Hello Folks! Welcome to my first fic in an awfully long time, and under a new account! Hope you enjoy :)
0300 hours, Salarian Private Survey Vessel 'Shadows in Flight'
A small silver vessel, less than 15 meters in length, floated unnaturally still in it's position above an unremarkable ice moon. On the ship, its four crew busied themselves with the scanners, engineering checks, and system overviews that came with arriving in a new system, while the captain prepared himself.
Captain Selias Sulban had applied for this position with 10 years experience off commanding an STG stealth corvette, expecting to be given command of an exploratory frigate. A cruiser would have been nice, and perhaps a good dental plan. He had come to realize far too late that almost every ex-STG or military Salarian comes to the private sector looking for more or less the same thing. Thus, he was stuck commanding a small survey boat with a crew of four, and far too little room for such a number.
Still, there was a reason his particular set of skills were being utilized in this mission. Private survey missions, while technically not violating the Council law against opening Mass Relays, did tend to skirt the edge of legality when operating exploration missions using only conventional drive cores. Thus, the odd class of "Stealth Survey Vessel" was given to those willing to scout out new resources of dubious legality, and why good captain Selias Sulban was stuck in the ass end of nowhere scanning for palladium in the cover of an ice moon, with every nonessential system running cold.
"Captain," A voice from his left startled him "odd readings coming from the fourth planet"
Selias looked at the young engineer running the scans, motioning for him to continue.
"Garden world- standard class M. Radio signals coming off the planet at regular intervals- clearly artificial in nature."
Selias cursed under his breath. "Damn, have the other companies beat us to this system? We were ahead of SurveyCorp by at least a month."
The engineer responded at typical salarian speed. "Not SurveyCorp probably. No signal I recognise. Encryptions changed, maybe, but I doubt this much. Spectres possibly? System unmapped, but possible. Signals bouncing off the planet that look like scanners, but if true, then much inferior for Spectre gear. Can take a closer look?"
He had delivered that all in one breath. Selias was impressed, most academy graduates would've taken two. Glancing at his pilot, he asked,
"Is there sufficient cover to park and watch?"
The pilot nodded "Looks like we could take cover in the asteroid belt. One of the few advantages of such a small ship- we could literally plant ourselves an asteroid and do our observations."
The captain nodded his assent. "Alright then, we'll observe until its determined there's nothing unusual, then we beat it for the next system on the checklist. Let's move."
2100 hours, Salarian Private Survey Vessel "Shadows in Flight"
The captain watched the data feed- two squat, ugly ships, floating in orbit around what looked like a small colony. The ships, though unsightly, looked fierce- long prows evoking images of the barrel of a rifle, and nearly 500 meters long. This was clearly a species familiar with conflict.
"We need to inform the corporation."
Captain Selias stared down the ExplorationVision LTD representative that, for some inane reason, accompanied each and every one of their vessels, and was technically his superior officer.
"We can't send out a signal from here- something that high powered would set even their sensors off"
"So we back off, and inform corporate. Easy."
"There is incredible data we're receiving here sir. This is a new species! Think of all the-"
"Silence Captain. This data, this information is company data. This is a company ship. This news of aliens is enough to give us a competitive advantage in-"
"We don't even have that much data yet!"
"-selling technology to this younger species that clearly-"
"NEW CONTACT NEW CONTACT"
Both heads whipped around as the pilot frantically tapped at his console.
"Is it the council? Or more aliens?"
"Completely new readings- new design, new signals, even new color. Pulling images up now sir."
A great purple hulk of a ship, twisted into a design that Selias could only describe as vaguely phallic.
"Contact 3 is big sir- nearly the size of a dreadnought. 800 meters, and covered in some sort of energy signature I don't recognise. It's building up, but I can't figure out what it-"
The viewscreen erupted as the new contact erupted in purple energy, sending lances of light spinning towards the original contacts.
"By the gods."
One of the hulking ships detonated, the other spinning rapidly to bring it's rifled prow to bear on the newcomer. It fired with an impressive blast, sending a massive projectile hurtling towards its target. Selias watched as the massive projectile sailed through the void, and slammed into its target. To absolutely no effect.
Another round, fired from the rifled vessel, and another, were blasted into the side of the purple newcomer, each deflected with a flare of energy some distance from her hull. Fire from the planet was also seen- some sort of planetary defence cannons had obviously been set up, and were futilely firing much smaller projectiles at the much larger vessel.
"Contact 3 is charging up again. They'll be ready to discharge in 10 seconds."
Selias found himself leaning forwards at the rifled ship on the viewscreens.
"Run you hanar cursed fools, you know you can't win."
8 seconds. The ship stubbornly refused to run, instead accelerating at the purple vessel, still firing its main cannon.
5 seconds. "Spirits are they going to ram it?"
3 seconds. The vessel had reached impressive speeds, firing now almost point blank into the glimmering energy shields of its opponent.
"Contact 3 is charged-" The purple vessel fired its impressive arsenal at the wildly charging ship, detonating it before it could even touch the energy shield. It floated past the wreckage serenely, making its way towards the colony.
"Are they going to launch a ground assault? Or would-" The pilot was abruptly cut off, as the screen erupted in purple light again. "Spirits."
The massive ship fired its main weaponry directly into the center of the colony. Lances of purple light rained down on the center, it's defense cannons quickly silenced. The land in the immediate area of the colony seemed to boil, as the crew of the survey vessel looked on in shock.
"Spirits," the pilot muttered, "and to a garden world no less."
The corporate representative spun around to face Selias.
"We have to inform them. Now."
Intro Chapter- I'll try to be as quick as possible for the next one. No upload schedule but we will see what I can pump out. Until next time kids.
