…

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash."

(George S. Patton)

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MSV Explorer, August 12th, 9:43 AM, 2184

…

Today was the day I went through the Explorer to check up on everything. It was a bi-weekly event, every other Friday. I made sure to check up on the crew, making sure they weren't getting into trouble and that they were keeping the ship in order. I also took the occasions to check in with Lydia in a secure location to go over whatever info she had managed to scrap together from Fleet communications.

I hadn't slept well the prior night. I had been suffering from increasingly intense nightmares, and I still had no idea why. The last one had involved my family once again, and I couldn't help but feel deeply disturbed by the shit my mind was conjuring up these days.

I yawned, pulling my arms back as several satisfying pops could clearly be heard. I then rolled my neck, getting similar sounds in response.

"You alright, captain?" Lenlo asked, looking back at me from the main bridge console.

"Eh… sort of." I answered, folding my hands behind my head. "I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night."

"Funny you should mention that." Kirva said, looking back to her console as she continued to speak. "I didn't get much either. Couldn't seem to get comfortable."

"Yeah, I wish it was only discomfort for me." I replied in a somber tone, drinking deeply from my coffee cup. "Tell me you two… you ever have a nightmare so… terrifying, that you could have sworn it was real?"

They looked back to me, stopping his system diagnostics to pay full attention to our conversation.

"Only once or twice." Lenlo answered truthfully, looking at the deck for a second before going on. "I'm assuming you had a bad one, sir?"

"It was like I was really there, Lenlo… everything felt real, even the sun on my skin." I elaborated, knowing full well that I likely sounded like a nut. "It's the worst feeling you could imagine, having everything fall apart around you like that… it just takes something with it."

He looked away from me again as Kirva continued to stare, likely because they didn't know how to respond.

"Listen, do you know if there are any doctors here in the Fleet who specialize in psychological treatment? A psychologist?" I asked in the vacuum, walking back over towards their stations.

"Hm… well, there's a few around the Fleet, mostly on the medical ships." Lenlo answered, standing up to get a better look at me. "I think you'd have to go up there and look yourself."

I nodded back to him, straightening out my growing moustache with my thumb and index finger.

"Well, thanks for the talk you two." I finished, turning around and walking out of the bridge. I walked into the CIC, stopping to stare at the holographic projection of the ship as I mulled over status reports and ran them against the ship's automated systems.

"Bad dreams, huh?" Lydia asked in a concerned tone, her avatar materializing next to the Explorer. "You know, they're usually triggered by stress or anxiety."

"Well, there's been no shortage of that lately." I remarked in a deadpan, overlaying a visualization of the power grid into the hologram to check the flow. "What's going on in the lab? There's a small power drain."

"That's just Biss, running another one of his experiments." She dismissed, waving her hand towards the door before focusing back on me. "You know, if you want psychiatric help, you could just talk to me."

All I could do was sigh in response, biting my finger as I focused back on the images in my mind.

"What, you're not afraid to ask me for help, are you?" She questioned after my pause, putting her hands on her hips.

"No, no! It's not that!" I immediately defended before looking back down and cracking a small smile. "It's just… I never imagined I'd be offered something like that from Dan's little sister."

"Well technically I'm now the older one, but then again I'm not exactly on the normal age range anymore." She replied with a bemused expression, eyes narrowed and lips pursed slightly as she shook her head.

"None of us are." I corrected further, allowing myself to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. "Well listen, maybe you and I could have a little sit-down tomorrow in the briefing room?"

"That'll work fine, it's not like I have much else to do around here." She agreed, crossing her arms as she created several new windows of text in front of herself. "So, in other news there's been another buildup of system patrols. This time, they added a grand total of forty combat-ready cruisers to the Patrol Fleet."

"When was this?" I asked, surprised at the number of ships they had decided to reallocate.

"Surprisingly enough, this happened overnight." She answered, enlarging a system map she had made to show the distribution. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're gearing up for something."

I looked over the fleet movements, trying to get an idea of what they were going for here. The movements hadn't been isolated to the rim of the system this time, but instead they had been redistributed closer to Reach itself. We already had the bulk of the Migrant Fleet orbiting around the planet, leaving me confused as to why they had moved them back in.

"Strange, really strange." I remarked, rubbing my chin for a moment before looking back at her. "Was that all you could find?"

"All I could find on the non-restricted channels." She mused, crossing her arms once again as the lights flickered for a few seconds. "I'll let you know if I come across anything else. In the meantime, you should probably check on Biss. Those power fluctuations are creating annoying hiccups in the ship systems."

"I'll have a word with him, don't worry." I reassured dismissively, waving my hand goodbye as her hologram flickered away.

I cleared my head as I walked into the science lab, formally the communications center. After we had received our lab at Camp Dolor and more recently CASTLE Base, it's only seen use from Biss so he could test his eezo theories when he had free time. This had kept him from being a lot less… twitchy around people, but then again he wasn't really the sociable type anyway.

Biss was bent over looking into the anaerobic chamber at a chunk of refined eezo I had given him. He stared at it as if he was looking at some newly discovered creature or mythological object.

"Biss?" I asked out loud, causing him to jump up in surprise.

"Oh, s-sorry Captain. I was… immersed." He apologized, grasping his datapad hard with both hands as he focused on me.

"I can see that" I replied, putting my hands in my pocket as I slowly walked over and looked into the chamber. "What are you doing right now?"

"W-well, I'm using a linear accelerator to mildly excite the Element Zero. I'm then recording any fluctuations I see for my next test." He explained, looking into the chamber with me.

I always found Eezo to be really odd looking, especially as someone who used to know a mineralogist at MIT. Best I could describe it, it was like a piece of anthracite that was pitch black and covered in oil. No matter how you harvested it, it always looked like a mix between coal and graphite. Depending on how the light was, it often reflected back in a variety of colors much like a fresh oil stain. Right now, it was emitting a faint blue glow as the charge flowing through it created a weak mass effect field.

Being antimatter, Eezo was an anomaly in more ways than one. Unlike elements such as Uranium-238 and Plutonium-239 which experience radioactive decay over time but remain as spent fuel, Eezo goes through particle decay. This means it will eventually cease to exist over its lifespan, "fizzling away" or "dissolving" much like table salt in a water source. The big question was where the energy went afterwards.

"So, narrow down any theories yet?" I asked, straightening myself back up as I looked at him and expected a slew of new theories.

"I think I have, though I'll need to do a few more tests before I can be sure." He said much to my surprise while nodding to himself, opening up a report he had written up on his datapad and handing it to me. "My hypothesis is that there's an underlining dimension to the universe where energy enters a sort of "background layer". It flows through at certain intervals and causes small, gradual changes that can eventually cause things such as black holes, nebulas, and even planetary and solar masses to gravimetrically destabilize in one way or another."

"Wait, like gravity?" I asked, trying to get a better handle of what he was saying. "We already know gravity exist everywhere around us, but it's at its weakest away from celestial bodies and strongest near singularities."

"That's exactly what I'm saying." He confirmed, pointing at me very quickly with excitement in his voice before recomposing himself. "I think this energy is bleeding off into the background of the universe and creating a "ripple" effect through space-time, causing irregularities in masses having strong magnetic fields."

"You mean thing like planets and stars?" I attempted to clarify, starting to see where he might be coming from with this.

"Yes!" He yelled in confirmation, gesturing with his hands as if he were about to start pulling out his own hair. "I've been researching v-various gravitational anomalies around the galaxy, trying to get a handle of the overall effect this could be having. First, there's Patatanlis in the Han system where the planet has a thin atmosphere despite its size and density compared to other similar planets. Second, there's the star Dholen in the Far Rim which is reportedly aging at an accelerated rate and… releasing above-average levels of solar radiation. Finally, there's the planet of Ekuna in the Salahiel system where the planetary gravity has actually increased and decreased multiple times over past decades."

"Ekuna? Isn't that one of the planets the Fleet tried colonizing before we came along?" I asked, trying to get all my facts straight.

"Yes, we tried to claim it for ourselves a few decades ago before the Council told us to get lost and handed it over to the Elcor." He answered with a bitter tone before shaking his head. "Anyways, I was going to bring this to you later, but since you're here I'll just give it to you now."

He pulled an OSD out of one of his pockets and handed it to me, lightly grabbing my hand.

"Listen… I think I really have it this time." He began, still holding my hand with the OSD as he spoke. "I know I have been really obsessive over this and it's a lot to ask for, but if you think my research is credible and worthy of further investigation, I'd like to try and organize some kind of science mission to visit the Dholen system and investigate the disturbances in person."

I was surprised by his sudden push, almost flabbergasted. My eyebrows shot up as I took a deep breath.

"That's quite the tall order, Biss." I said as I opened my palm and looked at the little storage unit. "I can't guarantee anything, but if your research is as hard-hitting as you think it is, I'll certainly try my best to get you what you want."

"Thank you, Captain." He replied with a nod and slightly squinted eyes that could barely be seen. "I'll continue my work in the meantime, but please let me know if you have any other questions for me."

"Will do." I finished as I turned on my heel and walked out of the lab. Once I was back in the silent hum of the CIC, my mind began racing as new ideas and theories began running through my gears.

The conversation had jogged a memory from before involving Klenot, our system's star. If his theory about the dark energy causing bodies with gravitational fields to destabilize was correct, that means our star could have once experienced this very same phenomena. However, I still didn't understand how it could have possibly returned to normal after that. Once a star has aged past a certain point, it doesn't just return to a previous state. The gasses and matter needed to keep it at that threshold would already be gone.

Something here wasn't adding up, and I was now determined to find the answer.

I walked out of the ship back into the slightly warmer air, remembering that the long winter was nearing its end. It was drizzling gently, cold rain pelting down from the gray sky. Most of the snow in the valley had melted by this point, causing a lot of minor flooding farther down the valley.

I hopped on my quad bike, throwing on my hood as I fired up the electric engine and sped off to CASTLE Base. It wasn't a long ride, it only took two minutes to drive to the facility. I flashed my ID to the guard who let me in without delay, driving in and parking next to Hanger 1 where the Cobra line was being developed.

Inside, Dimitri and Dan were showing the ships off to Greg, who had expressed interest in the project and asked if he could come check it out on his day off. I couldn't blame him, the Cobras were damn fine ships, even if they hadn't entered full production yet.

"So these plasma cannons are just upsized versions of the rifles being used by the marines?" Greg asked, looking up at our X3 variant, which had been built solely for atmospheric combat and even included the latest iteration of the MES system.

"Da, they're not as destructive as main cannon on Dragoon mech, but they fire faster and don't require as much power or plasma to operate." Dimitri pointed out, looking up at the barrel.

"They were actually easier to build than the rifles, ironically enough." I remarked, gaining their immediate attention as I walked towards them. "Still, developing the rifle taught us valuable lessons. I'd hate to see the old "start-up burst" with a cannon of this size."

"God, r-remember back on Aldrin? That one commando?" Dan recollected, jogging repressed memories hidden in my skull. I remembered a man who had been vaporized from the waist-up by Mara and I's earliest plasma weapon.

"I don't think I'll ever forget that." I said, trying to end that line of thought as quickly as possible as I shook the image out of my head. "Anyways, enjoying the tour?"

"It's been very interesting." He nodded, letting a smile cross he face as he rubbed his hand alongside the bottom of the gunship. "Any chance we could take it for a spin at some point?"

"Heh, maybe a-after we run a few more tests." Dan replied with a huff, tucking his datapad under his arm. "We're still try… trying to make sure there i-isn't any imbalances between the s-ship systems and the reactor."

"Fair enough." He accepted without any argument, looking back to me. "Anything interesting happening?"

"Mm… not really, I'm planning on going over some research Biss gave me on the Explorer." I answered, flashing the OSD he had given me and slipping it back into my pocket. "It might sound crazy, but I think he's actually on to something this time."

"That's a first." Dan joked, chuckling slightly.

"Yeah? Well, there's always a first time for anything." I mused before my omni-tool began beeping. "Excuse me."

I walked out of the hanger, turning on my omni-tool to see it was Lydia.

"What's going on?" I asked, knowing she wasn't technically supposed to contact me while in the base.

"I need you to get to the top of that communication tower and give me direct access into the Fleet network." She ordered in a no-nonsense deadpan, once again surprising me. "Don't ask questions, there's no time to explain. Just do it."

Without a proper response to her order, I simply decided to follow it, running my ass as fast as possible to the comm tower and hopping into the elevator. At the top, there was a small room with two radio operators in it, who were obviously surprised to see me.

"Captain, is there something I can help you with?" One of them asked, getting up out of his chair to meet me.

"I need immediate access to the Fleet network, I think something bad is going on." I said without skipping a beat, walking over to the main console.

"Yes sir." He agreed, hopping on his own console and helping grant me access to the network.

I hooked my omni-tool to the console, giving Lydia full remote access to the entire Fleet.

"Oh my god, it's even worse than I thought." She said in my earpiece so the other two wouldn't be able to hear. "The Admirals were tipped off by Alliance sources that Cerberus is going to attempt an attack on the system. It's expected to occur today."

"Jesus Christ." I exclaimed, looking harder as the report popped up in front of me. "That can't be right, I would have been told about this!"

"It was only sent an hour ago." She quipped, highlighting the time it was received. "The attack could happen at any time."

I flipped myself around, looking at one of the two radio operators as I prepared to order him to get me in contact with the Admiralty. Before I could do so, everyone received emergency messages from Fleet Actual on their omni-tools.

"Attention, this is Fleet Admiral Han'Gerrel! Cerberus battle groups have entered the Klenot system in large numbers. They appear to be targeting the ODPs and are releasing large swarms of landing craft to directly attack the surface of Reach." Gerrel announced, able to be heard perfectly as the message overrode all loudspeakers in the area. "All combat personnel proceed to your assigned posts. Civilian personnel, either prepare for enemy contact or take proper measures to ensure you, your friends and family are in a well-protected location. Stay safe, Keelah se'lai."

With the end of the messages, emergency sirens began blaring all around the base as the military personnel kicked themselves into gear and most of the non-combatants began running towards the door to CASTLE Base's interior.

"He's not kidding, they jumped two carriers into the system and dropped in a horde of shuttles, gunships, and fighters before jumping off again." Lydia said, confirming my worst fears. "It looks like a large contingent of them are heading towards our region."

"Seal up the Explorer and engage the stealth systems until everything is over." I ordered to Lydia as I took out my Carnifex and checked to make sure it was fully functional. "If the situation in space looks like its going south, break radio silence and let us know."

I immediately turned the base's loudspeaker system back on to try and remedy the chaos, knowing that if these people didn't get inside many of them might not survive.

"Anyone that isn't combat trained, drop whatever you are doing and get inside CASTLE Base! Evac!" I ordered, trying to keep things as calm as I possibly could. "Marines, gear up and give them hell! Don't give them any ground!"

Everyone began running across the stretch of concrete between the hangers and the base entrance as the fighters and gunships closed in. The sirens could barely be heard in the distance over ours as they passed over Camp Dolor, anti-aircraft guns and GUARDAN arrays targeting the swarm of aircraft as best they could.

"They're not all going to get there in time." I said to myself, struggling to balance multiple different thoughts in my head as I pulled out my omni-tool and hopped back into the elevator with the two radio operators. "Guys, we need to hold them off. The civilians aren't going to make it without more cover."

"Meet us at Cobra, we have idea!" Dimitri said and finished in less than two seconds, cutting the line as I forced myself as fast as I could to the Cobra hanger.

Inside, I found Dimitri and Greg climbing into the X3 variant of the Cobra.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked, pausing as I grabbed ahold of the ladder. "This is still in the experimental phase. I can't guarantee a power balance between the cannons and the shields."

"We have no choice, Sean. It is best option we have." He replied, offering me a hand up which I accepted.

As I strapped myself into one of the gunner's consoles, I looked around noticing Dan's absence.

"Where's Dan?" I asked, knowing he had been here a few minutes ago.

"I think he ran off to other aircraft hangar, but I am not sure." He answered as he got situated in the cockpit. "Make sure gunner stations are ready!"

"Got it!" I agreed without hesitation, firing up the console as the ladder retracted back up into the ship.

"Have these things even been tested yet?" Greg shouted over the channel as I looked over at him across the cabin from me.

"Technically." I mused as calmly as possible as I armed the cannons and the power levels shot up. "Don't worry, we're more likely to get shot down than we are to die from a plasma cannon blowback."

"Oh, that's comforting." He shot back with a deadpan expression as we ascended and shot out of the hanger at near breakneck speeds.

By this point, they were just about here. The fast-moving fighters were already over us, firing on anything that looked even relatively important. They focused on taking out the GUARDAN arrays placed around the mountain, taking a few losses to clear the way for the landing craft and gunships.

We flew around the mountain, two fighters giving chase. Greg took control of the new ceiling turret through the console, firing at them with the 20mm cannon. He hit one of them, blowing a hole directly though the cockpit and sending it into a nosedive. It exploded on contact with the forest below.

"Keep as many of them off of ground as possible!" Dimitri shouted over to me as pings of gunfire already began flaring the shields. By now, we had cleared the mountain and were heading directly towards the formation's flank.

I opened fire with the plasma cannons, landing direct hits on three of the landing craft before we started taking fire from the gunships. As the crafts spewed flames and tumbled out of the sky, Greg blasted away at the gunships as they, along with the fighters, began giving chase.

Dimitri revved the engines up to put some distance between us and the gunships. They began firing heat-seeking missiles at us as a result, causing my radar display to light up like a fireworks display.

"Oh boy, I think they're angry!" Greg shouted with equal parts amusement and concern as the blue streaks inched ever closer to us. "I don't think your new shields will be able to take that much damage!"

I killed the power to the cannons to give us more shield strength. The missiles began hammering us, causing the power levels to plummet as the shields struggled to replace all the energy being exhausted. The last two missiles impacted, causing the reactor to go into the red as the displays began to brown out.

"I need to shut down shields, it's too much for reactor!" Dimitri shouted as he turned back towards CASLTE Base and it began to get very hot in the cockpit. "I'll try to switch on the kinetic barriers, but it might not be-"

He was cut off as the remaining fighter caught up with us, plugging the rear of our ship with gunfire.

"Son of a bitch!" Greg shouted, ducking his head before throwing his head back towards the console. "Let's see how you like it, you cocksucker!"

He fired the 20mm cannon once again, blowing out the engines of the fighter and causing it to explode in mid-air.

"Nice shot!" I congratulated, letting myself crack a smile as I prepared to open fire on the aircraft again.

By this point, eight or so shuttles had landed troops into the base and our guys in the Gen III and IVs were doing their best to fight them off. They were having a hell of a time trying to deal with both the ground troops and the gunships despite the defensive and offensive upgrades they had received.

We swept over the hangers, shooting down as many of the gunships as we could using the plasma cannons and the roof turret. Our kinetic barriers took a beating, going down after we had taken five more of the gunships out of the sky.

We then suddenly took a hard hit to the reactor, sending shards of hot metal through the back compartment and knocking out all power to the ship. I felt my stomach drop as inertial dampeners went offline.

"Hang on!" Dimitri shouted, angling our descent as we sped towards the tarmac below. I used the chair to help brace myself against the console for the inevitable impact.

We landed hard, loud screeching filling my ears as we skid across the concrete. If it weren't for the harness I was strapped into, I would have certainly been thrown to the floor.

"Ugh… is everyone alright?" I asked, unhooking myself from the chair and weakly walking into the middle of the cabin.

"I am fine." Dimitri answered, pulling himself out of the cockpit and over to where me and Greg were.

"All things considered? I'm peachy." Greg moaned, popping the muscles in his neck before getting out of his own seat.

An explosion could be heard outside, causing all of us to look back towards the cockpit windows.

"One of the gunships is coming back around!" Greg shouted, causing us to run back towards the thicker part of the craft. It strafed us, peppering the cabin in the front with mass accelerator rounds.

For the longest time we all stood there, still staring into the area where we had previously been sitting before I spoke up.

"We need to get out of here." I stated as calmly as I could as I forced my breathing to return to normal.

"I agree." Greg said without protest as we walked into the cargo bay.

The inside of the bay had been jolted really hard from the impact. Panels had been thrown off the walls, insulation was hanging from the ceiling, and the reactor in the back was on fire and leaking its blue plasma from the cannon fire it had taken.

"We'll have to use top hatch, side door is jammed." Dimitri said, walking over from the door and pulling down the retractable ladder.

"I'll take a peek. If the coast is clear, we'll make a run for one of the hangers." I announced, climbing up the ladder and undoing the seal.

I lifted the hatch up slowly, taking a peek through the shoe-sized opening. Out in the distance, I could see fire being exchanged on both sides of the fight as the gunships flew overhead. I heard a distorted voice to my left shout "Hey!" before I looked over to see a Cerberus commando donned in full gear level his rifle at me. I barely closed the hatch in time, slamming it down as a round ricocheted off of it. I fell off of the ladder, landing directly on my gluteus maximus.

"Fuck… no, the coast isn't clear." I announced as bluntly as I could, standing up and quickly shaking off the pain. "We're in trouble."

"Yeah, trapped in a burning aircraft and surrounded by hostiles isn't the best of situations to be in." Greg joked, pulling out his standard-issue Alliance Kessler handgun. "Man, just when I thought this whole "ambassador" job wouldn't involve gunboat diplomacy…"

"Was that you guys who j-just skid across the tarmac?" Dan suddenly chimed in on me and Dimitri's omni-tools.

"Where have you been?" I asked, slightly annoyed that he had run off instead of joining us. "We could have used your help up there!"

"I've been preparing a l-little surprise for those Cerberus sc-scumbags." He answered, sounding strangely thrilled to my surprise. "Hang onto your butts!"

Dan cut the channel as large vibrations could suddenly be felt through the ground.

"He didn't." I remarked in disbelief, running over the cockpit window to look out at Hanger 3.

I watched with Dimitri and Greg as Dan, having commandeered the original Dragoon mech, forcibly pulled open the hanger doors and walked outside to where all the fighting was happening.

"You fuckers picked the wrong people to mess with!" Dan shouted over the mech's built-in loudspeakers before starting up Magna's "Divide" and blasting it as loud as possible. The moment the commandos saw him, they immediately began running.

"Holy shit, run!" One of them yelled before Dan easily cut him and his buddies down with a hail of automatic cannon fire.

Two gunships maneuvered around, firing at the hulking mass of titanium and steel with no effect whatsoever.

"Oh, that's good!" Dan mocked over the music, firing a few HEX missiles at the gunships. He blew them to smithereens. "Keep'em coming! I can do this all day!"

Having cleared away the guys who had surrounded the Cobra, Dan gave us the all-clear and walked towards where the fighting was still happening as the three of us climbed out of the ship and made a run for the nearest hanger.

"What should we do now?" Dimitri asked through strained breaths as Greg popped a few pills from the case out of his jacket.

"Not much we can do." I admitted, knowing we had already exhausted our only real option. "I think we should hunker down in this hanger's offices until the situation changes. It's too risky to go join the fight without our kinetic barriers."

"I…agree…" Greg wheezed out, having reached his breaking point as far as his heart condition goes. "Bunker up… until things improve."

With that, we climbed into the offices on Hanger 4, knowing being up higher would prove advantageous if more commandos did attempt to enter the area.

I sat near the door of the section, trying to process what exactly had led up to this point in my day. All I could muster up in my head was that the next day wouldn't be pretty, whatever happened.

I hoped that Mara, Richard, Powell and all my crewmembers were safe. I couldn't handle the thought of anyone getting hurt now, especially at this point.

With the adrenaline wearing off, I suddenly became very tired, dozing off into a restless sleep as the explosions in the distance faded away and gave way to silence.

…

A/N: Lots of developments! More talk of eezo problems, nightmares, and a full-blown attack on the Klenot system? Why did Cerberus attack so suddenly? Who will win the fight? Next time.

Sorry once again for my update schedule, college has been sucking me dry like a vampire, taking all my writing time and willpower with it. It's a pain in the ass, especially when it comes to my math courses, but I was determined to get a new chapter to you guys. I hope you liked it!

I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!