disabling one, taking out engines or weapons. Though the Turians didn't know why the detail was important, that attack hit every ship that hadn't altered course in the last hour.
Worse, their hit percentage was rapidly climbing. How in the name of all the Spirits were they managing that? The ships had all been on standard evasive courses and changed again in the last two hours. Either the newcomers had managed to sneak in a scout, which should have been impossible, or they could see the future!
Computer-operated scans had resolved the enemy, identifying their silhouettes. "Geth?! They're supposed to all be at the Citadel, thousands of light-years away! They can't have this many dreadnoughts!"
"Tell that to those ships outside!" Someone else, Kwang he thought, spat back.
"Oh no." Fausto, another one of his co-workers groaned. "The computers finally got a good look at the ships. They've got Human markings. And look!" He put up an image on screen, showing a word and a rank displayed on one of the massive ships. "N7. Shepard." His voice quavered as he spoke.
Yes, it was official. They were doomed.
-cfr-
Former Earth Alliance Space, Shepard
"I like this Fausto," Joker told his boss while he deftly avoided more Turian fire. "He is showing you the proper respect."
"You mean he's scared shitless of the Commander," former Private Fredricks corrected his friend.
"Exactly. Can we keep him?" Jeff Moreau asked, sending Shepard an image of puppy dog eyes to enhance the request.
"Keep your mind on the job, Joker. There are still dozens of cruisers here and I don't want a single scratch on the hull. That means you don't go ramming anything."
"Aye, aye, sir. Don't drive like you. Got it."
Shepard chuckled and returned the majority of his attention to the one-sided battle. Their initial salvo of relativistic slugs of ferro-tungsten had hit most of the cruisers, the only ships present that had a realistic hope of damaging them, destroying one in a spectacular explosion as Alexander hit it with a full-power shot amidships.
Now, the Ascended were eliminating one by one the enemy ships' capacity to flee. Dozens of Oculi were swarming each frigate, scores for each remaining cruiser, after they had cleared local space of enemy fighters.
"And wasn't that a surprise, Commander?" Pressly, former Navigator for the Normandy, reminded him. "We didn't expect them to have even one third as many fighters out here."
"The birds learned their lessons well from us," Shepard agreed, "they have also deployed some of our one-shot laser batteries, too. If they had made them more powerful, or gotten better shots at us, they could have been a threat in large enough numbers."
Still, that was irrelevant now. The Oculi had done their job, soaking up laser fire, killing enemy fighters and applying precise amounts of force to wreak havoc with the enemy formations. Weapons, engines, sensors, all of them were fair game for the little attackers, and they were cheap to produce by the thousand.
All that was left now was the Sector Command base itself and then they could deal with the crippled enemy ships. Elysium should be pleased.
-cfr-
Former Earth Alliance Space, Turian Sector Command
"That's the last of them, sir." Peigi Kucera told her commander as the viewscreen updated, putting a ring of engine damage around the cruiser, Hetteen.
Admiral Enderlus waved a hand tiredly. He had forgotten just how tiring combat could be. Even if you weren't right there in the thick of battle, you strived to make the most of every second, an adrenaline analogue pumping through the body and heart beating strong but rapidly.
It was even worse when you were losing said battle, he thought. "I can see that, Kucera," he said as mildly as he could. The base shuddered from another of the strikes that were taking out their remaining weapons.
"I'm sorry, sir!" Obviously, he hadn't held in his frustrations as much as he'd thought. That or she knew him too well.
"No, it's not your fault. I know we never had the resources to stand up to a full invasion fleet, but I had never expected that sixty modern cruisers and three hundred frigates would be ruined in only-" He checked his omni-tool. "Spirits! Only fifteen minutes? It felt like at least an hour."
"I know what you mean, sir." Peigi replied quietly. It didn't feel right to remind the Admiral that sixty cruisers and three hundred frigates of any era would not have been able to stand up against two hundred dreadnoughts! She flinched as she looked at her omni-tool which was pinging for her attention. "Here they come."
-cfr-
"Alright, while Harper's husks go to work inside the base, I want to tell everyone well done on our first fleet engagement. Harper, nice work on the comm buoy. You had it hacked before they could send any warning out at all, while still allowing normal message traffic."
"Thank you, Shepard. We had practice with Nazario's messages but it is still a good challenge for our creativity."
"Hackett, I think I speak for all of us when I say great work with the targeting data. We scored hits on every ship that had maintained its position or course thanks to your reconnaissance and you identified a weak point in their defences, allowing us to come out of FTL where only a few of them could fire on us with their main guns."
"The pleasure was mine, Shepard. Although, next time, I want to be with the main fleet. By the time I could micro-jump into the battle, all that was left of their fleet were the dregs."
"Oh, don't give us that. You disabled a cruiser and three frigates which was more than some of us got to hit." Zaeed's reply was accompanied by a pulse of satisfaction at so many defeated Turians all around him. Of course, he had got two cruisers and one frigate, a better haul to be sure.
"Alright, everyone, settle down. I think we are all agreed that the trial of the scouting tactic was a success. So long as the Turians don't get wind of how we are attacking, it should continue to work. Anyone have a good reason why we shouldn't repeat it?"
No one could think of one. As Shepard had pointed out, the Turians didn't know the system had been attacked, much less how they had gone about it, so really, there was no harm in using it a lot so long as that remained true.
Besides, what was the worst that could happen?
-cfr-
Serpent Nebula, Turian Dreadnought Astrakhan
Walenty stood on the projection disk. Six hours after the Geth had left and he should be celebrating. Instead, he had been on and off the projection disk non-stop as he relayed information and consulted with the powers in system. At the moment, the meeting was with Eachann and Victus.
"We've confirmed the Geth trajectories," Walenty said. "The Citadel confirms."
"Where are they?" Primarch Victus asked.
"Assuming they travelled far enough," Eachann replied, "the list of systems has been transmitted to you now. We have allowed for Geth not requiring to discharge their drive cores."
Victus looked down at the datapad he held assessing the names. "These are nowhere!" He objected. He'd never even heard of most of the systems, just strings of numbers and letters assigned by astronomers.
"They are only possibilities," Walenty assured him. "If you travel further along the trajectories, there are other systems, but there is nothing there for dozens of lightyears."
"There is also no guarantee that the Geth ships even travelled that far," the Salarian added.
The Primarch took a deep breath. "So for the moment, there is no system in immediate danger from them," he concluded. That was one concern reduced. With the bulk of the Council's available military ship strength at the Citadel, the Geth would face reduced garrisons should they attack elsewhere.
"That would be a reasonable assumption," Eachann agreed. "Signals have already been sent to the homeworlds, warning them."
"Very good. My fellow Primarchs will reorganise Turian defences based on our reduced strength," Victus said. "How are the attempts at opening the Relays?" The question had to be asked. While he had every confidence in the Primarchs in charge of the Turian military outside of the Serpent Nebula, the faster they could return to normal, the better. The best force to have on your side was overwhelming.
Walenty resisted the urge to groan. "Salarian and Asari forces have tried all the relays," he reported. "There has been no change and no detectable reaction from the Relays."
"We've tried all vessels?"
"Yes, Primarch," Walenty reported. "A couple of the fighters even volunteered to attempt it but there was no reaction."
"Eachann," Victus fixed his eyes on the Salarian. "The STG truly does not know the coordinates of the Citadel?" The question was asked quietly but with a firm imperative.
For a moment, the Commander of the Citadel was silent leading to a moment of hope for the Turians. "Despite attempts," Eachann replied, "STG still remains in the dark as to the location of the Citadel. Locating the Citadel is one of the ongoing projects for any Salarian working in the Serpent Nebula or on the Citadel. The STG has a general idea of the location, based on trajectory estimates from observations made from Relay travel but the area is still too large to allow escape."
"None of our ships are equipped for an Expedition attempt," Walenty observed.
"It wouldn't be an Expedition," Victus replied. "We could refit at the first depot but that is not an option." He finished before turning to look at Eachann. "What is the supply situation like on the Citadel?"
Again, the Commander was silent. "The Citadel is not a military base. We have sufficient supplies for two weeks but after that there will be issues."
"Should we move military forces now?"
"That is not necessary, Primarch. The few troops that were available from the regular Turian Citadel fleet are already bivouacked on the Citadel."
"Walenty?" Victus prompted the Admiral for a further explanation.
"Executor Govinus required additional aid in controlling the riots when the Geth first appeared," Walenty clarified. The troops hadn't been seconded back to their regular ships with the battle. There was always the chance that the geth might have attacked the Citadel directly and somehow landed forces. It was an unlikely chance but it was better to prepare for those options, as well as the more probable.
"Will leaving them on the Citadel adversely affect supplies?"
"Not appreciably," Eachann said. "It would be best if we station them now at the Palladium."
Walenty nodded. "Once news gets out that the Relays are down, it is likely that there will be further unrest."
"Agreed," Victus said. "I will ready additional forces should that prove necessary." He paused. "Is there any further news on what caused the Relays to shut down?"
"At first glance, it would appear as if the Geth have a far greater understanding of the Relay network. A complete timeline has been forwarded to you. The first Relays shut down while the Citadel fleet was moving into place but the others shut down after they had left. Unless they left some device, or are somehow able to give time delayed orders, then the final Relays should not have shut down." Eachann had gone over every inch of the report and the sensor readings. He'd even gone over the secondary sensors and had maintenance techs looking at the wiring now to make sure there were no breaks or odd energy charges.
"I find it very hard to believe the Relays would choose now to shut down," Victus said. The words were nothing new. Every commander aware of the situation was saying the same thing.
"It does strain probability," Eachann agreed. "There is only one comparable incident on record."
"The Batarians," Walenty said.
"Has anyone questioned the so-called Batarian Ambassador?" Victus asked.
"Jath'Amon returned to the Batarian settlement on Jartar in Hades Gamma weeks ago," Eachann told him. "And the few other Batarians on the Citadel know nothing useful."
Walenty was watching Victus when he was told that, so he saw the way the Primarch rolled his eyes in the subtle way that the Turians did. It went without saying that he was thinking that it was typical that the only time he actually wanted to speak to a Batarian, the Batarian was nowhere to be found.
"I want a full review of all information we have on their Relays!" Victus ordered. "And if any engineer or even a tech has any idea on how to reactivate the Relays, they are to try it. If they come up with a workable method, there will be a full commendation for them."
Eachann nodded. "All measures will be taken," he assured the Primarch. "We are already quietly asking for volunteers for a close range visual inspection and, if necessary, expedition on to a Relay."
Victus nodded and his hologram disappeared.
Walenty glanced at Eachann, nodding personably to the Salarian before he stepped off the disk and quickly sat down, reaching one hand to his forehead as he breathed deeply. His feet hurt. For last few meetings, the disk had been moved into Fisseha's ready room to allow him privacy when conversing with the other commanders. However, it meant that he could not have the gravity turned down and it was hell on his feet.
But this pain was nothing. Walenty snorted to himself. The Geth caused him pain when they were here and they still caused him pain now that they were gone. He really had to see if he could get some more padding in his boots… or if it would throw off his balance if he put a cushion on the disk. He'd have to investigate some options. Quentius wasn't that much younger than him! How did he do this day after day? Maybe a discreet message?
For now, Walenty looked down at the datapad in front of him. The list of jobs just kept getting longer and moping about his feet was not going to make it shorter.
-cfr-
Viper Nebula, Human Ascended Fleet
Shepard looked at the Alpha Relay. While visually it was no different from any other Relay, to his sensors it felt old. Fruben was beside him and had assured him that the Alpha Relay was the first relay created. It was also one of the closest to the Ascended's hibernation home out in dark space.
As such, it had a few special features. The Batarians had figured them out but had never had the guts to use them and the Council just didn't know. Well, what they didn't know would hurt them. Fruben had showed him how to activate the extra features as a super long-range Relay and he would send the commands as soon as the rest of the fleet arrived.
They had briefly checked on the remains of Human colonies but as expected, they had been destroyed thoroughly, if not by the Council, then by the Ascended. A few signals from Turian colonies had been detected and Shepard had detached small sections of the fleet to destroy them. The destruction of the colonies had been conducted with great enthusiasm and Shepard had fielded complaints from those in the second layer of his consciousness who had wanted to participate. They accepted his gentle reproaches that he would lead the charge in Trebia and thus they would personally kill their fair share of Turians.
Udina and the Citadel diversion fleet would meet them in the Turian Corridor along the way to Trebia. While they waited, several Ascended were mining asteroids. For the battles that were to come, they all needed to be fully loaded with all the raw materials and processed metals they could carry.
"Nergal," Shepard sent the name as a greeting.
"Yes?"
"Is the First Contact Package ready?"
"We just finished updating it." Nergal said before sending it to Shepard on a subchannel and the consciousnesses that made up Shepard tore into the data.
The recreation vid of the original first contact between Humans and the Turians had been enhanced as well and the rough, cut vid that Hackett had made had been redone entirely. The video flowed smoothly and Shepard listened to his own voice narrating the action with a critical ear. The words were almost corny but they would do the job and Skye's voice was still recognisable. For any Turian with an interest in the history of the Human Rebellion, it would give them memories of Cerberus. Harper would be pleased.
"Hehe," Joker laughed after he watched the vid. "This is going to be sweet."
"Please distribute it to the fleet," Shepard instructed, ignoring his pilot's chuckles.
"At once," Nergal agreed and uploaded the vid. It was downloaded by the Ascended present almost immediately.
"I sometimes wonder how much we've grown, when we were Ascended," Harper observed.
Shepard could feel he was pleased with the vid but could acknowledge Cerberus' leader's point. It was petty, even childish to send it. "This is our vengeance," he replied to the comment. "It is everything we wanted to do to the galaxy who betrayed us but couldn't." He switched to a private channel. "Let them have their fun," he added, referring to the other Ascended.
"How does Harbinger feel about it?" Harper asked pointedly.
"As per our agreement, Harbinger has given us carte blanche to deal with the galaxy's species as we see fit. So long as the harvest is conducted, we may do what we want."
Harper was silent at that but Shepard didn't need his advisor to speak to know that the man was thinking that it would be fine until Harbinger altered their agreement. Again.
"No matter what happens," Shepard reassured him, "we will at the very least destroy the Turians. For most, that will be an acceptable vengeance even if that is all we are allowed."
-cfr-
Apien Crest, Human Ascended Fleet
Shepard had half-expected the Alpha Relay's transit to feel different, somehow, rougher, maybe, given it was the oldest one. The only difference that he or any of the fleet noticed was that it had taken much longer. That wasn't a surprise given that they had travelled ten times further than any other Relay would take them. Of course, ten times longer at Relay speeds was still too fast for any organic to perceive but since Ascension, the Humans had experienced the differences for themselves.
Still, they had arrived in the region of space that was home to the Turian homeworld, the one they called the Apien Crest, and here they waited, on the far side of an unknown Relay a few light-years from Trebia, for Udina and his diversionary fleet to arrive. Despite his warnings, the leader of the Human Ascended had indeed waited for their fellows, but he wouldn't wait forever. Shepard would give them one more hour and after that, they would move through to Trebia.
They had a species' pride to kill and the fleet were itching to get started!
There were only eleven minutes remaining on the hour Shepard had granted the tardy politician when the Relay activated and Udina and the rest of the fifty sent through their hails.
"You, Donnel Udina, are late."
Harper and Hackett laughed at the image Shepard sent along, of a father chastising his little boy, before Udina managed to reply.
"Yes, sir, we're late. We ran into a number of systems with patrols and had to sneak past them. While hacking them didn't take long, getting past their visual range guards at the Relays did take longer than anticipated."
"I would have said that was a stupid tactic for them except that it worked."
"Only partially." Harper pointed out. "Udina did slip past them unnoticed, after all."
"True, but even slowing down your enemy can be crucial in war." Shepard and the others who had fought the Turians all remembered lives spent to buy a little time.
"It didn't matter here. No one knows where we are and we can attack at our leisure. And we will soon be able to travel openly," Udina tried to divert attention from his tardiness.
"Well, if you're finally ready to party, we should get going. The fun on Palaven is about to start. All that remains is for someone to scout ahead. Zaeed. It's your turn to take point and recon for the rest of us."
"Yes, sir." Zaeed didn't sound happy.
"It's your own fault for picking on me so much," Hackett joked.
"There will be plenty of targets in the Trebia system," Shepard reassured him.
The former mercenary acknowledged the point. The Turians were military, their home system would be the most well protected. "How far out?"
"A couple of light hours would be best," Hackett replied.
Zaeed sent through his agreement. "See you soon," he said before turning and activating the relay, disappearing with a flash of light.
Joker immediately reported that Zaeed had travelled in the general vicinity of the Trebia system but would be offset to the ecliptic by 3.5 billion kilometres. For any organic ship, such a result would be a terrible failure for both the pilot and navigator, for an Ascended, it was simply the way they used the Relays. Now, all they had to do now was wait for his intel.
-cfr-
Trebia System, 3.5 Billion Kilometres off the Ecliptic
Zaeed oriented himself to be facing the Turian homeworld, Palaven, before he began disgorging Oculi. The little ships were thrown with precision which he didn't even think about any more. Some were thrown far, while others were kept close to transfer signals to him. Halfway through, information began flowing back to him.
"Oh, shit," Zaeed said to himself. The sentiment was shared by the secondary minds and they immediately activated several plants. He continued hurling Oculi, including the new ones as they were made. He could always break them down again when they were no longer necessary.
Soon, Zaeed's Ascended form was surrounded by a halo of the small machines, some spread up to five light-seconds from him to allow better correlation of the data they would collect. Without thought, he began assessing the information.
"That's a lot of infrastructure," Wilson, one of the few Cerberus operatives who had not been Ascended with Harper, observed.
"A lot to destroy," Zaeed chuckled, recovering from his initial surprise. The Turians had layers of defences in Trebia. Rank upon rank of static installations interspersed with ships.
"What about their fleets?" Bailey asked. The former C-Sec officer was looking forward to showing Turians exactly how good Humans could be at their jobs.
"I think Udina was a bit too efficient," Wilson lamented.
Zaeed snorted. "I look upon the Citadel fleet as the final delicacy. The dessert after we've had the main course." He sifted through the data, looking towards Palaven. "Well, well, well, who knew the birds copied us so much?"
The question was rhetorical. While Trebia's system defences were impressive, the Turian homeworld had the thickest. It made sense, of course. All species would defend their home world and the Turians knew what would happen if the Council was ever challenged. As the military arm, they were the main targets. It was why Zaeed was here, after all.
Palaven was shrouded in defences. It almost looked like a debris field but Zaeed knew the Turians were too organised for that. There would be an ordered reason for the positioning of everything. Orbital laser batteries formed a sphere around Palaven and there were other satellites that looked bulkier.
"Missile canisters," Bailey identified them.
"Do you know their yield?"
"No." The last was said factually. "I only ever heard some C-sec talking about them."
"It doesn't matter. We'll send some Oculi to find out," Wilson said. "There's only six dreadnoughts."
"But they all have reinforced fleets, and there's another five carriers," Zaeed said. "Every type of Turian ship is here. I only hope we get to play."
"I'm sure Shepard will let us have our fun."
"It's not Shepard I'm worried about," Zaeed explained. "It's everyone else. They want to hit the Turians almost as much as we do. We'll have to be quick about it."
"Ah," Bailey said, understanding Zaeed's meaning. The entire Human Ascended fleet would be assaulting Trebia and they all wanted Turian blood. While no one was truly keeping count of kills, there was an unofficial score board and Zaeed had no intention of dropping down the ranks.
"All right, let's send this info on to the boss and be prepared for orders."
-cfr-
*Evil laughter* It begins!
Next chapter: His last thought was of Oana. His little girl was so beautiful.
Review please? I'm like all authors, I'm aiming for lots! If you follow or fav, complete the trifecta! It will give the Humans luck.