The trapped team froze when they heard an unknown voice. The leader of the squad began to look around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Carefully peering into every corner, she was looking for speakers, but after a while she gave up and turned to her comrades. Shepard turned on the closed communication through the helmet and wanted to consult with her comrades, but the voice sounded again:
- I repeat. Introduce yourself and indicate who you are and for what purpose you came here.
- Commander Katherine Shepard, military officer... - she faltered and quickly corrected herself, - a former MSF Alliance soldier and a member of the Citadel Council. Our scanner accidentally detected a spatial anomaly in this system. When we arrived at the scene of the incident, we found only your ship. I assure you that we have no hostile intentions towards you. We only wanted to explore what we thought was an abandoned ship.
After she introduced herself, the team waited for a response from the unknown. The silence lasted for seconds and smoothly flowed into minutes. Shepard began to look around at her teammates in bewilderment.
- I repeat, we have no hostile intentions. Our sortie is of a research and rescue nature. - the captain decided to reach them, - If you need help or you are in a difficult situation, we will help you.
Despite the repeated speech, she still did not hear an answering voice from unknown people, which began to annoy her a little. They are standing in a locked room and have to wait for what the local crew decides, and they even find it difficult to make contact, even though they went to it first. She was losing control of the situation and it was annoying. About to address the strangers once again, Catherine was about to open her mouth, but the sound from the speakers beat her to it:
- Stay where you are. We will arrive at your place within ten minutes.
- OK. I hope you won't be late.
After finishing a short, but at the same time protracted dialogue, she plunged into thought trying to figure out who they would have to meet. What are their intentions and goals? She could only guess and wait for the owners of the spaceship.
- Didn't you think they were a little suspicious? - Jacob switched on the closed connection, interrupting her thoughts.- Their prolonged pause looked a little strange.
- There is such a thing. Miranda answered him. - But even if they try to open fire on us, we must try to capture at least one. We need to find out everything related to this ship.
- While they're getting here, take a comfortable position.- Shepard ordered.- First, of course, we will try to establish peaceful contact, but you never know what will happen. It's better to be safe.
Having sent an audio message, Isaac waited for the response of the arriving people, hoping that they were not unitologists. Of course, they could try to break through if anything happened, but right now he had absolutely no desire to conduct a firefight. I wanted to finally lie down and have a good rest. It wouldn't hurt to clean up too. The last time he took a shower was in his apartment at the Lunar Station. But that's all later, first you need to find a way to leave this trough. After waiting a little longer, he decided to address the outsiders once again:
- I repeat. Introduce yourself and indicate who you are and for what purpose you came here.
This time the answer did not take long to wait, after a couple of seconds he heard a pleasant female voice:
- Commander Catherine Shepard, military officer ... - Isaac noticed the hesitation, but continued to listen further, - a former MSF Aliance soldier and the spectrum of the Citadel Council. Our scanner detected a spatial anomaly in this system. When we arrived at the scene of the incident, we found only your ship. I assure you that we have no hostile intentions towards you. We only wanted to explore what we thought was an abandoned ship.
At the end of the audio message, both occupants of the bridge were in some degree of confusion. Especially Carver. Isaac, noticing the condition of his friend, realized that he was not the only one in the dark. He had no idea what an MSF Alliance was, much less a Citadel Council. It's better to find out from John. He's a military man after all, maybe he knows some secret units.
- John, this woman said that she was a former servicewoman of the Alliance. I assume this is one of the military units of the EarthGov Defense Forces, right?
- No. - it was heard sharply from the side. - I've never heard of it. I tried to remember at least something similar, but nothing came to mind. And also this abbreviation "MSF". I can assume that the transcript sounds like a Military Space Force. But there has never been such a name in the entire history of the Earth, since mankind went into space. We use EDF (Earth's Defense Forces).
- So we stumbled upon suspicious people who claim to be former representatives of a fictitious organization? - Isaac summed it up. - Lucky us.
- Not really. There is a nuance here. - John corrected him. - This woman has a very well-modulated voice, as if she really did military service. There is a commanding note.
- That's okay. With a stretch, let's assume that this is really some kind of secret unit. And what is the "Citadel Council"?
- And here without concepts. I can't even guess something. - Carver spread his hands.
- All this is suspicious: a ship of unknown shape, unknown military organizations, some kind of Citadel Council. What's going on at all...- before he could finish, another message was heard from the speakers in the same female voice:
- I repeat myself. We have no hostile intentions towards you. Our sortie is of a research and rescue nature. If you need help or you are in a difficult situation, we will help you.
- It's worth admitting that we delayed the answer a bit. What are we going to tell them, Isaac?
The engineer looked at the chest computer for a while and finally switched on the connection with the microphone:
- Stay where you are. We will arrive at your place within ten minutes. - After sending the message, he turned to his friend. - John, let's start packing. But before that, I'd like to check your rifle.
Isaac, taking the weapon from his friend's hands, went to the workbench and put the rifle on the platform. Turning on the display, he received a list of damages: a couple of cracks in the cylindrical part of the weapon and one dent on the gravitons emitter. After spending some resources, he repaired the damage and simultaneously installed a stasis node. Such an upgrade, when fired, enveloped the projectile with stasis and allowed it to slow down the enemy when hit. Just an irreplaceable thing. Of course, he didn't slow down the target for as long as his wrist module, but it was enough for 3-4 seconds. After finishing the repair, he took the weapon from the workbench, reloaded it, examined it and handed it to John.
- There were a couple of damages on the cylinder body and a dent inside it. Now, as good as new.
- Thank you, Isaac. - he thanked him, inspecting his updated gun. - And what is this device next to the descent? It doesn't seem to have happened before.
- I put stasis on her. Now, when hit, you can immobilize the enemy for a few seconds.
- Not a bad fit, especially considering that there are more of our guests. - Carver appreciated. - By the way, do the transport work? We can get to the tail section, right?
- One seems to have remained more or less in order. We'll get there on it. - the engineer replied, attaching weapons to his back and belt.
Leaving the ship in autopilot mode, both left the bridge in the direction of the trolleys. Moving along the corridors with his partner, Isaac noted to himself that despite the actual absence of necromorphs and unitologists, he still looked around and aimed at the ventilation grilles. The reflexes acquired during survival always made themselves felt, however, their owner was not against it. Taking the elevator, they found themselves on the cargo control deck, a fairly spacious room with a large window overlooking the opposite part of the ship. Isaac moved to the panel and, checking it, found one, as he thought, an empty trolley. After giving a command on the keyboard, he called John in the direction of the station. Unfortunately, when they arrived at the place, they found that the skin of the transport was damaged.
- Well, I think we have enough oxygen. It will be necessary to go a little more than a kilometer. - Clark commented.
After making their way through the vacuum of space, they arrived at the back of the ship and moved towards the meeting. Checking with the locator, they passed corridors and decks, everywhere drenched in blood and filled with dismembered necromorph bodies. The walls were covered with various symbols in the language of Obelisks. The texts described the structure and order of nucleotides in the dna of necromorphs. If their contact goes peacefully, then it will take a long time to explain why there is such a bloody carnival here. Finally, they both arrived at this large gate that separated them from potential rescuers.
- John, I'm disabling the lock, be ready. Isaac warned him, to which he replied with a nod and took out his weapon.
- Ok.
Well, it's time to get to know them. The gate began to open with a mechanical click, moving the separated segments inside the wall. When they entered the room, they met with a group of five reasonable people, but one detail greatly confused both of them and forced them to take a step back abruptly. Just as Isaac wanted to greet the strangers, he noticed two creatures that were clearly not like people, but at the same time did not resemble necromorphs. The first, in blue armor, was quite tall, with a barrel-shaped torso and a thin waist, and a collar of considerable size decorated his neck. His rifle was held by three-fingered fingers, and the body was held by legs concave backwards.. It was impossible to see his face in detail because of the helmet. Although judging by his shape, he had an elongated head towards the back of his head. The second was very thin, dressed in a suit resembling a doctor's robe. He had a flat and oblong face with a missing nose and large black eyes, and on his head there was one horn on the right side. In general, both bodies were humanoid in shape, but the differences from humans were visible to the naked eye.
"Are these aliens? But they don't exist. The obelisk has wiped out all life in our galaxy with the exception of humanity." - the engineer thought convulsively. Looking sideways at Carver, he saw how he tensed and tightened his grip on the rifle. This did not escape the strangers and they reacted the same way. Realizing that the situation was heating up and it was necessary to act quickly in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, Isaac slowly took a step forward with his left hand raised up, symbolizing peaceful intentions and at the same time held his other hand next to the plasma cutter.
- Isaac, where have you dragged us! - John's voice sounded strained in his helmet. - What the hell are the aliens doing with them? They shouldn't exist.
- John, I don't understand what's going on, but you better calm down, otherwise the meeting may end badly. - he tried to calm the sergeant.
The latter, heeding the voice of his friend, relaxed after a few seconds. Seeing that they had calmed down a little, he continued to walk slowly forward towards the leader of the group. What confused Clark a little was the appearance of the woman. She was wearing a dark suit with a red and white stripe on her right arm, covered with plates smooth in shape. Armored, apparently. The helmet with a rather large glass visor looked strange. Her whole appearance created a sharp contrast with the standard uniforms of the military familiar to him. Even that "N7" badge on his chest also threw up more questions. The other members of the rescue squad also looked unusual. A girl with a juicy figure in a tight-fitting suit and a and a dark-skinned men in light armor. Who even goes on a research mission in this form? And why don't they have an RIG? Leaving these questions for later, he approached the woman close enough and held out his hand to her.
- Isaac Clark, former engineer of the fourth rank of the CEC Corporation.- the engineer introduced himself, looking at the inhumans.
The Commander silently shook hands in response, noting their unusual, heavy-looking armor. This was something she had never seen before. Large boots made of many metal parts, bulging chest devices and thin glowing stripes instead of a glass visor looked quite futuristic. In addition, they did not have the usual shining armor plates. Although perhaps they are hidden under a dense fabric. But what really interested her was the weapon in the hands of the owner of the black and red armor. It had a fundamentally different layout and structure. Cylindrical body at the base, turning into a triangular muzzle with three laser pointers. Something new. I'll have to ask Jacob later. Looking at the man standing in front of her, she saw that he was still glaring at Mordin and Garrus.
"Xenophobic"? - The commander suggested. Those, noticing such attention from the recent "supervisors" began to exchange glances with each other.
- John Carver. Sergeant of the Earth Defense Forces. I was in the special unit DB2. - the voice of a man standing near the threshold of the gate was heard, who, like the first one, was staring at her alien comrades.
"What are Earth's Defense Forces?" Shepard thought. But seeing all the same sideways glances, she decided to clarify the situation.
- Why are you looking at them like that? Is something wrong? - She asked, nodding her head in the direction of Vakarian and Solus.
- Well ... - the man standing in front of her hesitated a little, - because they are aliens. My friend and I have never seen them. I didn't think they existed.
After these words, the whole team, including herself, tensed up. Catherine felt the questioning stares behind her back. "How can they not know about other races? What kind of a hole did they live in if they had never heard of them?" - she reasoned to herself. After the war of the First Contact, absolutely all of humanity learned that they were not alone in space. This was known even in the slums and wild tribes of the Amazon and Africa.
- Is this some kind of joke? - Jacob said from behind her. - Have you been cut off access to the Extranet?
- Do we look like those who are joking now? And what kind of Extranet? - Black-and-red answered him seriously.
- Wait. - the captain stopped them. - First of all, I would like to know how you two got here and what kind of ship is this?
- This ship was the lost flagship of the SCAF. We had to for some reason... commandeer it. - Isaac began to explain. - We flew to Ear... - he wanted to continue, but was interrupted by a woman.
- SCAF? Is this some kind of commercial corporation? - Shepard asked.
- Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces. - Clark deciphered the abbreviation.
- Um, I've never heard of them. - she replied.
- These are the military forces of the former state system Sovereign Colonies. It was the governing authority, - Carver explained and added a little later, - until 2314. And I really wonder why you don't know about it.
- Until what year did you say? - Miranda asked, surprised.
- Until 2314. And what? - John frowned.
At that moment, Catherine realized that they had a lot to discuss with these people. They thought they would learn all the answers from the inhabitants of the ship, but when they met them, there were only more questions.
