The Listening Outposts:
After Shepard and her team returned to the Normandy, she had gathered her team into the meeting room. With Benezia down, they had to start planning their next move. "What's our next move Commander?" Ashley asked "Are we going to head to the Mu relay?"
Shepard shook her head "We know that Saren is looking for the Mu relay but we don't know where he's heading through it. They relay could link to dozens of systems, unless we know which one he is heading for, we can't go there yet."
"The commander is right." Liara stated "We know the Mu Relay will take Saren to this conduit but we still don't know where it is. We need to find out more"
"Liara's right." Bau stated "I'll speak with the council and see if they have anymore leads." He then sighed "I'll also need to send my report to them; they aren't going to be very happy about the Rachni."
"This is a tough mission." Shepard stated "But until we know more about Saren, we can't go running blind. For now, dismissed."
The crew began to leave except for Verbro who walked towards Shepard "Hey Commander, while you were down on Noveria, we heard a distress call from the nearby Strenuus system. There was a distress from a ship that has been attacked, it had a republic signal."
"And Republic law states that if we hear a ship in distress then we must assist them." Shepard added "Alright, we'll go check it out."
...
The Strennus system was in the same Horse Head cluster just like the Pax system where Noveria was located. This system had five planets which included two standard hydrogen-helium gas giant called Antitarra and Thesalgon. Then there was a lifeless rock known as Trekyn which is covered in craters and a Salarian religious cult claims to resemble their goddess. The first planet in the system did look like it could be habitable but due to its close proximity to the sun, the planet was too hot but a scan did uncover a space probe where a League of One medallion was uncovered. But it was the final planet Xawin that was discovered to have the distress signal. This small ice planet had a damaged Republic Freighter called the RSV Majesty nearby which had recently seen battle against someone either Geth or pirates. The ship had been blown open but the escape pods had been launched.
Shepard looked at the wreckage of the freighter from the Normandy's Bridge "Commander, the distress signal is coming from a base on Xawin." Joker commented "But I'm detecting a Mercenary base, you'll have to use the Mako to go down their. I can't land due to there being a few anti-ship turrets surrounding the base."
"I'll take the Mako down there." Shepard stated "Get Kaiden, Verbro, Garrus and Bakira down to the bay, I'll take them on this mission."
"Aye Commander." Luke stated "But one last warning, the planet is very cold and even your suits will only protect you for so long. Remain in the Mako as much as you can."
"Alright Luke." Shepard stated and she left the room.
…
As soon as her team was assembled, the Mako was launched and they landed on the surface of Xawin as close as they could to the Mercenary base. The quickest route was to travel north west from the landing site towards the base and on the way, they came across an old Turian wreckage where Garrus identified the insignia that was marked on the wreckage as belonging to the Chatti outpost.
After that, they carried on going towards their target and eventually, they arrived at the base which was surrounded by four heavy turrets as well as a few watchtowers with snipers on. Thanks to the Turrets, Pekue had to keep driving to stay out of range of the turrets but Bakira had an idea. She was an explosives expert and told Shepard that she could blow the turrets up. So she was dropped off at one of the turrets along with Garrus who gave her covering fire. Garrus was able to take out several snipers using his own sniper rifle and Bakira got to the controls of one of the turrets. The Mako kept fire off of them while Bakira worked and soon she was able to hack the turrets and set them to self-destruct which they did. Kaiden in the Mako then took out the last of the Snipers and they were then able to enter the outpost.
The outpost was small, there was not much in this base but it was being used as a base for privateers. Privateers were basically legal pirates, who raided enemy ships in times of war and were employed by different factions, but right now, the Republic was not at war and so privateers were not needed so it was known for privateers to go into piracy which seemed to be the case here. Shepard's seem were able to quickly take out the pirates and went to see if they could find any information. When they entered the offices, they found the body of a human officer wearing a republic uniform. His ID identified him as Captain Wilhelm of the RSV Majesty, the freighter that was drifting above Xawin. It seemed that be had managed to get into an escape pod and escape with some of his crew but were captured. A video recording nearby show that he had been beaten by the pirates which explained the bruises on him and they were trying to get information about Republic shipping to raid. Wilhelm refused to tell them anything and eventually, he was beaten to death but his death was very recent. Shepard took Wilhelm's code stick and rank plaque so that he could give them to his family.
Shepard looked at her team "We're done here now so I guess we should blow this place up." She stated "That way it won't just get occupied by more mercenaries."
Bakira nodded "I found some high explosives in the cargo bay." She stated "I'll rig them to explode after we leave." Bakira quickly set all of the explosives in one area of the base and was able to arm a remote detonator to explode the base when they left. After the explosives were set, Shepard and her team left the base and got into the Mako and drove away. When they were a safe distance, Bakira activated the detonator and there was the sound of a colossal explosion as the base exploded. Then Shepard radioed Joker to pick them up.
...
After Shepard arrived back on the Normandy, she was contacted by Communication Officer Doka Phasa "Commander, we've got a transmission from Republic Headquarters, Colonel Yularen would like a word with you."
"Copy Phasa" Shepard replied, "I'll be right over there." Shepard soon made her way over to the Normandy's Communication's room which was near the Communication's array of the Normandy which allowed them to transmit messages. The Togruta Officer was waiting for her.
"Commander, Colonel Yularen is contacting you. He needs to speak with you in person, I'm patching him through." Doka Phasa stated and she activated the hologram and Colonel Yularen appeared.
"Commander Shepard." Yularen stated "I've read your report on Noveria, I can't say that the Senate is happy but most of them are glad that you didn't kill this Rachni Queen, we don't want to be responsible to causing a whole race to die out."
"But I guess the Citadel aren't too happy." Shepard replied
"They aren't" Yularen replied "But there isn't much that can be done about it right now. But there is one thing, our listening outposts in the Styx Theta have saddening been attacked and the creatures that are attacking them match the descriptions of the Rachni, we need you to go and investigate."
"Wait, hold did the Rachni get there?" Shepard questioned "The Styx Theta is in Republic Territory and is far away from Noveria?"
"I'm hoping that you will be able to provide us answers." Yularen stated "Normally Republic Command would have sent a unit of troopers there to investigate but I have a feeling that Saren is behind this. If he's aware of our listening Outposts then he may be using the Rachni to destroy them. It may be best to leave our Spectre Friend out of this one, we don't want the Citadel to know that we've been spying on them."
"Understood Colonel." Shepard replied and ended the call then she contacted Joker "Joker, we've got another mission, take us to the Styx Theta."
"Aye Commander." Joker replied over the comm, "Plotting a course to the Styx Theta, we should be there in a few hours."
...
As the Normandy went through hyperspace towards the Styx Theta, Shepard decided to go and speak with Garrus down in the Cargo Bay. "Hey Commander." Garrus greeted when he saw Shepard approach "Is there something you want to talk about?"
"I'm curious Garrus." Shepard stated "You told me before about your dad being in C-Sec and he was someone who played by the rules."
"My dad was someone who played by the rules because of what he had seen." Garrus stated "I didn't tell anyone this before but my dad was on Shanxi during the war."
Ashley had overheard them "Your dad fought on Shanxi?" she questioned "My granddad was the commander of the Garrison there."
Garrus looked at Ashley "My dad wasn't a commander; he was just a regular soldier obeying his order. He was under the command of Adrian Victus, one of the best commanders in the Turian Hierarchy, but even Victus was having second thoughts about this war. When he was deployed, he said that they were told that they were defending the galaxy from danger but it soon became clear that it was just a war of conquest and to show that the Turians were the strongest race. Shanxi never surrendered and we encountered strong resistance from the locals which would sometimes wipe out whole units, our weapons were almost useless against those massive walkers. So eventually, the overall Commander of the Turian Force, Desolas Arterius started to order the massacres of towns. When this order was issued some Turians began to mutiny, Adrian and my father included as this went against the rules of war."
Shepard caught something "Hold on, is this Desolas the brother of Saren, they share the same last name."
"Saren and Desolas were brothers" Garrus stated "After the Turians were defeated, Desolas ended up being killed during the battle and my father was captured along with many other Turians. It took a lot of negotiation from the Citadel to release the captured Turians. Some of them were having mental problems; my father included which is why he left the army and went into a life at C-sec. But as a result of seeing laws being broken in war, he was determined to obey the laws."
"That's quite a story Garrus." Shepard stated
"Thanks Commander." Garrus stated "Now I think you should speak with Liara, she may be going through a lot since her mother has just died."
"Good point." Shepard stated "I'll go and speak with her."
...
Shepard went up to the small office where Liara was using as her place of rest. Private Westmoreland had been standing watch in order to keep an eye on her but Shepard felt like that wasn't necessary. As she entered, she found Liara sitting at her desk with her head in her hands. When she saw Shepard enter, she stood up and looked at her "If you're here to talk about my mother's death then you don't need to." Liara stated "She brought it on herself."
Shepard sighed "You don't need to pretend that it doesn't bother you." She stated "She was still your mother."
Liara sat down "She was but then she was not. I prefer to remember my mother as what she used to be and not corrupted by Saren."
"The best of your mother still lives on within you." Shepard stated "Her determination, her intelligence, her strength..."
"And her love" Liara added "When I was a young girl I was often picked on because of my father."
"You seem to know a lot about your mother but not your father." Shepard stated
"My mother never talked about my father, only that my father was also an Asari." Liara stated "The Asari are mono-gendered, male and female have no terms. When Asari breed they only need to form a spiritual connection to become pregnant and it can be with any race and any gender. Other races do find that strange but it's how the Asari have lived for thousands of years. Before we helped form the Citadel, Asari would have bred among themselves but today, that is frowned on. I was called pureblood since both my parents were Asari and some Asari scientists today believe that it makes us unfertile. Anyway, I am happy that you came to talk to me but I'm fine. By the way, I am curious, what were your parents like?"
"Both my parents served in the Republic Navy." Shepard replied "My family have a history of serving in the navy and in fact, my family name goes back hundreds of year back when humanity was starting spaceflight. This was before we met the Chiss but one of my ancestors was Alan Shepard, the second person on Earth to travel in Space back in a time when humanity was divided. My mother is currently the XO on the Dreadnought Kilimanjaro, my father however is dead. He was the XO on the Cruiser Broadsword as part of the Second Fleet during the Verge Wars. But during the Battle of Sullust, the Broadsword got heavily damaged and my father was ejected into space when the Broadsword blew apart. Luckily he had his space suit on but he got exposed to the vacuum and he died from complications."
"Oh man." Liara sighed "I'm sorry about your father."
"It's hard to watch a family member die." Shepard stated "I had just graduated from the Academy and he was able to see me get my first assignment before he died, but it was still hard for us."
"Well it was nice to talk about our families." Liara stated "But you might want to prepare for your next mission because I think we're approaching our destination."
...
The Styx Theta Cluster was located very close to the galactic core and is considered a very dangerous cluster. The Republic only used this cluster to establish listening outposts to listen to the Citadel and make sure that they weren't planning an attack, the Republic was sure that the Citadel's spectres as well as the STG were listening to the Republic as well. The name of the cluster came from the ancient Greek tale of the River Styx which separated the world of the living and the world of the dead.
The Normandy arrived in the Erebus System which was home to four planets and an asteroid belt. The outermost planet was a hydrogen helium gas giant called Chofen that had a strong atmosphere that crushed most probes so investigation was limited. The next planet was Wermani, another gas giant and scans found an automatic repair drone in orbit which was brought on board and disassembled by Tali and Engineer Adams to find a small Prothean Data Disk. Then Quaji was next and this small terrestrial planet had a surface of silicone with deposits of uranium and other heavy metals.
But it was the closest planet to the sun that was the one that had the listening post. The planet Nepmos was a resource rich world that was full of mineral that would have been a good mining world but there were a number of problems, the crust was very thin and unstable and only 8 kilometres deep at any location which caused frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and since the Styx Theta Cluster was close to the Galactic core, the area was too dangerous to travel which was why there was a listening outpost as no one would think it was here.
As the Normandy approached Nepmos, Doka contacted Shepard "Commander, we're got a transmission from Nepmos, I'm patching it through to you now."
"Mayday, mayday." The transmission said "This is Lieutenant Marie Durand, 3-14th Infantry, Republic 10th Frontier Division. We've been overrun by unidentified Alien life forms. We request immediate extraction."
Luke then contacted Shepard "Commander, I can't extract them until the area is safe, you'll have to use the Mako to clear the area before I can extract them with the shuttle."
"I'll take a team down there now." Shepard stated "Contact Ashley, Kaidan, Verbro and his team, I'll take them on this mission."
...
The Mako landed on Nempos and Pekue began to drive towards the site of the distress signal. On the way, they found a crashed probe with a league of One Medallion inside. Then as they carried on driving, Pekue stopped.
"Commander I'm picking up life form readings on the radar." She said
Then there were several dirt explosions as creatures emerged from the ground. Kaidan got onto the machine gun while Shepard used the cannon and they quickly took out the creatures. But Kaidan recognised them.
"Commander, those were Rachni just like we encountered on Noveria." He stated "How did they get here, Noveria has no contact with these systems?"
"I guess we'll find out when we reach the Listening outpost." Shepard stated "Carry on Pekue."
...
Pekue carried on driving towards the location of the distress signal and they found a group of about 5 soldiers facing off against a swarm of Rachni that were emerging from the ground. The fight was not going well for the marines but the appearance of Shepard and the Mako turned the tide as the Mako's cannon was able to blow the Rachni up. When the Rachni were defeat, Shepard and her team left the Mako and Shepard walked over to the Commanding officer.
"First Lieutenant Durand Ma'am." The leader greeted with a salute "Third Brigade, 14th infantry Regiment and we're damn glad to see you."
"Commander Shepard, captain of the RSV Normandy." Shepard greeted "Colonel Yularen stated that there was an attack here and sent us to investigate."
"Actually, we need to get out of here." Durand stated "We don't know what these creatures are but they started emerging from the ground here a few days ago. They overran the listening outpost and drove us here. We were making our last stand when you came. It's just us now, everyone else is dead. Just five out of 90 people."
"These creatures are known as the Rachni." Kaidan stated "But they're not suppose to be here, they were made extinct thousands of years ago and while we found some on Noveria from breeding, they still shouldn't have arrived here."
"I don't really care what they are but they're a danger to us." Durand stated "We need to get out of here."
"I can get a shuttle down but we need to make sure this area is safe." Shepard replied.
"We sent a probe and it seems there are more coming." Durand stated "If we take them out then it should be safe for your shuttle. This would have been easier if our cannons were activated but we lost power to them in the last attack."
Verbro looked at the Mako "Commander, if we hook the Mako to the grid it should give the automatic cannons enough energy to work again. It will shut the Mako down but it will give us more cannons."
Shepard agreed with that idea "Do it Verbro." She ordered and then Pekue drove the Mako close to the power grid and then Verbro hooked the Mako to the grid. The lights in the Mako shut down but the emergency lighting gave Pekue light and then lights on the automatic cannons lit up. Then Shepard and her team took cover behind the barricades as more Rachni emerged from the holes.
With the cannons activated, they blasted the Rachni as they emerged and any that survived were gunned down by Shepard's team. Corporal Sarah Westmoreland, one of Verbro's top men was an expert Sniper and she hide in a small tower and sniped the Rachni. More and more Rachni came but eventually, they stopped. After 10 minutes with no Rachni, it was deemed safe.
Durand sighed in relief "I can't believe we made it." She said "I thought we were going to die here. We've been fighting for almost 26 hours straight. It feels good to finally relax. The area should be safe for now."
Shepard contacted the Normandy "Joker, the area is clear, send Luke down in the Shuttle to pick up the survivors."
"Thank you for all your help ma'am" Durand replied "I owe you for this. But there is one last thing I should mention. The other listening Outpost in the Acheron System went offline three days ago. It may have some information about where these creatures came from. I don't know if it's a coincidence but you should probably go and check it out."
"I will." Shepard stated "As soon as we're done here we'll go check the outpost. I don't know why the Rachni are loose out here but I'm going to find out."
Then one of Durand's men came over "Ma'am, we're getting a signal from one of our ground-scan UAVs. There's a big hollow space about 500 meters under the surface."
"Right, that must be where these creatures are coming from." Durand stated "But my people are in no position for a ground clearing operation."
"I'll send word to Commander Yularen on the Normandy." Shepard stated "The Republic will send someone to investigate this."
...
A while later, Luke arrived on the Shuttle and Durand and her troops entered and were taken back to the Normandy. Shepard and her team were picked up by the Normandy after they returned to the Mako. Gunnery Officer Zitt wanted to use the Normandy's cannons to fire on Nempos to wipe out the Rachni but that would have been a waste since the Rachni were underground. So Shepard decided to investigate the other listening Outpost to try and get answers and Joker plotted a course for the Acheron System.
...
As the Normandy was heading down to the Acheron System, Shepard went towards the barracks and saw the Krogan Mercenary Wrex chatting with Verbro and his team. As Shepard approached, Wrex looked at her "Shepard, I was just speaking to your army man here about what just happened, is it true you fought the Rachni on Noveria."
"We did." Shepard replied "On Noveria they found an old Rachni Queen egg and were using it to create their own army."
"Science like that is dangerous." Wrex replied "I may not be a scientist but even I know the dangers of the Rachni. Hell, if it wasn't for the Krogan then the Citadel would have been destroyed thousands of years ago during the Rachni Wars."
Campbell looked at Wrex "I've heard of these Rachni Wars but I don't know much about them."
Wrex looked at her "I can't tell you much because I wasn't around at that time. But basically a Salarian patrol found the Rachni homeworld and the Rachni soon began to speak across the galaxy destroying Citadel colonies. At the time it the Citadel didn't have a massive fleet since the Turians hadn't been found yet. It was only when the Salarians found my people were we able to turn the tide against the Rachni."
"But didn't the Salarians uplifting you destroy your home?" Westmoreland asked
Wrex shook his head "No, the Krogan destroyed our home planet long before the Salarians uplifted us. After we destroyed the Rachni we were given new planets to settle on. But to some Krogan, it wasn't enough, we bred too quickly and Krogans loved to fight so eventually the Krogan Rebellions began. We smash Citadel forces even when the Turians got involved, it was only when the Genophage was unleashed that the we were forced to give us."
"What is this Genophage?" Shepard asked
"The Genophage was a type of disease that attacks the fertility of Krogan." Wrex replied "It makes only 1 in 1000 births successful so Krogan can't breed too often. No one has cured it because the Krogan prefer fighting to science but even I admit that my species is dying. If we have a major war then the Krogan may die off but the Citadel wouldn't care, that was why the Genophage was creates as it would prevent us from launching another war."
"So what happened to the Krogan after the War?" Verbro asked
"After the Rebellions, we lost all right to having our own army and fleet which is why the Krogan work alone as mercenaries." Wrex replied "No Krogan clan has been able to unite the Krogan into one group. I actually tried that once. I was the leader of a small tribe trying to restore order but the other Krogan tribes were against us. These tribes followed a Krogan called Jarrod, he was one of the few Warlords left from the Krogan Rebellions, he was old and so were his ideas. He wanted to continue the war; fight the Turians, the Salarians, each other. It didn't matter who as long as we were fighting."
"And what did you want?" Shepard asked
"I just wanted Jarrod to shut up and so did many other Krogan." Wrex replied "Many saw war with the Citadel as a fools errand since we wouldn't be able to replenish our numbers. I told them to forget about war and focus on breeding and for a while it was working, we were increasing our numbers and some of the tribes were coming around and started listening to me."
"And I take it that this Jarrod didn't like that?" Shepard questioned
"No he didn't." Wrex stated "And then he did something totally unexpected, he arranged a Crush with the tribes, a meeting on neutral grounds, he wanted to talk. So we met at the Hollows, near the graves of our ancestors, it was to remind us of where we came from. This was the once place where violence was forbidden and none of us were expecting any violence. We thought Jarrod would respect our traditions but it seemed he didn't"
Shepard looked at Wrex "That sound like a trap to me, you should have seen it coming"
"I did." Wrex stated "But when your father invites you to a crush, you have to go."
"Wait, Jarrod was your father?" Campbell gasped
"He was until that day." Wrex replied "We talked but we didn't go anywhere and when it was clear that I wouldn't join Jarrod, he gave the signal. Then many of his men burst from the graves and attacked us. Jarrod broke our most sacred laws and the few that were loyal to me were killed. I was able to escape but not before I buried my dagger deep into my father's heart. That was why I left my homeworld and I've never been back since."
"That was quite a story Wrex." Shepard stated
"I guess it is." Wrex stated "And you know, it feels good to finally talk about it."
"I should go now." Shepard stated and looked at Verbro "And you better get ready for our mission."
"Aye Commander." Verbro stated and he left with Campbell and Westmoreland to prepare for their mission.
...
The Normandy soon arrived in the Acheron System, just like the Erebus System, the names of the planets come from Ancient Greek Mythology from the underworld. The first planet Farthori was a modest terrestrial planet with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and chlorine. The crust was made of sulphur with a few deposits of nickel and had a very rough terrain made up of craggy overlapping craters which date to the formation of the planet. This planet was also tidally locked to the sun and the day side of Farthori has never been mapped.
The small planet of Grosalgen was a tiny ice planet made of frozen water and chlorine with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and ethane while the planet of Imaneya was a large terrestrial world composed of water ice and an atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon monoxide. There was also an asteroid belt where scans picked up a signs from a battle in the belt and a scans found wreck ships left over from the Turian Unification wars with marks from the Epyrus Colony so at one point, the Turians had fought in this system before the Republic claimed this territory.
But it was the second planet from the sun, Altahe that was the planet of interest. Actually there are two planets, Altahe and Ontahe but they're what's known as a Roche world where two planets are locked together in orbit and share the same atmosphere. Altahe was where the Listening Outpost was located and soon the Mako was launched from the Normandy and landed on the planet.
Pekue drove the Normandy south from the landing site and not far from where the listening outpost was, they found a crashed satellite and Shepard found the writings of the Asari Matriarch Dilinaga stored in the payload. After removing the writings, they carried on until they reached the Listening Outpost where the Rachni had nested outside so this outpost was invested as well. The crew quickly took out the Rachni with the Mako before they went inside the Outpost.
Inside the Outpost was carnage. The whole base looked like it had been ransacked, supply crates were smashed, computers were destroyed and bodies had been torn apart. The crew of the Outpost were dead as there were no people who were still alive. Shepard and the team quickly took out the Rachni, without the Queen to guide them, these Rachni had become feral but how had they got here in the first place. They soon found their answers in the supply room where Shepard found a terminal.
"Hey Commander." Ashley stated "Do you see this, this outpost received a supply run a few days ago, these Rachni work quick."
"Does it say where the supply ship came from?" Shepard asked "This base has a small crew and the Rachni are not suppose to be here. That ship must have brought them here and I guess it may be involved with the Rachni we found on Nempos."
"Hold on" Ashley stated "I just need to track the shipments, okay it seems the supply ship came from a station located in the Gorgon System of the Argos Rho."
"The Argos Rho?" Shepard question "Why would the supplies come from there, the Republic has no presence there as that region is useless to anyone."
"I guess we should go and find out." Kaidan stated
"We will" Shepard stated "I'll contact Colonel Yularen when we get back to the Normandy." Then they left the base and returned to the Normandy with more questions than answers.
Chapter End:
Notes: Another chapter complete and now I'll be covering a few side quests in the coming chapters before we move on to the Armstrong Nebula which will be classed as a main quest in this story which will be before Shepard and her team go to Feros. I would also like to address a review by Umbrella6661
First most of the star wars planets that are controlled by the Republic are in what the Mass Effect Universe calls the Earth Systems Alliance Space and parts of the Attican Traverse but all of the Traverse. The Zygerian Empire ruled around parts of the Attican Traverse as well but also held territory in what is known as the Terminus Systems. But not every Star Wars planet is located in the Republic, there are some located in the Terminus Systems and will make appearances in the Mass Effect 2 and 3 storylines. Some of the Star Wars planets that are located in the Terminus Systems include Yavin, Endor, Hoth, Tatooine, Lothal and Bespin. So the remote planets are located in the Terminus Systems
For the Criminal Organisations, they will be making appearances in the Mass Effect 2 storyline but I still haven't fully planned how to bring them into the story, only the Hutt Cartel is planned since they will have their own territory in the Terminus Systems.
For the question about Han Solo, I do plan to bring him in but he may not play a major role until Mass Effect 3's storyline. I do have an idea on how to bring him and Leia together but I don't want to say it yet.
I hope that answers these questions but I have not fully planned out future instalments in this series. It may not even be 3 stories because I plan to have a shorter story focusing on the events between Mass Effect's 2 and 3. Also the storyline's of those Games will be different as Cerberus will be slightly different in this story but I don't want to say how yet otherwise I will spoil the story.
