Disclaimer: Mass Effect does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Bioware.
Bridge, Aifa's Endurance class cruiser Talat's Sentinel, on a heading for Neptune, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
18th March, 1918 CE.
After the Talat's Sentinel sent the FTL message through Relay 207, to Suluk Base, the base where the flotilla departed from to embark on their investigation, the rest of the flotilla started moving out.
Estivus Erax hung back at the Relay, as ordered, while the Spirit of Xerksulus taking position on the port side and the Kurinth's Keen Sight taking the starboard side of the Talat's Sentinel, which lead the way and moved towards the eighth planet, a ice giant with an azure blue hue, an atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, with traces of hydrocarbons and nitrogen (along with a higher proportion of ices, namely water, ammonia and methane, which also traces of the later in the outermost regions, gave the planet it's blue appearance), five faint, fragmented rings and several natural satellites of various sizes and shapes.
The Talat's Sentinel was on it's way to investigate a possible Rachni Scout Ship sighting in the proximity of the ice giant, with Spirit of Xerksulus and Kurinth's Keen Sight backing it up.
Meanwhile, as the three ships went on a gentle cruise towards a geostationary orbit over the gas giant, a lone Salarian, Operator Officer Jarun Galrt, was working on a sensor console on the bridge, monitoring the ice giant's largest moon, it's frozen nitrogen surface being geologically active and full of cryovolcanoes, as well as being comprised of a water-ice crust and an atmosphere of nitrogen, with traces of carbon monoxide and methane, when suddenly, his analytical eyes noticed a significant trace of element zero energy that should not be there.
Located within the shadow of the ice giant's moon, but being significant distance away.
Studying it in much more further detail, he soon consulted his console, and found that it was not an anomaly, but really an element zero signature that could only belong to a ship.
And there was only one sort of ship that could be out there, given that all the flotilla's vessels were accounted for.
It was time to report it in.
"Sir, I have a possible Rachni Scout Ship sighting".
Immediately, his supervisor, Senior Operations Officer Sedlo Deakla, came over, and leaned in to see the readings on the console.
Naturally, the supervisor was a bit skeptical, desiring a bit more hard proof before she would believe it credible, then take it up to the Captain.
"Are you certain of this, Operator Officer Galrt? This could just be an undiscovered element zero cache that you've caught".
"An undiscovered element zero cache that's constantly remaining within the shadow of the moon? I'll run another check again, but I'm pretty certain this is what we're looking for, Senior".
And after running the check again, the console produced the same result.
Taking the time to run it a third time, it again produced the same result, and Deakla was now convinced.
She took it up to the Captain, who soon had the Talat's Sentinel on a heading towards the dark side of the ice giant's moon, to investigate.
But eventually, another Salarian working on another sensor console detected incoming objects.
"TORPEDO! TORPEDO ON APPROACH!"
Commander Tepak took immediate action, "Activate Port-side Countermeasures!"
Immediately, two of the Talat's Sentinel's port side laser turrets activated, and started scanning for targets, and picked up the first torpedo.
But as the turret fired, another warning was shouted.
"MORE TORPEDOES ON APPROACH! THREE OF THEM INBOUND!"
Tolos stepped in, "Calm yourself, operator. Now, activate the rest of the port side laser turrets".
Initially, as there had been only one torpedo fired, only two laser turrets were necessary, but with 3 of them following in quick succession, it was now necessary for all five port side laser turrets to come into play.
Tracking their targets, the lasers struck the first one, making it explode harmlessly before it got even close enough to do any damage to the Talat's Sentinel, then the turrets got a lock on the second and third torpedoes. Firing their lasers, the second torpedo exploded harmlessly, while the third torpedo got deflected by the kinetic barriers.
The forth torpedo, however, struck past the kinetic barriers and hit the Talat's Sentinel port side cannon, causing an explosion that not only wrecked the cannon, but compromised the starboard side cannon, and caused a fire in the torpedo compartment.
Everyone working in the area, were either vented out into the cold, vacuum of space, or died from shrapnel or the explosion, or doing their utmost to survive by reaching their emergency rebreathers that'd allow them to breath in an area with no atmosphere. Once they equipped with rebreathers, they start working together in fighting the fires, and helping with the injured.
Back on the bridge, Tolos maintained his cool demeanour, calmly issuing orders, while he tapped the comms, and asked anyone down in the Gunnery Room for a damage report.
"Captain, we have multiple hull breeches! Loss of atmosphere! Significant damage to the cannons! And a fire in the torpedo compartment!"
Then, a Salarian working on one of the sensor consoles reported, "Captain, contact approaching from dark side of the moon. It's a Rachni Scout Ship, on intercept projectory with us".
On the BattleSpace Table, Tolos and Tepak analysed the holographic projection of the Talat's Sentinel, the Kurinth's Keen Sight and the Spirit of Xerksulus, as well as the Rachni Scout Ship, which was coming out of the moon's shadow and was approaching them.
Tolos asked, "Are we going to be able to return fire in our current state?"
Tepak shook his head, "No, Captain. We're still dealing with significant damage in the Gunnery Room and they're still fighting a fire in the Torpedo Compartment. That'll take at least 3 minutes at best".
"3 minutes which we do not have!", Tolos snapped.
Sighing, Tolos put a call for the Kurinth's Keen Sight and the Spirit of Xerksulus to take out the Rachni Scout Ship, as the Talat's Sentinel's weapons were currently inoperable at this time.
Just as they were making this call, the Scout Ship fired more torpedoes, volley after volley.
While four torpedoes head for the Spirit of Xerksulus, and four torpedoes headed for the Kurinth's Keen Sight, four torpedoes were heading straight for the Talat's Sentinel.
While Tolos was certain that the Spirit of Xerksulus and the Kurinth's Keen Sight had functional defences that would fend off the torpedoes, the Talat's Sentinel's defences were compromised. The port side laser turrets were nonfunctional, due to the explosion and the hull breaches from earlier. And the starboard side laser turrets were unable to acquire all four torpedoes. All they could acquire, were two.
And they certainly would not be able to turn the Talat's Sentinel in time to destroy the remaining two torpedoes before they would hit.
So, all he could do, as the two torpedoes were destroyed and the other two headed for the Talat's Sentinel, was shout over the comms, "ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
The two torpedoes struck, one impacting the kinetic barrier, allowing the second one to enter and hit the starboard side cannon, causing such significant damage to it and the hull.
Immediately, the Kurinth's Keen Sight fired a volley of torpedoes at the Scout Ship, with the Spirit of Xerksulus manoeuvring to fire it's cannons at the Scout Ship, which was now turning and moving towards the ice giant.
The torpedoes and the cannon rounds, missed the Scout Ship, which was speeding away to the ice giant.
Thus, Captains Kesth'ra and Vakarian ordered their ships to go pursue the Scout Ship, which was obviously putting more power into it's engines, as it was vastly out of range for the two cruisers in pursuit.
Eventually, the Scout Ship reached geostationary orbit over the ice giant's atmosphere, and turned to face it's weaponry against the two cruisers pursuing it.
And by the time the Scout Ship had it's rear to the ice giant, in effect, facing it's weaponry towards the two cruisers, those same cruisers had put some distance between each other, which presented a dilemma for the Rachni ship. Either attack one, or the other.
However, the Rachni were able to formulate a decision, and decided to commence attack on the Spirit of Xerksulus, as it was the most deadliest threat to the Scout Ship compared to the Kurinth's Keen Sight.
Turning slightly to the right, the Scout Ship aimed it's cannons and waited for a targeting solution, equally aware that the longer they waited, it was time wasted that the cruisers used to get within range.
However, the Rachni Ship found a targeting solution, and fired 2 rounds.
The first round struck the kinetic barrier, while the second was targeted by it's laser turret defences, and destroyed.
The Scout Ship adjusted it's targeting solution and fired again, with it's first round striking the Spirit of Xerksulus' kinetic barriers and the second doing the same, only this time, the kinetic energy transferred by the second round managed to cause superficial damage to the Spirit of Xerksulus, and short out the electrical systems on many of the decks, plunging the interior into darkness (until the emergency lightning came on) and shutting down some of the computers for a short while before they rebooted back online.
But by the time the Scout Ship began adjusting it's targeting solution, and readying it's torpedoes, the Kurinth's Keen Sight got within range and fired it's torpedoes.
Four torpedoes traveled across the vacuum of space, on a heading for the Scout Ship, which fired it's own torpedoes at the Spirit of Xerksulus (and had acquired the Kurinth's Keen Sight also, as targets for half of the torpedoes).
The Spirit of Xerksulus managed to destroy one torpedo with it's only functioning laser turret defence, while the Kurinth's Keen Sight used it's laser turret defences to destroy the rest in quick succession.
And with that done, both cruisers returned fire, with cannon fire and volleys of torpedoes, which struck the Scout Ship's kinetic barriers, until the barriers were pounded enough that cannon rounds and torpedoes struck the Scout Ship, causing damage.
Eventually, with significant damage to the Scout Ship, the cruisers closed in for the kill with more torpedoes and more cannon rounds striking the Scout Ship, further compromising it's structural integrity.
But as the Scout Ship, trailing a blazing smoke that was extinguishing itself in the vacuum of space, as pieces of it's hull started breaking apart, headed deeper into the atmosphere of the gas giant, the cruisers closed in for the kill.
Two torpedoes from the Spirit of Xerksulus struck the Scout Ship, killing it's engines, leaving dead in space and adrift in orbit over the ice giant before it could make atmospheric entry.
Then cannon rounds from the Kurinth's Keen Sight started striking the Scout Ship, causing a massive explosion that ripped the ship apart.
On board the Talat's Sentinel, Captain Tolos watched the BattleSpace Table displaying the Scout Ship breaking apart in orbit over the ice giant, and silence reigned over the bridge, until Tolos issued orders.
"Call the Estivus Erax. Tell Captain Nyx that it is to provide escort for the Talat's Sentinel. Then, issue orders to Kesth'ra and Vakarian. They are to investigate possible Rachni Scout Ship locations and engage Scout Ships at their own discretion. Tell them, also, that they will be on their own, so good luck".
Bridge, Athame's Wisdom class cruiser Kurinth's Keen Sight, on approach to Uranus, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
18th March, 1918 CE.
Captain Ayssena Kesth'ra of the Kurinth's Keen Sight, received a message on a possible Rachni Scout Ship sighting, near the second ice giant, the seventh planet in this system, and orders were given, for the cruiser to head out to the planet, at 38% above standard cruising speed.
But first, the Kurinth's Keen Sight was investigating the furthest moon to the ice giant, which was rather small for a natural satellite and had massive cliffs and canyons all over it's surface.
Then suddenly, a call came out, "Captain! Possible Rachni contact. Hiding in the dark side of the nearby moon".
Kesth'ra frowned, as the previous Rachni Scout Ship had been hiding behind the moon's dark side, to avoid detection, and managed to deal some damage to the Talat's Sentinel, and now she was convinced that this Scout Ship that they were detecting now, was now attempting to do the same.
However, Kesth'ra would not fall under the same trap.
"Ready the torpedoes, load the cannons, and prepare for battle".
Down below decks, crew members were working on getting the torpedo bays and the cannons loaded, in peak efficiency, just like as they were trained.
And as soon as they reported that all torpedoes and cannons were ready and waiting, Kesth'ra had the Kurinth's Keen Sight take an intercept course to the dark side of the moon, and wait and see what the Rachni will do next, whilst also adding, "As soon as that Scout Ship gets within range, fire at will".
As the Kurinth's Keen Sight headed for the moon, a tense silence fell all across the bridge. A silence, with tension so big that a blade would have to cut it, that soon ended when they detected movement.
"Captain, Scout Ship confirmed! It's manoeuvring, reversing and turning to starboard".
"Excellent. Now, get ready to open fire".
But the Scout Ship got away from the moon and moved closer to the ice giant, and towards a moon with a cratered terrain cross-cut with scarps, canyons and ridges.
The Kurinth's Keen Sight, in the middle of it's pursuit, lost contact with the Scout Ship as a transmission was being sent from the Spirit of Xerksulus, and to maintain a clear transmission, the Kurinth's Keen Sight held off the pursuit and held position.
However, attempts to maintain a clear transmission failed, and Captain Kesth'ra ordered that the pursuit resume.
But the Scout Ship had a head-start and got off the first shot once the Kurinth's Keen Sight came within range.
Cannon rounds headed straight for the Asari cruiser and struck the kinetic barriers, which held, then came 3 torpedoes.
But Kesth'ra responded and the laser turrets managed to stop the 3 torpedoes from dealing any damage to the ship.
Eventually, in this short engagement, the Kurinth's Keen Sight got within range and unleashed torpedoes, which struck the barriers of the Scout Ship, before cannon rounds followed straight after, passing the kinetic barriers and ripped right through the ship, causing a massive explosion.
Now trailing smoke and fire, the Scout Ship turned and headed for the ice giant, but the Asari cruiser kept on firing, until one torpedo round struck the engines of the Scout ship, causing an overload that resulted in a massive internal explosion that blew the entire Scout Ship apart into little pieces.
The bridge and the crew decks of the Kurinth's Keen Sight were filled with cheers and applause, until officers put a stop to it, reminding them to carry out their duties.
Captain Kesth'ra, having watched the Scout Ship being blown apart, turned to her First Officer,
"Now, let's check in with the Spirit of Xerksulus, see if Vakarian's had any success on his end".
Ship Operations Center, Spirit of Apparitus class cruiser Spirit of Xerksulus, in orbit over Saturn, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
18th March, 1918 CE.
Captain Sydrus Vakarian stood on the platform observing the galaxy map, as it displayed the images of the Rachni Scout Ship breaking apart and falling into the atmosphere of the pale yellow gas giant.
The engagement had been pretty straightforward.
After losing clear communication with the Kurinth's Keen Sight (Captain Vakarian having searched endlessly for the Scout Ship and deciding to check in with Captain Kesth'ra if she needed assistance), and failing to get any sort of communication to her, the Spirit of Xerksulus decided to continue on with it's search.
The Scout Ship had been lying in wait, over the sixth planet's largest moon, then it opened fire with a volley of two torpedoes, one missing, the other clipping the starboard wing.
Then the Scout Ship moved, trying to evade in the planetary ring, but Vakarian was persistent and kept pursuit, even as the Scout Ship fired off shots at the Turian cruiser, which had to use all the tricks in the book to evade and counter.
The Scout Ship had gotten fed up with trying to evade the cruiser in the planetary ring and headed for the planet, and the course projected, seemed to indicate that the Scout Ship was planning on entering the atmosphere of the gas giant.
However, the Spirit of Xerksulus managed to get off a shot from a torpedo, and since the kinetic shields had been lowered, seemingly to not let atmospheric entry slow it down, the Scout Ship was hit, and was forced to stop it's entry into the atmosphere. More torpedoes followed, and the Scout Ship broke apart into two, now breaking apart completely into multiple pieces and burning up in the atmosphere.
"Captain! Communications from the Kurinth's Keen Sight".
"Put it through".
The voice of Captain Ayssena Kesth'ra came through the com-link,
"Captain Vakarian?"
"Captain Kesth'ra. How goes the pursuit?"
"One Rachni Scout Ship destroyed over on our end. What about you, Captain?"
Smiling, Vakarian told her of his pursuit and eventual destruction of the Scout Ship, "Same here. It was quite a pursuit, wish you could have seen it".
"I'm sure. Anyway, Captain Tolos has gotten in communications with us. Told us that we need to rejoin with the Talat's Sentinel and the Estivus Erax, then continue on with the hunt".
"Understood. Captain Vakarian out".
Ending the transmission, Vakarian relayed orders for the Spirit of Xerksulus to follow the Kurinth's Keen Sight, which was now on a heading to rejoin with the Talat's Sentinel and the Estivus Erax.
Once they rejoined with the two cruisers, they could see that the Talat's Sentinel was hanging back, with the Estivus Erax holding in close formation, indicating that repairs to the Talat's Sentinel were still ongoing.
And soon, the four cruisers continued on, heading out to hunt for the remaining Scout Ships, hoping for reinforcements to arrive to deal with the Rachni dreadnought, which was still out there.
Rachni Dreadnought, in orbit over Ceres, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
18th March, 1918 CE.
The Rachni dreadnought, was using the system's local asteroid belt, located in between the fourth and fifth planets in the system, for cover from the flotilla, until they realised that the scout ships that it sent to investigate the two ice giants and the one gas giant, were dropping out of contact.
Soon, the Rachni determined that they were being destroyed, and reckoned that it would not be long before the Scout Ship sent to the fifth planet's moons would be destroyed, then the dreadnought and the last remaining Scout Ship, which was surveying the fourth planet in the system, would be the only Rachni ships in the system, and that even though the dreadnought itself outmatched the opposing cruisers in firepower, it knew that they could hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive and destroy them.
And their mission was too important to get destroyed right now.
So, the dreadnought started to move, on a heading for the third planet in the system, where a recent finding from the last remaining scout ship have proven very interesting, to say the least.
Ship Operations Center, Estivus Erax class cruiser Estivus Erax, in orbit over Ganymede, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
18th March, 1918 CE.
"One enemy Scout Ship destroyed".
The Estivus Erax had done it's duties well, as it had managed to detect the Rachni scout ship over a heavily active volcanic moon, before it fired a set of torpedoes at the Talat's Sentinel. Captain Nyx had the Estivus Erax manoeuvred to use it's laser turrets efficiently, then went in pursuit of the Scout Ship, which fled and attempted to lay an ambush over a very smooth moon, before taking a hit, which forced it to a moon with a magnetic field.
There, the Scout Ship fired back and the Estivus Erax's kinetic barriers held against the two torpedoes, before a cannon round pierced the port side of the cruiser, damaging the port-side cannon of the cruiser.
However, the damage sustained, did not inhibit the ability of the Estivus Erax to fight back, and soon, the Scout Ship was destroyed after a barrage of cannon rounds and torpedoes.
Captain Desolas Nyx, observing over the Galaxy Map, ordering the Estivus Erax to return to protecting the Talat's Sentinel, was now in the midst of sending a report to Captain Tolos.
"Excellent work, Captain Nyx. As soon as you can, maintain formation with us and we'll continue on with the hunt for the fifth Scout Ship".
"Understood, Captain. How are your repairs going?"
"Well, my engineers tell me that they've got the cannon parts replaced, and the cannons themselves repaired. All they're doing, is conducting a series of tests to ensure that everything works smoothly, so that once we go into action, the cannons will not just suddenly not work. But the torpedo compartment is damaged beyond repair. Torpedo thrusters are damaged, some of the torpedo guidance systems have significant damage to them and worse of all, the torpedo tube doors won't open. We could do some EVA work on the door, but we'd need to do that in a space dock, not in the midst of combat. So I'm just not taking the risk of a torpedo explosion".
Nyx sympathised with Tolos, and said, "But at least things aren't terrible on your end, Captain Tolos".
A sigh came from the Salarian, who said, "I sure hope so. I just hope that we can fight effectively with just two cannons".
But then, Nyx and Tolos' conversation was interrupted, by his First Officer, Commander Macen Pentalus, who was by a crew member working on a sensor console in the sensor trench,
"Sir, this crew member has something you might want to see!"
Frowning, Captain Nyx had to excuse himself, which Captain Tolos nodded his head and ended the transmission, and headed over to the sensor trench.
Pentalus nodded to the crew member and said, "Show the Captain what you found, Junior".
Junior Ship's Mate Illo Arrakus, even though nervous as this was the first time he was in the attention of such senior officers like the Captain and the First Officer, relayed his findings, "Well, I was conducting a surveillance scan of the system's asteroid belt, when I detected a trace of mass effect energy", before trailing off as Nyx and Pentalus exchanged a look between one another.
But once they urged him to continue on, Illo resumed his findings, "So, I checked it out, thinking that it was a Rachni Scout Ship, only to discover that there were a lot more Mass Effect energy readings than what a Scout Ship should be giving off. And I mean, a lot more. I checked my readings and it took some time, given that it was within the asteroid belt, presumably to provide cover from our sensors, and the readings came back. I checked it and the only ship that could display such readings is..."
Pentalus finished off that sentence, "A dreadnought. Are you certain?"
A pause and, "Yes I am, sir. It's definitely a dreadnought".
Captain Nyx asked, "Where is it now?"
"Apparently, it's moved on, deeper within the system".
"Deeper within the system?"
Arrakus nodded, "Yes, Captain. The energy traces indicate that it stayed in position for quite some time, but has moved deeper into the system, presumably on a heading for the fourth planet, maybe the third...", before trailing off as the Captain and the First Officer turned and started whispering to each other.
Then, Desolas frowned,
"I'm going to have to report this in".
And he did, with Tolos giving a frown of his own at this information.
A few moments of not saying anything, and Tolos broke the silence,
"Looks like the fifth Scout Ship will have to wait. We need to know where that dreadnought is heading to. Hopefully we can discover what the Rachni are up to. Either way, you better get yourself and your crew rested for tomorrow. It's going to be a long day tomorrow".
As the communication ended (Tolos presumably now contacting the other Captains), Captain Nyx looked upon his crew in silence, watching them hard at work as they did their duties, and felt a slight apprehension what was about to come tomorrow.
Deciding that the next best thing to shake off that apprehension was to get some sleep, Desolas then called Macen over and told him that the majority of the crew was to stand down and take a break, with the Night Shift crew to take their place, up until 0600 hours tomorrow, and that he himself was going to get some sleep in his quarters.
Macen understood and said, "I have the ship until then, Captain. Good night, sir".
Desolas nodded, and went into the elevator, heading for his private quarters.
Next chapter, we'll be finding out if the message sent by the Talat's Sentinel has reached the Citadel forces and we'll be seeing the buildup to the inevitable confrontation.
In regards to the moons and planets described in this chapter, I left some descriptions that might give you clues on which ones they are. Can anyone find out what they are?
Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!
Update (29/6/17): Did some restructuring of the chapter, trying to make the paragraphs not so bunched up. Special thanks to Apollonir for pointing this out. Also, changed and added some additional lines.
