(Note)
I LIVE! Ok so I wasn't gone that long but there was still a delay in posting chapters so sorry for the wait, December is a crazy month… my schedule was nuts.
Nuff said.
I Do Not Own Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise; neither do I own the Titanfall Franchise. All these Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA, Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft/343 Industries.
We now approach the possible meeting of the Seer with her Artifact stone (or is it the artifact with its Seer?) and the young green sapphire eyed Mgalekgolo speaker… so what could possibly go wrong? *denote sarcasm*
So ON WITH THE STORY!
The Life. The first Life-ship class vessel to be commissioned into service of the Migrant Fleet, The Life was a whale among minnows. Tali stared out from her small vantage point aboard the shuttle that was quickly approaching the huge vessel, no other ship in the migrant fleet had as much storage space, weaponry, living quarters, food growing facilities or shielding as the Life-ships had. No other vessel required as much maintenance or demanded such resources to continue to be functional either.
Despite their vast maintenance costs the three Life-ships that were always at the center of the Quarian flotilla are greatly important to the Quarian people's continued survival. Three hundred years had passed since the Quarian species had been confined to wonder the stars and the survival of their species in space for such a long period of time was an astronomical feat… the Life-ships were partially to thank for that.
The Life was the first and oldest of these vessels, its huge rotating sphere only slightly smaller than her two sister ships. The purpose of the Life-ships was that of food production and the raising of the majority of quarian young. Other ships had smaller facilities to do these things but the Life-ships not only had larger facilities but they had the best quality available, fielding the latest and greatest decontamination technologies… the Quarians found themselves the sole leading research group in this field.
The cash and resources required for keeping their population fed and the fleet in working order was mostly earned through their engineering capabilities. Many a design and research project had been contracted with the Qaurians, who often accepting payment in raw resources, retired ships and mechanical parts; the large companies of the galaxy greatly appreciated the advantage of dealing with the Quarian people.
The mining corporations were the most common in having dealings with the Quarian leadership, they would pay for better and more efficient designs for mining equipment; only having to pay in retired scout ships or resources that failed to sell to the other factions of the galaxy.
'Yes, the majority of the Galaxy is happy to keep us where we are, an easy think tank and labor force who cant say no to cheap pay for fear of not getting what we need to survive.' Thought Tali while the shuttle began its docking procedures with The Life, 'many think us dogs to be fed scraps while forced to pull their sled to whatever destination they desire.' She clenched her fist in frustration, 'we will prevail, we will survive and we will show them that we Quarians are not some lesser race that can be bought and sold as some form of Bosh'tet indentured slave labor.'
Tali would never admit it, but the fiery character and stubbornness of Jane Shepard had definitely rubbed off on the young Quarian during her adventures with the SR-1 Normandy and its crazy crew. Tali's year long training for the Quarian Special Missions group and the several missions she had since completed since her training's completion had not helped matters. She was now for all intents and purposes a slightly less confident Quarian version of her elder sister like figure; the main difference's being a lack of last stand experiences.
If Tali had been through the Blitz then both she and Shepard's personalities would be nearly identical… well as close as one could respectively get for a Quarian and a Human that is.
Stepping off of her shuttle after paying the Pilot for his services, Tali made her way through the security and decontamination checks before entering the massive ship; The Life's birthing rooms were near the entry to the massive sphere that held all of the Agricultural facilities the ship had to offer. Traversing her way through the ship towards her goal Tali couldn't help but marvel at her people's capability even while in exile without any worlds to turn too for resources or housing.
The Quarians had three Life-ships, the only known vessel to be larger than a Life-ship was the Destiny Ascension… that was only bigger by a small margin, and not even that titanic dreadnought had as much open square footage available for storage and agricultural purposes. The Quarian Fleet had Upwards fifty thousand vessels from frigates and cruisers, to the occasional retired stripped dreadnought.
In naval numbers the Quarian people had every other race beat; everything was constantly overhauled to run at the maximum efficiency possible, last generations weapons were not so obsolete when in Quarian hands… an oversight the rest of the Galaxy would soon discover if any faction decided to attack them.
The only faction that had reason to do so would be the Batarians… they viewed the Quarian people as the perfect slave species, (as if they viewed others as any different) they had even had the audacity to pressure the Citadel Council to "release" the Quarian people into the Batarians care as a mission of mercy so as to provide the Quarian race with a "home" and "benevolent" caretakers… as if Tali and her people were the Citadel Council's to begin with.
The Quarian Admiralty board had said as much to the council, making it clear that since they had been abandoned and tossed off the Citadel like unwanted garbage so long ago in their time of need, then the council had no claim or power over the remaining Quarian species. 'The Quarians belong to the Quarians and we will die before we willing enter slavery to Batarian scum,' she was definitely sure of that.
She was halfway to her destination, passing by the glass windows that allowed her a view of the Children raising facilities. Parents who had the political power or monetary standing were able to stay aboard The Life or at least a guard vessel close by.
The early years of a Quarian child were hell, the resources for making suitable environmental suites for each child simply weren't available, and hand me downs were not an option. The young were forced to live in spherical containment units that were constantly monitoring their health and immune systems.
The slightest immune disorder was a death sentence; the doctors and scientists were constantly screening for genetic diseases and curing them before they could spread, whether by a medical cure or warning the poor soul that having children will curse them with a life ruining disease.
No farther steps were necessary; all of them had been raised and taught the same; they knew the risks of what would happen if they ignored such warnings and they would never want to put a child through such a living hell beyond what they would already have to experience.
For Quarian young would not be able to have contact with some one else besides each other until their early adolescent years, parents and children could talk and communicate with a glass wall between each other but physical touch was out of the question… many a Quarian child had died or been forced to endure a life threatening bout of sickness just because they had contact with someone outside of the containment field.
Tali stopped and stared at the pre-adolescent children who still had some time left in the Containment Spheres, the glass of the containment units tinted purple with the coating that killed most forms of bacteria. The young Quarians within either napping or studying their lessons… one little boy looked up at her from his cell and placed a hand on the glass of the unit he was in. Tali nodded her head in acknowledgement and left to continued on her journey, her continued presence would have caused the young children to be reminded of their trapped like status… she remembered the feeling well, it was indeed a hellish experience having to grow up in such a way.
The parents with the available resources were able to make a suite or two over the few years before the child stopped growing taller, it would only enable the child several weeks reprieve from the containment units, and even then it was extremely dangerous for their weak immune systems which hadn't even developed fully.
Eating food outside of the containment units was out of the question, and extended leave from the child care facilities was impossible. Quarian children grew to adult size in half the time of a human child's growth rate. Becoming an adult had more to do with the mind, and their required pilgrimage than with the body, although a Quarian's reproduction organs took around the same time as a Human's to mature and become active.
Due to such a fast and constant growth rate, having a suite fit for more than a few weeks was impossible… no material could stretch far enough while still protecting the young from bacteria and other harmful substances, a baggy suite that wasn't skin tight could not utilize the self cleaning technologies they had; without those technologies the inside crevices could breed bacteria.
The way things were currently done, was the only safe and viable way to raise Quarian young away from their now Geth occupied worlds…
Leaving the Child Raising facilities Tali entered the portion of the ship dedicated to Medical care and biological research. It was here that her people would catalogue any and all newly discovered bacteria, adding the deadly life forms to their ever growing list of deadly microbes, spores and pollens that were to be avoided at all costs. Finding antibodies and adding them to the immune boosters that sick Quarians were given to keep them from contracting more than one disease at a time. These medical facilities found on all of the ships in the Flotilla were an early warning system; ever vigilant for a trend of bacteria or (heavens forbid) a virus making its way through the population… always ready to quarantine a vessel from all others if a plague was to ever break out… which had happened in the before in the past.
After passing through the Medical Facilities of The Life, Tali found herself arriving at the Birthing facilities… she would need to talk to the guards and get permission from a medical officer in order to gain access to the Birthing chambers.
There were three such rooms, all designed and outfitted to be as completely clean as possible, there were no contaminates for a Quarian mother to be concerned about as she gave birth to her vulnerable child… the lack of environmental suits in the birthing process meant that even the mother was at risk of contracting a disease.
To enter the room Tali would have to be under constant supervision and wear a disposable environmental suite over her current suite… there is no kill like overkill and the medical staff here took things very seriously.
Marines blocked the entries to these three chambers, guarding three rooms that held an important place in upholding the continued existence of their very race, the decking plating she now walked on was considered by many to be in a way, sacred ground.
After paying compensation for the disposable environmental suite she would be required to wear and having convinced a medical officer that she needed only walk into the oldest of the three birthing rooms, access its wall terminal and then leave, Tali finally got permission to access the room she had been told to go to in the final clue of this insane treasure hunt.
Entering the hall that lead to her destination she stopped at the required station and donned the disposable environmental over suite, then she went through five different decontamination procedures before finding herself in the final hall that lead to the three rooms. Passing the two other chambers, Tali made her way to the last and oldest door at the end of the short hall and entered the temporary access code given her by the medical officer that had allowed her onetime access to this room.
The door opened to reveal a room that was sparsely decorated with medical tools and technology, most of which was involved in the process of birthing Quarian young. Walking swiftly past the bed that was in the room and straight to the far wall, Tali activated the Terminal located there… and after searching for several minutes she finally found what she was looking for.
It was a small incomplete file, with no message or even a name attached to it. Most would just ignore its puny existence, not even noticing its meticulous placement in the Terminal's operating system… Tali wasn't most people, and if she had recognized the odd file format almost immediately.
It matched all the others she had come across in this Bosh'tet crazy treasure hunt… a partial file that cant be opened or decoded, and would do nothing except integrate with the files she had already found; moving the small percentage bar ever closer to complete.
Calming her shaking hands, Tali removed the partial file and integrated it with her Omni-tool. Almost immediately it combined with the data she had already collected and the percentage icon flashed to one hundred.
The file was complete.
This Bosh'tet treasure hunt from hell was over… the brain cell murdering mind games had come to a close…
Tapping the access icon on the file made a password entry box appear; she remembered the answer to the trick scientific math equation on the last clue…
Before she could enter it in and find out what her reward would be, Tali shut off her omni-tool and decided to access it later, in private. The doctor that had escorted her was getting impatient and she now had no more reason to be in this sacred room that may be needed at any moment.
Thanking the Doctor and telling him she had found what she was looking for, she left and made her way out of the Birthing and maternity wards. Dropping of her disposable environmental suite at the recycle station on her way out, Tali made her way to the docking bays.
It was high time she returned to the scout ship her next mission group was gathering on, they were prepping for a major mission that was to occur near the end of this next deployment; she had heard something about gathering data from one of their old colony worlds the Geth had a lesser presence on.
Other than that, she didn't have many concrete details. Only that she would be one of the leaders of the expedition on the ground and would be debriefed before the mission began… until then they would be doing small assignments for the Flotilla and retrievals for those whose pilgrimage had gone from bad to worse… well, those they could retrieve that is.
Many didn't make it.
Boarding a shuttle and telling the pilot her destination, Tali sat back in her seat and stared at her omni-tool. It was so tempting to access the file now… but it was better to wait and do it when she was back in her personnel quarters on the special missions scout ship she was assigned too.
'They say impatience killed the vorcha' Tali mused, 'I can afford to wait on this… Argh! The suspense is going to kill me!' Tali spent the rest of the shuttle ride staring at her Omni-tool, she couldn't pay attention to much else if she had wanted to do so; just as her thoughts had formerly stated…
The suspense was indeed killing her.
The Master Chief calmly stood facing the Pelican's rear hatch; he had been picked up after his mission on the citadel and was now approaching the Forward unto Dawn, when Cortana had sprung the news on him.
The news he had just received would have caused others to fall into disbelief, this was not so with the Spartan. He just took the information that yet another dimensional displaced character had joined them on their adventures at face value and immediately asked Cortana for a threat assessment as well as her opinion on their newest crew member.
After fussing at her Spartan for his lack of manners, Cortana gave him both. The Threat assessment of this BT-7274 AI Mech, Vanguard Titan chassis was to say the least… rather impressive.
The Machines damaged state was a lucky coincidence; if it had been fully functional when brought on board the Dawn then the Mgalekgolo pair would have possibly been outmatched.
Thankfully it seemed the Machines current intentions were not hostile… yet. The Spartan agreed with Cortana that it would be more beneficial to keep it that way, and have another powerful ally to rely on for combat missions.
Cortana's personnel opinion on these matters helped ease the Spartans concerns on whether or not their new companion was a trustworthy ally or a possible enemy, after the Pelican docked itself in the Pelican bay the Master Chief made his way to the where the damaged Titan lay; being informed by Cortana that BT-7274 was currently in sleep mode, awaiting crucial repairs.
The Chief arrived to find Inquisitive Creation having just begun work on repairing the Titan war machine. Using materials from storage and one of the warthogs that had its rear half severely damaged by plasma.
It would take the Huragok a long while to repair the Titan, they had the detailed blueprints for every part but the Huragok would have to make each piece from scratch… none of their hardware was interchangeable… they would have to either make the power cells the titan was powered on or they would have to create a converter battery and tie it to a bank of mini fusion reactors.
At this point it appeared they would have to use the latter option, it would mean the Titan wouldn't have to refuel. But its operation time would still be limited, at some point it would need to lay low and allow the fusion reactor bank to recharge its available power supply in order to achieve its maximum combat proficiency… without doing so its movements would become somewhat limited and sluggish until it could recharge.
After examining there newest crew member the Spartan made his way to the armory in order to re-equip his Mjolner Mark VI, he didn't want to spend much longer outside of his black, grey, green and gold shell and the modified ODST suite he currently wore was not a suitable replacement for his Mjolner.
He was halfway through the process of returning his body to the grasp of the Mjolner when Cortana broadcasted an alert over the ships intercom…
Cinder had just broadcasted a report on a Collector vessel exiting the Omega Four Mass Relay. Now the hunt had begun, they would track the Collector ship to whatever system cluster it arrived at via the Relays it used. Then when it arrived at its target cluster they would use the time it took for it to traverse to the Secondary Mass Relays to arrive at that cluster as well via Slip-Space.
When the Collector vessel activated a Secondary Mass Relay the Dawn would jump to the system it would enter and hopefully hit the Collector ship with a long range nuke before it could attack the targeted Colony world.
One of the mission imperatives was that the Dawn was not to be anywhere near the Collector ship if it returned fire. If their ship was exposed to the Collector vessel's beam weapon, than its destruction was a high possibility, from what Cortana garnered from data mining the investigation after the SR-1 Normandy's destruction, the Collector's used Element Zero to launch streams of super heated particles into laser like Beams of destruction, a Particle Beam weapon. This weapon's fire power was still an unknown to Cortana and she did not want risk the Dawn's armor plating in order to find out its capabilities.
If they failed to intercept the Collectors before they landed, then they would just have to deploy on the ground via drop pods and stop the Colony's abduction… with the goal of boarding the Collector ship and freeing as well as extracting any captives on board before data mining its computers and self destructing the vessel at a safe location where the debris wouldn't harm civilians.
They would be doing all of this while keeping the Dawn safely out of firing range of the Collector ship's main weapon systems...
On the Colony World of Silva-viridis the community of the small capital city had come together to celebrate another six months of good harvest, their fruit orchards and gardens had produced much.
From Rare Asari fruits and Vegetables to Acai berries the colony's small yet diverse production of exotic perishables as well as its rare lumber for internal decorators were what gave it the income to manage a stable micro-economy this far out from any major trade route.
Since the harvest had just been finished and things were now no longer as busy for the colonists the Bi-Annual three day Farmers Market had commenced much to the excitement of many a youngling. This meant that some traveling vendors would be making their stops during the week, and many a local resident would be selling homemade sweets baked with love and jealously guarded secret recipes.
Despite the set back due to the loss of the attempted second town on the Colony the Colonists were fully intent on enjoying this event… and enjoy it they did! Now it was on its second day and the freighter-ship had arrived bringing several traveling entertainers with it, as was planned.
The vessel would pick up the newly harvested produces as well as a small number of special hand-carved custom exotic wood orders and then depart. The handful of performers would leave with it… unless they wished to stay another month's time that is.
The vessel would leave on the eve of the Festivals last day, after the people of the Colony's sole city and capital had gone home to bed. But until then the people of Silva-viridis would enjoy themselves and what was considered the festivals high point.
Many a child ran about the park the festival was held in, playing tag and participating in events such as the sack jumping races or the children's tug of war battle. They would gather in a group every few hours when the adults tug of war battle over the mud pit happened… now that was fun to watch.
Sadie and her roommate Laura had been walking about enjoying the sights and sounds… or in Sadie's case the slight thrum's she could feel with her body; overall the two girls had been enjoying themselves greatly.
Laura had been orphaned when her parents had been killed by Robbers in front of her very eyes… she had been only five years old at the time it happened. They had been on a business trip to a highly populated Colony; her parents had found a possible buyer for their quality produce and had met in person to seal a long term supply contract.
They never made it to the buyer; their Taxi driver had taken a "Detour" through an alley and then handed them over to the street Gang of robbers for a preset price, they were to be robbed and then sold to Batarian traders as slaves.
Laura's father had attempted to fight back and as a result first his wife had been killed for his and Laura's viewing pleasure after which he had been killed anyways. Laura had escaped her handlers and crawled underneath a building… where her would be owners couldn't follow.
She had exited on the other side of the building and run for a nearby pipe duct, her pursuers not far behind her. Eventually she was lost and alone as well as near utterly broken from watching her parent's death. She had continued on determined not to give up and trying to find someone who would help her.
She was found by an ancient Krogan, who she had tried to fight in order to escape his grasp, much to his amusement. After getting her to stop struggling he had quizzed her as to what was wrong, and deduced what had happened. Asking her in which direction her parents were she had pointed towards the street gang's known territory.
The Old Krogan whose crest and scales had bled of color to near ebony bone white and whose eyes were a milky white had then taken her to the police headquarters and handed her over to the authorities for protection, after stating he had found her lost and alone the krogan gave a blatantly obvious false name and left for parts unknown.
Not hours later the entire and street gang and their corrupted cab drivers had turned up dead, many of them shredded to bits by hand.
No one on that colony had seen the ancient milky eyed Krogan since.
Laura had been handed over to her Grandmother who was in her mid ninety's yet still an active, stubborn and capable woman. She had been with her for half a year before her Grandmother's body had given out and the caring woman had died in her sleep.
Laura had then been handed over to the Silva-Viridis orphanage and had been rather quite and closed off from others, having been given a room to herself because of her reoccurring nightmares disrupting the other children from sleep.
Then Sadie had come to the Orphanage and since she couldn't hear she had been given the best and last of the available beds for her age group… she had become Laura's roommate. Surprisingly for the Orphanage staff both of the quite loners had become fast friends and although no one could prove it was them; many a hilarious prank had occurred since.
The to girls had been inseparable, disappearing into the woods together to play who knows what, and sneaking up at night to raid the kitchen of leftovers… they rarely touched any of the sweets, something the Orphanage staff could make neither heads nor tails of.
They were an enigma, and the other kids of the orphanage would gossip on them… especially Sadie, one of Laura's recent favorite things to do was stoke the rumor mill's flames on their mysteriousness always trying to find ways of making their social image to the other children even more magical and mysterious… something Mrs., Valdez had simply rolled her eyes at.
However Sadie… now Sadie had the Mysterious ability to set the orphanages rumor mill into blue flames by her very presence; somehow finding a way to baffle the Staff and Mr., and Mrs., Valdez on nearly every encounter, without seemingly attempting to do so on purpose.
Laura had learned sign language at a rapid rate and would sometimes try to make grunting or humming noises in the back of her throat causing a nearby Sadie to burst into giggles and fits of laughter, even though the green eyed girl was supposedly unable to hear. The two strange children had been confounding the Staff of the orphanage for months, and even some of the visitors to the orphanage had taken an interest in the gossip surrounding the two enigmas.
The entire orphanage had been turned loose on the festival with each child having a buddy to stay with so as to ensure no one got completely lost and the staff could keep an eye on them easier while they helped run events at the festival booth.
So it was with uncertainty that both of the girls stopped near a purple tent and stared at it with scrutiny of an unwavering intensity… Sadie could feel strange thrum's coming from within the tent in an enticing and somewhat dangerous sounding song. While Laura could feel… something, she wasn't as good at feeling the thrums Sadie talked about, only recently starting to faintly discern the one's Sadie used to help keep her nightmares away; but she could sense an odd feeling coming from the tent causing tingles on her skin and neither Sadie nor Laura particularly liked it.
Looking at each other, they had a short conversation in sign language before reaching a conclusion… they would investigate. Slowly they approached the colorful tent and entered therein.
Inside was a treasure trove of strange trinkets surrounding the circular room and a table in the middle, at which an old yet beautiful woman sat, she eyed the two girls… glancing into Laura's wide bright blue eyes before looking over to Sadie.
Turned her head away from the dark crystal ball on the table that was giving off a strange thrumming song and stared straight at the lady at the table Sadie locked eyes with the woman.
Mistress Zujenia stared back at the strange young children and smirked… these were the ones the voice was looking for.
As if on cue both the girls snapped their heads to the crystal ball as if they had been shocked, Mistress Zujenia was indeed curious… could they sense the crystals mysterious power?
Both girls took an unconscious step back and stared at the crystal sphere like it was going to eat them… and then the glass ball flared to life with dark bluish white swirling vengeance, the very air swirled about the stone as a ancient creature half a galaxy away fixed its full attention on its connection to this orb and the two girls that had entered its presence.
Sadie and Laura found themselves back to back in a strange void that had the feeling of the Ocean depths…
Staring around wildly both watched as two titanic creatures and a Green armored Person shimmered into appearance and slowly prowled around them in a circle, watching them with predatory like stares.
Both girls were smart enough to know that they weren't real, and in Sadie's case she could sense the thrummings that were trying to get into each of their heads, although she didn't know why. Doing her best to mess the invading thrumming song up; she started making notes that mixed with the invading song and caused it to become a jumbled mess that couldn't get inside their heads.
Slowly the tent started to blink in and out of existence until Sadie mistimed a note and the vision of the dark depths slammed itself into view and something started to forcefully dig through their heads…
The watcher stared at the two younglings it had finally ensnared under its enthrallment. Never had something besides the enemy so resisted its control or guarded its mind so closely as these two that sat before it, only by using deep notes did it break the Green eyed ones defense… the artifact it used had been stressed and would have fractured under farther pressure, it was not designed to forcefully capture a mind so quickly, rather it used a constant exposure to worm its influence into ones mind.
It would have the seer that guarded the artifact engage in conversation to waylay those who it needed to interrogate and very few times had it needed to quickly enthrall a mind, but these two children had been guarding there thoughts and were prepared to run at the slightest sign of its presence.
Now that it held their minds captive it viewed the memories it needed, the blue eyed one had an interesting past but she did not hold what it searched for… the green eyed one it had sought for so long however… ah, yes, she had new knowledge of what it sought.
It did not need to speak to these two; they could already hear its true voice even if the blue eyed one could only slightly do so… they knew what it sought, the green eyed one attempted to hide its knowledge but failed to do so.
After gaining what it sought; the Watcher guided the younglings bodies out from the cloth house the Seer kept the artifact in and then suppressed the memories of what had happened. it then released them of its enthrallment.
The information it had gained from all its searching had revealed much, a green armored Knight, a pair of strange and powerful worm conglomerates… Hunters, new creatures it had never viewed or sensed before… where had they come from? Why are they here now… how do they travel so quickly across the stars? why do they speak similarly to us, yet different?
Why do they fight for those weaker than themselves…?
"I must understand… Why?"
Sadie and Laura found themselves standing next to a candy apple vendor catering to three young Asari… they did not know how they arrived there, one glance at the other was all the duo needed to realize something was wrong.
Sadie attempted to focus… she could hear something in her mind; it was like the thrumming songs but in her head instead of being felt by her body… on a hunch she thrummed the highest note she could reach and her mind was suddenly clear, it had startled Laura as well and both of them had all the recent events return to their memory.
They promptly fled to the edge of the park where the orphanage children were to gather before returning to the orphanage that evening, they did not want to be anywhere near the stone…
After having an extended conversation about what had happened they both agreed they did not want to be controlled again, and that something was searching for the creatures that saved Sadie.
Sadie was particularly concerned. Something powerful was searching for the Hunter's that had saved her, it was also looking for the green armored Knight that had appeared in that strange false place the stone had taken them to. although she didn't know anything about the Green armored Figure with a gold face, she didnt know anything about that.
The festival finished and the visiting entertainers left with the now loaded cargo freighter, all continued on Silva-viridis as it had in the past… no one had any reason to suspect any changes in the near future.
No one that is, except two young girls who shared the subconscious fear and excitement that their encounters and involvement with the strange, odd and unknown things of the galaxy had only just begun.
Tali stared at the near completed blueprints of a device that if working could revolutionize living on the Migrant fleet… and save the Quarian people an untold fortune in credits.
If this device did what the blueprints said it could do then environmental suites would only need necessarily be warn when on ones pilgrimage or when in zero atmosphere. The young could actually have constant physical contact with their parents; the space taken up by decontamination tech would be more than halved… so many problems would be solved by this.
If it worked, that is.
She had returned to her room on her assigned scout vessel and upon opening the file she had worked so hard to gain, she had found something nearly unbelievable… nearly completed blueprints for a device that could help her people immensely.
She had to get this to her father! She was an engineer and could already tell that these blueprints where no prank or laughing matter. They incorporated the detailed specs on parts and devices that were not invented as of yet to her knowledge, the only thing this device was missing was an electric power supply and the aesthetics.
But most importantly, it did not use a speck of Element Zero… It, Used, None. Before her adventures on the SR-1 Normandy with Jane Shepard, Tali would have though it was a fluke. But Tali had been through those adventures, and she had been present when Shepard had conversed with Sovereign… she new that technology outside of Element Zero was possible and assuredly needed if one wanted to escape the Reaper's trap.
And this Sterile Field Generator was a possible way to break Element Zero's grip on the Medical technology field, opening avenues of research into other scientific fields, encouraging others to find other ways of doing things.
This device could make the Migrant fleet near self sufficient, they could manufacture these field generators and key the proper frequency wavelengths into their coding; something these blueprints and files also held. The funding and supplies used to maintain the massive amount of air scrubbers and other decontamination tech would be free for the Fleet to use for other means.
Without Element Zero the device was able to adjust to a vast array of wavelengths for specific bacteria types, even able to target most viruses… all while assuring the safety of those in its broadcast range, both from microbes and from itself… its failsafe systems designed to avoid harming civilians in any way were impressive.
Tali immediately sent the data to her Father as well as informing him with the entire story of how she came by it in the first place, if this device worked then the fear of a plague outbreak on the Fleet would become baseless.
However she had to wonder, why the strange unknown file format, why the insanely difficult treasure hunt, why hadn't she heard of this project before, why hadn't the scientists of the last generation who were involved finish this project?
The why's kept on mounting in the back of her mind and she avidly shared them with her father, asking him if he had known anything about this project. Only to receive a negative response as well as amazement and excitement as to what she had found.
He messaged her with the information that his colleagues where just as amazed and that they were going review the blueprints and files in detail and then fabricate the parts to start building a prototype immediately, setting aside time for a secondary project aside from Geth research.
Tali hoped it worked. Or else she would find who ever made that Bosh'tet treasure hunt and dead or alive she'd make them wish they had never been born.
Oh yes indeed, that was a promise if she had ever made one.
The Illusive Man was pleased by the information that was just handed to him, Project Lazarus was looking to be a success and was nearing completion, within the next few months' Jane Shepard would wake and be informed of current events as well as assigned the task he had in mind for her… He had no doubts that she would not regretfully accept working with him.
Besides the Normandy SR-2's completion within the next month were an added bonus and a sure way to earn her favor, hopefully she would be eventually convinced to stick with Cerberus and not part ways as soon as the Collectors were dealt with.
Now however there were the Prexemia events to deal with, these new variables on the chess board were Unknowns… even the Statue in their honor on Prexemia said as much… were they new Mech being tested? A newly encountered Species, A mix of both… Just what was he dealing with here?
Not much information had been forthcoming from his field operatives that had been investigating the three Colonies that had experienced strange events, from a Nuke going off in orbit at one… a fleet being destroyed and a duo of walking tanks rampaging against the slavers on another, to the Colony of Prexemia where a video had surfaced of one solitary unit killing enemies, combined with eyewitness accounts the picture was painted of one lone fighter taking out a army of upwards three hundred and eighty Batarians… and winning.
These reports weren't new nor had they had any information to add to them, and this frustrated the Illusive Man. It also unnerved him; he was supposed to be the most Illusive! Not them!
Pouring himself a glass of his favorite alcoholic beverage he calmed his thoughts and focused on the now, he was waiting for an expected meeting with a certain pilot he needed to recruit… the operative who had contacted him only needed to send a picture of the SR-2 to peak the Pilots interest's, the rest had been easy as pie.
The Light for an incoming call flashed green and The Illusive man Smiled, 'The fish has taken the bait.'
The holographic-communications pad before him flashed to life…
Taking a long draw from his cigar the Illusive Man spoke, "Mister Moreau, as you no doubt suspect; I have a very interesting offer for you…"
Silva-Viridis was a world on the farthest edges of the Alliance's colonized Mass Relay accessible space. Some of the other species had worlds that were farther out from the Mass Relay network, but it was found that the farther one traveled from the Relays the more resources and time it took for them to access the rest of the galaxy.
The few worlds more than a two months travel from a relay were accessible to only certain vessels capable of traveling such a distance, as well as lagging behind on news of current galactic events by a significant margin.
Such backwater places were reserved for mining companies who searched far and wide for rare materials, only those few planetoids capable of churning massive profits were turned into short term mining colonies, due to the high profit margins covering the cost of getting there and back again with cargoes.
Besides those few mining colonies, most inhabited worlds were near a Prime or Secondary Mass Relay; at the most only one or two solar systems away. The Prime Mass Relays connected to each other while the Secondary Mass Relays allowed quick travel in the solar clusters around a Prime Relay.
Silva-Viridis was similar to most small colonies, after exiting the Prime Relay; one had to then travel spend a couple days traveling to a Secondary relay. When they finished the short jump from the Secondary relay they would then travel a few more days in order to arrive at the colony.
Most of the highly populated planets were near a Prime Relay, while the majority of the lesser populated colonies and colonial outposts were beyond the Secondary Relays within the known inhabited Solar Clusters of the Galaxy.
Due to the Rachni Wars, the Citadel Council banned the activation of dormant Relays; this meant inhabitable worlds near a Prime Relay were usually highly populated, even in the Terminus Systems.
Due to Silva-viridis's being on the edge of Relay accessible space, having only one small city and its lack of importance on the trade sector; The Colony's significance to the galactic community was little to none, most of the galactic community didn't know or care the Colony existed.
After the small slaver raid on the Colony's farming outpost, request for better defenses had been issued to the Systems Alliance by the Colony leaders. The answer had been a polite "Sorry but your too distant and insignificant for us to bother, we wont say no to your request but we will let it rot in bureaucracy until your actually worth our time and resources; call again in a few years." it was the same mantra that every other small colony was receiving.
Those that produced valuable resources or commodities were less ignored by the Systems Alliance, but even they were turning to third party defense companies that they could afford to make contracts with.
The problem was simple; the Citadel Counsel didn't want any military build up that could compromise the other Citadel main races, so most navy construction was either limited or discouraged politically. The idea was that all the races could grow at a similar rate militarily… in reality it was used as a way to keep the client races in check, as well as limit races that could threaten the political influence of another.
The inability to build a large enough navy to patrol and safeguard all of the Colonies affiliated with the Systems Alliance was a sore point between military leaders and the political figureheads.
The Secondary Mass Relay in Silva-viridis's home system started to glow slightly as its element zero core started to fluctuate… a sure sign that a ship was in transit from the neighboring solar system.
No vessels were scheduled to arrive that week, and the colony only had equipment that would alert them to something approaching when it reached closer proximity to the Forest covered world.
With a flash the arriving vessel exited the relay; it was a cruiser sized ship… a very large cruiser at that. Its appearance was a tad unsettling to the casual viewer, long and somewhat tubular in shape, it had a ring of metal around its stern end that was pierced through with large metal shards like the spokes of a wheel; their points facing outwards.
The front of the strange vessel was what appeared to be a set of converted asteroids… carved and shaped into long shards they were arrayed at the front of the vessel, leaving a small gap down their middle for an incredibly powerful Mass accelerator beam Cannon. The beam Cannon's Barrel mounted near the middle of the vessel was aligned to fire between the converted asteroid parts of the bow. The giant Asteroid mountings served as battering rams for intentional collisions; the Mass accelerator beam Cannon was used to burn an enemy vessel and cut through its armor like paper…
This was no ordinary ship! No, this was something that the Krogan hated; something the Galaxy's leaders claimed didn't exist, something those deep in the intelligence community feared…
No, these were the Collectors…
And they had come to collect.
(Note)
Ok sorry for the long three and a half week delay, as I said earlier December is crazy! Anyways I am going to search for; as well as fix timeline discrepancies in previous chapters. this chapter was a little bit rushed, so i might breath more details into its latter half when i go over and revise this story in the future.
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Anyways until next time this is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!