Standard disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor any other content that you recognise. Some characters and systems are original creations. I am receiving no money for my work.
Unfortunately, HTM has only checked my spelling and grammar in chapters 1+2 and chapter 21 onwards. So, I am afraid chapters 3-20 are subject only to my own spelling and grammar. Sorry for this.
Zodiac System – Zodiac Group
2112.09.24
SSV Voyager and her escorts were hurtling towards the outer gas giant of the Zodiac system at full speed as the five unknown ships gave chase. The unknowns were faster than Voyager and would eventually run her down, but the quick reactions of Lieutenant Bahnin, getting underway as soon as the unknowns were sighted, had given Voyager a head start and some much-needed breathing room.
Leaving Lieutenant Bahnin monitoring their course and pursuers, Commander Jackson approached Captain Michetti as she was huddled in the corner of the CIC, speaking privately with Lt. Commander Emerson, the chief engineer.
"…result in the death of every single person aboard this ship Captain!" Jackson rolled his eyes at the chief engineer's usual hyperbole, but Captain Michetti's gaze was laser focused on the bulkhead wall. Refusing to acknowledge him.
"It is not a request Commander. If we do not make it back through that relay, then the first warning that the Alliance will get that there are hostile aliens approaching is when they pour through the relay and into Shanxi orbit. Thousands will die because the fleet and army will be completely unprepared. We must warn them, at any cost. This crew swore an oath to sacrifice themselves if necessary in defence of the Systems Alliance, we will not falter when it looks like we might be called upon to perform it. Carry out my orders, Michetti out." The Captain looked as if she wanted to throw her compiece across the CIC.
"Glad to see that even under fire Emerson is as risk adverse as usual." Commander Jackson had tried to joke to relieve the tension a little, but the glare Captain Michetti sent his way made him swallow and straighten to attention before his commanding officer.
"Trafalgar and Hastings?" The question was short, clipped and to the point.
"The decryption abilities of the enemy ships remain unknown, as such they have kept their messages short and culturally coded. Both frigates are heading to the inner system gas giant, its moons and radiation belt should make it horrifically difficult for the pursuing enemy vessels to locate them there if their sensor tech is anything like ours."
"Trafalgar also broadcast the following: peninsula 1810. It is my belief that they are trying to communicate that they will engage in hit and run raids on enemy convoys in this system from their hiding places around the inner gas giant. The peninsula campaign of the Napoleonic wars was famous for its large-scale guerrilla warfare by Spanish partisans against the occupying French forces, keeping them off balance until British forces arrived to help drive out the occupiers." Commander Jackson explained his reasoning as they walked back to the central CIC table.
"That seems to be their best course of action as they are totally cut off from the relay. Status of our pursuers?" The Captain looked over at Lt. Bahnin as well as studying the plot herself.
"The unknown vessels seem to have figured out our plan to slingshot around the outer ice giant, they're diverging. Two cruisers are following us to stop us turning back, the other two and the heavy cruiser are manoeuvring to cut us off when we emerge from our slingshot." Lt Bahnin reported the changes that had occurred while the two senior officers had been planning.
"Those three ships will have a very limited engagement window, just as you intended Captain. With the speed added from our slingshot manoeuvre they will never be able to catch up and get back into firing range before we hit the relay." Commander Jackson let a little hope enter his voice as he studied the tactical readouts.
Captain Michetti still looked grim. "Yes, but the cruisers following us will get the same speed boost, they'll run us down just as we leave the heavy cruiser groups firing range. We'll have to make the rest of the run to the relay under fire."
"Still, we will have cut those pursuers by more than half. We have a chance."
The Captain nodded. "We do, but we must not forget that destruction of the enemy, or even escape, is not our primary objective. Signal our escorts that they are both to break off and take different trajectories as soon as we exit the slingshot, they need to take advantage of their higher speed and lesser tactical value to try and split the enemy fire and make it to the relay, while the main force focuses on us."
Commander Jackson frowned. "That will badly degrade all ships guardian defences, lacking the interlocking support of the other ships."
"The increased chance of them making it through to warn Shanxi is more than worth it Commander, transmit the orders." Seeing the captain was resolute, Commander Jackson nodded to the coms officer who sent out the orders, then the CIC crew settled into a tense waiting game as Voyager raced towards the ice giant at maximum acceleration.
"Slingshot manoeuvre complete, setting course for secondary relay and Shanxi."
"Tuyuti and Avay are breaking formation, their increasing to their own flank speed and pulling ahead of us."
"Both enemy cruisers confirmed to still be pursuing us, time to intercept unchanged."
"Enemy ships detected ahead, entering firing range in 2 minutes. Both cruisers and the heavy cruiser are accounted for."
The reports came flooding in as Voyager prepared for battle. "Target the port cruiser, confirm firing solutions with Tuyuti and Avay. We need to make every shot count." Captain Michetti glanced over at her XO. "Makes you wish the exploration class didn't trade all their torpedoes and nearly half their main gun to make room for the science and communications labs, doesn't it Commander?"
"We still have a cruiser's firepower Captain; we will do you proud." Commander Jackson was confident as SSV Voyager and her escorts finally entered firing range of the enemy vessels.
"Continuous fire, main gun. All starboard guns are to fire as we pass."
"Torpedo launch from our escorts, they're ripple firing their tubes."
"Enemy torpedo launch, multiple launches focusing on our escorts, they're taking evasive action."
"Holy fuck how many torpedoes? Enemy ships have significantly miniaturised torpedo tech, dozens of torpedoes closing at high speed!" Sensors yelled, horrified as tactical franticly worked their console, franticly trying to make the guardian arrays as effective as possible against the incoming maelstrom of torpedoes smaller and faster than anything it had been designed to deal with.
The CIC crew watched the display intensely as the torpedo launch from the Alliance frigates closed in on the enemy cruiser they were targeting, all that could be heard was the constant firing of the main gun, reverberating throughout Voyager as the crew held their breath.
"Port enemy cruiser is gone! Redirecting fire to starboard enemy cruiser, guns only as our escorts torpedo banks are depleted."
"Avay is gone! Enemy torpedoes are too small and fast, they overwhelmed her guardian array."
"Tuyuti is through, but her barriers are down, she is reporting significant hull damage."
The tiny human frigate raced passed the hulking unknown ships as Voyager continued to charge straight at them, her forward kinetic barriers flaring with blue lightning as they absorbed hit after hit. The largest enemy ship began to turn to starboard, allowing her broadside guns to fire on the fleeing human frigate that was only a few seconds away from escaping them.
"Enemy flagship is turning, she is bringing her broadside guns to bear and targeting us and Tuyuti, spinning Voyager to present a minimal profile to their gunners."
As Voyager span to present her side rather than dorsal profile to the enemy flagship as she raced passed, a new star was briefly born ahead. Sensors soon confirmed that it was caused by the death of the brave little Alliance frigate that had so nearly made it through.
"Tuyuti has been destroyed Captain, her mass effect core lost containment."
"Starboard enemy cruiser is falling out of formation; her barriers are down and she's showing damage to her hull." Tactical called out fiercely as circuit breakers blew in showers of sparks and the deck pitched beneath their feet from repeated weapon impacts.
"Kinetic barriers down to 15%, guardian arrays are overheating." Damage Control reported, trying to stay on top of the power surges and keep critical systems online.
"It doesn't matter! We're through! leaving enemy firing range Captain." Helm called out, relief filling their voice.
"Damage report." Captain Michetti looked grim as Voyager finally settled out now kinetic slugs and torpedoes were no longer slamming into her barriers. Both frigates had been overwhelmed and destroyed by torpedoes smaller and faster than anything the Alliance could produce, now it was all on the ageing exploration cruiser to escape and warn Shanxi.
"Kinetic barriers down to 15%, they're recharging and are estimated to be at 20% by the time pursuing cruisers enter firing range. Minor hull damage across our starboard side, starboard guns 2, 5 and 7 are out of action and there's a hull breach in the science bay, casualties reported." Lieutenant Bhanin was short and to the point.
Voyager shook again, surprising everyone as weapons fire impacted her aft barriers. "Enemy cruisers are already in firing range, they must have been hiding their capabilities in the last engagement, kinetic barriers down to 13%" Commander Jackson reported looking up at his Captain. "Navigation: re-run the numbers with the new data. Helm: evasive pattern delta 4."
Voyager's course changed abruptly, main drives and manoeuvring thrusters working together to make the old exploration cruiser do as good an imitation of a dancing devish as she could. The enemy hit ratio dropped significantly, but so did the Alliance ship's acceleration.
"Evasive action is lowering our speed Captain, time to relay now 30 minutes." Navigation called out." Enemy cruisers will overhaul us in 10 minutes."
"Kinetic Barriers now at 10%"
As the reports flooded in Commander Jackson fought to keep his face neutral. 30 minutes to the relay – under fire the entire way – with the kinetic barriers down to 10% already was already a hail mary plan. With the pursuing forces able to overhaul them and bring their broadside guns to bear 20 minutes short of safety, it was suicidal.
He looked over at the CIC officers, trying to communicate his thanks for the work that all of them had done without destroying morale. They had done their best to escape the unknowns and warn Shanxi. But it seemed that, through no fault of their own, their best was not going to be good enough. The odds against them had been too great.
He looked over to the Captain, to see if she wanted to fight to the end in the mad hope that they might – somehow – beat the odds and survive long enough to make it to the relay. Or if she wanted to destroy Voyager's computers and surrender before they were overhauled and destroyed. Provided the enemy accepted surrenders of course. Regardless, whatever she decided she would have his full support.
Captain Michetti refused to meet his gaze, instead looking intently at her station in the CIC plot table, she typed a command sequence into the folder she had been working on during their approach to the ice giant. Finally, she lifted her head and looked Commander Jackson dead in the eyes as she activated the shipwide comm system.
"Commander Emerson, execute plan omega. Crew the of SSV Voyager, it has been an honour to serve with you. I only wish I could have brought you home one last….."
Captain Michetti and the entire crew of the SSV Voyager were killed instantly. Under the Captain's orders, Commander Emerson had removed all the safeties for the engines and cranked them to their maximum output. Not the maximum speed that the inertial dampeners could take, not even to the maximum speed that the engine components could take. But the maximum possible output of the drive core. The inertial dampeners failed, and the crew were exposed to hundreds of gravities of acceleration. All of them were turned into molecule thick paste on the rear bulkheads of Voyager's compartments as the battered Alliance ship leaped forward, burning away from her pursuers at an acceleration they couldn't possibly match if their crews wanted to live.
Voyager left their firing range in seconds.
The engines were not designed to run at that speed for any length of time and soon melted down, but the massive increase in acceleration had been enough. Not only was Voyager out of the pursuing ships firing range, but the distance she had gained from her pursuers meant that she would stay out of range until she reached the relay. Following the Captain's pre-programmed orders, the auxiliary engines activated, and the navigation computer corrected Voyager's course as she approached the relay.
Captain Michetti and her crew would never make it home, but the SSV Voyager would. She blew through the Zodiac secondary relay into the Theta system at breakneck speed, before the pursuing unknown cruisers could run her down. The auxiliary engines put her on course for Shanxi as the computer followed the Captain's final pre-programmed order and activated the ship to ship com system, broadcasting in the clear for the entire Theta system to hear.
"Mayday, Mayday, this is SSV Voyager declaring code butterfly. Hostile forces incoming. Mayday, Mayday, this is SSV Voyager declaring code butterfly. Hostile forces incoming."
Lryae System – Lryae Asteria
2112.09.25
Admiral Macen Arterius, commanding officer of the Hierarchy Third DMZ Patrol Fleet, stood on the slightly elevated platform that served as the commanding officers designated position in the briefing room of the HWS Enforcer. In front of him, on a platform slightly less elevated than his own, stood the other banner officers that he had called aboard his bannership. Banner Captain Nyreen Kuril – responsible for actually commanding the second line dreadnought that served as his banner ship – was joined by Superior Captains Adrien Nyx and Solona Kandros who commanded the fleets wings. Together they all looked at the hologram display below them on the deck of the briefing room displaying the Krogan Demilitarized Zone.
Spinning in the orange of the projector were the four clusters of the DMZ sector and their relay connections. The Aralakh cluster was at the point of a pyramid connected to all of three surrounding clusters via its secondary relay. The Corona Nebula, the Meridian Cloud and the Lryae Asteria each connected to Aralakh and to two of the other clusters, forming the base of the pyramid. The primary relay connection to the Serpent Nebula cluster, and thus the Citadel, was shown terminating in the Lryae system.
Leading away from Lryae was shown a second primary relay connection, terminating in a system labelled only as 8497-281. Various symbols were placed all over the map. The First, Second and Third Hierarchy DMZ Patrol Fleets were shown in their respective clusters, patrolling the abandoned systems that still officially belonged to the Krogan. In the central cluster, the Citadel Council DMZ Enforcement Fleet stood guard over the only inhabited system in the sector, the Krogan home system of Aralakh.
Admiral Arterius mused that it was a testament to how badly scarred the galaxy still was by the Krogan Rebellions that this sector held 6 of the Turian Hierarchy's 35 dreadnoughts. One leading each patrol fleet to make sure the three abandoned krogan clusters in this sector stayed abandoned, and three making up the core of the council enforcement fleet along with the asari and salarian dreadnoughts. More than 1,300 years after the krogan rebellions ended, five Council race dreadnoughts still patrolled the skies over Tuchanka.
Admiral Arterius snapped back to the present time as he caught sight of the last turian present. Captain Pallin Sidonis stood at attention below the banner officers, on the deck of the briefing room. "Please summarise your mission to the System 8497-281 Captain." The Admiral ordered.
He was well aware of the events that had happened there, but he wished to hear the captains report again to see if any discrepancies would emerge. It was also possible that his fellow banner officers had not read the report before he had summoned them to the briefing room.
"Yes Admiral." Captain Sidonis decided to be as thorough as possible so as to leave his superiors in no possible doubt of his reasons for being in system 8497-281, nor his course of action. "The relay to system 8497-281 was the last primary relay opened by the Citadel Council, it was opened during the first century of the rachni wars, just after the salarians had activated the relays here and mapped the Krogan sector."
"Following the uplifting of the krogan to fight the rachni, the Council decided not to push its luck anymore and instituted the current ban on activating dormant relays unless you know what is at the destination. This left both the second primary relay and the secondary relay present in System 8497-281 dormant."
It appeared that Banner Captain Kuril was unfamiliar with the system, so Macen decided against telling the pedantic Captain to skip the history lesson. "The system itself has several mining prospects, but no garden worlds of either class. The initial surveys of the immediately surrounding systems in the cluster revealed nothing either, so it was left undeveloped during the rachnai wars, and by the krogan afterwards as they were more interested in breeding grounds and battle than the drudgery of mining and exploring."
"Today, the system is patrolled monthly, mainly to check that no smugglers have slipped passed the patrol fleets and set up base there to more effectively run weapons and other banned items to Tuchanka. As the relay connects to the Lryae Asteria cluster, which is Third Patrol Fleet's assigned area, this patrol was made the responsibility of Third Patrol Fleet. As per standard procedure, I transited the relay with my own cruiser and two overstrength frigate varrenpacks under my command."
Captain Sidonis's posture became more rigid as he reached forward and changed the display to show a delta shaped ship. "As stated in my report, upon exiting the relay we found ourselves facing a varrenpack of four frigates. As you can see from the display, they had an unknown profile and they were 157m long." The banner officers nodded, noting the unknown frigates size was comparable to salarian and associate race frigates. Turian, asari and quarian frigates were all considerably larger.
"The sensors reported that the frigates had civilian grade mass effect cores, kinetic barriers, armour and weapons. This, combined with their unknown profile and small size, led me to believe that they were pirate or smuggler ships. I followed the standing orders regarding the presence of such ships in the krogan DMZ and destroyed them immediately."
"Standing orders actually require that we interrogate the ship before opening fire, in case it has a legitimate cargo and flight plan that has been lost in civilian shipping control bureaucracy." Superior Captain Nyx cut Captain Sidonis off. "While your actions in this case were entirely correct as there is no legitimate reason for anyone to be in that system, remember to follow orders to the letter in future. The status of the suspect ships will not always be so helpfully determined by their location."
Pallin swallowed at the nods coming from the other banner officers at Captain Nyx's reprimand. Thankfully they were not condemning his decision to open fire without communicating further, so he continued his report. "Upon conducting a full sensor sweep, my patrol discovered that there were four additional enemy frigates and one cruiser present in the system. Unlike its accompanying frigates, the cruiser was towards the larger end of its size class with only quarian, hanar and asari cruisers being larger. I assumed this to be their command ship and pursued it with one of my varrenpacks and my cruiser."
"In the resulting action I lost one frigate, and another was badly damaged and requires dry dock, in comparison the enemy lost two frigates and its cruiser only escaped using a suicidal manoeuvre. I assume it must have been carrying valuable cargo for the smugglers to sacrifice themselves like that. Given their escape through a supposedly dormant relay I assume that it was Prothean artefacts." Captain Sidonis stood straight backed and proud, defending his actions and conclusions.
"Thank you, Captain." Admiral Arterius took command of the meeting once again. "I have dispatched three standard frigate varrenpacks to join the one left behind by Captain Sidonis. They will join Captain Sidonis's ships in their search of the gas giant's moons for the two smuggler frigates that managed to escape the initial engagement." He paused and adjusted the holographic display to show the secondary relay that was supposed to be dormant.
"The smugglers have activated a dormant relay and it would seem they have discovered a Prothean site on the other side. Captain Sidonis is right, no other cargo would have been worth enough for the crew of that cruiser to sacrifice themselves to ensure its escape from our patrol. I didn't think even lawless criminals would dare to activate a dormant relay, but it seems they have grown overconfident and feel that they can disobey the one law we enforce throughout the entire galaxy. Including in their spirits dammed Terminus Systems. It would seem they need reminding of the power of the Citadel Fleet."
"They must trust their fellow smugglers to give their share of the profits to their families." Superior Captain Kandros noted. "This would support the battle recordings that showed them operating as a unified fighting force, they are more loyal to each other than the standard smuggling outfit. It will make them more difficult to capture or run down."
Admiral Arterius nodded, acknowledging the point. "Indeed, they may try to run in an organised fashion, trusting that at least some of them would escape and be able to take care of all of their families with the profits. This would make it hell to run them all down with limited ships, they will have planned their escape to spread out any pursuing forces as much as possible. As such I intend to take the majority of Third Patrol Fleet and our entire assigned army legion through the relay. We will capture the smuggler base, secure the Prothean site, hunt down and destroy all smuggler ships and secure the newly opened relay before reporting back to the Citadel."
"Admiral, standing orders require that we inform the Citadel if we discover a newly activated relay, and if we move the fleet out of our assigned patrol area. Could you clarify your orders please sir?" The temperature in the room dropped several degrees as Banner Captain Kuril practically accused her commanding officer of the worst crime a turian could possibly commit, disobeying orders.
The Admirals mandibles flared, but he kept his voice rock steady and cold as space. "Standing orders do indeed require that we inform the Citadel, on both counts Banner Captain. However, they make no mention as to when we must inform the Citadel. These smugglers have made barefaced fools of all of us! They have activated a dormant relay, plundered a Prothean dig site, and escaped a Hierarchy patrol while loaded with Prothean artefacts! They have done all of that because they managed to sneak passed our patrols here in Lryae. This has been going on under our very mandibles for weeks and we haven't noticed!"
Macen Arterius threw his information pad onto his podium in frustration. "This will be bad enough when we have to admit to it anyway. But if we inform the Citadel about the smugglers, about the relay, before we have captured or destroyed them? Then Third Patrol Fleet will be the disgrace of the entire Hierarchy, we will be told as children's cautionary tales. This is what happens when you are lax in your duty, criminals flourish while you file reports. No. We will take the entire fleet through the relay, deal with the smugglers, and then we will inform the Citadel. We will still be held in contempt by the Primarchs, and rightly so since we have failed spectacularly to prevent this travesty from occurring, but at least we will have cleared up our mess."
The other banner officers stood straighter under the Admiral's explanation. They had failed in their duty, but they would fix it. They would teach these smugglers the price of their criminal activities before anyone else found out about them. Then they would submit themselves to judgment for their initial failure, but at least they wouldn't have to bear the shame of someone else cleaning up the mess caused by Third Patrol Fleet's mistakes.
Codex Entry: Garden Worlds
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
Garden worlds come in two classes. A class 1 garden world is one that one of the Citadel species can live on without technical assistance, all species home worlds fall into this category, as do their primary colonies. Garden worlds do not need to be planets, if a moon is capable of meeting these requirements it is still classed as a garden world. Informally these are known as shirt sleeve worlds, as all the protection colonists need is a shirt.
A class 2 garden world is one that has an atmosphere, appropriate gravity, radiation protection, and is a viable candidate for terraforming to turn into a class 1 garden world if the colonising species so desires. Giving the potential for Citadel species to one day live there without technical assistance, unless, as is the case with Venus and Europa, the effort required to terraform is not considered worth it given the ease with which the colonising species can already live on the world, albeit in a non-traditional manner. Of all of the categories, gravity is often the one that is most problematic with the gravity levels on class 2 worlds often severely divergent from the colonising species ideal level.
Though it currently supports a substantial population with limited technical assistance and is currently undergoing long term terraforming, Mars is an example of a planet reaching the bare minimum in every category to be considered a class 2 garden world, Venus, Europa and Titan are all worlds firmly in the class 2 category. Informally these are known as dome worlds, as the worlds habitats often take the form of complexes of huge domes as the terraforming process begins to slowly take effect, worlds that do not have terraforming planned, such as the cloud cities of Venus and the stalactite cities of Europa are the exception in Citadel space, not the norm.
All other astronomical bodies fall into the third class. Technologically dependent colonies. These worlds are completely incapable of supporting life without everything from atmosphere to gravity, to radiation protection being provided by technology. These worlds are completely unsuitable for terraforming and will never support populations without sealed habitats providing all of their needs. Luna (Earth's moon) is a primary example of this type of world. Informally these are known as station colonies, as even if they are on the surface of moons or uninhabitable planets, they must provide everything that a space station does for its population.
Timeline changes so far
First colony on mars: 27 years earlier than canon
Discovery of Prothean ruins: 64 years earlier than canon
Founding of the Systems Alliance (council of nations version): 63 years earlier than canon
The First Contact War: 45 years earlier than canon