Acronyms:
AESA – Active Electronically Scanned Array
SK – Station Keeping
NOTHS – Notice of Hazard to Ships
CHAPTER 15: THE NORMANDY VS A GETH FRIGATE
"Plot a course for Therum," Commander Shepard said finally.
"Yes, ma'am."
The ship in the Athens system never reappeared, and the Normandy couldn't loiter around indefinitely, simply due to the sheer number of systems to search. They still had yet to receive any leads of which systems had prothean ruins.
"ETA to Knossos system is two hours, fifty-seven minutes."
"What else is in Knossos?" the Normandy's CO asked.
"It's surprisingly well-documented, probably due to the mining colonies in the system. Entries related to Therum, though, are surprisingly sparse. Other than the mines, it sounds like an uninteresting place."
The three hours traveled somewhat fast, as Shepard decided to do another set of drills with the on-duty crew; they could use the activity. And with the thresher maw attack fresh in her mind, so could she.
Liara T'Soni struggled futilely against the restraints that held her wrists and ankles in place, the orange energy not budging as it held her limbs and her body a small distance above the ground. While fleeing the geth, she had taken shelter in the prothean ruins she had been studying. She had meant to activate the prothean outpost's defenses, turning on the barriers that some facilities had to keep out intruders. She had done that, but she hadn't expected to be caught in a security restraint field.
She had immediately found herself contained in an orange bubble suspended in the air. The dense orange energy held her limbs splayed out from her torso, and have no give. Ordinarily, that would have been a minor inconvenience, since she would have expected to be able to use her biotics. However, this field didn't utilize dark energy in a typical fashion – or use it at all – and it prevented her from using her biotic abilities to try to break free. Whatever this was, it was a problem.
Worse, the geth had been trying to break past the barrier, and Liara knew that with enough force, they could breach the surrounding rocks and enter the ruins. From what little she could see from her vantage point, she observed the geth trying to do exactly that. The geth rummaged through the available mining equipment, moving a drill next to the barrier.
Liara still couldn't comprehend why the geth were going through all of this trouble for her. They could just leave her to die of exhaustion and dehydration. The krogan with the geth implied they wanted her in particular, but…for what? The krogan hadn't answered her, only grinning through the barrier that she was coming with them. The questions, and lack of answers, contributed to her ever-growing dread.
"Decelerating from FTL in 5…4…3…2…1…" Joker's voice echoed through the comm. The Normandy dropped out of FTL at just under 10 AU from Knossos. They had dropped out of FTL at just over 30 AU to find no contacts or FTL flares after several minutes of scanning – they weren't at the right bearing to connect to the nearby comm buoy – and had just jumped further in system.
Senior Operations Chief Marcus Greico waited for their highly sensitive passive sensor suite to collect energy from their surroundings. It automatically filtered out planets and stars, continuously collecting EM energy, similar to how a camera set to long exposure collects light for a certain amount of time. He watched various sources of EM energy be filtered out, double-checking the very sophisticated processing software. Despite the range, one thermal source continued to slowly grow on a line of bearing that neatly corresponded to an orbit above Therum. He focused on it, looking at the signal strength and the rate of increase, comparing it to thermal properties and known ship profiles.
"Conn, sensors, bogey in-system. Confirmed ship, probable warship from signature. Designating contact as Sierra 2." Senior Operations Chief Marcus Greico paused as his hands flew over the holographic panels as he read out the precise bearing. "No precise range yet, but its bearing corresponds to an orbit above Therum. Presuming it's in orbit around Therum, estimate Sierra 2 is frigate-class. Hold on…new contact, identical signature…Sierra 3 appears to be identical to Sierra 2."
That worried the commander. "Link us into the comm buoy. Get ready to send status to Fifth Fleet and the Council," Shepard asked, keeping the concern out of her voice. They could probably take on one smaller ship with the Normandy's loadout and stealth system, but they could never take on two. They would have to call for help, which could take several hours to arrive. By then these presumably geth ships could very well have found the asari doctor, or whatever it was they were looking for here, and be long gone.
"Aye, aye, Commander."
"Conn, sensors, Sierra 3 is a ghost image. Negative contact. Repeat, Sierra 3 is a negative contact," the sensors chief said. "A glitch in the passive array." His hands flew over the panel as he adjusted several settings.
Shepard knew she could fully trust the chief's judgments. The senior chief had been doing this since she was in diapers. And she felt a sense of relief. Two frigates was a bit too much for them to deal with given their current loadout, but one frigate they could definitely do something about.
A few seconds later the crewman at the communications panel said, "The colony is broadcasting a distress signal. A single unknown ship has entered the system and is not answering hails. The unknown ship landed away from the administrative center, but near a new mine excavation. They're broadcasting ship composition based on their scans."
"Forward their data to Fifth Fleet."
A minute passed. "Fifth Fleet has responded. Cruiser London, and frigates Anzio, Verdun, Peleliu, and Salamis are on their way. ETA…five hours twenty minutes."
Fast reply, Shepard thought, though the response wasn't what she was hoping for. There was a good chance that the probable geth ship would be gone by the time the Alliance cruiser and frigate squadron arrived. "Joker, take us in system at FTL for a five minute jump, to minimize heat generation and to allow us to get prepped. Set Condition-1," she said.
Throughout the Normandy, alarms blared as crew rushed to their stations. A mechanical voice said over the 1MC, "General quarters, general quarters. All hands, man your battlestations." The ship's lighting switched from a pleasant white-blue to more ominous red. Seats rose up from the floor in CIC, and each crewmember strapped themselves in.
It took ninety-three seconds for the light near Shepard's console to turn from yellow to green, indicating everyone was at their stations and strapped in.
"All stations report manned and ready, ma'am."
"Disengage artificial gravity," the CO ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." This was done to reduce the heat generated by the Normandy's systems.
"FTL engaged. We're moving in at 0.5% power. We decelerate in three minutes," Joker said.
"Chief, Tali, take a look at the composition data broadcast from the colony. I want both of your opinions."
"I'm looking at it now," the quarian responded.
Shepard paused, considering options. The Normandy could immediately jump in and engage the geth frigate, or try to sneak through to aid the colonists. The colony girl in her after experiencing Mindoir and Elysium said aiding the colonists took top priority, but…that would be tough to do without dealing with the geth ship first. Immediately deploying to protect the colony would give away their best cards: stealth and maneuverability. She brought up the details of distress signal again.
A ship had entered the atmosphere a good two hundred kilometers from the nearest inhabited outpost, a small mining station. The ship had completely ignored civilians, to her considerable relief. The ship had landed at Eldfell-Ashland's newest mining site, where work had been recently vacated due to the discovery of…prothean ruins. Huh. Prothean ruins, she thought. THAT explains why the entries about the colony are sparse – the corporations want to excavate the site themselves and not have researchers – or looters – getting in the way. For a second or two of consideration, it might have been kind of smart to keep quiet about prothean ruins in this case, in a sort of perverse sense of the word. If Eldfell-Ashland had let everyone know about their find, the geth might have sent a larger force. But she still wondered how the geth got to Therum first. And the Council sanctions from hiding those prothean ruins…
"What's the drive core saturation?" she asked.
"Well within green limits, Commander. Four point three percent."
"Heat capacity in the IES?"
"Well within green limits. Fifteen point one percent."
"Tali, what can you tell me about Sierra 2? Is it geth?"
"Commander, the EM emission spectra from the colony is a ninety-one percent match to known geth ship compositions and patterns from three hundred years ago," the quarian replied confidently.
"Chief?" she asked Greico.
"Concur, Skipper. It's a bandit."
"Now we'll see how good this stealth system is," Shepard muttered to herself. "Warm up the weapons and power up the barriers." The Normandy was not designed to go head to head with another ship in a typical fleet action order of battle. Rather, she was to use her speed and stealth to outmaneuver her opponents. That theory of speed and stealth versus firepower in one-on-one duels was about to be put to the test. Millions and millions of man-hours of research, development, test, engineering, and construction all would come down to this battle. She briefly outlined her plan to the crew for the upcoming engagement.
"Dropping out of FTL in 5…4…3…2…1...now."
"Snoozed," the systems crewman said immediately. The commander saw the status light for the stealth system flash and hold at a nominal, healthy green.
Shepard immediately issued orders for a new course. She was moving the Normandy in a near perpendicular direction to their exit vector, trying to put distance between them and the position where they decelerated, using only the oversized mass effect core to maneuver, rather than the heat-emitting thrusters or engines.
The Normandy was relying purely on passive sensor data. Using active scanners was like turning on a bright lamp in a dark room. One could learn a lot about their immediate surroundings, but so could one's enemy. The Normandy had powerful AESAs that could burn through countermeasures at even thousands of kilometers of distance, but these active scans would be detected by an adversary, and only provided accurate information within a couple light seconds, since ships could rapidly change trajectory, where sudden maneuvers to close with the enemy could give a decisive advantage. "Sierra 2 detected our deceleration eleven seconds ago." Due to the time it takes light to traverse a given distance it would take time for the geth frigate to detect the EM signature from the Normandy, but the stealth frigate could instantly detect where the geth frigate was, or at least where it was at a certain point in the past.
"Barriers at 100%."
"Sierra 2 status?"
"Warming up its weapons and changing course." Shepard smiled a bit to herself at the pronoun reference to the geth frigate. Alliance ships were referred to as "shes;" enemy ships were referred to as "its." "Sierra 2 is on an intercept trajectory to our exit vector. Breaking planetary orbit and entering solar orbit. No nails or spikes detected from Sierra 2."
"Pressly, you have the conn."
"Aye aye, Commander. I have the conn."
"Commander, we have a shooting solution for our missiles," the WSO said at the weapons console as the solution light blinked green. The weapons VI had calculated a firing solution for all weapons based on the ship's trajectory, velocity, and dozens of other parameters.
"Understood, Wizzo. Conn, get us on a reciprocal course, and get us between them and Knossos for when we shoot," Shepard ordered. It was a difficult task, due to the sheer size of space and the motion of the two ships. But Pressly skillfully conned the stealth frigate on the precise course needed to accomplish the order. "Advise of any change in Sierra 2's track."
She wanted to be approaching the frigate on approximate reciprocal headings, to use their combined velocity to add extra punch to the mass accelerator rounds. Kinetic energy delivered was a function of the square of velocity difference between the target and the shell, so firing on a rapidly closing ship with a reciprocal heading delivered much more energy than firing on a ship on the same heading. And it gave the enemy less time to try to maneuver. She also wanted to be between the geth ship and the star when opening the engagement. She could try to sneak up behind the geth ship to disable its engines, but the main gun and missiles would lose much of their punch.
"Range to Sierra 2?"
"Twenty seven k," was the response. The commander wanted to be much closer than twenty seven thousand kilometers when they opened fire.
Another minute passed. "Keep us between Sierra 2 and the star for our shooting position. We're going to be between it and Knossos when we fire. It should conceal our weapons discharge." A small smile appeared on her face for the first time since the news of the geth ship. "Just like we did in the sims."
It was a good tactic to use, and everyone thought it would work. The stealth system would hide the ship but not the weapons fire. However, the powerful radiation across most of the EM spectra from the star Knossos might be enough to mask the signature from the weapons discharge, or at least delay or confuse observation.
"Sierra 2 is still on the same trajecto – nails. Active scans from Sierra 2. We're just getting side lobes. He's searchlighting about where we dropped out of FTL."
Now for the real test, Shepard thought. The IES was designed to trap emissions from inside the ship, but that was only useful while the enemy searched with passive sensors. Active sensors that emitted energy would reflect off the Normandy unless the IES absorbed them as well, which in theory it should. They were about to find out if it actually worked as advertised. If a geth ship pulsed a high-powered directional scan on them, at close enough range they would probably be detected, stealth system or not. Unfortunately, with geth ships, no one knew what "close enough" was for their active scanners.
Several seconds later a loud series of high-pitched beeps indicated active scans had directly passed over them. "Just switched to omni." Omnidirectional scans, while able to search in every direction around the ship, had less power than directional scans.
"Did they get a return?" Shepard asked immediately.
"Far below detection threshold. IES absorbed most of it, and our residual signature would be lost in the noise of Knossos." The crew as one breathed a sigh of relief. "Pretty powerful though. If we weren't backlit by the star, and if it was directional, it might approach detection threshold. Ship is not—repeat not—changing course. No, repeat no, spikes from Sierra 2," the crewman said.
"Distance to target?"
"Eleven thousand k."
It took more adrenaline-pumped time to close the distance. "Any sign Sierra 2 is alerted to our position?"
"No, ma'am."
"Joker, close to three k and place us in a shooting position. Keep the FTL drive warmed up." A few seconds passed as Shepard watched the range readout to Sierra 2 get smaller and smaller. 4.5k … 4k … 3.5k … Shepard took a deep breath and said, "Match generated bearings…and shoot."
The Normandy's entire length shuddered as she fired her first ever shot in anger against an enemy target, with four torpedoes magnetically propelled clear of the hull before their motors ignited. While the missiles could be guided to the target by the Normandy's active sensor suite, or the missiles' onboard active scanners, this would betray the stealth ship's or the missiles' position. The missiles could be programmed to start their own active searching for the target, but that would increase the chance of their intercept by point defenses since their locations could be precisely plotted. Instead, the WSO had them be guided by the Normandy's passive sensor suite and the missiles' own passive sensors, which wouldn't betray the launching ship's position. The torpedoes accelerated hard toward the geth frigate.
Normandy's mass accelerator fired slightly over seven seconds after motor ignition on the torpedoes. Magnetic fields held the round, specifically designed to weaken kinetic barriers as much as possible, in place near the breech. Once given the command to fire, projectors first created mass effect fields to reduce the mass of the round in the barrel. Microseconds later, after confirming that the fields were set to the exact specified strength, the capacitors nearest to the breech discharged, dumping their charge into powerful magnets. These exerted extreme magnetic forces on the round, accelerating the round down the barrel into more capacitors that discharged. The process continued down the entire length of the gun, accelerating the slug at a value that could only be expressed exponentially.
The round left the gun at several hundred kilometers per second, silently traversing the empty, starry void. Mass accelerator rounds could normally be tracked by active scans to precisely determine their trajectory upon leaving the barrel. However, those scans would betray the position of a stealth ship. Instead, the back of the shell had a unique, tiny cell that briefly flashed once it was free of the extreme magnetic forces of the gun. This brief thermal signature gave the Normandy the precise trajectory of the shot as it left the barrel. Once fired, it would continue on the trajectory forever, but even a minuscule deviation of the magnetic fields in the gun could cause the shell to miss.
Immediately after the first shot, the Normandy's gun prepared to fire again. The capacitors in the mass accelerator immediately began charging, and the breech opened to accept another anti-barrier round from the magazine. Magnetic fields pulled and held the round into place in the gun, the magazine doors shut, and the breech closed. A myriad of highly receptive sensors lined the entire length of the gun barrel, providing exact information on information such as temperature for the entire length of weapon. Even a tiny difference in temperature of any of the capacitors changed the precise characteristics of the discharge, with a cascading effect that could cause a round to miss. The target only had a cross sectional area of only a few dozen square meters, and was three thousand kilometers distant.
The fire control computer calculated the exact discharge properties for each capacitor based on the present and expected future temperature of each sensor location, accounting for any heating and cooling of the gun as thermal energy was transferred to heat sinks. A couple minuscule tweaks were made to charge levels in the capacitors as they charged. Once at the correct charge level, mass effect fields reduced the mass of the round and the capacitors discharged, sending a second round across the void of space. The load and fire process repeated itself two more times.
Four more missiles loaded into the launch tubes and fired two seconds after the third gun shot. "Wizzo, secure shooting," Shepard said after the fourth shot from the gun. She ordered a course change, and her stomach lurched as Normandy performed a rapid course correction. She was probably being overly cautious, but no one had engaged a geth ship in three hundred years. If the geth were smart, they'd return fire along the line of bearing of the incoming ordnance.
The first salvo of missiles and mass accelerator had been timed to impact the ship at the same time. The geth ship, though alert, wasn't prepared for the sudden attack from the Normandy's location. The incoming missiles, seemingly coming from the star itself, were detected late by passive scanners. The ship reacted to the threat with less than a second before impact. The GARDIAN laser turrets could not pivot in time, and all four of the missiles struck the hull, buckling away a large section of armor plating, and knocking several kinetic barrier projectors offline and damaging a pair of GARDIAN turrets while outright destroying a third. The first cannon slug slammed into the shields at the same time as the missile impacts, which severely degraded the barrier's integrity.
The second gun round impacted slightly more than three seconds after the first, its energy absorbed by the barrier. The third round punched through the weakened kinetic barrier and impacted the hull with its residual energy, buckling a DRA plate. On the second missile salvo GARDIAN defenses destroyed two of the incoming missiles, but the other pair got through, slamming into the weakened hull. The explosions buckled and ripped away armor plating, venting two compartments to the vacuum of space. The fourth slug punched clean through the shields. It impacted the bow just forward of the loading bay next to a vented compartment, punching a jagged hole through armor plating weakened from missile impacts, and stopped only after it crashed into a bank of heat sinks. The geth ship struggled to turn to face its attacker as it lit off it active sensors towards the star to search for its enemy.
The Normandy, however, had already begun to change inclination. When the geth frigate changed orientation, the Normandy was now "above" relative to the plane of the system and to the side the geth ship, and the stealth frigate used her mass effect core to "turn" to keep some closure on the target, able to accelerate in to hit harder with her next main gun rounds.
"Nails. Sierra 2 is searchlighting on our prior bearing, directly towards the star. Just side lobes, no spikes," Sensors said.
"Slugs one through four hit. Missiles one through four hit, along with five and eight. The fourth slug punched clean through the kinetic barrier," the WSO reported. "Missiles will be reloaded from magazine and fueled into tubes in one-nine seconds."
"Copy that, Wizzo. Sensors, damage estimate?" Shepard asked.
"The fourth shot broke through the hull, but it was an anti-barrier round. Likely some level of interior structural damage, and hull plating has been ripped away from the missile impacts, but we can't be sure of the extent without an active scan," the sensors chief reported.
"Joker, position us for another salvo," Shepard ordered.
Tali looked at the ship profile and the possible extent of damage. The ship was about one and a half times the size of the Normandy. The geth frigate was long and slender, and its roughly oblate cylindrical shape curved downward at the front to make room and clearance for the bow mounted mass accelerator. It looked very…different, though, than the geth ships that her people had last seen, with an odd design she would never have expected from a warship. But judging from composition and estimated damage, the best place to hit it would be about…she paused for a moment as she evaluated the probable damage and the ship…here… "I'd advise that our next salvo impacts this point on the ship," the quarian said, placing a cursor on the holographic three-dimensional map of the ship that had replaced the galaxy map.
"Wizzo, set it up," Shepard said immediately.
"Yes, ma'am." He had already selected anti-armor rounds, the long, narrow rods having been designed to penetrate armor plating.
"Get us into position, Joker."
"Aye, aye, Commander," the pilot said.
"Ma'am, their drive core is warming up," sensors said.
"Get us into shooting position. Now. They're going to rabbit to FTL," Shepard said. The Normandy was less than three hundred kilometers away when Shepard said, "Match bearings and shoot."
Four missiles and an anti-armor round streaked towards the target. "Shoot again. Joker, get us out of here." Another round lanced towards the target, then the Normandy used her drive core to "dive" relative to the plane of the system, causing Shepard's stomach to lurch again, then pitched back "up" a few moments later. Another gun salvo streaked toward the geth ship as the Normandy's bow pointed once again at the geth frigate.
The first slug from the second salvo glanced off the armor, hitting at a near parallel angle to the remaining armor plating, causing minimal damage. The second slug had the opposite effect, nearly gutting the ship. The shot found one of the shredded armor plates created by the previous weapons. It punched clean through to the interior of the ship, destroying everything in its path as it crashed through bulkhead after bulkhead, only stopping when it reached the inside of the armor plating near the stern. The inside of the armor plating, though tough, wasn't designed to absorb the brunt of a kinetic energy penetrator hitting it from the inside. The entire section of armor plate buckled, ripping apart several bulkheads in the process and damaging the remainder of the GARDIAN turrets.
The missiles arrived next. All of the missiles from the salvo got past the degraded GARDIAN system, slamming into the hull near the center of the ship, forward of the reactor. The missiles' high explosive and mass effect fields turned the majority of the remaining superstructure into ribbons, shredding a trio of GARDIAN turrets and nearly a dozen barrier projectors. The final slug slammed into the already damaged Category-A plating surrounding the reactor.
"Energy surge from that last hit," Greico reported. "Signature of Sierra 2 fading slightly."
"Is Sierra 2 changing course?"
"Negative, Commander."
"Come around, Joker. Wizzo, prepare another gun salvo."
"Ma'am, Sierra 2 is dead in the water. No engine power, not even SK thrusters firing," sensors reported.
"Is their GARDIAN warm?" she asked.
"No, ma'am. Their weapons, thrusters, and engines all have only residual power. Signatures show that their reactor is not generating any power, just residual heat. Minimal power signature from the ship, likely from backup systems."
"Commander, that final round likely hit very close to where we would expect their reactor to be," Tali added.
"Wizzo, belay the last. Pump GARDIAN to full capacity. Target their weapon hardpoints."
"Aye, aye, Commander," the WSO responded as the Normandy closed to within a couple dozen kilometers of the geth ship. He opened fire with the Normandy's laser batteries. Beams of infrared radiation invisible to the naked eye lanced toward the geth frigate, melting the now unshielded weapon hardpoints. After several seconds Shepard ordered the Normandy to secure shooting and move to a new position. The stealth frigate repeated the process, a predator circling its wounded, drifting prey. The geth frigate knew where its assailant was, or at least where the stealthy ship was when it fired, but had no charge with which to fire weapons. No active scans, directional or omni, came from the geth ship.
"Advise scram," sensors stated quickly.
"Scram," Shepard said immediately. "Secure shooting. Prepare to jump to FTL." The commander was being overly cautious, but no one had engaged a geth ship in 300 years; no one knew if the synthetics had been cooking up something new in the past three centuries. Shepard didn't want to take that chance. The Normandy's engines fired, betraying her position but rapidly accelerating the ship away.
"Strange signals from Sierra 2. Now a burst transmission and they're charging – " Greico started to say.
"Damn," three voices said nearly at once. The marker in the hologram denoting the geth frigate suddenly disappeared.
"Ma'am, Sierra 2 has self-destructed," Greico stated.
"It knew what we were doing," Pressly said slowly. "It knew we were going to disable it for salvage."
"Belay the jump and scram." The commander let out a sigh. "Power up the AESA," she ordered. "Full omni pulses for two seconds. Then searchlight on the bearing of the remains."
"Aye, aye, Commander," a crewman next to the sensors console responded. "Ready," he said after a couple moments.
"Energize."
The extremely powerful but rarely used active scanners on the Normandy pulsed omnidirectionally for two seconds to detect everything in proximity. The subsequent directional scans produced a very high resolution three-dimensional visualization of the remains, and was followed up by precise lidar imaging of the largest pieces of debris. "Nothing within five light-seconds of us," the chief reported after ten seconds. "The largest remaining piece of the geth ship is approximately the size of a large skycar."
Probably nothing particularly useful left… Shepard thought. She had hoped to leave the geth ship as intact as possible in order for future salvage once its reactor had been knocked out. "Was hoping for something larger," she said quietly and with another sigh. "Thank you, Chief. Track and project the trajectories of all of the large pieces of debris. One of them just might have something useful to salvage and study." She paused for a moment before her face broke into a grin and she said, "Excellent work, everyone! Beautiful job! You know the last time anyone killed a geth ship? Humans hadn't even invented the airplane!" She paused for several moments, allowing that fact to sink in to her crew. Despite the seriousness that permeated duty in CIC, the crew exchanged a few grins. "We're not done yet, though. The geth came for whatever, or whoever, is on Therum. Stay on your toes, people; more geth ships could drop out of FTL at any moment. Nav, plot an oblique course for Therum, once the heat is dumped and IES reengaged we'll head directly in. Thermal, disengage the IES and flip on the DRAs."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," the thermal crewman said. He also believed it was a smart move. The Normandy had accumulated a lot of heat in the battle, doubly from the heat stored in the stealth system. The IES could absorb some more, but it would be safer just to dump the heat now, as there weren't any other ships in system, and another space battle would force them to radiate.
"Remain at Condition-1 until the heat is dumped and we go silent," Shepard said. "Link us into the comm buoy. Send status to Fifth Fleet with all the data from the engagement and the trajectories of the remains of the geth ship. Get a status update from Therum's colonial administration."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
Along the Normandy's hull, the diffuse radiator arrays kicked on. The DRAs soon began to glow in the visible bands of red light as the temperature continued to increase, shifting the peak of the blackbody curve into the shortwave infrared bands. The Normandy's heat exchanger was not as useful this close to a star. The droplet heat exchanger primarily relied on the "freezing" of tiny liquid lithium droplets. Still, the liquid pellets were released from the bow and collected at the stern, freezing in the usually cold vacuum of space in the process and helping to dump even more thermal energy from the ship.
"Just moseying on in," Joker muttered. The Normandy moved towards Therum at practically a crawl, in space travel terms, as she radiated thermal energy to space.
Shepard looked at the plotted trajectories of the debris from the geth ship on one of her displays. The geth ship had slowed down drastically to turn and attempt to engage the Normandy after the second salvo, and as a result it hadn't been traveling fast enough to reach solar escape velocity. As a result, the orbital tracks of the debris were a highly elliptical orbit with periods of a few dozen years. And the engagement had been fought in the orbital plane of the planets in the system… "Oof," the commander said as she winced. "Look at these orbital tracks of the debris."
Pressly brought up the tracks and spent several seconds reviewing the data. "That's going to be a problem at some point," he said. The ever-expanding debris cloud would need to be avoided in the future for ships dropping out of FTL in-system.
"Eh, it'll be fine," Joker said dismissively over the comm. "Space is vast – the two of you worry too much."
"Tell that to the OOD when the Somme hit battle debris," Pressly replied. The unlucky frigate in question had hit battle debris when at sublight speed in system. Fortunately they hadn't been at true relativistic speeds, or worse, at FTL, but it had nevertheless caused massive damage to the hull and superstructure. The kinetic barriers were only able to stop so much energy. "I'd prefer not to be handed a pail and shovel and dropped on a beach somewhere."
"Speak for yourself, sir," the WSO replied. "I wouldn't mind assignment on a beach."
"Need to specify that you want sun, warm temperatures, and sand. Beaches in Antarctica. Northern Canada, too," Joker added.
"Joker, with your feral-looking beard, you wouldn't look that out of place in Antarctica or the Yukon, trying to hunt and eat seals with your bare hands," Alenko interjected.
Shepard partially suppressed a fit of the giggles at the thought of Joker as a feral seal hunter or fur trapper. "All right, settle down, gentlemen," she said after her laughter subsided. While the pilot was right, and the chance of impact with debris, or with micrometeroids, was tiny, the damage caused by such impacts ranged from severe to catastrophic. "I'll start filling out the NOTHS. It was my idea to fire backlit by the star, after all, and not fight out-of-plane."
"We'll just have to do a faster job killing them next time," the WSO said. If a ship was destroyed while traveling at more than a few dozen kilometers per second around the star, the debris would usually be on a hyperbolic escape trajectory and be ejected from the system within a couple dozen years.
Thirty seconds later the comm officer stated, "Data sent to Fifth Fleet and receipted, ma'am. The colonial administration responded with additional information. No other known ships in-system, and the ship had ignored all of their outposts. Their interest seems to be solely in the prothean ruins."
Shepard let out a relieved sigh that civilians were not in danger. "Get more info from them on the ruins."
"Aye aye, ma'am." Two more minutes passed. "These ruins are off-limits to civilians, but exceptions can be given. One of those very exceptions was given two days ago to an asari researcher. One Dr. Liara T'Soni."
"Well, the geth searching for her have no ship to back them up, at least at the moment. Let's dump more heat in case we get more geth company." Hopefully the doctor can take care of herself for the next hour or so…well, presuming she's on our side.
Shepard kept the conn with Pressly, then went to briefly congratulate several of the crew, finishing with a slightly longer talk with Tali, and briefly stopping at the front of the ship to congratulate Joker.
It took several minutes before the thermal crewman said, "We've dumped 60% of the heat we can at this distance from Knossos."
"Good enough," Shepard said. "Snooze."
"IES…engaged."
"Set Condition-3. Plot a direct course for Therum," Shepard said. The watch would be more crewed than normal, but this would allow a good portion of the crew to take a break. Most went to the restrooms, then would go to the mess for chow. "Find an LZ as close as you can get to the ruins. Lieutenant Pressly, you have the deck," she said.
"I have the deck, Commander," Pressly said, reflecting on the outcome of the battle. The shots had been well placed for it to have been over so quickly. But the stealth system was what made the biggest difference. It allowed the Normandy to pick the time and place of the attack, and all the enemy could do was react.
Shepard thought for a second. "Alenko, Garrus, and Wrex: meet me down in the loading bay," she said. She decided on a balanced team, a mix of combat abilities, tech abilities, and biotic abilities, though with herself the balance naturally leaned strongly towards biotics.
"Yes, ma'am," Alenko said.
"Understood, Commander," Garrus responded.
"I'm already down here," the krogan said in a grumpy voice. "Took you long enough."
The commander couldn't help but grin at Wrex's response. A krogan killing stuff was a happy krogan, and Shepard didn't want Wrex any grouchier because he was cooped up in a ship for days at a time. She left another reason unsaid; she wanted him as backup in case they needed to subdue Dr. T'Soni. Shepard doubted that would be an issue from what she had read about Benezia and Liara, but she would prefer to avoid the situation entirely. The commander knew what would happen if she had to face a powerful asari biotic in a duel. She had faced asari commandos before, and she was the one still standing. "Emerson and Tali: get ready to drop in the Mako if things get too hot down there. Williams: you're in charge of the Mako if we need fire support."
"Aye, skipper," Williams said.
"Yes, ma'am," the corporal responded.
"Understood, Commander," the quarian said.
Both the chief and the corporal were excellent drivers, and had scored higher than anyone else on the ship in driving and shooting tests for the six-wheeled vehicle. Tali was an electronics whiz; she along with the two marines could repair anything that might conceivably break in the Mako.
"Incoming message from Fifth Fleet. It includes an audio file," the communications officer said.
"Let's hear it."
"To the Normandy: ," the voice of Admiral Steven Hackett said, "Great job destroying the geth ship. The techs are already starting to salivate over the data you've sent from the engagement. Excellent work. Fifth Fleet out." A wave of grins spread amongst everyone in CIC, directed at her and each other. A warm, pleased feeling spread throughout the commander. The grins and expressions amongst the crew meant more to her than any superior officer's words ever would.
The happy mood ended several moments later, as the sensors chief updated them. "Commander, I've detected a geth presence at the ruins. I can't determine exact strength at this distance, but there are probably several dozen units."
"Drop us away from any geth signals. I don't want to risk the ship if they have heavy weapons or tanks," Shepard ordered.
"Good, I just had her washed and waxed," Joker quipped.
"There's a spot in a valley about two clicks from the ruins. Close to the ruins, easy enough to land, and hidden by a couple ridges from the geth signals."
"Sounds good, Greico. That's our LZ."
Shepard made her way down to the crew quarters, holding the elevator for Emerson. The elevator was just so slow, as it took nearly five seconds to get down to the loading bay. The most advanced ship in the galaxy and we have an elevator that's slower than a damned snail, she thought.
"What's the plan, Commander?" Emerson asked.
"We're going to dump the drive charge by grounding. Pressly's going to drop the four of us off as close as he can to those ruins, then take off again and provide fire support. If we need vehicle support, he'll drop you guys off. This terrain looks pretty rough, so I don't want to commit a vehicle unless there's heavy action; extraction could be a little dicey. "
"I hear you, ma'am. That terrain looks pretty craggy. Be careful down there, ma'am."
"You too, Corporal. I get the feeling we will need your support before long."
The doors finally opened, and Shepard saw that Kaidan, Garrus, and Wrex had already suited up. Williams and Tali were already over at the Mako, double checking things. Williams still had her jumpsuit on, but she had her armor out.
Shepard and Emerson grabbed their armor and went over to Williams. Shepard removed her alternate set, making sure the diagnostics all returned green. Finished, she put on the armor, and the three of them checked each other's gear.
"Touchdown in two minutes," Joker's voice said over the comm.
"Chief, if we need some backup I'll radio Joker to drop you guys off to provide support."
"Aye, skipper," Williams responded.
Shepard went over to the ground team. "Everyone set?"
All three of the ground team affirmed.
"Be ready. We're probably on a timer before more hostile ships appear in orbit around Therum. We need to eliminate all the geth we encounter and find Dr. T'Soni," she said.
"What do we do if she isn't cooperative?" Garrus asked.
"Then we subdue her. Between the four of us, that shouldn't be too difficult," the commander replied. She would prefer things not to come to that.
"Okay," Garrus said with a hint of unease. If you say so, the turian didn't say out loud.
Shepard outlined her plan. Wrex simply nodded with a slight grin on his face as he popped his shoulders, more than a little elated for finally getting to shoot at something.
"No drones, I presume," Alenko stated.
"No drones," Shepard confirmed. "No point in having them just get hacked within a few seconds." She had wanted to get Tali to look into it, but the Alliance was very touchy about giving someone outside the Alliance access to their encryption devices.
"Thirty seconds to touchdown," Joker said.
Shepard made sure she brought extra energy injections and two full canteens of water. Each of the fireteam had medigel and plenty of overload grenades. Wrex carried a couple extra weapons on his back as well as even more grenades; Shepard hadn't asked him to, but the krogan no doubt simply liked firearms and explosives. She figured he simply found delight in any form of weaponry.
There was a slight jolt as the Normandy's landing struts touched ground. A moment later a voice said, "Drive core discharged. Clear to jump."
Shepard jumped off the ramp towards Therum's surface a meter below.