5 months is way too long to leave a story hanging. So here you go, more at the end.
Elysium
3 Hours Into Invasion
"Lieutenant Shepard, do you copy?" The voice coming over the comms was crackling from interference, but the line held. "This is Colonel Jacobs of the Elysium PDF. I need your squad for a mission."
"We read you Colonel. It's just myself and a turian volunteer at the moment however." Looking out over the battered city-scape from their vantage point Shepard spotted several enemy vehicles moving through the streets to engage the scattered defenders.
"I understand. We made contact with Chief Arnold moments ago. His team is holding the line at a refugee bunker. Either way this mission requires someone with your skills." The colonel paused as several artillery platforms fired in the distance. Moments later the deep thrum of the explosives hitting their mark washed through the city. Enemy artillery returned fire seconds later from outside the city's outer walls.
"An artifact was recently uncovered by one of our frontier scouting expeditions and is being stored at Oceanus University. A research team is onsite grabbing what they can from their archives as well as what necessary equipment they can carry. We need you to pick the data up and escort the researchers to an evac point on the campus." The colonel paused again. "There are two squads of PDF troopers guarding the artifact. But a large raider force is pushing toward their location. Sending you the coordinates now. Good luck lieutenant."
Checking his omnitool, Shepard forwarded the details to Garrus while inspecting them himself. The university was only a few blocks away near the coast of the bay, but considering the speed with which the raiders had penetrated the city there was going to be a slog to fight to it.
"All right Garrus, let's move out."
"We've got their artillery's location sir."
Colonel Jacobs looked over at the private now throwing a marker adding the raiders' artillery position to the main tactical map. Straight in the middle of their landing ground.
"Excellent, coordinate artillery and air strikes on that location."
"That's the problem sir, they've thrown up a shield that puts ours to shame over their LZ." The private marked the location once more, this time with a blue ring around the enemy landing zone. "We found this out when one of our drones smacked into the damn thing and blew up. Whatever they're using over there, its miles ahead of what we've got. Furthermore our fighters need to rearm, but the bases are under heavy pressure from the enemy."
"Fantastic." Frowning, Jacobs walked over to the map. "And all our ships are busy fending off Sovereign and its thralls. What orbital assets do we have left?"
Pulling up the orbital coverage map, the private marked what remained of Elysium's defense grid. "We have a couple dozen hammer satellites left and platform 343 is in position over the city." Touching the holographic interface, the private highlighted the platform. "It took a glancing shot and can't maneuver to fire towards space, but otherwise it's still intact."
The colonel stared at the map for a few moments, watching as friendly IDs clashed with raider forces as they defended civilians and other assets. He didn't like the decision before him, but he knew it was the one he had to make. The Alliance could not afford to let these raiders push further into the city if they were controlled by Sovereign. Especially if the scattered reports of prisoners being taken were correct.
"All right then we have a thunderstrike inbound, send the word to all forces in the area when we're 30 seconds out." Moving his hand across the display he switched back to the tactical map then marked locations that had fallen under the raiders' control, and two on the approach toward the university that the raiders were moving through. "Target a rod on each of these locations, and fire 343 at the enemy landing zone, we need that artillery taken care of."
"Yes sir." Tapping a few commands into the console, the private routed the orders through the network. "It'll be 10 minutes until all systems are prepared."
"That's fine. Update targeting as the enemy shifts position. But keep those two on the approach to the university." Glancing again at the screen the Colonel noted as another squad ID flickered and updated. With one less soldier.
"Yes sir."
Colonel Jacobs watched as the private went back to monitoring the situation on his datapad then glanced at the clock on the wall. 5 hours, 23 minutes and counting until the relief forces arrived. All his forces needed to do was hold the line and run out the clock. It was up to the space jocks to keep Sovereign busy.
The last raider went down. Shepard and Garrus popped up from behind the counter in the destroyed storefront and began making their way toward the door when lightning streaked through the sky above, bathing the street in light and halting the pair in their tracks.
Static crawled over the two of them as another bolt of lightning arced through the sky. And then another. And then the word thunderstrike flashed across the viewscreen in Shepard's helmet. Grabbing Garrus, Shepard pulled him back into the building and into cover as more lightning laced through the sky and began striking the ground.
Across the city the Alliance defenders took cover and braced themselves for the oncoming storm. Families cowered in the bunkers hardened to defend against the onslaught being unleashed on their territory by their own forces.
The raiders glanced at the sky for several seconds then took the opportunity to advance, firing on the defenses that had been thrown up to repel them. Several toward the outskirts were struck by the increasingly severe lightning storm that was brewing. The shield protecting the ships that had brought them to the planet began to glow, even as lightning began arcing between it and the sky and the surrounding dirt. And it was at that moment that the raiders realized that something was wrong.
As one, several dozen tungsten rods slammed into the ground at many times the speed of sound, crushing the invading forces where they stood. Blasting others into the air from the sheer energy delivered into the air and the ground like ragdolls, liquefying those too close to the impact sites and battering those further out and not in cover.
Tanks and other vehicles were tossed aside by the impact, and unceremoniously placed once more on the ground by gravity. The enemy gunships that had managed to evade the defending pilots were buffeted by the winds generated as the kinetic strikes sliced through the air. Several crashed into neighboring skyscrapers that were now bending in the wind even as electricity lashed at them and was carried into the ground.
The sky now appeared to be on fire as lightning raced across it, emanating from a central point above where the raiders had landed. Breaking and streaking across the sky and into the ground.
Until suddenly a trickle of light slowly broke through the clouds and made its way toward the enemy shield. Lightning began tracking back toward the enemy landing zone, slowly at first, but increasing in speed as the light began spreading the clouds further from its center.
Then, all at once, the sky broke.
The trickle of light turned into a column, enveloping the entirety of the landing zone and beyond, reaching the city outskirts. Everything caught in it was turned to ash, and as winds rushed through the city streets debris and ruins were grabbed and tossed aside. The winds bore a strange mix of cold and hot as the heat from platform 343's beam mixed with the cold air of the upper atmosphere as it was pulled down and pushed through the streets.
The remainder of the gunships that had survived the kinetic strikes were ripped from the heavens, scattered by the winds into buildings and streets. Tanks and hovercraft tumbled across the battlefield, crushing those near them who had not been similarly scattered by the blast.
Buildings weakened by artillery and explosives collapsed throughout the city, trapping some unfortunate souls inside, and ending the lives of others. Bunkers shook as the planet received a new scar, inflicted upon it by its adopted children. And the defenders braced themselves for the wave of destruction to pass.
And then it ended. And where once the landing craft and artillery and trees and farms stood, there was only a gash.
And as the light ended, the clouds rushed back in from the sea and the fields beyond to fill the void that had been rent in the sky. And as they broke once more with lightning, this time rain fell as well.
In orbit above, platform 343 shut down, its task completed as it slowly began to enter the atmosphere of the planet it had just assailed in defense of its creators.
"Spirits." That was the only word to escape Garrus' throat when the pair exited the store. Which, in the minute they had spent in cover, had received an even greater amount of damage than the firefight that had recently concluded. Shepard had to admit the APC added something to the décor.
"Yeah, ion cannons do a bit of damage." Glancing around the street Shepard noted several buildings that had been knocked down. Likely from the kinetic strikes that had lead the orbital bombardment. "We probably have a few minutes before the enemy regains their momentum. Let's double time it to the university to pick up these researchers."
"Right. Ignore the giant pillar of light that brings thunderstorms and focus on the mission. Like I haven't heard that before."
"Yeah, by the time this ride is over that won't even make the top 10 for things you've seen."
"How come I have the feeling that I don't want to know what that means?"
"Because your faith in causality has already been rocked to the core once today?"
"I'm just saying," Garrus finally exclaimed as the closed on the university campus. "Why can't we talk about the giant space gun? Everyone knows you have them, but no one has ever seen it used on a planet!" Several seconds passed. "How do you even calibrate a thing like that properly?"
"Carefully," was the only response Shepard gave as they made their way across the campus. Thus far they hadn't encountered any opposition. And judging from the rather pristine, albeit windswept and debris laden, grounds the raiders hadn't made their way here yet.
"Right. Answers later then. Which building are we headed to?"
"Engineering." Shepard said as he scanned a campus map downloaded automatically through his omni-tool. "They do research and work on starships here so the building is capable of housing two light scouts. The astronautics department here is pretty good from what I understand. My older brother got his civil engineering degree at the school."
"Wait. They have a hangar here? What was this artifact your people found?"
"That… is a good question," Shepard said slowly. "The campus computer system is locking me out of queries regarding the engineering building. Apparently they're conducting 'renovations' and the building is off limits to those without access."
Garrus gave a low trill, "Yeah, that's not a cover story at all."
"They could have put a little more effort into it yeah. This way."
"Captain, another ship is moving in to guard Sovereign."
Captain Roberts let loose a growl at that piece of information. 60% attrition. The entire fleet had been torn to shreds by the raider force. And even though the raiders had been reduced even further than the Alliance force had been, Sovereign was still causing damage.
He wished he could have turned the orbital defenses on Sovereign as the ground commander had just a few minutes ago. Unfortunately those assets had either been destroyed or were designed to take out ground forces that slipped through the defense net. Platform 343 was the sole planetary defense cannon that had survived the initial attack, and it had been unable to acquire a shot on the Reaper.
"Enough." He finally managed. "Target Sovereign with the ion cannon. A full strength strike should reach it. And even if it doesn't destroy it, it will take out its escorts opening it up to the rest of the fleet."
"Yes sir. Target locked and systems charging. Maneuvering into firing position."
Captain Roberts watched the viewscreen as it shifted and Sovereign filled the space. On the tactical map those Alliance and Hierarchy ships which remained maneuvered to cover the battlecruiser as it lined up the shot, providing cover fire when they could, and simply blocking the fire-lanes when they couldn't. The Orion provided what fire support it could while shielding its damaged sections from the enemy.
Sovereign seemed to sense what was about to occur as it began turning towards the Alliance flagship. Firing several beams it proceeded to slice through and eliminate another cruiser firing on its escorts, even as another exploded under the sustained fire of the Alliance forces. For a moment it faced down the Belleporphon as its main cannon charged, and then it continued turning.
Seconds later the Belleporphon fired, the lance of emerald energy striking out from the vessel toward the Reaper and its thralls. Two of the enemy ships were destroyed instantly by the massive beam, creating shockwaves of dark energy as element zero cores detonated. The same energy briefly disrupted the particle stream, causing some of the energy and charged particles to divert in the direction of Sovereign's other escorts and shattering their shields and barriers.
And then Sovereign glowed as the beam struck its barriers. Seconds passed as the massive barriers held back the torrent of particles and energy before they too shattered, releasing another shockwave of dark energy, further disrupting the ion cannon's beam. But not before the weapon gouged the Reaper's hull.
Moments passed, and finally space stretched as Sovereign leapt away from the battlefield. And as its escorts followed suit the crews in the Alliance and Hierarchy fleet gave a ragged cheer.
Captain Roberts let them have the moment. And while questions still swirled in his mind, he focused on the task before him of recovering those who had survived the destruction of their ships.
The PDF commander's voice broke over the commlink as Shepard and Garrus reached the engineering building, "Lieutenant, I have good news for you. The raider force approaching the university has been eliminated by our counterattack and Sovereign is no longer in system."
"I'm sensing a 'but' here sir." Shepard replied as he and Garrus stopped at the entrance to the structure, taking cover at a covered bike rack. Tapping his omnitool he looped Garrus into the conversation.
"But we've lost contact with the defense teams holed up inside the building. As you're no doubt aware of by now, the building has been comm and scan shielded, nothing gets in or out of it. To facilitate the research being done here three hardlines were installed with a direct connection to the command center here. Roughly five minutes ago all three lines were cut simultaneously."
"Perhaps some raiders managed to bypass the defense lines sir."
"That's unlikely. Whoever did this either had some means of accessing the lines or has intimate knowledge of the location which would allow them to bypass security nodes guarding them. We have AI's investigating both possibilities but these raiders appear to take more forceful measures to get what they want."
"I see sir."
"Lieutenant, evac is no longer necessary. You're now tasked with making contact with our teams inside the building and determining what has caused an interruption in our communications and deal with it. PDF command out."
"Well. This is going to be interesting." Turning to Garrus, Shepard continued, "You heard all that, any questions?"
"Kill or stun when we find whoever or whatever it is that's causing this issue?" Garrus tilted his head as he waited for an answer.
"That is a good question." Pausing, the N6 gazed over the building. "Shoot to kill. We'll gather what information we can after the fact, but if I see an opportunity I'll mark the target and stun it."
"Reasonable." Jamming a fresh power pack into his rifle, Garrus motioned toward the building. "After you."
Moving forward, Shepard gave a quick thermal scan with his omni. As expected it returned nothing from the interior of the building. That would change once they entered the building, but as long as no one was looking out the windows, their entrance would be concealed until they actually opened the doors.
Pausing before the entrance Shepard contemplated their options. Wandering into a situation blind was never a happy thought, but it was sometimes necessary.
Opening the door, the pair quickly passed into the main hall, taking cover as they moved forward into the building. Running another quick scan, Shepard was happy to see that thermal signatures were now registering, with wires and lighting glowing in the walls and ceiling. No other bodies in their vicinity was also a good sign.
Signaling Garrus, the pair moved deeper into the building, quickly coming up to a stair case leading up to the main engineering hallway if Shepard recalled correctly. Bounding up the steps quickly, the two took cover at the end of the pathway. They were still on the edge of the building, but this path would quickly take them to the labs which likely contained the research team.
Conducting another scan, Shepard came up with nothing beyond the radiant heat in the walls once more. Taking a small risk, Shepard deployed a drone to move through the hallway and take snapshots of the classrooms they would be passing. Again nothing turned up as the drone completed its pass. Making their way through the hall, Shepard became more unnerved.
Finally they reached the end where the drone was located. Another quick scan revealed the way forward to the right, this time passing by the first of the two hangars and even more classrooms. Ordering the drone forward, the pair followed it past the empty rooms, glancing nervously into the large hangar that currently contained nothing but equipment meant to teach students how to service ships.
Until they made contact. As they passed a reading nook, a pair of soldiers turned the corner of the hall. Neither wore armor bearing the markings of the Alliance, and neither had any sort of IFF tag emanating from their systems. Both pairs paused for a second to stare at each other before raising their weapons and firing within milliseconds of the other.
Garrus dove left into a classroom, breaking down the door, even as one of the enemies did the same at the other end of the room. Continuing his roll, the turian grabbed a grenade and tossed it, even as he overturned one of the metal desks. Hearing an indecipherable shout as the grenade went off, Garrus tossed a mini-turret over the desk to get a better view of the room and hallway. His opponent had been caught on the edge of the blast, and immediately turned to face the new threat posed by the turret. Taking the opportunity he drilled two shots into the figure, bringing them down.
At the same time, the hallway was filled with fire as Shepard and his drone began firing on the remaining enemy. Their opponent, for his part, deployed a drone of his own while dodging forward at the intersection. A moment later, a barrier filled the hall as the enemy drone began moving forward. Popping back out, the enemy soldier advanced forward behind it, tossing another drone into the room that Garrus occupied while opening fire from behind his improvised cover.
Shepard in response deployed his own omnishield, even as his drone continued its fire on its enemy counterpart. Watching as the enemy shield began to glow from the sustained fire as his own did the same, Shepard fabricated two rockets in his launcher. A second later, the enemy drone's shield flickered, granting the opportunity he had waited for. Launching the first rocket, it collided with the shield in its center unleashing a concussive blast of force alongside a small payload of incendiary. The concussive blast did the job of pushing the incendiary through, engulfing the small shield drone and bringing it down.
Even as that happened Shepard launched the second rocket before rolling into the reading space. This rocket merely contained an explosive payload. Unfortunately for its target, there was nowhere for him to dodge and so he bore the full brunt of the explosive depleting his shields, tossing him back several meters and scorching his armor. Shepard finished him off a moment later with a shot to the chest as he struggled to get up.
Both Garrus and Shepard moved into the classroom, dispatching the remaining drone before giving a cursory inspection of the bodies. Shepard was beginning to suspect who their opponents were, but they did not have time to confirm his suspicions here. Motioning forward, the pair picked up the pace on their approach.
Two more firefights broke out between the inspecting duo and the mysterious attackers. The second brought them to the edge of the second hangar, and it was here that Garrus caught sight of what they were fighting over. Waking past the bodies on the floor, the turian gazed over the sight.
"That's not like any drive core I've ever seen."
Following the turian's gaze, Shepard cocked his head. "That's probably because it's a hyperdrive, even if it's a little oddly designed."
In response Garrus pointed his omnitool at the device housed beyond the glass and ran several scans. At once a three dimensional representation of what they could see appeared above it and moments later several parts were highlighted.
"If that's a hyperdrive, then why are there traces of eezo running through those junctions? The dimensions are odd, but that's a clear sign that it's built to utilize mass effect technology."
"Okay, but that central piece is clearly the outer stabilization shell for a hyperspace field generator. That's a critical piece to any hyperdrive."
At that point the doors at the end of the hall broke open as several scientists ran into the cavern clutching their bags as they raced towards banks of computers set up by the contradictory device. Close on their heels came a pair of Alliance soldiers with shield drones deployed racing alongside them. Five more followed in their wake taking guard at the doors, before one took a blast to the helmet sending him hurtling to the ground.
More blasts followed closely afterward as the remains of the PDF squads engaged the intruders. Garrus began to turn to race through the hallways to help before Shepard grabbed hold of his arm.
"No time." As if to emphasize his point another of the PDF troopers took a shot to the arm which brought him down, leaving one of his compatriots to pull him under cover. The two soldiers with drones dropped behind what cover was available even as they sent the drones forward to protect their partners.
Shepard pulled Garrus away from the window before turning and drilling three shots into it. Launching himself forward, Shepard burst through the window before deploying his jump jets to break his fall. Deploying his omnishield he advanced forward towards cover as one of the PDF soldiers turned towards the potential threats before his IFF registered. Garrus followed shortly after, utilizing his armor's grappling hook to scale the wall before moving to a position behind one of the pieces of equipment scattered about the cavern.
"Lieutenant, are we glad to see you." The PDF soldier who had turned exclaimed once Shepard reached his position. "There are five hostiles on the other side of that door and another seven who are wandering the upper levels." Gesturing towards the scientists now scrambling to access the databanks scattered by the device he continued, "Whoever these guys are, they're clearly trying to capture the eggheads here. No stun shots, but they've been breaking fire when they see one pass."
"All right, so we have some idea of their mission. And don't worry about the seven patrolling, my partner and I took care of them."
"That's the best news I've heard all night sir. If we can take care of these hostiles, we can group op with another group of eggheads we locked up in an interior bunker and make way to the evac point."
"No need for that, Reaper forces have pulled out."
"Then that's the best news I've heard tonight. Too bad these guys didn't get the memo." At that moment a grenade soared through the doorway, exploding next to the two PDF troopers standing guard just beyond. Charging forward into the room, the five remaining hostiles moved to take cover. Until there were only four as Garrus blew a shot straight into the heart of one with his sniper rifle.
The remaining four converged fire on the forward-most Elysium soldier, slagging the cover to which he'd dragged his partner. Glancing down at his now unconscious friend, he began returning fire.
In response the remaining Alliance forces, and Garrus, targeted their return fire accordingly. Shepard launched a salvo of rockets at the closest hostile as Garrus launched a turret forward and began splitting his fire between the other targets alongside the last two PDF troopers.
As one the hostiles broke towards the Alliance forces once more. The one Shepard had been firing on was engulfed by rockets before coming through the fireball and taking several shots at the Elysium soldier, scoring a hit on his side as he collapsed to the ground.
The other three continued their charge forward toward Shepard and the troopers still standing. From Shepard's end it seemed like something out of a cheesy holo-vid, in one moment they were a dozen meters away, in the next one they were on top of the trio. One was taken out by Garrus with a shot to the skull as he leapt onto one of the troopers before collapsing atop his target.
Shepard however didn't have time to register what was occurring to the soldier next to him as his opponent entered into melee with him. Ducking as the unknown soldier tried to smash into him, the lieutenant dove forward and activated his jump jets bowling the enemy backwards along with him. Rolling forward Shepard found himself entangled and slowly being pinned to the ground.
Again Shepard activated his thrusters, frustrated by his inability to break his foe's grip of him. This time however he managed to flip himself onto his back, slamming the attacker into the ground as Shepard once more activated his thrusters carrying him away from the pinned target. Grabbing his pistol, he quickly changed its firing mode to stun before firing a shot into the prone figure as it scrambled to get out of his line of fire.
Upon landing, he quickly appraised the situation. In the ten seconds that had passed Garrus had crossed the room before slamming into the remaining hostile, launching him several feet. Where he met his maker as all three of the other defenders had poured shots into him.
But before Shepard could find his way to aid the PDF troopers who had been incapacitated and still had vitals that were dropping rapidly, he found himself face to face once more with his assailant. Who promptly lifted him up and tossed him several meters.
What the hell was that!? Was all that passed through his mind as he assessed his situation. No human had ever been recorded as remaining conscious through a stun shot. But whoever this was clearly had.
Connecting with the ground, Shepard acted on instinct as he rolled away, a second before a knife slammed into the ground centimeters from where his head had been. Springing to his feet, Shepard activated his omnishield as another knife slammed through the shield and into his arm. Gasping in pain, Shepard felt emergency systems in his armor activate and releasing medical agents into his body.
Flush with adrenaline, Shepard pushed back. Shoving his opponent away, the lieutenant deactivated his shield, even as he grabbed his own knife with the injured hand and pushing forward. Again he gasped as the opponent grabbed the injury and disarmed him, before shuddering as Shepard's right arm pulled away from the body. Dark red blood dripping from the omniblade he had formed even as it disassembled, Shepard reformed the blade, this time aiming for his opponent's gut and making contact.
Then three shots drilled into the masked soldier's back as Garrus and the remaining two PDF soldiers came to his aid.
Keeping his eye on the figure as it slowly crumpled to the ground, Shepard strode over to where his pistol had landed after he had been temporarily turned into a ballistic object. Only once the apparently impossible man had crumpled fully to the ground with a charred back did he move to pick up the sidearm, and then proceeded to put two more shots in the still body.
Shepard began to move towards the soldiers who had been brought down by the enemy team before noting that two of the scientists had already done so. Glancing over at the remaining scientist, who was still scrambling to download as much data as he could, Shepard contented himself with a little data retrieval of his own.
As he walked over to the dead body in front of him he pulled the knife out of his arm, wincing as the pain shot through him and a combination of medi-gel and nanites began working at the injury. Kneeling before the corpse in front of him he took stock of what he had just faced. Body size and build indicated that this was a human male, slightly above average height when out of armor and probably slightly above average weight as well. Turning the body over, Shepard found that a closer inspection of the armor revealed exactly what his earlier quick glance had: no company markings, no merc markings, nothing identifiable. A ghost was what he was looking at.
Which meant that whoever sent these guys didn't want to outsource their work. Which left a single organization that continued to haunt humanity after almost a century and a half.
Standing up, he glanced once more over the scene. Garrus was still aiding the two troopers who had been incapacitated alongside the scientists providing basic medical help. With any luck, and prompt arrival of reinforcements, they'd be fine after a few weeks in the hospital and some R&R. Sensing an opportunity, Shepard approached the scientist still working on his job.
The scientist only looked up once Shepard had reached his side, and only did so to jam a portable drive into Shepard's arms and point in the direction of a nearby computer bank.
"Doctor, the Reaper forces have been pushed back. Sovereign jumped out of the system." Was all he could say while trying to keep the chuckle out of his voice.
At that the doctor actually paid attention to him for more than a second. Which was nice, until Shepard realized what was going through his head as his expression darkened.
"Doc, we can play what-ifs and the hindsight game all we want later. We'll rebuild, we always do and we always will." Pausing, Shepard put his hand on the older gentleman's shoulder as he continued, "But right now, I need some information. Because I have a feeling I'm going to be in the middle of all this in a few years."
That got a quizzical look from the scientist until he saw the nameplate. Shaking his head the man gave a soft laugh, "I'm sorry. I should have known they would send the best to retrieve us. I guess if there were no Spectres available on the planet you would do."
"Heh, I aim to please." Pulling his helmet off, Shepard placed it on a nearby trolley. "So doc, what is this thing? Vakarian says it's a drive core, I'm convinced it's a hyperdrive. It can't be both, right?"
Turning to the hulking device, the scientist gave a small smile. "So the turian is Vakarian? Good, good. In a way, you're both correct. It is in fact a hyperdrive, but one that has been designed to work with element zero in some manner."
"What we have surmised from our brief studies of the device is that it is meant to reduce a ship's mass through utilization of a system similar to that in an element zero-based drive core while travelling through hyperspace, something which our ships are incapable of doing. As you know of course."
"So we didn't build it." It was a statement, but the arched eyebrow invited elaboration from the researcher.
"No. A survey team utilizing eezo-equipped starships developed alongside our quarian allies found it in a vessel that was adrift in the south-eastern dead zone. Approximately 120 light-years from the edge of the nearest dark-energy front in a system that couldn't possibly have contained life at any point. Based on surface scans of the vessel and the level of exterior damage, it appears that the ship comes from a period of time between 32 and 35 cycles ago."
"So we dragged this thing back here to figure out why our equipment doesn't play well with eezo then."
"Correct. Though we're far from having even a rudimentary idea behind the maths that enable this technology to work, we should be able to copy the design. That was what our research was for." A quick glance at the destruction scattered about the lab brought back the dark expression, "Given that whoever built this obviously knew the mathematics required to build it in the first place fell to the Reapers however, knowing how to replicate alone isn't enough. Not if we want to make it past…"
"Don't worry doc." Again the scientist faced the soldier before him. "You give myself and others like me the tools to beat the Reapers, and we'll make it through."
And at that, the rest of the scientific team, along with a full company of troopers, marched into the room swiftly moving to lockdown the scene.
Grabbing his helmet, Shepard strode over to Garrus. The turian had found himself relieved of medical duties as paramedics rushed to their charges. Eyes scanning the room, the pair settled down against a far wall as they began decompressing.
"So. Are you ready?" Shepard finally said after a few minutes.
"For what?" The slightly younger turian asked as he turned to face Shepard.
"Ready to save the galaxy of course." Shepard said as he glanced over at Garrus with a grin on his face.
Mandibles flared for a second before Garrus simply let his head fall back against the wall. "Spirits. I suppose so."
"Good enough." Came the reply as Shepard clapped the turian on the shoulder. "Because this is going to be a wild ride to the end."
And with that the pair settled down in their corner, as the first battle of the Reaper War came to a close.
Codex: Alliance Particle Cannon
The System Alliance's Particle Cannon is the most powerful weapon currently used by any of the galactic powers. Because of this, its design is one of the most well-kept secrets in the galaxy. The Alliance is the only government that currently possesses the weapon, a minor sore point between the Alliance and the other Council governments.
Developed by Quantum Technologies in the lead up to WWIII, it was designed to serve as an orbital weapon capable of defending Alliance space. However, the outbreak of that war led to its eventual deployment as a means of ending the war quickly. The massive energy unleashed on nearby bases allowed Alliance forces to quickly lay siege to the remaining Confederate capital, ending the war.
The distinctive blue-green glow has been seen sparingly in the century since the Alliance entered the galactic community. Non-human physicists have concluded that the particle cannon's glow comes from the generation of high-energy particles similar to the virtual particles generated naturally in quantum fluctuations, most likely through a controlled burst similar to the output of a subspace core. Nonetheless, the manner in which this effect is achieved and the manner of controlling the effect is unknown.
Alliance forces have many names for the Particle Cannon, with Ion Cannon and Wrath of God being the two most popular. While its use in space is a simple matter, particle dispersion due to atmospheric interference limits its use in ground combat against static targets. Its use against ground targets signifies that a situation is either truly grave, or incredibly important.
I don't like this chapter. Both the content and the structure just doesn't feel right. Of course, piecing this together over 5 months when my usual method is bang most of it out in one go is probably a factor in that.
I do like the description of platform 343's effect. It may be a bit overdone, but I wanted to evoke a sense of this being humanity's most powerful weapon that hasn't been passed on in the space combat sections.
I also didn't originally plan on there being an "ancient hypercore". Lot less machinations in the original drafting of this chapter (which was also meant to be combined with the previous chapter). The writing in that section feels particularly bad to me. Suggestion are more than welcome on that front.
I think I answered most of the questioning reviews that have been posted in the completely unplanned hiatus. Life was hectic for me up until the first week of November, and I was drunk/hungover for most of the following week. And then came the holidays, so if I missed a question feel free to PM me.
There is one I don't think I answered though. Haereticum, if you're still reading this, I should have phrased it as "effective range". Yes, any physical projectile will go on forever if it doesn't hit something or get mussed around by gravity. But aiming at a ship is difficult, that is why you do not eyeball it (hehehe). At certain ranges, a turian ship will hit a maneuvering target that a human ship would miss.
If you've ever read any of the Honor Harrington books, think of it in terms of their missiles. They have to maneuver to actually hit their targets. In the 2nd book missiles that are on a ballistic course hit their target, but that's an incredibly unlikely event that worked out through circumstance. I hope that adds some clarity.
Finally, I want to apologize once more for the delay. I should try to stick to a writing schedule, especially since that should help improve the quality, but this isn't exactly what I'm trained in. I will however endeavor to get chapters out in a more prompt fashion, though given the last break between chapters, that doesn't exactly mean a lot.
So thank you once more for reading, feel free to shoot questions and writing suggestions.