A routine Republic patrol was the first to notice. Khar'shan disappeared from the star maps—replaced by a planet identifying itself as "Angel's Cradle."
What in the hell?
Alexsis Kazansky, Captain of RNS Star Paladin, had served through the mess that was the "Rannoch Incident." Her steadfast refusal to accept anything less than a total cease-fire from both sides earned the grudging respect of the quarians and cooperation from the geth.
Though the politicians were ultimately responsible for handling any attempts to integrate synthetics into galactic society, a negotiated peace over Rannoch came about due to the efforts of Samantha Shepard, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy (later changed to "vas Rannoch"), and the geth gestalt Legion. As the supervising neutral commanding office, Kazansky's six ships ensured everyone involved remained honest, peaceful and well-intentioned during the treaty crafting process. That the Republic vessels carried names such as "Veritas" or "Uplifter of Righteousness" added a level of symbolism to the proceedings.
Now, she found herself staring down the barrel of a very big gun mounted on a ship type she'd never seen before. Backed up by the quarian-geth built battlecruisers Unity and Harmony, she hoped for a solution that didn't involve testing the new UVHM (UltraViolet Heat Multiplexer) weapon developed for these two new vessels.
After the arrival of "those guys from G-3," the ship that carried them in was salvaged by the Systems Alliance. In the first gesture of peacetime comity between races since the turian-human Normandy project, the Alliance passed the specifications of its communications array along to all other Citadel members "in the interest of keeping comm lines open between all species." Of particular interest were advanced quantum-entanglement superluminal communications systems that far exceeded capabilities carried by most Citadel vessels. They kept the juicier bits (mainly its engine) for themselves. No one noticed, since the Alliance had the only official records of the ship's existence.
Due to this generosity, both Star Paladin and her escorts were easily able to open communications with the apparent newcomers.
"Alexsis Kazansky, RNS Star Paladin. We're on a routine patrol and were not aware this system had changed hands. Please identify yourselves."
"Admiral Stan Shunpike here—we are JVLN's Restoring Order fleet. We seek the extradition of terrorists we believe may have infiltrated your galaxy."
She still couldn't get over some inhabitants hailing from galaxies away speaking the same language she did. It made no sense, but hey, it was one less thing to get wrong.
"Where are the natives of this system, the batarians?" She got a very bad feeling about what the answer would be.
"We repossessed their planet." As if commenting on starship maintenance or similarly-obvious items.
"I was unaware of standing extra-galactic claims on planets or systems residing in this galaxy" came the cool response.
"Now, we don't want any trouble—just tell us if the fugitives from justice we seek are present in this galaxy and you can be on your way."
Shunpike couldn't believe these people. Here he was, making a relatively simple, routine request—and getting mouthed at for it.
Seeing who this Admiral Shunpike was after, Kazansky had to stop herself from laughing. Terrorists? These people? Brick, a noted special instructor at the United Defense Command Academy? Athena, the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Internal Auditor? She found the characterization of Maya as a threat to be the most hilarious. Maya was only a threat if you tried to place a hold on a book she wanted! (That the woman still actually read paper books made the situation even funnier.)
Knowing there would likely be no reasoning with these people, she elected for a selective answer. "I have no knowledge of the terrorists you speak of."
This produced precisely the opposite effect of what Alexsis was going for. "Then I'm sure you'll have no problem with us verifying the veracity of your statements. Hand over complete dumps of your computer cores and prepare to be boarded."
"That won't be possible as it is a violation of—"
She got her answer in the form of several kinetic impacters slamming into Star Paladin's forward armor. One shot crumpled a dorsal heavy turret in on itself, twisting the barrels inward until their tips touched.
"Raise shields, return fire from forward guns." Hailing Unity and Harmony, Kazansky asked the unnecessary question of whether they "saw that."
The two captains had. Geth technology automatically brought the battlecruisers to fighting state upon detecting hostile fire directed at a friendly ship. The split-second advantage over manual commands issued aboard Star Paladin meant the munitions headed for the quarian-geth cooperative projects splashed harmlessly off barriers raised microseconds before.
Shunpike turned red-faced to his weapons officer. His voice barely registered. "Did I order you to fire?"
"No, sir."
PWHIP.
The officer slumped with a hole in his forehead from a silenced Jakobs revolver. "Remove this carcass, and return fire." Even though he'd not personally sought out confrontation, even though he knew not everyone who opposed JVLN necessarily supported the terrorists, he wouldn't let his ship be shot from underneath him.
"Captain! I'm not detecting energy shields aboard the vessel that fired on us!"
"Then this will be even easier than those Reapers." Alexsis Kazansky wasn't nicknamed "Ice Eyes" for nothing—though not by nature a violent or ill-willed person, she fought with absolute ruthlessness when necessary. Her eyes betrayed nothing more than absolute concentration while she issued clipped orders to her bridge crew.
"Use the forward guns—take advantage of the quick-cycle. Operations, eject that damaged turret to clear the line of fire for our other dorsal weapons. Reroute power from energy shields to particle shields; they don't have energy weapons either. Try to disable their main guns."
No muzzle-flashes were emitted by magnetically-powered kinetic launchers. Shunpike watched his forward guns fire at maximum power—a low-velocity shot had destroyed one of the intruder's weapons. These would punch nice holes through…
"Sir! Massive damage to the outer starboard cannon! The barrel's fused, sir!"
"They punched through our armor?" Shunpike had drilled countless times on this situation, except reality diverged from the simulation with every passing second.
"They didn't punch through it." The ensign's breath seemed to have been taken away. "Sir, they boiled it off. It's gone, sir."
Shunpike stepped back as if slapped. 900.1cm of battle plate boiled away from a single strike? Energy weapons on this scale were supposed to be impossible, save for theorized Eridian devices.
In the few seconds he was having this thought, alarms wailed. Status displays went red, showing cascading system failures from repeated energy strikes. A life support tank ruptured, igniting from the heat of a turbolaser. This showed the power of enemy weapons as life-support batteries were buried deep inside the heart of the ship under many layers of armor.
"Incoming transmission!"
"If you demand to board us" came the accented voice, "You better have the means to carry it out lest you suffer the consequences from making empty threats. Let this be a lesson."
The transmission, and the blonde woman, disappeared.
Sanctuary's evacuation proceeded in a relatively orderly fashion. The twenty-seven inhabitants (and Claptrap) loaded into seven Lancers and dropped down to Pandora's surface. Unlike the Vault Hunters, this vehicle group encountered no resistance—driving past circles of chanting Psychos, paralyzed spiderants, and dead rakk.
After putting some distance between themselves and the floating city, Scooter worked with Hammerlock to fire up the radio.
"Needs a lot o' juice" commented the master of all things automotive.
Indeed it did—as it simultaneously drew power from four Lancers at once.
"Start transmission" commanded Mamaril. "Maximum power."
"If you are hearing this, consider yourself warned" began Moxxi.
"They are coming" continued Hammerlock. "Great starships whose goal is to twist life into their own image."
"This transmission originates from Galaxy G-3 in the Local Gamma Cluster" finished Mamaril. "We are asking for anybody receiving this message to help us. Coordinates are embedded in this carrier wave."
A deep, reverberating sound flattened the Sanctuary convoy with its power, knocking everyone to the ground. If a Harvester could be called small, this one was (well, relative to the other nearby specimens)—and it landed on top of the hapless group.
"I thought so!" hollered Scooter.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Scooter's ashes floated away on the breeze created by the Harvester's movement as it stepped on an idling Lancer.
"Scooter!"
"No time, move!" Marcus shoved the stricken Moxxi into the nearest Lancer, jumped in and floored it. Everyone who didn't get caught in the next sweep of the machine's beam (BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR) made beelines for the nearest vehicle.
Over the comm, Michael Mamaril urged his remaining people forward.
"What are we supposed to do?" yelled Tina. Mamaril had to carry her, sobbing and curled in the fetal position, to his Lancer before departing.
Another Lancer vaporized courtesy of the towering machine's beam weapon.
"We head for The Fridge. Hope we can dodge that thing underground!"
During the journey to the Fridge, the convoy of five Lancers was reduced to two by Harvester and Harvester-influenced wildlife attacks. Survivors included Moxxi, Marcus, Mamaril, Tannis, Zed, two citizens, and annoyingly enough, Claptrap.
A sobbing Moxxi laid Tiny Tina's mutilated body on an ice shelf. She'd jumped out to repair a damaged Lancer gun, only to be attacked by a huge mutated rakk—carried high into the sky, then dropped from a sickening height. Expecting to have to beat back Rats, she drew Rubi (her one personal possession).
Instead, she found herself face-to-face with one Laney White, half-human, half-rat.
"The giant robotssssss do not come here!" she hissed. "You are sssssssafe."
Choking on emotion and holding a wavering Rubi, Moxxi threatened "If you or your filthy companions touch her…"
Without any further words, Laney turned and disappeared into the Fridge.
Some in Shepard's crew expressed worry regular visits to Liara might throw the Commander back into depression. On the contrary, she responded "It reminds me of what we're fighting for."
This particular trip turned into a lengthy stopover due to dropping off the Republic's ships-to-mothball. Research finally revealed how the Republic might modify its shields to better mitigate the lightning gun mounted on batarian cruisers—of course, there being no batarian ships left at the time carrying the weapon made the discovery useless for the moment.
Reminiscing with Garrus aboard the Normandy, Shepard received a page from EDI.
"Do you ever not interrupt conversations?" she teased.
"If you would prefer it, I will refrain from sharing information with you until you are clearly unoccupied."
"No thanks, I'll take the interruptions. What is it?"
"Shepard, I have received an encoded transmission from the G-3 galaxy. It appears to have been corrupted in transit. I will attempt to restore the contents."
"If you are hearing this-*static*-are coming-*static*-twist life into their own image. This transmission originates from-*static*-anybody receiving this message to help us-*static*-carrier wave."
An exact depiction of the transmission location, down to the star system, appeared on the galaxy map.
"Good thing the location was embedded in the carrier wave, huh?" she asked EDI.
"I would most likely have been able to deduce its origin down to a few parsecs even without the extra encoding" replied the A.I.
"What would we do without you, EDI?"