Everyone had crowded into the small cockpit. Zen was in the primary pilot's seat, the holo-display lit up in front of him. Uli had come in and sat down in the only other chair in the forward cabin. In front of her was a display that filled with static interspersed with images of space. There was so much light across all the spectrums is was causing havoc with the visual display. She sat there quietly waiting, hating that they we essentially flying in blind.

Myls had come in a short time later, putting his hand on her shoulder as he moved in behind her chair. She reached up gently squeezing his finger before crossing her arms in front of her chest. Myls saw the display and knew. Uli didn't like not knowing, it irritated her. She did well keeping it hid, but he knew. Uli didn't like being scared, it tended to piss her off. But this wasn't anything she could control. They were quite literally flying in blind. Myls leaned back against the bulkhead resting his behind on a crate that he found there.

Dani was the last to enter the cockpit, actually not wanting to go in. Not for distance or fear, but she didn't want to give in to the curiosity of it all. She already knew that they weren't going to see much with optics, that star was emitting to much light across the visible and non-visible spectrums, not to mention the radiation level kept steadily rising. No it would serve no point. But eventually she found herself entering through the open hatch. Myls looked over at her as she entered, nodding a silent hello. She nodded back as she slipped to the other side of the hatch leaning against a console.

Zen had turned on the display when he had returned to the cockpit after the mission briefing. Logic told him it wasn't going to work, but he was hoping it might. He turned it on and still hadn't yet looked at it. Instead he dove right in to trying something. Dani had wanted them on passive sensors only. That limited them even more in this stellar environment. But a thought had hit him as soon as he activated the display over the co-pilot chair. Light, radiation, and stellar matter were bouncing off the hull of the dreadnought; maybe he could use echo location to map exactly where the ship was. It was a long shot, and the hoo-man sensors definitely weren't designed for it, but that never stopped Zen. So he was tinkering, adjusting, and currently trying to tie in both a mapping and graphics program. So far it had worked enough to narrow down an exact location of the Geth vessel.

The Mustang swung wide around so that the Dreadnought was between the shuttle and the star, holding position. Zen leaned back in his seat as the display cleared up a bit showing the visual of the Dreadnought's silhouette.

Uli sat forward in her own chair. "That thing is enormous."

"Well, you figure Geth Dreadnoughts fall outside the purview of Citadel regulations and constraints. That makes the only constraints the time and resources that the Geth are willing to expend." Dani made the point quietly.

In design the Geth vessel seem to have the almost aquatic shape many of their vessel did, with a curvature found in marine mammals. Large external clamp arrays could be seen along the underside of ship while the mid-section flared out in a roundish hump. It looked as if all the weapon ports were still sealed and no external lightning was illuminated.

Dani stood and moved behind Zen. "Take us around."

Zen just nodded as his hands began to work the controls. The Mustang moved forward again moving in a long arc around the larger ship. In a smaller display above Zen, his sono-mapping of the Geth vessel kept running. A grid pattern shape of the Dreadnought began to appear.

"Passive sensors only." Dani ordered.

"Yeah, I got it. Not like this boat has any LADAR system to speak of." Zen quipped back at his commander.

The Mustang continued to circle the Dreadnought as the visual kept cutting in and out depending on the angle of the star. But it was Myls who noticed something on the mapping display. "What's that?" He asked.

"That's a mapping program. It's mapping out the hull of the Dreadn.." Zen began.

"Yeah I got that." Myls interrupted Zen's explanation. "But what is that?" He pointed at the display. Everyone turned their attention to the digital grid of the Dreadnought. In the lower quadrant on the solar side a large tube structure extended out from the hull of the Dreadnought.

"Is that?" Uli started.

"That's a docking umbilicus." Dani said standing up. "Zen, bring us around. Bring us there."

Zen worked the controls and the Mustang swung around to that side of the Dreadnought.

"Is it me, or does no one else find it a bit suspicious?" Uli spoke up. "Zen, what kind of readings are you getting from that thing?"

The shuttle came around under the Destroyer and around the far side travelling down its length. "Very low emissions." Zen began to report. "Passive infrared temperatures suggest most system have to be offline. Thruster are totally cold. I haven't seen any hull breaches or anything to suggest a fight. You guys see anything?"

Everyone mumble something but it came down to the same thing. The Dreadnought was intact. The Mustang hovered just beyond the umbilicus. Zen sat at the controls waiting, "Dani, what do you want to do boss?"

"Can you connect us to that thing?" She asked him in return.

"Yeah. But if we do it…" Zen leaned over checking something in the controls. "If we do it, I want to create the seal on our end. I don't know what's going on aboard that ship, but I'd rather we be able to detach on our terms, not theirs."

Dani shook her head, "Agreed. Uli, Myls, get ready to board." Myls moved out of the cockpit. Uli got out of the co-pilot seat and followed. Just as Dani was about to leave Zen stopped her.

"Boss."

"Yeah?" she responded

"This is just a suggestion, but we need to do everything manually." Zen said.

"Manually? What do you mean?"

"Listen everything has an automatic function; you walk to doors, they open. You hit a console, it activates something. But this craft seems shut down. Only reason I can think that a docking umbilicus is still left hanging open. Should have been an automated function when whatever it was attached to detached. But it didn't. It's hanging open. So no automated function."

"What are you getting at Zen?"

"I don't want to kick start whatever is going on over on that ship by some stupid automated function. We have a sleeping giant here, and I for one don't want to wake it."

"I can see your point. Everything manually." Dani reached up and touched her comm interface, "Myls, get the tools. We're doing this the old fashioned way."

"Aye, boss." Came back over the channel.

She looked back down at Zen, "Get us connected to that ship."

"Yes ma'am."

-

The Mustang leaned into the end of the umbilicus, the shuttle creating a magnetic seal latching this extended port to itself. Only then was the Mustang's outer hatched opened as to minimize any radiation exposure.

These exposed doors were then worked on by Myls and Uli. Myls used an auto-ratchet to unbolt the heavy outer panel, once it was freed Uli grasped it with her biotics moving it out of the way. It took a combined effort of muscle and biotics to move the large gears and locking mechanism back unlocking the outer door of the Dreadnought. Once unlocked the round doors had to be rotated 90 degrees before they would opened.

The door seal cracked with only the smallest gust of air. Dani did and atmospheric check "Barely any internal air pressure in that thing. We'll have to rely on internal breathers."

"Makes sense," Zen added, "Geth don't need to breathe. Probably only enough for whatever equipment needs oxygen."

Myls put his back into it, pressing upward to open the portal. The doors moved up and down and once fully opened locked into place with a heavy "clank" sound. Everyone waited with weapons pointed down the dark opening. Now open the interior of the umbilicus was dark, now regular or emergency lighting have been activated.

"Switch to low light." Dani instructed. Everyone switched their visors on to the new setting. "No useless chatter while we're inside. Zen wants us to keep of any consoles. So we are doing everything manually. I concur with his reasons. So if we need to get into anywhere we do it with mind or muscle. Everyone ready?"

Dani looked at her team. Myls had his Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle at the ready. Uli tapped something on her Omnitool and her Tech Armor illuminated around her as she drew her Plasma Submachine Gun, a weapon she had proudly wielded since taking it of a Geth drone months before. Zen had his Black Widow Sniper Rifle pointed down as his combat drone hovered over his shoulder. They were ready.

Dani reached over her own should grasping her shotgun, a Reegar Carbine, and brought it to the ready. "All right, by the two's. Let's go."